Mac Mojo : Tips & Tricks

PowerPoint to Go

blairn — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 21:36:00 GMT

PowerPoint is a communications platform at its core. We communicate ideas powerfully using PowerPoint in the board room, on the desktop, in the classroom, in the elevator, and on the go.

Wait. Did he say "In the elevator?" Sure, let me just pull out my Mac Book real quick and fire up PowerPoint for you here on the elevator. Oh wait, this is your floor? Elevator pitch is over? But I hadn't gotten to my killer slide yet to close the deal!

Back up. Let's try that elevator pitch again, this time using my iPhone. Now we're talking! Not only do you see that I'm a person of refined taste for using my iPhone, but I just showed you my killer deal-closing slide with just a few flicks of my finger. Bang, bang! You're sold, and we haven't even hit your floor yet. How about sashimi later? Great doing business with you, iPod!

Getting presentations from PowerPoint 2008 for Mac to your iPod or iPhone* is easy. PowerPoint exports your presentation as a series of pictures directly to iPhoto**, or saves those same slide images as pictures to your Pictures folder. From there, sync pictures to your iPod or iPhone through iTunes as usual, then use the built-in Photos or slide show program on your iPod or iPhone to show your presentation. No sweat!

Presentations look great on the big wide screens of iPhone and iPod Touch, but they look even better on a big screen TV or projected. Plug your iPod into a television or projector using the Apple Component AV or Composite AV cable and leave your laptop in the case.

Once your presentation is saved as pictures on your iPod or iPhone, there's really no limit to where you can communicate. At the karaoke bar, on a train, on the beach, or in a ski lodge. These are just a few ideas. Where do you want to go today?

* Works with any iPhone or iPod model that supports pictures, like the iPod Touch, iPod Classic or current generation iPod Nano.
** Requires iPhoto ‘06 or later.

MacTech’s Mac Office VBA to AppleScript Transition Guide

blairn — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 02:01:00 GMT

Mac natives inside and outside of MacBU have provided their efforts and expertise to produce a guidebook to help you navigate the transition from VBA to AppleScript. That's right, MacTech magazine's April edition will be a massive 150 page blockbuster entitled "Moving from Microsoft Office VBA to AppleScript: MacTech's Guide to Making the Transition" and is authored by none other than Mac Office MVP and all around great person (so I'm told) Paul Berkowitz. Paul and many of the other Mac Office MVPs work very hard on AppleScript and lots of other important Office topics on behalf of all of us (check out the MVP page to learn more about this group of experts). MacTech - along with Paul and a cast of editors and reviewers whose combined experience with AppleScript and VBA boggle the mind - have stepped up big time with this book.

MacTech subscribers receive this generous tome as their April edition. Not yet a subscriber but want the guide? It's a great time to subscribe and, if you act now (before April 2), you might even be able to get a complimentary subscription. Or, support your local newsstand. MacTech magazine can be found in the mac tech section.

Choosing Passwords

Rick Schaut — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 02:33:41 GMT

There's an old joke about two hunters who come face-to-face with a bear. The bear charges them, at which point they start running for their lives. While running, one of the hunters says, "Why are we running? We're never going to outrun this bear!" And the other says, "I don't have to outrun the bear. I only have to outrun you."

When it comes to security issues, it's all too easy for Mac users to adopt the attitude of our second hunter. We don't have to adopt best practices with respect to security, right? After all, Windows is the platform that has all the security problems, right?

Wrong. Whatever security issues users of other systems might run into, they are irrelevant to our experience. If all you do is keep running from that bear without looking at where you're running, there's a non-zero chance that you'll run into a pack of wolves. Indeed, at the Chaos Communciation Congress, have shown how you can hack File Vault passwords.

That's why I tell every Mac user I've encountered to always follow best practices when it comes to security. Install the latest security updates when they become available, and that holds for applications as well as operating systems. That's one of the reasons we did auto update with Mac Office 2004.

Among the best security practices that everyone should adopt, choosing strong passwords is at the top of the list. If you're reading this, then you have access to the Internet. You likely have accounts on various web sites. You might even be doing some on-line banking. All of these systems, systems not under your control, store your password somewhere. Should someone get their hands on that password file, it's not at all difficult to crack some of the passwords in that file.

If you search for "strong passwords" on the Internet, you'll find a lot of information about them. The definitions and advice at UT Austin are both sound and typical of what you'll find. But, you can take it one step further. The primary difficulty with strong passwords is coming up with something that's both easy to remember and very hard to crack.

One of the best ways I've discovered is to learn about 10 or 15 words in a language that doesn't use the Roman alphabet. I use Arabic, but you can use Hebrew, Hindi, Chinese or any other such language. Just choose a language that doesn't use the Roman alphabet.

Now, you don't really need to learn how to spell those words in the native alphabet. For most languages that don't use the Roman alphabet, there is at least one way of transliterating words from that language into the Roman alphabet. In fact, for most cases, there are multiple ways of transliterating from the native alphabet to the Roman alphabet. The Wikipedia page on Arabic transliteration lists 10 different systems, and I know there is at least one not listed in that table.

So, what you really want to learn is a Roman alphabet transliteration of those 10 or 15 words. For example, I couldn't spell the Arabic word for mosque using the Arabic alphabet if you put a gun to my head. On the other hand, I know a couple of ways people might transliterate that same word into the Roman alphabet.

Once you've learned those 10 or 15 words, then you can construct a strong password following a simple rule. First, choose some uncommon punctuation mark, say one of the shifted characters of numbers 1-8 on a standard US keyboard for example. Second, concatenate parts of two of those transliterated words together with that punctuation mark between them. Third, choose a consistent scheme for capitalization--the second and fifth characters, for example.

The reason you'll want 10 or 15 words, is that some systems require you to change your password every 60 days or so, and they have an additional restriction in that you can't base any new password choice on any of the previous 20-30 passwords. Knowing 10 or 15 words allows enough room to combine a couple different words with different punctuation marks in order to fulfill that requirement.

Using strong passwords is an important part of any security strategy, and using this scheme for generating your own passwords will leave you as invulnerable as possible to any kind of password guessing attack.

Rick

Currently playing in iTunes: I'd Rather Be Blind, Crippled and Crazy, by The Derek Trucks Band

PowerPoint Links

Brianjo — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 07:32:00 GMT

I've been thinking about doing a PowerPoint links post for a long time. Communications is one of those skills that can really open new doors for you in business, and being able to communicate your ideas in a fresh way can make a big difference in your overall effectiveness. Here are some of my favorite PowerPoint for Mac and general presentation resources and posts from around the net. There are many more of course, but I picked these because the ideas behind most of them are a little different than your standard, X bullets per slide, X words per bullet, posts.

PowerPoint Articles and Tips at Mactopia
Here you'll find dozens of tips and techniques specific to PowerPoint 2004 for Mac. There's a lot of stuff here, so take some time to read through it.
Sociable Media
Cliff Atkinson is the author of Beyond Bullet Points. I love this book and Cliff has some unique ideas about how to create and present a compelling presentation. Be sure to check out the excellent articles that Cliff has posted at the site. (They're not as easy to find as they probably should be.)
ProfCast
From the product site: ProfCast is a versatile, powerful, yet very simple to use tool for recording lectures including PowerPoint and/or Keynote slides for creating enhanced podcasts. ProfCast is an excellent solution for capturing audio with your presentation for later use as video podcasts.
Presentation Zen
From the site: Garr Reynolds' blog on issues related to professional presentation design. Excellent presentation resource.
My Best Presentation Tricks
Solid presentation post by Chris Brogan at Lifehack.org.
Top 10 Best Presentations Ever
Once you have all the skills, check out the kinds of presentations that people talk about for years afterword.

Finally, a little history. PowerPoint for Mac has been around for a long, long time. Check out this episode of The Computer Chronicles from 1989. One of the more interesting things to note is how far along projection technology has come. Imagine how far ahead you had to plan to send your slides out to a service bureau before your presentation.

Productivity Links

Brianjo — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 19:51:00 GMT

I spent a lot of time this weekend thinking about links, but I couldn't come up with a really good set to put together. Then I was reading Paul Stamatiou's excellent post, How To: Cultivate That Killer Idea, and it made me think about the great productivity blogs that are out there.

I should mention that I'm a productivity aficionado. What that means is that I dream of finding the magic system that's eventually going to make me completely productive. I read productivity books and blogs, I watch videos and I listen to tapes. That said, I haven't hit on the perfect system for me. I get somewhat bored of keeping the same system going all of the time, which is, I guess, what makes being a productivity hobbyist so much fun.

So I've pretty much accepted the fact that I won't be as productive as I dream of being, but you know the old quote, "Winning is not everything - but making the effort to win is." The links listed below will help in your efforts to be more productive. Even if you only find a few things here that make sense for you, I think you'll find that you can be more productive.

43 Folders - 43 Folders is one of the premiere productivity sites on the Web.From the site description: 43 Folders is an independent web site by Merlin Mann.Topics that come up a lot include: productivity and time management tips, “life hacks” to improve efficiency and get things off your mind, interesting Mac OS X programs and technologies, ideas about modest ways to improve your life and reduce stress, and cool or helpful shortcuts that make life a bit easier.
Lifehacker - Another great site. From their own FAQ: Lifehacker, the software and productivity guide, is a blog that covers tips and tricks for streamlining your life with computers (and sometimes without). Updated several times daily, Lifehacker points out software downloads, web sites, do-it-yourself projects, how-to's, tutorials, shortcuts and tips for going beyond the default settings and getting things done in the most clever, unexpected and efficient ways. Think of Lifehacker as self-help for geeks.
D*I*Y Planner - Does paper make you more productive? A lot of times I take the advice from this site and I make similar tools in Word and Excel. From the site's description: We are a community of people who see the value of paper as a medium for planning, productivity, creative expression, and exploring ideas. We encourage visitors to share advice and inspiration, and we love to see submissions for templates, kit images and story articles. We are also the official home of the free D*I*Y Planner kits. Please enjoy your stay, and make yourself at home!
moleskinerie and notebookism - These two sites are all about notebooks and are great for artists and thinkers who like to use notebooks to capture data.

Of course, there are more of these kinds of sites out there. These are the ones that I try to read all the time. After you take a look at these sites, come back and take a look at how you can use the tips you find with your Office for Mac products. The two Office tools that I mostly associate with productivity are Word for Mac in Notebook Layout View and the Project Center in Entourage. (Though arguably an office suite is all about productivity.) Also be sure to check out the Articles and Tips at Mactopia. This is the link for Word tips, but you'll find tips for all the products at the site. I learn something new nearly every time I visit these pages.

Mac Office Resource Links

Brianjo — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 09:25:00 GMT

Ever have one of those really busy weeks where you can't even remember what you did at the end of the week? I'm having one of those. Not complaining though, we've got a lot of interesting stuff we're doing at work, unfortunately not too much I can talk about at this point.

All that said, one of the cool jobs that I have at Microsoft is talking to customers directly about how Mac Office is working in their companies. Before I talk to them, I usually ask for a list of questions they might have so I can get the answers together for them before hand and hopefully save them some time.

So where do I get my information? Sure, I can track down a developer or a PM and get an answer, but ideally I want them focused on building the next great version of Office. So what I try to do is track the information down myself. Where do I look? That's where this weeks links come in. I have a bunch of places I go for information, but if I had to pick 5, I usually go to these first:

Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Resource Kit version 2 This document usualy has the information I'm looking for. It was even updated this summer. From the description: The Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Resource Kit version 2 provides procedure and reference information for administrators and support professionals who deploy, administer, and support Office 2004 for Mac in networked environments. This Resource Kit provides guidance for using Office 2004 for Mac with Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Live Communications Server, Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server, and related products.
The Entourage Help Page A lot of great Entourage information: The Entourage Help Page is provided as a resource to help Entourage: Mac users. FAQs come from the Entourage Newgroup and the Entourage Talk list.
MacWindows.com The web site for Macintosh-Windows integration. Some of the best information available about using your Macs in Windows networks.
Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Solutions Center Tons of great information from Microsoft Support. Browse it and put a link in your favorties.
Mactopia Resources Actuall, all of Mactopia is a great resource, but if I'm going to go looking for something I'm not sure about, I usually find it linked from this page.

Of course, I'm just scratching the surface of what's out there. What's your favorite Mac Office resource? Let's keep a list. Have a great week!