Reduce iPhoto Launch Times

Sometimes it feels that it takes forever to launch iPhoto. Here's something you can try to shorten that wait time. When iPhoto launches, open Preferences (shortcut: Command+ comma), which is found in the IPhoto menu bar. Click Sharing and in that pane, find Look For Shared Photos or Share My Photos boxes. If they are checked, uncheck them if you don't use those services. This remedy may not cure all launching delays, but will cut down on a little bit of time. Try it and see the difference.

The Very Secret Screen Capture Shortcut

Taking pictures of your screen comes in real handy. So, you probably already know the Command-Shift-3 shortcut for taking a screen capture of your entire screen. You also may even know about Command-Shift-4, which gives you a crosshair cursor so you can choose which area of the screen you want to capture. Impress your friends and family with this capture shortcut: Control-Command-Shift-3 (or 4), which, instead of creating a file on your desktop, copies the capture into your Clipboard memory, so you can paste it wherever you want. Very cool and quite helpful also.

Drag and Drop. Everything. Really.

Have you heard of Drag and Drop? It is easy and more important, adds to your productivity.Drag and drop is a term used to describe moving an object on the computer screen with your mouse. It is done by clicking and holding an object, such as a file, then moving the mouse (dragging), and releasing the mouse button once the mouse cursor has reached its destination.

There are many other uses for drag and drop, and almost every Mac OS X application supports it. Go ahead — drag anything, and drop it anywhere. Want to launch a picture file in iPhoto rather than Preview? Just drag the image file onto the application icon for iPhoto. Maybe you just read a great idea on some webpage that you want to revisit later — select that text, drag it to the desktop (or any folder) and have a text clipping to read later. If using Spaces, try dragging iTunes (for example) to a different desktop.

iPhoto Mosaic Screen Saver

Screen savers were originally designed to protect computer monitors from phosphor burn-in. Advances in display technology and the advent of energy-saver monitors have virtually eliminated the need for screen savers. However, we still use them for entertainment, security, advertisements or information.

An entertainmening screen saver you can set up is a mosaic of your photos. Go inside your System Preferences - Desktop & Screen Saver - Screen Saver. Under your Pictures section, you will see folders with unique icons (Film Roll, Album, etc), these are the iPhoto screensaver. You can choose the one you want.

After selecting one of those iPhoto albums, just slightly below the screen saver preview pane, you can see three icons for selecting three different display styles. Choose the rightmost one which is the mosaic screen saver. Enjoy seeing your photos in a new fun way!

You are getting sleepy, very sleepy

Just like all of us, there are times that your Mac wants to go asleep right away, no dialog boxes, no whirling fans, just blissful sleep. It is easy for you to comply-just press Command-Option and hold the Eject key for a couple of seconds. Your Mac will be enjoying bear hibernation sleep until you decide it's Spring.

It is in my clearly labeled folder

Microsoft Outlook keeps copies of your sent mail in the "Sent Mail" folder. There may be times, however, where you want to file a message to a different folder, such as "Student Enrolment", "Team Tidbits ", or "My Principal's Favorite Things". To make this change:

1. While composing an e-mail message, click "Options".

2. When the "Options" dialog box appears, make sure "Save sent message to" is checked.

3. Click the "Browse" button next to the aforementioned check box, and choose the folder where you want the message saved.

4. Click "Close" to close the dialog box.

When you send your e-mail message, it will be filed away to the chosen folder and not "Sent Items".