'Paste'
Hold down Command+V to paste.

'PDF Creation'
Being able to create a document in a pdf format is very useful when trying to send a document as an attachment to someone, when you don't know what computer or programmes they have. I believe it is a good idea to make a note in your email of where to obtain an Acrobat Reader from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html, for those that do not have it. A simple way to create a .pdf is to download the shareware programme PrintToPDF. This is available from Mactropolis Software folder or from the web site http://www.jwwalker.com/pages/pdf.html Once you have the software, place it in your Utilities folder. From the PrintToPDF folder remove the printer driver and place it in your Extensions folder. Now if you go to your Apple menu and open your Chooser you should see the PrintToPDF printer driver there. Now to make a PDF open the document you wish to make as PDF and go to your Chooser and click on the PDF driver, close the Chooser and go to the File menu and click on Page Set-up. You should see the PrintToPDF driver click on OK. There are a number of preferences you can set, but these can be left until you become more familiar with the Application. Now you are set to make a PDF. Make live the document you wish to convert and go to the File menu and click on Print. You can choose what pages you want. A notice will then come up asking where to save the document click on Desktop. And That's All There Is To It. When finished remember to reset your Chooser back to your normal printer.

'PhotoShop Layers'
When working with Layers you may at some stage alter one of the layers within the layer section and then later want to save this altered layer.
To do this click in the layer menu, the layer you want to copy and then select the marquee tool. Drag the marquee tool around the image and from the Edit menu click on Copy. Now open a new PhotoShop file and paste.

'PhotoShop 4 Sig Report'

By Warren Matthews

WORKING IN PHOTOSHOP 4
Don't make your greyscale and colour halftone scans, any larger than 200dpi (or 200ppi). If it's for the web 72dpi will do. Larger files won't improve the image quality but will make huge files.

For line work or black and white bitmaps &endash; set your dpi to match the output of printer. Eg 300dpi for a 300dpi laser printer or 1200dpi for a 1200dpi printer. I wouldn't go bigger than 1200dpi.

Try and make your scans the exact size you will need them for your job.

When to use higher dpi settings

1) If the scan needs to be bigger than the original photo. You could scan at 200% but I prefer to scan at 400-600dpi and then go to image size dialog box and select the dimensions I want and then reduce the scan to 200 dpi.

2) Some photos are digitally produced &endash; if you get lines across your scan then your photos have been digitally produced at the processors. Try turning the photo 90% or use a setting of about 400 or 600dpi for your scan. Then go into Image size and reduce the resolution to 200dpi

Tonal Corrections

Brightness and Contrast:

A lot of people use this because it's easy &endash; DON"T - it's a linear transformation which throws away info in a dumb way. It's called linear because it does exactly the same to every pixel in an image. The brightness control simply shifts all the pixel values up or down the tonal range resulting in clipping of highlights or shadows eg An increase in brightness of +20 means Photoshop makes 0 becomes 20, and anything above 235 becomes 255. (Where 0 is black and 255 is white) The contrast control stretches the tonal range throwing away info in both the highlights and shadow areas. You can use the Brightness and Contrasts controls to good effect with channels and masks &endash; so it's not totally useless.

Use levels or curves controls:
They let you adjust the values in the middle of the tonal range without losing the information at the ends so you can improve you images dramatically while keeping important highlight and shadow details. Levels (under Image &endash; adjust) is easier to use and understand. Curves (same place) give you more options and control. Levels - on opening you get a dialog box, which shows a histogram (looks like a hilly terrain) with three sliding controls underneath. Left slider controls the black end. The middle controls the gamma (mid tones) and the right slider controls the white or highlights. Most of the time, moving the middle slider to the right will open up (lighten) the midtowns and improve your scan. This only effects the shadows and highlight slightly thus retaining vital scan pixels in these areas. Try it out and see what effect moving the sliders have.

Curves &endash; on opening you get a box with a straight line from bottom left to top right. Place the curser in the middle of the line and pull to the bottom right for CMYK scans, or to the top left for RGB scans. Not too much, just enough to open up the scan for detail. Again play around and see how it works.

Greyscale scans from colour photos
If you scan colour photos as greyscale you often get disappointing results. This is because of the dark grey values resulting from converting black, reds, dark blues and browns. This results in dark, dull and lifeless scans with little visible detail and which print even worse. The trick is to use the CURVES control to knock out some of the trouble colours. I always convert to CMYK for easier control. Open curves and in the channels window at top select magenta. Grab the line at the top right corner and pull down by about 75%. Do the same with cyan if necessary. It may look strange but it will zing when converted to greyscale. Again you'll need to experiment, as every photo will be different. You'll soon get to know what areas and colours need to be altered.

Sharpening for details
A lot of people use sharpen and sharpen more controls. I prefer to use the UNSHARPEN MASK which can be found under Filter, Sharpen. We tend to see things as edges, or not edges. In effect, what you are doing is creating good edge definition in your image by creating a halo around the edges. You always lose some sharpness when the image is digitised (no matter how good a scanner you have). On opening the unsharpen mask you will see three setting you will need to select.

AMOUNT &endash; the volume control &endash; adjusts the intensity of the halo

RADIUS &endash; sets the width in pixels of the halo around the edges

THRESHOLD &endash; lets you control how far apart two pixel's tonal value must be before the filter affects them.

Experiment with the setting and let your eyes be the judge. You will know if you go too far. REMEMBER what looks a bit harsh on your screen will print very crisply and produce a good printed picture.

Here some figures I use as a starting point &endash; each photo may be a bit different.

200dpi scan try Amount 200, Radius 2, Threshold 5-10

72dpi scan try Amount 75%, Radius 1, Threshold 5

Digital Cameras
Digital cameras always result in a 72dpi file - they're just bigger depending on the number of pixels it can capture. I always go to Image, Image size and increase the resolution to 200dpi and reduce the file to the size I require. Then I apply the unsharpen mask, and any other adjustments. Take note of the pixel dimensions figure at the top of the image size dialog box. Your new file size should not be larger than the current file size. This is called upsampling and merely adds extra pixels to fill in the gaps. It doesn't add any extra information or detail to the image.

Selection Marque Hot Tip
When drawing a selection (either square or round) and you find you've started in the wrong place &endash; just hold down the SPACEBAR as you drag to reposition selection where you would like it. Release the spacebar and continue dragging. Repeat as often as needed to get precise position.

'PhotoShop Saving'
A picture that has been created with the use of layers can only be saved as PhotoShop format using the Save or Save As command. To save in a different format go to the File menu and click on Save a Copy. This will give you a choice of formats to choose from.

'Placing an Icon'
To align an icon to the nearest grid point, hold down the Command key while dragging the icon.

'Popup Windows' Before attempting see'Desktop'
Open up your Desktop Items folder.
Within this open one folder at a time that you want to popup and go to the view menu and click on As Pop-up Window. This folder will now be at the bottom of your screen. Do this to as many folders that will fit on your screen.
To remove a popup, open it and drag it away from the bottom. Now close it. Now you have lost it?? but you can find it in the folder you named Desktop items that is sitting in your hard drive. To replace it as a popup follow the instruction above again. Or just open and drag to the bottom of your screen.
Note
Only click once on a popup. If you hold your mouse down over a popup it may remove it from your hard drive and place it on your desk top. If this happens replace it in your hard drive.
Do not trash it.
see also 'Apple Menu Items' and 'Launcher'

'Pounds and Dollars'
If you want to type the sign £ for that letter to overseas, go to the Control Panels and open up Keyboard. In here put a tick against Australian and a tick against British. You will see on your menu bar now you have the Australian flag showing next to the Finder. If you type a Shift 3 you will get this #. If you now hold your mouse on the Australian flag and change it to the British flag and type Shift 3 you will now get this £. You may wish to keep the British flag flying.

'Preference File'
The preference file is kept in your system folder.

'Preferences What are they'
Preferences are files that keep track of your settings in the Finder and other applications. They keep track of the changes you make to software or your latest score in a game. Any time you make a change to the default settings of an application, a preference either gets created or gets updated . Nearly all of them are located in the Preferences folder inside your System folder. Some like Netscape and Eudora, have their own folders in the System folder and Preferences folder.

'Preferences Trash'
If you try out software from a shareware cd or from the net. It creates a preference file. If the product isn't what you were hoping to see, you drag the folder from the Hard disk to the trash. Trouble is that you also must trash the preference file. Most preference files are the minimum size of a file on your Mac. Still these small files can really add up, especially if you are always trying new things. You can open the preference folder and drag all these useless files to the trash.

'Preferences corrupt'
If you experience freezes or crashes you could have a corrupt preference. In order to deduct that you have a corrupt preference, trial and error is the best method. When trouble shooting a particular application, one place to look at is the preferences file. These are found in your System folder. To fix a corrupt preference file with the application not running, drag it to the trash, empty the trash and then relaunch the application. This will rebuild the preference file with default settings. You will have to re set your preferred preferences. Remember to save the preferences into another folder before trashing. This may save some embarrassing moments. You can not keep from getting corrupt preferences files. They are the single most used files on your computer. You should expect them to get banged around a little. You can completely rebuild your preference folder. This is handy to get rid of all those useless preferences and make more room on your hard drive. Remove your preference folder to the desktop and then restart your computer. You now will have a complete new preference folder with all preferences set to the default setting. If you want to revert to an old preference, such as your Netscape preferences. Remove the Netscape preference folder from your new made preferences and trash. Now replace these with the saved Netscape preferences on your desktop. Now restart again.
If you have a weak heart don't try this. A member of the committee can put you in touch with someone to do this for you, for maybe a small consideration.

'Print'

To print hold down Command+P. This will give you the print options.

'Protection Files'
To protect a file. Click once on it and then hold down Command+I. This will bring up the get info box. Put a tick in the lock box. This file can not now be altered or deleted.

'Protection System Folder'
Need a simple way to protect your System Folder from younger Mac users? Select the Protect System Folder option in the General Controls Control Panel.

'Rebuilding the Desktop'
Holding down Command+Option keys during start-up will give you the option of rebuilding your desk top files on any mounted volumes. Keep these keys pressed until a notice comes up asking whether you want to rebuild your desk top. How often you do this depends on how much use you make of your computer. As a general rule try Rebuilding your desk top once every month.
see also 'Disk First Aid' and 'Norton Utilities'

'ResEdit'
If you do not know how to use ResEdit then you can follow these instructions to replace your StartUp Screen. When you have a copy of ResEdit you should:

1# Make a copy of your "System" in your "System Folder" Click once on the "System" file, then press "Command - D" a file called "System Copy" will be created, this "System Copy" is the System file you should work on , drag it onto your desktop.

2# open with ResEdit the "System Copy" that you now have on your desktop and the Flavor of StartUp screen you have downloaded.

3# Now open the PICT resources of both files.

4# One at a time copy "Command - C" a resource from the flavored StartUp Screen PICT ( there are four resources to copy in total ) then paste it "Command - V" into the same number resource of the System Copy PICT, do this until you copy and paste all four resources, then "Save" with "Command - S" the changes in ResEdit before you close the "System Copy" file, your "System copy" file will now contain your flavor of StartUp Screen.

4# Drag the "System" file out of your "System folder" to the desktop and replace it right away with the altered "System Copy", delete the Copy off the end of the "System Copy" so it is now called "System" put your original System file in a safe place, you will notice the smaller icons on your "System Folder" folders will disappear when you remove your "System" file and reappear when you delete "Copy" off the end of your replaced "System Copy" file, I prefer to remove and replace these files fairly quickly.

5# Restart your computer to see the effect of your flavored StartUp Screen.

'Restart'
To restart your computer hold down R+Power key on keyboard. This will give you the option of either restarting or shutting down.

'Resolution'
Sometimes so you can have more than one document showing on your desktop at the same time it is handy to change the resolution of your monitor.
To do this go to your Apple menu and click on Control panels and then Monitor. In here if it is available for your monitor you can change the resolution.

'Save'
To save hold down Command+S. If the document has not already been saved you will be given the option to save as and to where.

'Saving'
Anything you do and save, save in one folder only. Within this one folder you can store other folders. Never save anywhere else and especially not within the programme that created it. By doing this, making a backup is easy, as you only have one folder to backup.
Now do this:
Go to your Apple menu and to Control Panels and then General Controls. Click on Document Folder. You will now have on your desktop a folder called Documents. Now open up an application and type anything and save. This will put it in your documents folder. Your computer from now on will know where to save to. In here you can put other folders. You can now place this folder in your hard drive and change the name of it to suit.
Note. Later systems may have a documents folder already as part of the system.
see also 'Desktop'

'Scroll Bars'
If your scroll bars at the right of your screen have both at the bottom and you would like one at the top: Go to your Apple Menu / Control Panels / Appearance / Options / uncheck Smart Scrolling.

'Select All'
Hold down Command+A.

'Shortcut Keys'
Although some of these will be found elsewhere on my tip site. Here is a list of shortcuts taken from Tidbits by Adam C. Engst <ace@tidbits.com>

Modifying the Macintosh Startup Sequence
In last week's quiz, we asked what you hold down at startup to eject removable media from your Mac. The correct answer is the mouse button, which about two-thirds of the 2,150 quiz respondents knew. However, most of the rest of the answers also have functions at startup, and the knowledgeable folks on TidBITS Talk pointed out even more startup modifiers as well. The next time you turn on your Macintosh, try one of the following.

**Controlling the Post-Startup Environment** -- Most Macintosh users know about holding the Shift key down to prevent extensions from loading, but there are numerous startup modifiers that affect the state of the system after the boot process finishes.

* Shift causes the Mac to boot without extensions, which is useful for troubleshooting extension conflicts. If you hold down Shift after all the extensions have loaded but before the Finder launches, it also prevents any startup items from launching.

* Spacebar launches Apple's Extensions Manager early in the startup process so you can enable or disable extensions before they load. Casady & Greene's Conflict Catcher, if you're using it instead of Extensions Manager, also launches if it sees you holding down the spacebar, or, optionally, if Caps Lock is activated. Conflict Catcher also adds the capability to configure additional startup keys as ways of specifying that a particular startup set should be used. Choose Edit Sets from the Sets menu, select a set in the resulting dialog and click Modify. In the sub-dialog that appears, you can specify a startup key and check the checkbox to make it effective.

* Option, if held down as the Finder launches, closes any previously open Finder windows. On stock older Macs, holding down Option does nothing at startup by default, although some extensions may deactivate if Option is held down when they attempt to load; see below for Option's effect on new Macs and Macs with Zip drives.

* Control can cause the Location Manager to prompt you to select a location. Although Control is the default, you can redefine it in the Location Manager's Preferences dialog, and since Control held down at startup also activates Apple's MacsBug debugger (see below), you may wish to pick a different key combination.

* Command turns virtual memory off until the next restart.

* Shift-Option disables extensions other than Connectix's RAM Doubler (and MacsBug - see below). To disable RAM Doubler but no other extensions, hold down the tilde (~) key at startup.

* Escape does nothing at startup by default, although some third party utilities might look for it at startup as a signal to disable themselves.

**Eliminating Corruption** -- Several startup modifiers are useful for resetting low-level aspects of the Mac to default states to aid in troubleshooting.

* Command-Option rebuilds the desktop files on disks when they're mounted. This can happen when you insert removable media, or at the end of the startup process as the Finder launches. Holding down these keys while all your extensions load may disable some of them - it's best to press the keys between when you see your last extension icon appear and before the Finder launches.

* Command-Option-P-R "zaps" the Mac's Parameter RAM, or PRAM, which contains a variety of low-level settings.

**Choosing Startup Disks** -- Not surprisingly, many of the startup modifiers affect the disk used to boot the Mac. A number of these are specific to certain models of the Macintosh.

* The mouse button causes the Mac to eject floppy disks and most other forms of removable media, though not CD-ROMs.

* The C key forces the Mac to start up from a bootable CD-ROM, if one is present, which is useful if something goes wrong with your startup hard disk. This key doesn't work with some older Macs or clones that didn't use Apple CD-ROM drives; they require Command-Shift-Option-Delete instead (see below).

* Option activates the new Startup Manager on the iBook, Power Mac G4 (AGP Graphics), PowerBook (FireWire), and slot-loading iMacs. The Startup Manager displays a rather cryptic set of icons indicating available startup volumes, including any NetBoot volumes that are available. On some Macs with Iomega Zip drives, holding down Option at startup when there is a Zip startup disk inserted will cause the Mac to boot from the Zip disk.

* Command-Shift-Option-Delete bypasses the disk selected in the Startup Disk control panel in favor of an external device or from CD-ROM (on older Macs). This is also useful if your main hard disk is having problems and you need to start up from another device. (On some PowerBooks, however, this key combination merely ignores the internal drive, which isn't as useful.)

* The D key forces the PowerBook (Bronze Keyboard and FireWire) to boot from the internal hard disk.

* The T key forces the PowerBook (FireWire) (and reportedly the Power Mac G4 (AGP Graphics), though I was unable to verify that on my machine) to start up in FireWire Target Disk Mode, which is essentially the modern equivalent of SCSI Disk Mode and enables a PowerBook (FireWire) to act as a FireWire-accessible hard disk for another Macintosh.

**Seriously Tweaky Startup Modifiers** -- Only programmers and the most geeky of users will find these startup modifiers useful.

* Control activates Apple's MacsBug debugger as soon as it loads. If you rely on this frequently, you may want to redefine the default key for selecting the Location Manager location at startup from Control to something else. For more information about MacsBug, check out Geoff Duncan's three-article series.

* Shift-Option disables extensions and virtual memory but still loads MacsBug, which would otherwise be disabled by the Shift key.

* Command-Option-O-F puts you into Open Firmware mode on PCI-based Macs and clones. Open Firmware is a cross-platform firmware standard for controlling hardware that all PCI-based Macs use. It's mostly of interest to hardware developers, but it can be a fun way to freak out a new user who's not expecting to see a command line on the Mac. To exit Open Firmware and continue booting, type "mac-boot" or "bye" (depending on Macintosh model) and press Return. For a list of commands you can enter while in Open Firmware mode.

**Just for Fun** -- Although Apple has moved away from relatively frivolous "Easter Eggs" connected with startup modifiers, there are a few available for old Macintosh models.

* Command-X-O, when held down at startup on a Macintosh Classic boots the Classic from a built-in ROM disk. (Note that if the ROM disk is then selected in the Startup Disk Control Panel, the Classic will boot off the ROM without holding any keys down. Ideal for setting up a text-entry Mac. It's FAAAST! too, 26s from a cold mains-on,

11s from restart. ...Ian)

* Command-Option-C-I, when held down at startup on a Macintosh IIci whose date has been set to 20-Sep-89 (the machine's introduction date), produces some sort of graphical display that I can't check for lack of a relevant machine. A different display appears if you hold down Command-Option-F-X at startup on a Macintosh IIfx with the date set to 19-Mar-90.

'Shutting Down'
To shut down always push the power key on your keyboard.

'Signature'
See 'Netscape Signature'

'Sleep'
To put your computer to sleep hold down Command + Option + Power keys.

'Snapshot Taking'
Holding down Command+Shift+3 takes a picture of whatever is on screen at the time, the resulting PICT file will be called Picture 1, the second will be Picture 2 etc. Holding down Command+Shift+4 takes a snap shot of any scrolled area. With the Caplocks key switched on Command+Shift+4 takes a picture of the active document when clicked on.
The result of all of the above will be saved in your hard drive.
If the control key is also held down with any of the above the result is saved in the clipboard and not the hard drive. You can then paste into any file.

'Starting from Minimal System'
Holding down Command+Option+X+0 forces the Mac to start from a minimal System 6.0.3 which is burnt into the ROM of the computer. This one only works on Mac Classics. This is a very minimal system which is not normally recommended for use.

'Startupscreen'
If you want a picture to show while your computer starts up:
Choose the picture you want to show while your computer is starting and save it as a pict resource file. Then name the file startupscreen. Now save it in your system folder. You can just drop it on your system folder. Now restart your computer to see the picture. Once your computer has started any other picture you have in your desktop pictures will now show.
See Desktop Pictures.

'Stationery'
A Stationery file is one that you keep as a Template. You can open and work with it, but when saving it you have to save as another name. The Stationery or Template file always stays the same for re use. To make a file as Stationery highlight it and hold down Command+I. This will open up the Get Info box. In the check box at the bottom right check the Stationery pad box. You will notice a Stationery file icon is different from the usual file icon.

'Stickies'
These can be useful from time to time. Let us assume you are going to run off with the man next door but don't know how to tell your partner. You don't have to with Stickies. Just write them a note with Stickies and in the preferences tick to launch at start-up. This will put an alias of Stickies in the start-up folder in your system folder. The next time your computer is switched on the note will be there for everyone to see. Maybe you can find other reasons for it's use.

'System 9.2.2'
Only use this system if you are running system X.
If you are not running system X then the highest system you should use is system 9.1.
Most programmes will run using system 9.2.2 but not all successfully unless you also have system X.