Tag Archives: 10.7 Lion

fixed : AirDrop from Mac to iPhone/iPad

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Question :

I’ve just installed iOS 7 on my iPhone 5, and since I was reading about AirDrop being one of the new features, I immediately thought of using AirDrop to get this picture I just made onto my iPhone…

But when I turn on AirDrop on both my Mac and my iPhone, they can’t seem to see each other…

Is there any way to get this to work ?

Answer :

No – at least : officially not.

So far, AirDrop is only available on Macs with supported AirPort-cards running MacOSX 10.7 “Lion” or newer and on the iPhone 5 and newer running iOS 7…

Furthermore, AirDrop is only supported Mac-to-Mac or iPhone/iPad-to-iPhone/iPad…

Maybe this situation will change with the introduction of OSX 10.9 “Mavericks”, but for now there is no (official) option to use AirDrop from Mac-to-iPhone/iPad and vice-versa…

But…

There is an alternative that works the same basically : AirDisk Pro

(note : seems like Phone Drive and Phone Drive FREE are exactly the same app as AirDisk Pro, but at a lower price, even free…)

With this AirDrop-alternative, file transfer is very quick …and it’s even more compatible than the official AirDrop : the app can be installed on any iPhone or iPad running iOS 4.3 and the WiFi-connection can be made from any Mac or PC using a web browser…

In short, the app works like this :

– install the app on your iPhone/iPad

get AirDisk Pro
get Phone Drive FREE [stores max. 10 files]
get Phone Drive

– make sure your iPhone/iPad and your Mac/PC are on the same WiFi-network

– run the app

– enter the IP-address (or network name) that the app gives you as a URL in your Mac/PC’s web browser

– drag the file you want to transfer onto the webpage

done !

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 : I get a Track Following Error using Roxio Toast

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Question :

Each time I’m trying to burn a DVD+/-R in Roxio Toast, the DVD won’t get burned and I get this error :

The drive reported an error:

Sense Key = HARDWARE ERROR

Sense Code = 0x09

TRACK FOLLOWING ERROR

I can read any DVD or CD on my Mac without a problem, but when I try to record a blank DVD (or CD), I keep getting this error…

…what can I do ?

Answer :

The solution to this Track Following Error is rather simple, even though I couldn’t find it available on the internet anywhere :

this just means your burning laser’s lens is dirty (even if your reading laser’s lens might be clean…)

so…

just get a cleaning DVD of the type that las a small soft brush on it (either with or without cleaner fluid), use it to clean your DVD burner (a.k.a. your SuperDrive) and when done, try burning with Toast again…

that’s it !

———————————————————————————————

some examples of the cleaning DVDs that you could use :

Hama CD/DVD Lens Cleaner

Allsop Ultra ProLens Cleaner

Hama DVD Laser Cleaning Disc

…but, you could also get one from you local electronics shop, just make sure on these :

– get the DVD-version, not the CD-only version

– get the version with the small brush on it ; no need to get one that also requires cleaning liquid, neither for multiple brushes, just make sure the brush is not too hard

– read the fine print on the product description, if it says “not for use in laptops”, it won’t mean that it will definitely not work, it just means it might not work (or even get stuck in) slot-loading SuperDrives like the ones in iMacs, MacBooks and MacBook Pros

– keep in mind that in this case, it’s not “more expensive = better product”, so get the cheapest one you feel comfortable with…

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fixed : this PDF will not print correctly

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Question :

I’ve received an invoice from energy-provider Essent in PDF. In OSX’s Preview the PDF displays perfectly on-screen, but when printed, part of the text is messed up into unreadable text. I’ve called the Essent Help-desk and they told me that this is a Mac-problem that cannot be fixed…

…is that true and isn’t there any solution for this ?

Answer :

The Essent Helpdesk is wrong (I’m sorry…). The problem is that a non-standard font is used in the invoice for which a license of €500 is needed… (this actually is the FrescoSans font family…)

Even though Preview can’t properly print this font, Adobe Reader will…

So, download Adobe Reader (if you haven’t already done so) and open and print the invoice from there.

Simple as that !

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fixed : which fonts are used in this PDF I’ve received ?

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Question :

I want to know what the exact fonts are that are used in a PDF-file someone has send me, but I can’t find a way to do that in OSX’s Preview and I do not have Adobe Acrobat Pro.

Is there any other way to get this info ?

Answer :

Yes !

Even though Preview currently has no solution for this and the Acrobat Pro is probably the easiest way of knowing which fonts are used in a PDF, there are a few alternatives :

Option 1

In Adobe Reader (the free, light version of Acrobat Pro), do exactly as you would in Acrobat Pro :

– open the PDF in Adobe Reader

– go to File –> Properties –> Fonts

that’s it

Option 2

Use the Terminal command-line :

– open the Terminal app

– type ” strings /path/to/document.pdf | grep FontName “, that is :

— type “strings” followed by a [SPACE]

— than drag & drop the PDF onto the cursor in the Terminal

— then typ another [SPACE], followed by a [VERTICAL DASH], another [SPACE] and “grep FrontName”

— then finish with a [RETURN]

that’s it !

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tip : Shared Photo Stream on unsupported Mac

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Question :

I would like to use Photo Stream and the Shared Photo Stream feature on my Mac running MacOSX 10.7, is that possible ?

Answer :

The answer is NO, officially not, but…

…if you’re willing to ‘risk everything’ for it, read on and there just might be an option for you…

Photo Stream is a great feature of iCloud, to upload your iPhone and iPad pictures straight to iCloud. Too bad, that on a Mac, it’s photos are only accessible from iPhoto 9.2.2 (or Aperture 3.2.3) or newer running on MacOSX 10.7.5 or newer…

And on top of that : Photo Stream is only supported for your primary iCloud account.

If you want to import/view photo’s from another iCloud account, you need to do that from a ‘Shared Photo Stream’. Only when running iPhoto 9.4 (or Aperture 3.4) or newer on OSX 10.8.2 or newer, you have the option to subscribe to a ‘Shared’ Photo Stream besides your primary iCloud account’s Photo Stream.

so… if you’re desperately seeking Photo Stream feature for your Mac, and you are even prepared to ‘risk everything’ (kind of) to get it, you might want to install a patched version of OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion on your ‘old’ Intel-Mac to get it.

For more info, look here :

fixed : install OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion on unsupported Macs

Beware : installing a patched version of OSX 10.8 is unsupported, and not for beginners ! you should not install it on your ‘one and only’ Mac !

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