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General discussion

New MacBookPro user, where's the beef?

Sep 24, 2008 11:45AM PDT

Ok, I bit the bullet:
There are some things I wish to do:
1) Enlarge Font for all applications. I set it once, but it didn't take for all apps.
2) I am disappointed with the quality of Text-to-speech. Is there a better TTS engine out there for mac? I didn't realize til now how great the TTS for PCs is.
3) How do I get started with the Mac Script language?
4) How do I get started with the Mac C++?
5) Is there a list of what's still on the osx install disks?
6) What pgm languages are used the most on Macs?

...Thanks in advance!
...Vern

Discussion is locked

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As to software development.
Sep 24, 2008 9:45PM PDT
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The beef
Sep 25, 2008 11:01AM PDT

1) Command + or Command - for enlarging and reducing text size for most programs and windows
2) There is an expensive program called MacSpeech Dictate, but I've heard some mixed reviews about it. Don't know if that's what you are looking for, but do bear in mind that this is one area that has yet to be fully exploited by either Apple or Microsoft. Speech capabilities have a lot of potential, but not too many folks have tapped into (yet). Or so I think.
3-4 and 6) You'll have to start from some books or learn it yourself. How you get started is up to you.
5) Throw the disks in and see what pops up. These backup discs are included with the Mac in case you need to wipe the drive/install a new system or reinstall the included software that came with your Mac (iLife suite etc.)

-BMF

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How do I change font system wide, menus, help, safari, etc..
Sep 25, 2008 12:15PM PDT

MacBookPro:
"Command + or Command - " What is "Command" , is that a special key ?
In the textEdit pgm, I tried various keys in conjunction with + . But nothing worked.

WHen I hit the Bitten-apple-key and + key , in mac help. This does work.

But nothing works in textEDit.

How do I change font system wide, menus, help, safari, etc.....

Thanks!

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Command is the Apple key
Sep 26, 2008 10:52AM PDT

The key with the Apple and that cloverleaf thing is the Command key. Old vid in the link, but that's where my quote comes from. Grin Funny stuff. Anyway, I'm not sure what you mean by changing system-wide fonts.
If you want to change the default fonts for built-in apps or utilities, you may be out of luck. Now with Apple Pages or MS Word, you can do this, but that's because they are full-fledged word processors and have this functionality coded in. In TextEdit, you may have to highlight everything in the window to change the font size. You can scroll over the area manually or you can press "Command A" to select all before pressing "Command +". TextEdit should be working fine.

If you want to change Safari fonts, click on Safari at the top, select Preferences, and click on the Appearance tab. The first box should show a font name; you should be able to change that. As for menus and help tabs, again, that may not be able to change. In Leopard, a lot of Help menus are integrated into the applications themselves, and may not be able to change. Tell me if I'm following your train of thought here. Good luck.

-BMF

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Enlarge screen
Sep 26, 2008 8:54PM PDT

Have you tried Universal access?

It is not as sharp but it enlarges the screen.

Got system preferences>Universal access>Turn Zoom on

Now go to the mouse and keyboard preference and check zoom while holding modifier key, I think the default is the control key.

Then hold down the control key and with two fingers on the track pad, push up and you will zoom in, down and it will zoom out

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(NT) Tinker Tool
Sep 26, 2008 10:31PM PDT