Tag Archives: Macintosh

Q. I want to make and edit a video but i don’t have a program to do it.

Posted on May 10, 2011 by quill

If you have a Macintosh, it came with iMovie which is a basic and easy to use movie editor. How to use: http://www.apple.com/support/imovie/ Recent Windows machines came with Windows Movie Maker Win 7:  http://explore.live.com/windows-live-movie-maker?os=other Vista: http://download.cnet.com/Windows-Movie-Maker-Windows-Vista/3000-13631_4-10729231.html?tag=mncol;3 Win XP: http://download.cnet.com/Windows-Movie-Maker-Windows-XP/3000-13631_4-10165075.html Open … Continue reading →

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Q. I am getting a screen on my Mac which tells me it is infected with viruses. I had visited a movie download site – do I have a virus?

Posted on May 10, 2011 by quill

That is a phony virus alert from a web page (or banner ad) which pops it up.  Your Mac does not have a virus. But it MAY have some trojan horse malware that you installed — did the video site … Continue reading →

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Q. I can’t open .WPD WordPerfect Files

Posted on May 10, 2011 by quill

.WPD is the file format used by WordPerfect word processing program.  FileInfo list of file extensions Rarely, WPD is used as an extension for other programs’ word processing documents. WordPerfect was the dominant word processor software in the 1980s and … Continue reading →

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Q. Is there any Internet security threat if I only visit reputable sites?

Posted on May 10, 2011 by Trevor

Yes there is a threat even if you only visit ‘safe’ places.  You could get a virus through emails, which redirects your links from what you thought was a reputable site to a phony site.  Banner ads on a reputable … Continue reading →

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Q. I received a PDF file but I can’t get it to print

Posted on May 10, 2011 by Trevor

A PDF (Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format) file should be openable and printable on any machine with PDF reader software, regardless of operating system. It is possible that your PDF file was created with a NO PRINT option or a … Continue reading →

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Q. How do I format an external hard drive on a Mac?

Posted on May 10, 2011 by quill

Before you can use a hard drive, it needs to be formatted, which organizes the data structure on the drive ready to accept data. In addition, a drive can be partitioned into two or more logical volumes, or it can … Continue reading →

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Q. I have downloaded some programs on my Mac, why do they disappear each time I restart and why do I have to keep reinstalling them?

Posted on May 10, 2011 by quill

If your applications keep disappearing, it’s because you have not installed them properly. When you download an program, it usually downloads as a disk image (dmg) file. (it may be a zip or compressed file that expands into a dmg). … Continue reading →

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Q. How can I stop junk emails from arriving?

Posted on May 10, 2011 by quill

There’s not a lot you can do to stop people (or robots) from sending you junk email. In most cases it is not worth (and not even safe) to use the “unsubscribe” links in spam emails or to reply to … Continue reading →

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Q. What will adding more RAM to my computer do?

Posted on May 10, 2011 by quill

The key to computer performance is having enough RAM memory. RAM doesn’t speed a machine up, however. Rather, adding RAM removes a barrier to speed.  It’s like your car – taking your foot off the brake doesn’t speed it up, … Continue reading →

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Q. I have some RAR files that were sent to me, What do I do with them?

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Trevor

RAR is a compression format, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAR, and the files you have are compressed archives of one or more original files.  First, you have to decompress the RAR archives. Here are some utilities that can do that 7-Zip (Free, Windows) http://download.cnet.com/7-Zip/3000-2250_4-10045185.html?tag=mncol;1 … Continue reading →

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Q. I downloaded Audacity to edit MP3s, now how do I use it?

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Trevor

Audacity is a great open source audio editor program, available for Windows and Macintosh http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ Here are some learning resources for it Audacity Tutorials http://audacity.sourceforge.net/manual-1.2/tutorials.html Wiki http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Category:Tutorial Tutorial Videos on YouTube Removing vocals with Audacity http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Vocal_Removal Mixing two songs together … Continue reading →

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Q. What is the fastest disk setup for Photoshop

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Trevor

Photoshop (as well as other high-end graphic and video production software) is a heavy user of hard drive access.  The speed of the hard drive in a machine and the way that hard drive use is organized can have a … Continue reading →

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Q. My iBook or Powerbook battery is not charging or being recognized, yet it works fine in another machine

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Trevor

First you need to to a Power Manager reset PMU reset) on your machine http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1431 Then recalibrate the battery http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1490 Keep in mind that batteries last from one to three years and they steadily lose capacity.  Apple’s criteria is the … Continue reading →

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Q. How can I tell if my hard drive is failing?

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Trevor

If you suspect that your disk is having trouble, make sure you back up your data files to another drive or to DVD-R as soon as possible. One symptom of a failing drive is long pauses to do anything. Another … Continue reading →

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Q. I have a drive I have been using on a Mac, I plugged it into a Windows machine and it can’t read it, there’s no data.

Posted on May 4, 2011 by Trevor

The hard drive is formatted as a Mac HFS+ volume.  Windows can’t read it without some third party software MacDrive www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive Paragon HFS+ for Windows www.paragon-software.com/home/hfs-windows/ HSF Explorer (open source, read only) www.catacombae.org/hfsx.html Although both Windows and Mac can read … Continue reading →

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