Category Archives: office software

test : affordable iPad styluses compared

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Recently I came across a very interesting handwriting-note-taking app for the iPad : Notability

(after reading a lot of reviews and testing a few alternatives myself, I found this was the most useful note-taking app when wanting to use handwriting on an iPad ; the only downside I’ve found so far is it can only export to PDF)

So after I had decided on the app I wanted to use, I had to find an affordable stylus that can be used for handwriting.

The most important selection criteria I needed to test on where :

1- is the stylus responsive and accurate enough for handwriting on an iPad ?

2- does the stylus feel like an actual pen when handwriting on an iPad ?

3- is the price tag affordable, so below € 20, but preferably even below € 10 ?

The 7 styluses I selected are :

• Muvit (T-Mobile) iPhone/iPad Stylus [2-pack]

• AmazonBasics “Executive” Stylus

• Ozaki “iStroke” Stylus+Pen

• Boxwave “EverTouch” Micro-knit tip Stylus

• ButterFox Micro-knit tip Stylus+Pen

• TeckNet “MT-238” Micro-knit tip Stylus+Pen

• NewTrent “Arcadia Clickpen” Micro-knit tip Stylus [2-pack]

The main findings of the test :

– rubber tip styluses (AmazonBasics, Ozaki) perform okay in responsiveness, but are significantly less responsive than the ones with micro-knit tips

– since the ‘capacitive touch’ screens used in iPhones and iPads were meant to be used with a finger and not with a stylus, the styluses will always need to mimic a fingertip… that makes the stylus-tip rather bulky and soft… which is a sharp contrast to what you would expect from a handwriting pen : a pointy and hard tip… so ‘actual pen-like’ responsiveness will always be a (small) bridge to far…

– for handwriting a stylus should feel like an actual pen in your hand, so not too light and with a good weight-balance

So, based on these outcomes my preference is [from BEST to WORST] :

1. TeckNet “MT-238” Micro-knit tip Stylus+Pen

2. ButterFox Micro-knit tip Stylus+Pen

3. Boxwave “EverTouch” Micro-knit tip Stylus

4. NewTrent “Arcadia Clickpen” Micro-knit tip Stylus [2-pack]

5. AmazonBasics “Executive” Stylus

6. Ozaki “iStroke” Stylus+Pen

7. Muvit (T-Mobile) iPhone/iPad Stylus [2-pack]

My ‘best buy’ is the TeckNet, with the ButterFox as a very close runner-up, with both of them priced at about € 8 max. I prefer the length of the TeckNet over the marginally better responsiveness of the ButterFox. Like the two test-winners, the Boxwave and the NewTrent both have micro-knit tips also, and even though I really like the idea of the NewTrent’s retractable tip, I would prefer the Boxwave since the NewTrent stylus feels very awkwardly unbalanced in your hand when writing… The AmazonBasics stylus is just plain okay but when handwriting not as responsive as the styluses with micro-knit tips. The Ozaki‘s performance is equal to the AmazonBasics, but the price-difference was 4 times higher, which made the Ozaki “little value for money”… The Muvit stylus is a disaster to write with, it sticks to the screen like chewing gum and it’s way too light & short to feel comfortable ; you’re better of using your index finger for writing…

So…

Happy note-taking !

Enjoy !

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fixed : place a picture behind an Excel chart or graph

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Question :

I am using Excel (from Microsoft Office) and I want to put the chart I’ve just made on top of a picture. How can I do that ?

Answer :

In Excel v14 (from MS Office 2011 for Mac), this can be done like this :

1- create the chart

2- select the chart area (you will see a bold, light blue frame around the entire chart area), then click the “Charts>Format”-tab (the purple tab in-between the green tabs), then in “Current Selection” click the “Format Selection”-button

3- in the window that opens select “Fill”, then the “Solid”-tab, and set the “Color:”-dial to “No Fill” and click “OK”

4- select the chart itself (inside the chart area – you will see a black lined square with light blue dots on the corners around the actual chart), then again, click “Charts>Format”-tab (the purple tab in-between the green tabs), and again, in “Current Selection” click the “Format Selection”-button

5- in the window that opens, again select “Fill”, then the “Solid”-tab, and set the “Color:”-dail to “No Fill” and click “OK”

6- then de-select the chart

7- in the upper Excel menu bar that’s fixed in the Finder, select the “Insert”-tab, and from the drop down menu that appears, select “Photo > Picture From File” and in the “Choose a Picture”-window that appears, select the image you need and click “OK”

8- the image will appear on top of your chart, now first resize it (by dragging the light blue corner-dots) and place it over your chart area

9- select the image (again, if it’s not already selected), click the “Format Picture”-tab and remove the background color(s) of the image if you need (using the “Remove Background”-option from “Adjust”)

10- then, also in the “Format Picture”-tab, select the “Reorder”-option from “Arrange”, and select “Send to Back” from the 4 options that appear in the pulldown menu ; your image will now be behind your chart

11- for fine-tuning, if needed, you can now resize or rearrange the image and the chart until the align exactly as you need them to

12- if you want the Excel-cell-grid behind your chart to disappear also, select the area of cells behind and around your chart and select WHITE (or any other color you need) from small triangle-shaped arrow just next to the “Fill Color”-button (the paint bucket icon)

That’s it !

Enjoy !

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fixed : use unsupported scanner in OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion

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UPDATE : a list of supported scanners for OSX 10.9 Mavericks can be found here

UPDATE : Mattias Ellert has now updated the TWAIN SANE drivers, so there is a new version for OSX 10.9 Mavericks (and OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion), more on this can be found here

———————————

Question :

I have a Canon CanoScan LiDE 20 that used to work perfectly in MacOSX 10.6 Snow Leopard. But now I’ve bought a new Mac which runs OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion, I can’t seem to install it, since Canon doesn’t update the drivers anymore.

What can I do ?

Answer :

In OSX 10.7 Lion and 10.8 Mountain Lion any TWAIN-supporting scanner can be used without any additional software :

– connect your scanner directly to your Mac using a USB-cable

– open the System Preferences

– then click on “Print & Scan”

– then, just below in the list of printers on the left, click on the “+”-sign

– that will bring up the “Add”-window, which enables you to add a new printer or scanner

– if your scanner is TWAIN-supporting, it will show up there, and you just need to select it and click on the “Add”-button

– then it will be listed in the previous (“Print & Scan”) System Preferences window, and if you select it (and you put a piece of paper or a photo in the scanner), a Scanning Preview window will show up, allowing you to scan your document to file or eMail or something else…

but…

…some for some printers, like the Canon CanoScan LiDE 20 and LiDE 30, the TWAIN-drivers are not included in OSX. In that case, you will need to install some generic (FREE) TWAIN-drivers :

– for OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion, download and install these files (in this same order) and restart your Mac after doing so, then your scanner will also show up in the “Print & Scan” System Preferences :

libusb.pkg.tar.gz

sane-backends.pkg.tar.gz

SANE-Preference-Pane.pkg.tar.gz

TWAIN-SANE-Interface.pkg.tar.gz

– for MacOSX 10.7 Lion, download and install these files (in this same order) and restart your Mac after doing so, then your scanner will also show up in the “Print & Scan” System Preferences :

libusb.pkg.tar.gz

sane-backends.pkg.tar.gz

SANE-Preference-Pane.pkg.tar.gz

TWAIN-SANE-Interface.pkg.tar.gz

– if these files do not turn into regular .pkg-files when you click on them, you need unTAR-software like this :

The Unarchiver

– if you get an error-message telling you you can’t install this software (these drivers) since the are not from Apple-appoved developers, you need to :

– open the System Preferences

– then click on “Security & Privacy”

– then make sure the “General”-tab is selected

– click the padlock in the lower left corner and provide an Administrator name & password to unlock the padlock

– then at “Allow applications downloaded from:” select “Anywhere”

– and exit the System Preferences to make this setting stick

Note #1 :

TWAIN-supporting drivers (like SANE and the ones that come with OSX) will enable you to directly scan from within various applications like Photoshop, MS Word, GraphicConverter, OmniPage and OSX’s built-in Image Capture.

Note #2 :

when using the SANE drivers, you will probably not be able to use the ‘one click’-buttons that are on the scanner itself…

Note #3 :

if your scanner lets you scan the first time, but after shut-down and restart scanning seems impossible because OSX can’t find the scanner, just plug-out the scanner’s USB-cable and plug it back in and everything should work again…

Note #4 :

if the “Scan”-button remains grayed-out, make sure that you have selected an area to scan… (put differently : if “Selection:” is set to “Off”, you will need to select an area to scan before the “Scan”-button will be ready to use…)

Note #5 :

if you get a distorted scan when scanning in landscape view (or any other rotated view), just scan normally in portrait view and rotate the scanned image afterwards (in Preview app or another image editing program, like Photoshop or Graphic Converter)

Note #6 :

if you are not able to scan as a JPEG (.jpg-flie), just scan as a TIFF (.tif-file) and convert the scanned image afterwards (in Preview app or another image editing program, like Photoshop or Graphic Converter)

Credits :

Matias Ellert and the Open Source developers of the SANE project

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fixed : copy Conditional Formatting to other cells in Numbers 2.2 (iWork ’09)

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Question :

I’m using iWork’09, and when using Numbers I want to color the cells according to the value that’s in it. So for instance if the number in the cell is smaller than 10, I would like the cell’s background color to be yellow, if it’s in between 10 and 20 I would like it to be orange, and when it’s over 20 I would like it to be red.

I figured out how to do that using Conditional Formatting, and I even found out that I can select a complete row or column of cells to set their Conditional Formatting all at once, but… I’ve now created an entirely new column, and I want to copy the ‘old’ Conditional Formatting to those ‘new’ cells also…

How do I do that ?

 

Answer :

The answer is actually very straight forward, but it’s just that the naming for this may be a little confusing in Numbers… what you are looking for is ‘Copy Style’…

To set Conditional Formatting to a range of cells, just select them all, and go to Format –> Show Conditional Format Rules ; there you can set a formatting rule for each background color you would like to appear.

Then, to copy those Conditional Format Rules to other/new cells, select one of the cells that already has the Conditional Format Rules applied, and go to Format –> Copy Style

Then, select the (new) cells you want to give those same Conditional Format Rules to also, and go to Format –> Paste Style

That’s it… it really is that simple…

 

fixed : switching the language of the spelling check in iOS5, iOS6, iOS7, iOS8, iOS9, iOS10, iOS11 & iOS12

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Question :

Is it possible to (quickly) switch the language of the spelling check while I’m writing a message on my iPhone ?

Answer :

Yes !

It’s really simple :

1- make sure you have installed multiple languages / multiple keyboards on your iPhone or iPad : Go to Settings –> General –> Keyboard –> (International) Keyboards –> Add New Keyboard…

…and select your desired languages from the list (then exit the Settings-app)

2- you have now installed not only the keyboard for each language, but also the spelling check… and it’s now available in any text or message you type (including SMS)

3- to switch the language of the spelling check, just tap on the globe-key next to the space-bar : when tap it, the space-bar will (only for a quick second) display the name of the keyboard you’re using… but… the language of the active keyboard layout is also the language of the active spelling check…

😉

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fixed : export contacts database from AddressBook to Excel

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Question [1] : I’m new to Mac, I just switched to my first Mac, before I only used Windows PCs. How can I import my contacts from my Windows PC into my new Mac running OSX ?

Question [2] : I’m a Mac user myself, but I need to share my contacts database from Apple AddressBook with WindowsPC-users I’m working with. Since there is no Apple AddressBook for Windows, this seems impossible. What can I do ?

Answer to both [1] and [2] : It’s possible, and it isn’t that complicated either.

There are (free) MacOSX-applications that can do this for you.

! BEWARE ! there are 2 applications around that are extremely similar (and therefore easily confused) both in name and features :

Address Book Exporter 2.1.2 (from 2003 ; with a space in the name)

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/9312/address-book-exporter

AddressBook Exporter 1.0 (from 2005 ; without a space in the name)

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/17501/addressbook-exporter

The first one (from 2003 ; with a space in the name) is the best one. That’s the one that still works properly with Apple AddressBook from MacOSX 10.6 “Snow Leopard”.

How to install :

  • download the application (from 2003 ; with the space in the name)

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/9312/address-book-exporter

  • drag the application-icon to your Applications folder

How to use it :

  • startup the application “Address Book Exporter 2.1.2”
  • from the “Groups” list, choose “All” to start converting your entire AddressBook, or choose only the selection that you want to export
  • if you would like to convert / export a selection that is not listed, go back into your AddressBook and create a (temporary) group from your selection
  • now, in “Address Book Exporter 2.1.2” check the checkbox of “Export using current field settings”
  • click the “Configure Settings” button
  • in the pull-down menu that appears, check the checkboxes of everything that you would like to export, and click “OK”
  • click the “Export Address Book” button
  • if you like, you can change the name of the exported file
  • then choose a destination on your Mac where you will be able to easily find the exported file (e.g. “Desktop”) and click “Save”
  • quit “Address Book Exporter”
  • open “MS Excel”
  • drag the icon of the exported file (from the Desktop) onto the MS Excel icon in the Dock, to have it opened in Excel
  • and… here you are : all your contacts are in Excel now
  • from there you can “Save As” to have a .xls-file that you can share with WindowsPC-users

fixed : import contacts database from Excel into AddressBook

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A common question of Windows-to-Mac-switchers is “How can I import my contacts from Excel into my Mac ?”.

Here’s the way to import a contacts database from Excel (Mac or Windows) into Apple AddressBook :

  1. open the contacts database in Excel (on Mac or Windows)
  2. save the contacts database under a new name (e.g. “addresses-export.xls”), to make sure you will have a emergency-backup
  3. rearrange the data in the (copy of the) contacts database in such a way that the upper row will only contain column headers, and every next line will only contain the data of one contact (with all data in the correct column)
  4. for street addresses you will need 4 (or 5) separate columns : “street name (including home number)”, “postal code”, “town”(, “province”) and “country” ; if you want to include both a home and a work address, you should make that 2x 4 = 8 columns
  5. make sure to use separate columns to match the different data groups you have, so make separate columns for “home phone”, “work phone”, “mobile phone”, “home fax”, “work fax”, etc.
  6. if you have completely rearranged the data to suit this layout, go to “Save As”
  7. choose the option “Format : Comma Separated Values (.csv)”, choose an easily accessible location to save the file (e.g. on your Desktop) and click “Save”
  8. quit Excel
  9. open Apple AddressBook
  10. click on the ‘button with the plus sign’ in the lower left corner to create a new group and choose a proper group name for the addresses you are about to import (e.g. “Excel import January 1st”)
  11. then, in the upper menu bar under “File”, choose “import”
  12. select “”addresses-export.csv” (or whatever you’ve clued your database file) from the Desktop (or other location where you’ve saved it) and click “Open”
  13. you will now get a “Text File Import” window, in which you have to indicate what the  right name of each ‘column’ should become in Apple AddressBook
  14. for addresses you will have do this in a way that might not be obvious : first select “Address (home)” or “Address (work)” next to the “Address”-heading from your Excel-file, after that an the list will automatically extend to include “PostalCode”, “City” and “Country” (note that this will leave an extra “PostalCode” and “City” just below, that you have to change to the “Do not import” label.
  15. If you’re done setting this up, double-check it again (if you don’t set this up properly and faultless, the outcome will not be acceptable, and you will have to redo the complete import-procedure)
  16. make sure that the little checkbox is checked next to “Ignore first card” and click “OK”
  17. if you will now look in the “Last Import” group (the green group) you will see all imported data
  18. now, just to be sure : double-check some data to make sure everything has been imported the way you want it
  19. then select only one contact from the “Last Import” group and press the CMD+A (“Select All”) to select all contacts and then drag the entire selection onto the group that you’ve previously created, named “Excel import January 1st” or what you’ve called it
  20. Note : the “Last Import” group is only a temporary group, so to make sure you will be able to easily find your Excel-imported contacts as a group in the future, the group “Excel import January 1st” has been created ; if you decide at any time that there’s no need anymore to be able to access these Excel-imported contacts as a separate group, you can easily delete the group name “Excel import January 1st”, without deleting the contacts themselves from AddressBook

…after following this step-by-step instruction, you will have all your Excel-contacts in AddressBook also !