Instructional Services » Mac OS X

Quick Calculations

Betsy Langowski — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 19:10:36 +0000

Included in Mac OS X is the application called Calculator. This is a handy tool for on-the-go calculations and it doesn’t take too much of your computer’s power. Perhaps you would like to check the currency exchange rate for the euro. Open up the Calculator found in the Applications folder. Type in a number, and at the top of the window, click the drop-down menu that says, “Convert.” Choose “Currency.” Choose the appropriate values, and click “Convert.” Now the value in the calculator reads the value of your conversion!

Note, you can use this same “Convert” menu to convert between temperatures, areas, and a number of other options. If you have any suggestions or questions, please email Instructional Services.

MS Word Tricks

Betsy Langowski — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 20:57:50 +0000

Until we get video media up and running, the Gustavus Technology Tip of the Week will be located on the Instructional Services blog.

Today, I’d like to tell you how to delete whole words on a Macintosh. This can be helpful if you want to delete a word you just typed that is misspelled or inappropriate, or if there’s a phrase you’d like to get rid of, but pressing the delete key over and over is too time consuming. Also, taking the time to use the mouse to highlight text can sometimes be tedious.

To delete a word at a time (rather than a character at a time) hold the “option key” down while pressing delete. This key is located to the left of the space bar, in between the apple key and the control key. Now the cursor will jump back to the previous space, one word for each tap on the delete key.

If you have any suggestions or questions, please email Instructional Services.

Stay Tuned for the Technology Tip of the Week

Betsy Langowski — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 18:43:01 +0000

Coming soon to Instructional Services is the Technology Tip of the Week. Each week (or so) Instructional Services will be providing you with a video or blog regarding a new tip. These will be in the form of Gustavus-oriented tips, help on multiple computing platforms, and general technological gray areas. Stay tuned for more information as we implement this new project!

Removing Apple Mail Quotes

Joyce Aarsvold — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 22:06:22 +0000

For those who donâ€™t know, the vertical lines you see on the left margin of an Apple Mail message are called quote levels. The more lines you see, the more times that bit of text has been included in the email exchange. While Mail doesnâ€™t include a command to eliminate these quote levels in one fell swoop, you can remove them one level at a time.

If you want to remove the quote levels from a Mail message, hereâ€™s how you do it:

Just select the quoted text that you want to remove the quote levels from, hold down Command (Apple) and Option keys, and press the single quote key (’). With each press, one level of quote disappears.

Creating a Mailbox

Joyce Aarsvold — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 19:38:48 +0000

You can create as many mailboxes as you like to file or organize messages you want to keep.

If you are checking your mail via IMAP, you can create mailboxes to store received mail on your computer or on the mail server. You can also create a mailbox within an existing mailbox. A mailbox inside another mailbox is called a “subfolder.”

To Create a Mailbox:

Choose Mailbox > New Mailbox. (To create a mailbox within an existing mailbox, select the existing mailbox before you choose Mailbox > New Mailbox.)
Use the Location pop-up menu to choose the location for the mailbox on your computer or an IMAP account (to store the mailbox on an IMAP server).
Type a name for the mailbox.
Click OK.

To create a mailbox that contains another mailbox (or subfolder), type the name for the mailbox and the subfolder separated by a forward slash (”/”). For example, if you type “Homework/EDU101,” a mailbox named Homework will be created, with a mailbox named EDU101 inside it. (Note that if you create a mailbox this way, the enclosing mailbox can only contain other mailboxes, not messages. Such mailboxes appear white in the mailboxes list, instead of blue.)

Deleting Incorrect Mail Addresses in OS X’s Mail

Joyce Aarsvold — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 18:40:41 +0000

In Mac’s OS X’s Mail, when you create an e-mail message and type in an address, the program puts the address – whether right or wrong – in its cache. If you have typed in an incorrect address in Mail, here is how you can delete it.

If you are running OS 10.2.8’s version of Mail, to remove cached addresses go to the Window Menu> Address History and select the incorrect address in the resulting Address History window, and click on Remove From History.

If you are running OS 10.3.x or 10.4.x’s version of Mail, go to the Window Menu> Previous Recipients and do the same.