Web screen shots

I’ve seen a lot of things around the internet lately regarding taking screen shots of websites.

I’ve heard of a few shareware programs as well as web based applications.

If you’re on a Mac then use can also use the Shift + Command + 3 shortcut to take a screenshot of the entire screen. You could then scroll down the web page and take another screenshot and then try and stitch the two together. This to me seems like a lot of stuffing around that simply isn’t necessary.

I personally have been Paparazzi for years.

Paparazzi is a freeware program created by Derailer software.

Simply type in the URL of the webpage that you want to take a screen shot of and hit capture. Then save the image out as either a JPG, PDF, PNG or TIFF format. It takes about 30 seconds in total.

You can find Paparazzi at http://www.derailer.org/paparazzi/

Playlists in iTunes

In Episode 2 I really go back to basics and show you how to create playlists in iTunes. A nice simple one this time.

Cheers,
Craig

I’ve finally decided…

I’ve finally decided to go out and get a DSLR. I’ve wanted to for a very long time but never had the money. I still don’t have the money but I’ve decided to get one anyway.

I was tossing up between the Nikon D80 and the Canon 400D.

I’ve heard very good things about the 400D. I actually use a Nikon D2X at work but I don’t really like it that much. Also I was not happy at all about the D80 using SD cards instead of Compact Flash.

I decided to get the Twin Lens kit which makes it all a bit more expensive, I got a 2gb CF Card but I managed to get the guy at the shop to throw in a free carry bag which I was happy about.

The whole package will be:

• EOS 400D w/18-55 II Kit - Black body
• EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 telephoto zoom lens
• 2GB Compact Flash card
• Crumpler Case

I should be picking the camera up in a couple of weeks (I had to put it on lay-by) and I can’t wait!

Five things to remember when filming in the field

I recently went on a week long shoot for a documentary that the company I work for is making. My role while in the field was to record the audio and help out the camera man when needed. It was quite an experience and I learned quite a bit.

Here’s 5 things that you should keep in mind when filming in the field:

1. Open your eyes: If you are a camera assistant, you need to be ready to grab equipment and take it to where the camera operator is most likely to shoot from next. I have been in situations where the camera operator will take the camera off the tripod and go and shoot something off the shoulder and tell me to setup the tripod somewhere else. In this case I had to find the best place to shoot from very quickly otherwise we might miss the shot. This is especially important when you’re working quickly (eg. news, events, etc.)
2. Practice: This is a big one. Practice setting up equipment quickly. There is nothing more annoying to a camera operator than having to wait for the assistant to setup the equipment and evidently missing the shot.
3. Don’t be afraid to yell at people: When I first starting recording the audio in the field I was scared of telling people to shut up. I quickly learned that if you want to get good quality video/audio then you can’t be afraid to yell at someone. The same thing goes for getting people to move out of the shot. Don’t be rude about it if you can avoid it, but you need to be firm. This also makes you look more professional and makes it look like you really care about getting good quality footage.
4. Know what the client wants: If your client has lots of specifications that the video/audio needs to be recorded at, make sure you know exactly what they are beforehand. Things to look out for are aspect ratio (4:3 or 16:9), recording levels (usually -12db), shot lists, and overall style of the film.
5. Learn to think forward: Once you learn to think forward you will do your job a lot better. If you’re like me, you’re going to be editing the final product. Keep this in mind when you are out in the field. What is going to make your job easier once you get back to the edit suite? Correct filing of video/photos/audio will help you out a lot when you get back to the edit suite and need to put it all together. Also keep in mind certain shots that need to be shot.

There you have it. 5 things that I think are most important to remember when you’re filming.

Using your Bluetooth mobile phone as a remote for you Mac

In the first ever Video episode of Mac Tech I show you how you can use your Bluetooth mobile phone as a remote control for your Mac using a cool little program called Salling Clicker.

If you have an idea for a video that you would like to see, send me an email.

Overflow Review

Even though I’m a fairly messy person in the real world, I do like to keep my digital life as clean and tidy and professional looking as I possibly can. Overflow is just one more way to clean up my Mac and make it look more professional and overall easier to use.

Overflow is a neat little application created by Stunt Software that appears in your dock automatically when your computer starts. Clicking on the icon in the dock will bring up a window full of all the icons you used to keep in your dock. You can customize Overflow by categorizing the icons, changing the way Overflow looks visually etc. For a good video demo on how Overflow works, take a look at their website.

I had actually been putting off installing Overflow for a while. One of the things I love about the Macintosh and OS X is how easy it is to use. I love being able to access what I want in a very quick way. Everything is always there down in the dock ready to be opened at any time.

So I didn’t really want to install Overflow because I thought it would add another step to opening an application. Indeed it does create another step to what should be a simple process, but in my opinion it’s a small price to pay for cleanliness.

Setting up Overflow is quick and painless. It took me no longer than 5 minutes to set up Overflow the first time I opened it.

One thing I really like about Overflow is that it’s always running in the background. This means that at any time I can just Command+Tab to switch to the Overflow window and open a new application.

I hear a lot of people say “why would I use Overflow when I already use Quicksilver?” For those of you that don’t know, Quicksilver is an application launcher for Mac OS X. Using shortcut keys you can quickly open applications plus much more. Check Quicksilver out here.

I do have Quicksilver installed on both of my Macs and I even have the Windows equivalent installed on my PC at work. What makes Overflow different is that everything is still in my dock ready to be accessed at anytime. I am also constantly showing my Mac to clients as well as friends and family, and I like it to look professional and using the dock to store all my programs just helps me achieve that professional look and feel.

Overall I think Overflow is one of those applications that I’ll add to my essential Mac programs list. It’s easy to set up and use, and gives an overall feel of cleanliness and professionalism.

Catchya next time.
Craig.

Setting Up a Mac

When ever friends or work colleagues of mine decide to make the step towards a better life and buy a Mac, they always seem to come to me and ask me to ’set it up’ for them.
I’m always somewhat amazed that they even ask me this considering one of the major selling points of the Mac is that ‘It just works’.

However, there are many ways that you can customize and ’set up’ your Mac to make it work better for you.
Below is a list of things that I do to my friends’ Macs in order to set it up for them.

Note: To access the settings that I’ll be talking about, click on the Apple logo at the top left of your screen and select System Preferences. From there you can select which part of your Mac you want to customize.

1. Make the Dock smaller. Especially if you’re on a laptop, you need all the screen real estate you can get. You can even set the Dock to auto-hide if you need to.

Click to see what my dock looks like

Move your mouse down to the dock and Ctrl+Click on the line between the System Preferences button and the Apple - Mac OS X button and select Dock Preferences. Change the Dock size to the smallest setting or a setting that you feel comfortable with. Turn Magnification on if you want to and set a size that you’re comfortable with. If you wish, select “Automatically hide and show the Dock”.

2. Download Firefox. Firefox is the best web browser ever to be created. If you’re setting the Mac up for a friend, explain how to browse the web properly if they don’t already know how. You would be amazed how many people don’t know about tabbed browsing.

3. Email setup. If you’re using an email provider that supports POP3 or IMAP email services, you can set it up with Apple Mail. There are many services out there that support POP3 or IMAP, the best in my opinion being Gmail. They even provide detailed instructions on how to set up Mail for your POP3 or IMAP account.

4. Scroll Arrows! You can type a script into Terminal that will allow you to have scroll arrows together on both the top and the bottom of the scroll bars. To start the terminal go to, Applications\Utilities\Terminal.

Here’s the script:

defaults write “Apple Global Domain” AppleScrollBarVariant DoubleBoth

to set it back to normal type this into terminal:

defaults write “Apple Global Domain” AppleScrollBarVariant DoubleMax

5. Expose’. Setup Expose’ with settings that you are comfortable with. If you don’t know how expose’ works, it’s like this. If you move your mouse to a corner of the screen, depending on the settings you set, the windows you are working in will move away and you will be taken straight to the desktop, you can start the screensaver, you can start Dashboard, you can see all the application windows tiled up next to each other. These can also be set to shortcuts on your keyboard.

6. Software Update. Click on the Apple logo at the top left of the screen and select Software Update. Download all the latest software updates for you Mac.

7. Set up the Dashboard with widgets that you will frequently use. If you are trying to conserve processing power, try to use as little widgets as possible. You can find out more about Dashboard by going to the Apple website.

8. Download Adium. If you want to use an instant messaging program, you can’t go past Adium. You can use Adium to chat to you friends through Yahoo!, MSN Messenger, AOL Messenger, Jabber and many more. You can download Adium from www.adiumx.com

9. Install Quicksilver. Quicksilver at heart is an application launcher. You can set a shortcut key to open the Quicksilver launcher, then type a few letters of an application and your application will appear in a list. Select the one you want and hit Enter. For example, if you hit Ctrl+Space, (thats the shortcut key I have set up on my Mac), and type ‘tune’, iTunes will appear at the top of the Quicksilver list. I just hit the enter key and iTunes will launch. The same thing will happen if you want to launch files. To download and find out more about Quicksilver, visit the website.

10. Set up your network. If you’re on a network, you need to set your Mac up to communicate with all the other computers on the network. Networking is such an extensive subject that I can’t go into it completely right now, but there are many articles out there on the Internet to help you. For networking Mac computers with PC Computers this article will help you a lot. It’s a bit out of date but the principles are pretty much the same. I hope to dive deeper into this subject much more in the future.

Cheers,

Craig