Properly resize Excel windows for laptop screen

I work with the same Excel spreadsheets on my iMac and my Mac laptops. When Yosemite came along suddenly the spreadsheet was too large to fit the laptop screen and the tabs at the bottom were not visible.

There are various complicated workarounds but finally here is a simple answer:

Just click Window in the top menu bar and select Zoom window. A real moment of triumph, that.

---

Screen shots in Macs - a really useful guide

I'll be coming back to this one for sure, an excellent clear guide to various ways to take screen shots, relevant to OS X 10.10 Yosemite backwards.

http://www.computerworld.com/article/2476025/mac-os-x/os-x--taking-better-screenshots-on-a-mac.html

The main screen grabs are these, but do look at the full article, it's so informative.

⌘+⇧+3: Capture entire screen and save as a file.

⌘+Ctrl+⇧+3: Capture entire screen and copy to the clipboard.

⌘+⇧+4: Capture dragged area and save as a file.

⌘+ctrl+⇧+4: Capture dragged area and copy to the clipboard.

⌘+⇧+4 then Space: Capture a window, menu, desktop icon, or the menu bar and save as a file.

⌘+Ctrl+⇧+4 then Space: Capture a window, menu, desktop icon, or the menu bar and copy to the clipboard.

If you've captured a screen to the clipboard, open Preview and then do cmd-n. Preview will open your screenshot image. Further  new screenshot images will open in new Preview windows.

If you'd like to change the default image file format for screenshots, here's how:

http://bit.ly/1OAUmyX

Batch rename files using Finder

This is a really handy tip. Maybe you want to rename a load of images or other files with a title and sequential numbers?

In Yosemite, OS10.0, all you have to do now is select some files, right click on one and choose Rename [x] items. You can then tailor the new filenames to what you want. Amazing. There are other handy options such as making a new folder to contain the selected files.

Yosemite - MacBook Pro unusably slow, now fixed

I installed Yosemite on my MacBook Pro only to find it almost unusably slow. My MacBook Air had been fine with Yosemite, better if anything.

Ha! I have now managed to restore it to a good speed.

Specs:
MBPro, 13 inch, mid 2012, 4GB memory, 2.5 GHz processor, 500 GB hard drive of which 108 GB free.
Air: 11 inch, late 2010, 4 GB memory, 1.6 GHz processor, 120 GB flash storage of which 18 GB free.

You'd think the MacBook Pro would be better, but no, the MacBook became so slow it was unusable, while the Air was fine.

So to fix the MacBook Pro, an online search found this useful advice:  http://www.hightechdad.com/2014/10/23/13-tips-optimize-mac-yosemite-installation/

The HighTechDad (cheek! listen to this HighTechMum) had found the same slowdown as me, and his was a higher spec. MacBook Pro. He suggested 13 possible steps, this is my experience with the most useful ones:

1), 2) Repair permissions and Check disk for errors, run Onyx. Download here. This free tuneup programme will check your hard drive, repair permissions, delete temporary files and generally clean up your system. Running Onyx improved things but the laptop was still unusably slow.

3) Reset the System Management Controller
"I believe that this (in conjunction with a few other things) truly fixed my issue. If your fans on your MBP are running all of the time, it’s probably worth doing this. Read this Apple Support Article that tells you how to do it on different Macs – http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964. Basically, here are the steps you can do on a MacBook Pro:

1. Turn off your Mac
2. Plug in your Mac power cord into the wall socket
3. Hold down the Left Shift + Option + Control + Power Button, simultaneously, for about 10 seconds
4. By holding these keys pressed, your Mac won’t power on but the reset will be done.
5. Release all keys after about 10 seconds and turn on and run your Mac like you normally do."

4)  Reset PRAM

"Here is the Apple Support Article for Yosemite – http://support.apple.com/kb/PH18761. I believe this helped with my issues. Here are the basic steps:"

1. Turn off your Mac
2. Press the power button and at the same time -
3. Press Command + Option + P + R in combination, all together
4. Press and hold all these keys until you hear the startup Boing - wait to hear it twice, this means the PRAM has been reset
5. Release the keys
6. The computer will finish restarting and your PRAM reset should be complete.

5) Reduce transparancy

No, I don't know when it uses Transparancy ... but apparently this takes up graphic processing time, so worth a try. Apple menu > System preferences > Accessibility then check Reduce transparency.

6) Turn off File Vault

I don't use that but if you do, apparently it can slow things down a lot so switch off if you can. Apple menu > System preferences > Security & Privacy > File Vault.

7) Reduce Spotlight items.

I don't use Spotlight, I prefer just Cmnd + F from the desktop, a simpler Find window. But if you do, go to Apple menu > System preferences > Spotlight and you can switch off any of the items it searches for that you don't think useful.

Certainly improved but not enough, so finally, I bought 16 MB of RAM from Crucial Computers (cost £122) and installed it myself (go on, it's really easy, but you might want to order the fitting kit at the same time to get the Phillips 00 screwdriver).

Two days later - my MacBook Pro is fine, really speedy. A long struggle but a moment of triumph.

Apple OS 10.10 Yosemite - get rid of DropBox green ticks

I've finally decided to install Yosemite - I skipped Mavericks to allow a few bugs to be eliminated.

Now to customise it to what I prefer - that is, the best of the old with the best of the new.

DropBox

If you depend on DropBox, as I do, you will instantly see that your list of files has acquired a column of garish bright green ticks, indicating that DropBox has synchronised the file. What a horrible idea!
Here is how to get rid of this distracting feature. Thanks to the Apple user discussion, referencing this link: http://www.mrh.is/writing/about/how-to-get-rid-of-the-new-dropbox-checkmarks

1. Download the latest DropBox app, from the DropBox website. Follow instructions to install it.
2. Open your Applications folder and find the DropBox app. 
3. Right click on the DropBox app and select Show package contents.
4. When the folder opens, click the down arrow to show the files and folders. Find Plugins and click to show what's in that.
5. See garcon.appex and again, right click to Show package contents and open the Contents folder.
6. Then in the Resources folder, click the down arrow to show the contents.
7. You will see the offending green tick, named overlay-uptodate.icns
8. Rename that file either by right clicking on it, or by clicking slowly,  - I called it overlay-uptodate-old.icns .
9. Close all those folders. 

You might need to restart your computer, but the green ticks will be seen no more.