I’ve been frustrated with iPhoto ’09, thinking that there was still no way to edit the keywords for multiple photos in one step. I don’t understand why Apple hasn’t made this more obvious, but I fortunately discovered it while wading through the menus yesterday.
The most logical place for it would be under the Photos menu, where you’ll see the Batch Change option. But if you want to start adding keywords, you first have to bring up the Keywords window.
- Press Command-K or click on the Window menu and choose Show Keywords.
- Now select photos from your library that you want to tag, using the shift or command key to make multiple selections.
- Click the tag or tags that you want to apply to these photos. Tags become highlighted once you add them to the selected photos. If you click a highlighted tag it will be removed from the photos you selected.
- You can also use the keyword window to add, edit, or remove keywords by clicking on the “Edit Keywords” button.
Here’s a screenshot of the window:
Click for larger
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Two terrific articles for those of you considering a move from a Windows PC to a Mac.
First, Walt Mossberg posted a helpful article with some basic tips to help a new Mac user who has been accustomed to the Windows way of doing things. It’s at All Things Digital.
Second, if you want a more complete article about making the switch, Peter Bright is in the middle of a multi-part series at Ars Technica about his “conversion” from Windows to Mac. If you want the behind-the-scenes story, including some Apple and Microsoft history, check it out. It is lengthy, but so far it has been worth the read.
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Since I’m talking about TextEdit, I’ll point out that I just discovered the capability to create tables and lists, using the Format/Text menu…
See example (click for larger):
If you do a lot of writing, but you think that Word is like trying to water your flowers with a fire hydrant, you should give TextEdit a try. I have also used Bean, another great word processor for writers, and
also free.
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I’m experiencing a personal inner conflict due to the fact that I despise paper sticky notes, yet I love the Stickies that are in the Dashboard app in Mac OS X.
To resolve this torment in my soul, I am facing it head-on by placing as many sticky notes on my Dashboard as possible. If you can’t beat them, become obsessed with them.
Lately, I’ve eliminated various dashboard apps, one by one, in favor of adding another Sticky. As you can see above, they have begun to take over all my Dashboard real estate.
Guess it’s time for a larger monitor. 
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If you haven’t noticed yet, there is a 10.5.2 update awaiting you in Software Update. It has the usual under the hood tweaks to the operating system, but it also makes a significant change to the way the Stacks feature works in the dock.
This feature allows users to click on folders in the Dock and see the icons of its contents either fan out across the desktop or show up on a grid. I was one of those who wasn’t thrilled with the feature because of the number of items I have in those folders; most of the time I ended up opening up the folder instead of using Stacks. Also, the look of the icon in the dock was a little sloppy. It appeared as a pile of icons with only the topmost icon showing. I prefer a more consistent look, where it simply shows the icon for the stack folder.
Both of these issues have been addressed. Now we can control click on a Stack to reveal new options, such as making the Dock icon appear as a folder and setting the folder’s contents to appear as a list, which is better for folders with a lot of items. I’ve set each of my stacks to do something different, based on how I like to access that folder and based on how many items are there (for example, I have my Applications stack expand as a traditional menu, because I have so many of them).
And who says Apple doesn’t listen to their users! See the complete list of changes included in the 10.5.2 update here (including the ability to turn off translucency in the menu bar!).
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Did you know that in Apple’s Mail app, you can show the contents of multiple folders in the message list? Shift-click or command-click each folder you wish to reveal and you’ll see the contents of all selected folders in the message list window. See below…
I’m using Leopard’s version of Mail, and I haven’t tried this in Tiger.
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I’m adding a regular feature to 98 Pound Geekling where I share tips on using the Mac OS and the applications therein. I am going to try and keep it to tips that I have discovered as I’ve fiddled around with the Mac (going on 19 years now). However, when I find a tip at another site, I’ll give credit and linkage where it is due. Just know that if I post it here then I must have just found out about it. 
I’ll post the first one tomorrow (I know, you are on the edge of your seat).
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If speculation at The Register is right, and Apple is preparing Leopard to be capable of running Windows applications without having to boot the Windows OS, the Microsoft bunch should take notice.
I don’t understand all the techie talk about PE files and DLLs, but if I’m reading this right, then we could be on the verge of another major shift personal computing. There is no question that Apple makes the finest hardware available, and the only thing holding some people back is the need to run certain Windows programs. If these could run natively inside OS X, the doors are blown open for Apple to take huge chunk of the market share over the next 5-10 years.
Off the top of my head, I can’t think of any Windows apps that I’m desperate to run right now, but if the option was there, I’m sure some would cross my path that I would love to use. Despite the fact that the Windows OS is a royal pain, I am aware there are some great apps on the platform.
Even if this speculation turns out to be just that, the ability to run Windows apps in OS X has gone from clunky (with Virtual PC) to smooth (with Parallels). And hidden in Apple’s incredible 3Q financial report are a lot of people who have bought a Mac, knowing that their Windows experience has not been thrown completely out the window (excuse the pun). These are people who, within six months, will probably be wondering why they held so tightly to their Windows programs. This is a glowing good sign for Apple’s future, and it explains why Apple’s stock is up 40% since September 1.
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Apple has released an update to the iMac! I’m looking forward to seeing one of these up close, but by the description it sounds like a sweet ride. A creative use of aluminum and glass make for a sleeker look and better viewing of multimedia. Steve Jobs claimed that it is more environmentally friendly, which makes sense if people will find a way to recycle. Glass and aluminum are certainly more renewable than the plastics used on previous iMacs or any PC.
Here are the mad specs:
- Intel Core 2 Duo processor, pick your speed: 2GHz, 2.4 GHz, or 2.8 GHz. TRANSLATION: Very fast.
- 2 FireWire ports (one FireWire 400; the other a FireWire 800)
- 3 USB 2.0 ports
- 8X DVD-burning SuperDrive
- Gigabit Ethernet
- built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
- AirPort Extreme wireless networking
- a built-in iSight camera
- brand-spanking-new keyboard design
- remote control for Front Row (app for movies, music, photo slide shows, etc)
Software included:
- Mac OS X v10.4.10 Tiger (includes Spotlight, Dashboard, Mail, iChat AV, Safari, Address Book, iCal, DVD Player, etc.)
- iLife ’08 (includes iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iWeb, GarageBand)
- Front Row
- Photo Booth
- iWork ’08 (30-day trial)
Let the drooling begin.
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Normally I am excited about software updates, especially when it’s a jump to the next version. But when I saw that Office 2008 for the Mac will be delayed until January, I barely flinched for two reasons:
1. The previous version of Office which I’m using now is fine for my needs.
2. I’m slowly migrating to using Pages. In fact, most of the time for offline writing I am using Bean, a great little freeware text editor.
I could get a little excited if I was in an office using it, but for my needs she just doesn’t thrill me like she used to.
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