With a brand new video tutorial published every week, ScreenCastsOnline covers all aspects of using your mac including:

• Learning to use the latest Apple and top 3rd party software applications
• Mastering the utilities and built-in features that come with every mac
• Lots of help for switchers and those new to the mac
• Learning about some of the latest web based services and applications from MobileMe to Google ..........and much, much, more!

All delivered in a friendly, relaxed, easy to follow format that you can watch as many times as you’d like, all at your own pace.

The show is delivered to you via iTunes automatically and you have the choice of receiving a free show every two weeks, or you can join as a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member and get a brand new, up to the minute show every week, bringing you lessons on the latest updates to the mac and mac software directly to your mac, Apple TV, iPod or iPhone. As a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member, you also get immediate access to a huge library of downloadable tutorials, covering a wealth of mac related topics.

The most recent shows are listed below, but be sure to check out all the available shows by clicking on the categories in the sidebar or using the Search facility. I hope you enjoy the shows!

Don McAllister - Host/Producer

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This week is the final in the short series of product updates (at least for a month or two!) and I take a look at the newly launched version of PDFPen - PDFPen v4.

As well as PDFPen, I also take a look at a side benefit of some of the new features of PDF Pen that will help Evernote users in enabling PDF files to be fully searchable in Evernote.

As we're talking about PDFs, I also take a look at a free utility that allows you to take a standard full sized PDF and convert it automatically into a printable A5 booklet - very cool!

PDFPen has always been a great low cost PDF editor with some features previously only found in very expensive, top end editing applications. With the advent of PDFPen 4, there are even more features and the show will take a look at:

• Newly revised User Interface
• New Thumbnail view in the sidebar
• Optical Character Recognition (OCR) - This is a big one, enabling you to take your scanned, uneditable and unsearchable PDFs and convert them automatically to have full searchable and editable text.
• New Highlighting & Annotation Features
• New Print options for Comments and Notes
• New TIFF Output

The show also covers:

• Using PDFPen to convert your PDFs for Evernote
• Installing and using Create Booklet 1.0.1

Links:
SmileOnMyMac
Evernote
ScreenSteps
NosillaCast
Create Booklet

Discussions: Forum

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To View the Full Free Show
Subscribe to either the free versions of the shows in iTunes, and have this show plus subsequent free shows delivered to your computer each week by clicking the links below!
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Watch a low resolution version of this show from this web page - Click on the video below

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Tags: PDFPen

As promised, the second of an occasional series of various hints and tips on getting the most out of your mac. Instead of the show focussing on a single piece of software or subject, I mix it up with several unrelated hints and tips on various aspects of using a mac. Each tip is directly accessible via chapter marks so you can either watch all the tips in sequence or jump straight to the tip you'd like.

This week, the tips include:

Numbers and OS X: Easily set up OS X keyboard shortcuts to access your most commonly used menu items. I found a few frustrations in switching over from Excel in that my normal keyboard shortcuts were not available in Numbers. A few clicks later and I was able to replicate them in Numbers and boost my productivity at a stroke! The really neat thing is that you can use the same technique for creating your own customised keyboard shortcuts in all your favourite applications.
Numbers: Another frustration was the absence of the Excel command for "Convert to Columns" to convert imported CSV files. Whenever I imported CSV (Comma Separated Variable) files, they didn't format properly! The answer was blindingly obvious and you'll kick yourself if this has been tripping you up too. All is revealed in this weeks show.
Safari: Despite all the choices we have as mac users with a plethora of browsers, I still keep coming back to Safari as my browser of choice. It's fast, fully compliant and integrates fully with the iPhone. Safari also has some pretty nifty features on how it handles tabs, windows and bookmarks including integration with address book. This section alone gives half a dozen tips on getting the most out of Safari
iTunes: Following on from the recent show covering iTunes 8, another feature is the inclusion of artwork for Genres in Album view. It can get a bit messy when you have none standard genres and no artwork. This tip shows you how to access a free utility to manage and update your iTunes genres artwork plus gives you access to some free genre artwork via Flickr.
OS X, Launchbar, Google Translate: This tip allows you to set up your mac to do virtually instant translation of foreign language text snippets. Frustrated by not being able to follow my non English speaking friends on Twitter, this tip shows you how to use Launchbar and the Google Translate service to quickly and easily translate virtually any language to any other language using a few simple keystrokes. Even if you're not a Launchbar user, you can still utilise copy and paste and the Google Translate service to accomplish this but not as impressively!

Links:
iGenres
Genres Flickr Pool
Iconaholic blog
Radio Lingua Network
Cava and Twitts
Launchbar
Previous ScreenCastsOnline Launchbar Tutorials
Google Translate Service

Discussions: Forum

Extra! Members Version formats	1280x720 - Full HD Resolution 1280x720 - Full HD Resolution with overscan 960x540 - HD Resolution 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution All versions with embedded chapter markings and available via iTunes, Miro or by direct download from the Extra! members site
Free Version Formats	This show is only available to ScreenCastsOnline Extra! members

Become a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! Member
Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

To View the Trailer for the Full Free Show
Subscribe to either the free versions of the shows in iTunes, and have this trailer plus subsequent free shows delivered to your computer each week by clicking the links below!
Free High Definition version of the show in iTunes or Free iPod version of the show in iTunes



Watch the trailer for this show from this web page by clicking on the video below.

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Tags: Launchbar, itunes, Safari, Numbers

Another sneaky peak this week, this time on an update to one of the most capable image editors and that's Pixelmator.

Since its launch exactly a year ago, Pixelmator has firmly established itself as one of the stellar graphics applications for OSX, or as they like to say "Image editing for the rest of us". Sporting many features previously only seen in high end image editors (and now with additional features not seen in high end images editors), Pixelmator delivers a wealth of functionality and some leading edge technology. With the advent of the soon to be released Version 1.3, the Pixelmator developers have been focussing on delivering better performance and re-working and adding to Pixelmators rich toolset.

For this weeks show, I've split the contents into two halves:

The first half is all about the new tools and significant enhancements to some of the old tools. This section covers:

• Smart Palette Hide
• Magic Eraser
• Magic Wand
• Enhanced Paint Bucket
• Hue and Saturation
• Replace Color

The second half of the show looks at some of the other features and techniques used within Pixelmator to make it such a powerful package. These include:

• Layers
• Layer Masks
• Clipping Mask
• Curves Tools
• Gradient Tool
• Transform Tools
• Crop Tool

And don't forget, there are a wealth of filters and effects also available in Pixelmator that I ran out of time to cover. Check out the previous screencast to see some of these in action.

Please note, Pixelmator 1.3 is due for release in the next week or so!

Discussions: Forum

Extra! Members Version formats	1280x720 - Full HD Resolution 1280x720 - Full HD Resolution with overscan 960x540 - HD Resolution 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution All versions with embedded chapter markings and available via iTunes, Miro or by direct download from the Extra! members site
Free Version Formats	960x540 - HD with overscan - Download 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution - Download.

Become a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! Member
Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

To View the Full Free Show
Subscribe to either the free versions of the shows in iTunes, and have this show plus subsequent free shows delivered to your computer each week by clicking the links below!
Free High Definition version of the show in iTunes or Free iPod version of the show in iTunes



Watch a low resolution version of this show from this web page - Click on the video below

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A new full release of iTunes from Apple is covered this week - iTunes 8.

ITunes 8 includes three major new features plus a host of minor tweaks and fixes to increase the functionality and capability of what is rapidly becoming the dominant digital media organiser and playback application. In this weeks show I cover:

• Switching off Inline Store Arrows
• Grid View
• Grouping and Sorting in Grid View
• Obtaining Album Art from iTunes, Amazon and Google
• Configuring Album View
• Turning on Genius
• The Genius Sidebar
• Creating a Genius Playlist
• Burning a Playlist to CD
• iTunes 8 Visualiser
• Importing and Re-importing CDs
• Changes to the Podcast Section

The command to switch off the iTunes Store arrows is:

defaults write com.apple.iTunes show-store-arrow-links -bool FALSE

To switch them back on, just re enter the command in Terminal and replace FALSE with TRUE

Discussions: Forum

Extra! Members Version formats	1280x720 - Full HD Resolution 1280x720 - Full HD Resolution with overscan 960x540 - HD Resolution 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution All versions with embedded chapter markings and available via iTunes, Miro or by direct download from the Extra! members site
Free Version Formats	This show is only available to ScreenCastsOnline Extra! members

Become a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! Member
Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

To View the Trailer for the Full Free Show
Subscribe to either the free versions of the shows in iTunes, and have this trailer plus subsequent free shows delivered to your computer each week by clicking the links below!
Free High Definition version of the show in iTunes or Free iPod version of the show in iTunes



Watch the trailer for this show from this web page by clicking on the video below.

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This week, the show takes a sneaky peak at an application we've previously covered on ScreenCastsOnline, but which is just about to be re-launched with some terrific new features.

Update: Circus Ponies Notebook V3.0 is now available from the Circus Ponies website

Circus Ponies NoteBook is a fully featured information manager which uses the metaphor of a familiar paper notebook interface complete with pages, tabs, sections and sub sections and now sticky notes and flags. It allows you to store text, outlines, to-dos, images, sketches, web clippings, email clippings, movies, PDFs or other documents on the pages of the notebook itself and then organise them with keywords, highlighting and even voice annotation.

Once you've got your information stored, NoteBook makes it really easy to search all of your information. A comprehensive indexing system is built right into NoteBook giving you instant access to all the information multiple index pages, just like the index in a book. In addition, all of a Notebooks unencrypted text is now also accessible via OSX spotlight searches.

As well as all this functionality, Circus Ponies NoteBook allows you to share your information easily and simply with other users and can even publish your notebooks to the web as fully functional websites directly to MobileMe or to any other Web Hosting Provider.

It's been quite a while since we covered v2.1 of Notebook, way back in April 2007 so I'll make no apologies for covering some old ground rather than just focussing on the new elements. The application has taken the notebook metaphor to a completely new level with this release and includes some stunning new features which we'll cover as we move through the tutorial.

Wherever possible, I've indicate new features by displaying this icon in the bottom right corner of the screen and added in additional chapter markers for easy navigation. Chapter markers are included in all Extra member versions of the shows but as this show has been sponsored by Circus Ponies, I've left them in the free version so you can try them out.

This weeks show covers:

• Introduction to NoteBook
• New - Info Flags
• New - Inspector Changes
• New - Toolbar Changes
• New - Detachable Pages
• Adding Pages and Media
• Adding media files to NoteBook
• New - Support for Sketching & Writing
• New - Support for Pen Devices
• New - Diagramming & Sticky Notes
• New - Sticky Notes
• Outlining and Annotation
• New - Date Popup
• Web and Email Clippings
• Multidex Indexing
• Sharing your NoteBook

Discussions: Forum

Extra! Members Version formats	1280x720 - Full HD Resolution 1280x720 - Full HD Resolution with overscan 960x540 - HD Resolution 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution All versions with embedded chapter markings and available via iTunes, Miro or by direct download from the Extra! members site
Free Version Formats	960x540 - HD with overscan - Download 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution - Download.

Become a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! Member
Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

To View the Full Free Show
Subscribe to either the free versions of the shows in iTunes, and have this show plus subsequent free shows delivered to your computer each week by clicking the links below!
Free High Definition version of the show in iTunes or Free iPod version of the show in iTunes

Watch a low resolution version of this show from this web page - Click on the video below
Please note: The chapter markers refered to are only available in the downloaded version available here

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Something different for this week - a montage of Mac hints and tips!

As you're probably aware, the show usually focuses on one particular topic or subject area but in doing that, lots of smaller topics get overlooked. So this week I cover 4 completely different topics that wouldn't justify a full show individually but should still help you get the most out of your Mac. This weeks mini tutorials are:

Create a new Web Receipts option - OSX has a built in feature that allows you to use the print menu in any application to save your print to a PDF. They even provide a special option to save your PDF to a "Web Receipts" folder in your documents folder. This section allows you to duplicate this feature and create your own "Web Receipts" folder, call it anything you want and save it anywhere you want. The tutorial also shows you how to edit your new menu option to insert a time stamp right into the PDF title.


Sharing Your Internet Connection - Did you know that if you have a Mac with an Airport card or built in Airport, that you can turn you Mac in to an Internet access point by sharing your wired Internet connection? I use this a lot to allow my iPhone to use Wifi in my home studio where 3G is non existent and my existing wifi router signal is very weak. A couple of clicks in System Preferences and even if you don't have a wifi router, you can switch on Wifi and use your Mac as a Wireless Access Point.


Tweaking Screen Sharing - We all know that you can start off a screen sharing session using the button in the finder but did you know that there is a standalone screen sharing app built right into OSX? This section exposes the underlying app and gives you instructions on reconfiguring it to see all your bonjour enabled machines. It also shows you a tip on making the standard screensharing window much more functional by unhiding some extra features and buttons in the toolbar.


Creating Disk Images using Disk Utility - Yes, we all use Disk Utility to examine our disks and repair permissions, but did you know you can create your own disk images to send to other mac users, swap data from mac to mac or even burn to CD or DVD. As well as standard disk images, you can even create secure, password protected, encrypted disk images to store your sensitive data on your disk away from prying eyes. In this section, I look at the basics of disk images, creating a secure disk image and explain some of the different file formats available to you. I also look at how disk images can help us store sensitive data on USB pen drives.

So lots to cover in this weeks show!

If you want to copy and paste some of the commands I used in this weeks show, you can download a text file containing the commands from here

The website I got the Web Receipts info from is here

Discussions: Forum

Extra! Members Version formats	1280x720 - Full HD Resolution 1280x720 - Full HD Resolution with overscan 960x540 - HD Resolution 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution All versions with embedded chapter markings and available via iTunes, Miro or by direct download from the Extra! members site
Free Version Formats	This show is only available to ScreenCastsOnline Extra! members

Become a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! Member
Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

To View the Trailer for the Full Free Show
Subscribe to either the free versions of the shows in iTunes, and have this trailer plus subsequent free shows delivered to your computer each week by clicking the links below!
Free High Definition version of the show in iTunes or Free iPod version of the show in iTunes

Watch the trailer for this show from this web page by clicking on the video below.

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As promised, this weeks show follows on from last week, and covers some of the top Twitter clients available for the Mac (and Windows in two cases)

The Twitter web interface is functional but could be better. Luckily, and some would say one of the catalysts of Twitters success, the Twitter developers have released a Twitter API or Application Programming Interface, that allows third party developers to create external clients for Twitter for the Desktop and Mobile devices. In this weeks show I cover three of the top Twitter Desktop clients:

Twitterrific - A native Mac application that is the application of choice for many, many Mac users. A combination of small desktop footprint, support for keyboard shortcuts and access to many of OSX's inbuilt functions such as spell checker, makes this application ideally suited to the Mac environment. Link



Twhirl - The first of two applications built on Adobes AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) - a cross-platform runtime environment for building rich Internet applications using Adobe Flash, Adobe Flex, HTML, or Ajax, that can be deployed as a desktop application. Consequently, Twhirl can run both on OSX and Windows. The only downside is that this application doesn't have access to standard OSX components like Twitterrific, or support for keyboard shortcuts. This is offset by a much more feature rich Twitter environment along with support for other social networks built right into the Application. Link


TweetDeck - The second application built on AIR, TweetDeck takes a unique approach by organising your Tweets into a multicolumn layout as well as keeping a local store of all your tweets. Add in support for some great realtime search features plus some other specialised support for Twitter services make TweetDeck a great option, but you need to have plenty of screen real estate to get the most out of it. TweetDeck is ideally suited to those of us with multiple monitor setups. Since this show was recorded, a new version of TweetDeck has been released with support for 12seconds, a sort of Twitter service but for video clips. Link

Discussions: Forum

Extra! Members Version formats	1280x720 - Full HD Resolution 1280x720 - Full HD Resolution with overscan 960x540 - HD Resolution 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution All versions with embedded chapter markings and available via iTunes, Miro or by direct download from the Extra! members site
Free Version Formats	960x540 - HD with overscan - Download 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution - Download No embedded chapters and only available via iTunes or Miro.

Become a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! Member
Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

To View the Full Free Show
Subscribe to either the free versions of the shows in iTunes, and have this show plus subsequent free shows delivered to your computer each week by clicking the links below!
Free High Definition version of the show in iTunes or Free iPod version of the show in iTunes

Watch a low resolution version of this show from this web page - Just click the video below

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Twitter! If you haven’t used it, you don’t know what you are missing! Launched in 2006, Twitter has become the de-facto standard for micro blogging and even after suffering problems with downtime and the famous “failwhale” people still go back to it, refusing to jump off Twitter onto the other micro blogging platforms. Ok, they might try others out, but they always keep one foot firmly in the twitter camp!

Twitter has long transcended its original intended usage and has been transformed by the user base into an indispensable social and business communications tool.

Basically it’s a simple centralised messaging system, which allows you to post text messages of up to 140 characters.

Simple!

You can follow other like minded people, news sites, commercial organisations, friends, family, colleagues, in fact all sorts of people and organisations and exchange messages with them. Twitter is both a noticeboard and a conversational tool allowing you to have your own “virtual watercooler” and feel more connected in this ever increasingly digital age. You really have to try it to fully understand the benefits it can bring.

Update: @jane73 from Australia has posted a typical story about a new twitter user finding her way around over on her blog - Twitter Explained, Well Sort Of... - worth checking out!

So this weeks show takes you through the basics of Twitter. The show covers:

• Setting up a Twitter Account
• Twitter Settings
• Using the Twitter Web Interface
• Finding People Using Twitter
• Twitter Messages
• Twitter @Replies
• Twitter Direct Messages
• Using Twitter Notices

That’s just for starters and will give you a good grounding in Twitter basics and using Twitter on the web.

Next week, I’ll be taking a look at some popular Twitter clients that further enhance the usability of Twitter and make it even easier to use.

Discussions: Forum

Extra! Members Version formats	1280x720 - Full HD Resolution 1280x720 - Full HD Resolution with overscan 960x540 - HD Resolution 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution All versions with embedded chapter markings and available via iTunes, Miro or by direct download from the Extra! members site
Free Version Formats	This show is only available to ScreenCastsOnline Extra! members

Become a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! Member
Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

To View the Trailer for the Full Free Show
Subscribe to either the free versions of the shows in iTunes, and have this trailer plus subsequent free shows delivered to your computer each week by clicking the links below!
Free High Definition version of the show in iTunes or Free iPod version of the show in iTunes

Watch the trailer for this show from this web page by clicking on the video below.