Author Archives: MacManus.nl

fixed : alternative for replacing MacBook (Pro/Air) keyboard

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Question :

I have a MacBook (Pro) with a back-lit internal keyboard, that has been used for a few years now. The reason why isn’t exactly clear to me, but somehow some some (three to be exact) of the keys have lost their upper coating so the letter they represent can no longer be seen on the keyboard. So even though the MacBook’s keyboard appears to be (nearly) intact, while in use the keyboard feels like missing some keys.

Isn’t there any good, but cheap alternative to opening up the entire inside of my MacBook (Pro) and replacing the keyboard ? Especially when having the keyboard replaced by Apple that’s very expensive…

 

Answer :

If your MacBook (Pro/Air) is out of warranty, having the internal keyboard replaced by Apple is not a ‘bang-for-your-buck’-option.

Replacing the internal keyboard yourself is an option, but primarily, getting a matching replacement keyboard might turn out to be rather difficult, especially if your MacBook (Pro/Air) does not have the regular US-keyboard layout (the US-keyboard has an ENTER-key with a different shape than on the keyboards of various other languages, so the holes for the keys in the top case won’t match). And secondarily, the keyboard is the part of the internals that is deep-deep down, so getting to it is about the most complex repair-operation one can think of…

But you didn’t spill any water, any drink or other fluid on your keyboard and only a few keys are broken or missing, there is a far easier and cheaper option :

Just get some (new or second hand) individual keys, and replace them yourself.

There are some websites that sell individual keyboard-keys :

ReplacementLaptopKeys.com

TheBookYard.com

PowerBookMedic.com

The only thing that’s tricky is that there are various versions of the keys, and it takes some investigation to find out which are the ones of the type you need. But apart form that, it’s really straight forward. Various instruction guides can be found online (it’s a simple repair-operation), for instance here :

MacBook keycap removal & fitting guide.pdf

That’s it.

Enjoy !

😉

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fixed : block senders of incoming spam eMails

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Question :

I keep getting a lot of spam-eMail lately, most of the time from the same eMail-address.

Is there anything I can do to stop this ?

 

Answer :

The extend to which you can fix this, depends on the options given by your eMail-host, but bottom line it all comes down to configuring a filter.

– open Safari (or any other browser of your choice)

– go to your eMail-host’s internet page and login using your name/eMail and password

– go to the Preferences-menu and configure a filter there that checks all incoming eMails on the criteria you configure (e.g. the sender’s eMail-address) and sends all filtered-out eMails to the trash straight away (there might be a “block sender” option, but that’s not always the case)

If you manage to set a filter as outlined above, you will not get those annoying eMails on your Mac, nor on your iPad, neither on your iPhone.

Just make sure your filter doesn’t filter too broadly, as that would even ‘desired’ eMails will get placed in the trash without ever getting into your mailbox…

If it’s not possible to set the filter in your eMail-host’s server, you will have to set a filter on any eMail-app you use on every device (so on your Mac, your iPad, your iPhone, etc.).

Setting an eMail-filter on your Mac should be done like this :

– open Apple Mail.app and select the spam eMail in your inbox

– open Mail Preferences, click on the tab “Rules”, and click “New Rule”

– that will set a new filtering-rule, which has the spammer’s eMail address already in it

– additionally configure the action that all eMail of that sender should go straight to the trash [you can include multiple spammers or senders directly or at a later time, and sometimes it is even more effective to filter based on a specific (partial) sentence from the ‘Subject Line’ or ‘Body Text’]

If you think configuring filters is too complicated, you can also decide to keep on tagging unwanted (spam) eMails as ‘Junk’. Since the Junk-mailfilter teaches itself progressively, in due time all similar eMails will be automatically filtered out and placed in the ‘Junk’-mailbox.

Good Luck !

Enjoy !

😉

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fixed : MacBook foot-pad has come loose

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Question :

Just the other day, one of the black feet of my Uni-body MacBook Pro’s bottom case has come fallen off.

What is the proper way to place it back ?

 

Answer :

Apple has posted the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) guide on it’s website, you can find it here :

MacBook Pro: Bottom case foot replacement DIY instructions

The only thing is, in order to do so, you need to still have both feet-elements (upper part & lower part) in good order. So if one part is either broken or missing, your will need replacement feet first.

Apple used to have a “bottom case foot replacement DIY kit” available, but a lot of customer feedback on the internet seems to indicate that they no longer supply these to the ‘normal’ consumer…

Online, you can find replacement feet from various brands like Eathtek, Meco, Mato and Ittecc. Whether these are exactly identical to the real Apple ones remains unclear however… :

MacBook Pro bottom case replacement feet (Amazon.com)

MacBook Pro bottom case replacement feet (Amazon.co.uk)

MacBook Pro bottom case replacement feet (Amazon.de)

Please have a good look into which ones seem to come closest to the original feet before buying.

Regarding the Loctite glue, it seems like you could use any other brand (like Pattex), just make sure it’s “finger glue” a.k.a. “one second glue”. Just make sure that you let the glue dry long enough for first fixation (pressing 1 minute) and long fixation (letting dry 60 minutes) before closing the MacBook housing back together.

Then follow the DIY-instructions from the Apple website mentioned above.

That’s it.

Enjoy !

😉

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fixed : remove icon from behind the Dock

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Question :

I somehow managed to move an icon to the outer corner of the Desktop in such a way that there’s no way to select it and move it to another location (or trash it). The document icon even got placed behind the Dock, so whenever I try to select the icon, the Dock is in front of it, and I am selecting or activating something in the Dock…

How can I fix this ?

 

Answer :

If there’s a document icon (or app icon) on your Desktop that you can’t select to use or move the document (or app), try this :

– open the Finder

– in the Finder window that opens, select your Desktop, then select the file (or app)

– now move it to another location on your Mac ; to another folder or to a new folder

– then, when you go back to your Desktop, the file will be in folder you’ve just put it in

…and if you wish, you can even drag & drop it back onto any location on the Desktop.

That’s it !

Enjoy !

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fixed : move opened Preview-document from outer corner of Desktop

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Question :

I somehow managed to move an open Preview document to the outer corner of the Desktop in such a way that there’s no part of Preview’s document window in sight that can be clicked and dragged. So, there’s no way to drag the open document onto the center of the Desktop…

And closing the document and opening it isn’t an option either, since nove of the red/yellow/green window buttons are in sight either…

How can I fix this ?

 

Answer :

Here’s what to do :

– click and hold the Preview app icon in the Dock

– in the pop-up menu that opens, click on “Show All Wondows”

– in the view that opens, select the troublesome document

…now the document will open in the centre of the Desktop, and you can drag it or close it.

That’s it !

Enjoy !

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fixed : hashtags making text unreadable in Excel

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Question :

Somebody sent me an Excel spreadsheet in which some of the data is unreadable since it has been replaced by text consisting of hashtag signs only…

I’ve seen this happening before, and the remedy used to be just to broaden the column, since all number that are too large to fit their cell width are automatically made unreadable…

However, in this case, if I broaden the column width, some of the hashtag text will turned into readable numbers, but other hashtag text will remain, no matter how wide I make the column…

What is wrong ?

And how can I fix this ?

 

Answer :

This seems to be a problem with Excel for Windows files that are opened in Excel for Mac (possibly more specifically with data copied or converted from another application into Excel on a Windows-PC). So PC-users will not be warned on forehand that their Excel output is not suited for use on Macs…

Fixing it turns out to be rather simple (but annoying) :

• open the file in Excel for Mac

• select the cells that are effected (or preferably even the entire column), then go to “Format” in the top menu bar

• from the dropdown-menu that appears, select “Cells…” and a window entitled “Format Cells” will open

• make sure the “Number”-tab is selected and make sure that you select “Number” or “General” from the list (make sure that it is something else than what was previously selected ; anything seems to be okay, as long as it is not “Accounting”)

• no return to your spreadsheet to check if the hashtag texts have disappeared (if not : try again)

That’s it !

Enjoy !

😉

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fixed : custom Quartz-filters are not available system-wide

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Question :

In the past, I used to create my own custom Quartz-filters in ColorSync Utility, and they were instantly available system-wide in MacOSX. Now, in OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion and OSX 10.9 Mavericks ( and OSX 10.10 Yosemite and OSX 10.11 El_Capitan ), I don’t have access to my Quartz-filters anymore…

What is wrong ? And how can I fix this ?

Answer :

In the latest versions of OSX [*], there seems to be a bug preventing OSX to find Quartz-filters stored outside of the ‘official’ “Filters”-folder that is inside the “Library”-folder in the “System”-folder… so, since all custom-made Quartz-filters are stored inside the “Filters”-folder that is inside the (invisible) “Library”-folder in the User’s “Home”-folder, your custom-made Quartz-filters are not found by OSX…

The solution is to just move them into the right (official) “Filters”-folder. [**]

(Yep, it’s that easy…)

For an in-depth step-by-step guide for doing so, follow the procedure outlined here.

NOTES :

[*] this bug was solved/removed with the introduction of macOS 10.12 Sierra

[**] put differently :

In all versions of OSX from OSX 10.8 Mountain_Lion up to OSX 10.11 El_Capitan,
new Quartz-filters created in Colorsync Utility are/were automatically saved in :
~/Users/[username]/Library/Filters/
But all other applications (including e.g. Preview) weren’t able to access or use them as they could only load Quartz-filters from :
~/System/Library/Filters/
and – only if you created the following folder manually – from :
~/Library/Filters/
So you had to manually move your custom Quartz-filters to :
~/Library/Filters/
to be able to use them in Preview.app and alike

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