It's not you, it's them…

While awaiting the arrival of snowmaggeddon here in the northeast, I had a few clients call me with

It's not you, it's them…

complaints of no email service. That's always disturbing, especially in cases where I have just recently been visiting… and tinkering. "That Rob, he's always tinkering…"

The sudden loss of email connectivity can create quite a panic. But here's the good news: it's almost always temporary, and it usually has nothing to do with your own computer, your settings, or your own in-home/office wifi or network connection.

Definitely an east coast problem

When your email goes down, here's a few things to check:

1. Do I have other Internet features? Does my web browser still connect? If so, you know your connection is OK.
2. Can I get my email from the web interface? In other words, if you usually use an "email client," i.e. Mail App, Outlook, Inbox, Cloud Magic…, can I get my mail by using Safari, Chrome, Firefox, etc. (If so, this is almost always an indication that POP/IMAP service is down with your provider, and it will be fixed soon.
3. Is there a problem with my ISP or mail host? Here's where Down Detector and http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com can help.

To see if it's you or if it's them, visit either of these two sites, enter the address of the website and you'll see information that will give you a good indication of whether there's a problem outside of your (or my control) or whether it's something that requires more "tinkering."

One Less Mac Mail Peeve

In Apple Mail, hovering over an e-mail address in the “To” or “From” field shows a drop-down arrow that you can click to reveal a hidden menu. From that menu, you can copy the email address to your clipboard.

The peeve? It copies it like this:

Juan Sirrakah <juan@whodat.com>

...which is kind of a pain when you just want to copy an email address and paste it somewhere besides another Apple mail message address header.

So, if you'd like it to copy and paste just this:

juan@whodat.com

...do this:

Quit Mail, fire up "Terminal^†," and paste this into it (all on one line, no returns):

defaults write com.apple.mail AddressesIncludeNameOnPasteboard -bool NO

and then hit"enter/Return." Now run Mail and try it out. Cool?

To change the behavior back:

Quit Mail, fire up "Terminal" and paste this into it (all on one line, no returns):

defaults write com.apple.mail AddressesIncludeNameOnPasteboard -bool NO

and then hit"enter/Return."

For the most part, your Mac will do anything you want it to, you just need to know how to ask. If you are having trouble communicating with your Mac and you wish it would listen to you a little better, give me a call.

The White Collar Handyman is also The Mac Whisperer. There are no bad Macs... only inexperienced owners! ;-)

^†found in your "Utilities" folder. Don't be afraid, Terminal doesn't bite!

Mac OS X Lion and Signing PDFs

Now here's an awesome, but frequently overlooked feature that's built right in to the Macintosh operating system: you can sign PDFs with your actual signature! Did you know that?

How many times have you printed out the PDF, signed it, scanned it, shredded it and then emailed the scan back to the sender? No more. Here's how:

1. Sign your name as you would like it to appear in the document on a plain white piece of paper.
2. Open your PDF with Preview.
3. If you don't see the "Annotations Toolbar, use the menu View > Show Annotations Toolbar (or just type Command-Shift-A)
4. Look for the Signatures pop-up in the Annotation menu that now runs across the top of the document window.
5. Click on that, and choose "Create Signature from Built-in iSight…"
6. Line up the signature with the line in the Signature Capture preview window, and click "Accept."
7. Now, click where in the document you would like your signature to appear.

You can move the signature around, and even resize it. (Unlike resizing many other objects, you don't even need to hold Shift Key down as you resize it so your signature doesn't get all distorted.)

When you're happy, just hit the Enter key, and save the document!

You can store several versions of your signature in Preview, and in the future just choose the one you want to use from the pop-up menu.

How cool is that?

There are many other somewhat hidden features in Mac Lion that can make your life a lot easier. I'll post some here on a regular basis. If you can't wait, perhaps you would like a Lion Lesson or some basic Mac OS coaching. I'm here for you!

E-Mail Overload?

Are you buried by the amount of e-mail that arrives each day, but don't want to unsubscribe from all those lists you're on? You can set rules and filters so that your important mail is always in front of you, and your mailing list mail is separated and waiting for you for when you have some free time. You can set up simple filters and rules based on the sender's name or the subject, or get very sophisticated and build lists of senders or keywords. Learn how to take control of your inbox with e-mail filters and other tricks by signing up for our in-home "E-Mail Bootcamp."

Snap, Crackle, IMAP and POP

Q: Which two are not e-mail account settings? A: The first two.

If you use email on more than one device... computer, iPhone, iTouch, iPad... and you are not using IMAP, your life could be a lot easier.

If you've noticed that somehow, email that you read on your iPhone is not showing up on your computer, or a draft that you wrote on your iPad isn't showing up on your iPhone, it could be that your email preferences aren't quite right and that life could be easier. See if your ISP offers IMAP as an alternative to POP.

Most ISP's provide pretty good instructions on how to set things up or switch things over.