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General discussion

Beginner questions re: updates and maintenance

Jun 6, 2007 12:55AM PDT

(MAC OS 10.4.9)

I ask because of past iffy experience with MS Windows updates though I was careful about closing programs first,

Received an update notice for Comic Life (1.2.4) which I want because it allows emailing the creations.

Which if any, applications in the Dock do I "quit" that have the black icon at the bottom before I click "download"?

I have .Mac, and got an email to download Backup. I thought .Mac came with Backup. Spotlight search took me to that email. (All I can find in the menu is iDisk, hich I thought was a backup????

If I must download the Backup, will it tell me I already have it, or just over write it??

Same question re: quitting programs for it, as well.

Need advice on maintenance, like emptying the cache, nor how often to do it. I don't know how to do that., and have had no success in looking.

Also, I see a lot here about " Archives". Need pointing to that, as well.

Any other routine maintenance suggestions appreciated.

Thank you.

Angeline

Discussion is locked

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P.S.
Jun 6, 2007 2:13AM PDT

I haven't found a British pound currency sign yet. Looked in "Special characters" and Font Book.

Thanks again..

Angeline

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British Pound symbol
Jun 6, 2007 3:56AM PDT

If you have your keyboard set to English, English and not American English, then the symbol should be on top to the 3 key.

I don't have a Mac here but will check when I get home.

P

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British
Jun 6, 2007 9:57PM PDT

If you have a little flag displayed at the top right of your screen, click it and you will see, in the drop down menu, Character Palette.
Launch that. In the left hand pane, select currency and choose the

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Bingo!
Jun 7, 2007 4:52AM PDT

I have the USA flag.

But there was no "currency". "Symbols" was empty, as were a couple of others.

So I put "currency" in the q box, and some Middle Eastern list came up. So I closed out, reopened, did the currency thing again, and there it was. Also a lot of other useful symbols listed.

Also noted that favorites can be identified. Very nice !!!

Thank you for your time and patience.

Angeline

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Updates and other things
Jun 6, 2007 3:53AM PDT

When a program has checked for an update and has found one, it will inform you.
A lot of progams have the remainder of the download routine as part of the original app so there is no need to quit the program before downloading the update.
On those programs that only take you to the manufactures website for the download, Roxio Toast springs to mind, then the download is usually no just an update but the complete, updated, program.
These are downloaded and installed separately. It is usual to quit the application that you are updating, but it is not always required. Firefox, for example, allows the download of updates which are installed into the running application. After the installation, you are required to quit FF and relaunch.

There is no need to quit other running applications before you click download. Other than that mentioned above.

Backup is an application that is NOT part of the OS and does not come on a new machine. It's a piece of software that is available, exclusively, to dot Mac subscribers, hence it "comes" with .Mac.
It needs to be downloaded from the Apple site. iDisk is a completely different ball of wax. That is the name give to your personal space on the Apple servers and can be mounted on the desktop as a drive. It contains your.Mac exclusive software and space for your own backups, if they are small.
You mount iDisk by going to the menu bar, choosing GO and then iDisk.

If you machine is left on overnight, the UNIX cron routines will run on a Daily, Weekly and Monthly basis. Alternatively you can download and install something like ONYX which does the same sort of thing.
I don't recall ever emptying the cache, except when playing with ONYX.

Where do you see "a lot about archives"?

P

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Archive and Install
Jun 6, 2007 6:48AM PDT

Over time, the OS on any system can become corrupted. Maybe just a little to start with but it does not get better by itself. Usually it will get progressively worse and may culminate in apps not launchin, quiting or the computer not booting.
Archive and Install:

This is a neat method of replacing what may be a corrupt system folder with a clean one.
It used to be called a "Clean Install" but after OS 9 the term was dropped because something newer, and easier, took its place.
I don't know if you can do the same in Windows, I doubt it, but this is what it does.
You boot the Mac using the Mac OS X installation disks, in your case that would be the Restore Disks that came with the machine, and continue as though you are going to install the OS.
The installer will detect that you have a newer version of the OS currently installed on your machine, and will refuse to install until you change your install options. One of those options is to completely erase and format the drive, (I believe that is referred to as a Clean Install in the Windows world) while the other is to Archive and Install.
This option preserves all your Accounts, Network settings, Email, Bookmarks, Address book, iTunes stuff, iPhoto stuff, etc. by collecting your Home Folder (Directory) and Archiving it to a directory somewhere else on the drive.
The installation process then continues as normal. During the install, all the above things are replaced by the installer. At the end of the install, the installer moves all the data that it Archived, back to its correct location.
After the Restart, all your settings are back to the way they were before the install. Nothing is lost.
Now you have a system that is in pristine condition, straight from the Disk, which just needs updating to the current version.

As a Tool, this works well but it is not the first line of attack. There may be other causes to a problem that can be fixed by rebuilding the directories, ZAPing the PRAM or stopping something from launching at startup.

That help?

P

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Yes. Will print this for future referece.
Jun 6, 2007 7:22AM PDT

My latest Windows was Me, and the only way to do a 'clean install" was manually, including going into the registry. A couple of steps after that. very time consuming. I had to do it with 2 programs, and after 3 times on each, the programs still had their bugs. Sad

I appreciate your time!

Angeline

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You're entirely welcome
Jun 6, 2007 10:30AM PDT

I've got lots more time.

Just ask when you need to

P

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You really need the book..
Jun 8, 2007 2:45PM PDT

I learned on my own to use the Mac and in doing so made rather a lot of mistakes but being a typical guy, bought the various books but rarely looked in them but now I am going to recommend getting a book and the book is entitled OSX the Missing Manual by Pogue...It is worth its money for a change. You are asking very simple questions that are in essence the methodology of using a Mac and though there is a help menu unless you know what to ask..well..help needs a help...The book covers a lot of territory and is well written by a very intelligent but literate writer who writes by the way for the N.Y. Times. Check it out. Hey, he was a classical music conductor which puts him in my good graces for that alone. But seriously, learning how the Mac paradigm works becomes self educating once you understand how things integrate on the Mac, how procedures are done and suddenly you will see the wonderful consistency in Mac that does not exist on a Windows machine. All programs have things in the SAME place. Preferences are where they are supposed to be..always. Integration of one piece of software with another helper is generally an automatic feature though naturally there are times when you as a user will rather choose a different one to do the job and the Mac makes this a two click procedure but having a book will show you all of these in's and out's consistently that asking questions on a forum will never be able to satisfy.

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Thank you !
Jun 10, 2007 12:29AM PDT

About 14 months ago I bought 2 books, "Mac OS Tiger for Dummies" (I used the "Dummies" series for W95) by Bob LeVitus, and "Mac OS Tiger" by Maria Langer. I also downloaded Switch and Mac 101 from the Apple site. I also lurked in this forum.
I have heard good things about "The Missing Manual".

I have a sight problem that prevents me from sitting down and reading in a normal fashion. ("Make text bigger" is wonderfl!) In those 14 months - very slowly - I read what I needed to know to get started, how Safari works, the keyboard, basic stuff. Yes, I did not retain some of what I read, so asked questions here. Happy I was having trouble re: spell check, until Pete pointed out to right click on the word. Somehow I has missed that. Happy

With MS Windows, it is crucial to close programs (including those running in the background) to a point before downloading upgrades, etc. I wanted to be sure about the Mac.

In my short time as a Mac user, I have found it to be, for want of a better word, sensible.

Again, I appreciate your comments and advice !!!


Angeline

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A good book for iLife questions.
Jun 11, 2007 5:58AM PDT

I have this book and still use it occasionally.

"The Macintosh iLife '06"

by Jim Heid

ISBN 0-321-42654-1

Simple and easy to use to help you get the most from your iLife suite. Look for it used on amazon since my old college used it as an introductory text book for beginning multimedia classes.

grim

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I'll second the Pogue book
Jun 11, 2007 1:33AM PDT

It's really helped me out a lot.

Now some of the fanboys around here will tell you not to "waste" money on books. That you can get all the answers you need from forums, but I happen to be old school. I like having a book nearby when I need it and want to look something up. Sometimes posting in a forum takes awhile to get an response and I like to have the answer readily available at my fingertips. And if I can't find an answer in the book, I'll ask it online.

Besides, I get the books from the library or buy them second-hand, so I don't pay full price. If someone's really going to complain about spending $7.00 on a used book, then they probably shouldn't buy an Apple in the first place. They should go out and buy a cheap $400 Dell and throw Linux on it. Then they'll save some real money. Happy