My WordPress.com website has been shifted to the revamped version of the WordPress Dashboard, but now, when I am trying to re-edit posts from before September 2020, I can only see the post’s title in the edit page… the body text is replaced by an error message saying “This block has encountered an error and cannot be previewed”.
What can I do to fix this ?
Answer :
The underlying problem is not exactly clear, but the solution is rather simple :
make sure you are running the latest version of macOS, if not : upgrade to the latest version of macOS
make sure you are running the latest version of Safari (or the browser you are using), if not : upgade to the latest version
open Safari
goto “View” (in the top menu bar)
click on “Reload without Content Blockers” (from the pulldown menu)
Note : the regular “Reload Page (CMD+R)” will NOT solve the problem !
I have to print (part of) an Excel sheet that has few lines and al lot of columns (so it’s not that height, but rather broad), so I want to print on a landscape-ed paper.
In regular macOS apps (like Preview, Keynote, etc.) I would do this by pressing [CMD]+[P] on my keyboard, so the printing window opens and I can switch the “Preview/Keynote/etc.”-dial to “Page Attributes”, so I can set the Paper Size (e.g. A4 or US Letter) and the Orientation (Portrait or Landscape).
If I do this in MS Excel, I get a similar printing window, but if I click the “Excel”-dial, the list of options doesn’t have “Page Attributes” listed… and I non of the other available options seems to have a setting to change the page orientation either…
Note : Yes, I know that Apple’s counterpart Numbers.app has a different type of printing window with the Page Orientation option listed near the top-right, but that’s to different from what I’m seeing in Excel that I see no way to lear in Numbers.app what I want to do in Excel…
What am I doing wrong ?
Answer :
Yes, Excel is different from the regular macOS-apps regarding setting the page orientation (and it’s even more different from it’s competitor Numbers.app), but the option is hidden in plain sight !
To change the page orientation in Excel, press the [ALT]+[P] key-combo, and then the print window opens, just leave the Excel-dial as-is and look a little below it… there you will see the options “Print”, “Margins” and “Orientation”… That’s it !
Note : there is another option to set the page orientation in Excel : goto the top menu-bar, click on “File” (top-left) and from the pull-down menu select “Page Setup” (just above “Print”) and when the “Page Setup” window opens, make sure the “Page”-tab is selected and at “Orientation” you will see radio buttons for “Portraid” and “Landscape”… That’s it !
Whenever I need to scan (or sometimes even to print) anything, I need to go into System Preferences, then Printers & Scanners, then click Open Scanner…
Isn’t there a one-click solution to do this ?
Answer :
Yes there is.
Back in the days of MacOSX there used to be an option for this called “Desktop Printer” : that would put a shortcut-link of your printer on the Desktop. And you could do the same for your scanner.
Nowadays, for some reason, this option is gone, and no easy alternative is given by macOS… so you will have to create some thing yourself… the easiest way is to put both your Printer’s and your Scanner’s icon in the Dock. To do so, do this :
go to Apple menu (Apple-icon top-left in the top menu bar)
when the pulldown menu appears, select “System Preferences”
in the window that opens, click “Printers & Scanners”
if there is no such option, click on the raster-icon (top-center) first and it will appear
in the window that opens, click on your scanner (in the list on the left)
if your scanner is not yet in the list, add it first by clicking the Plus-icon at the bottom and following the on-screen instructions
now your scanner opens in the main part of the screen (on the right)
click the “Open scanner” button
now, the Scanner-window will open, and the scanner’s icon will appear in the Dock
CTRL-click (right mouse button) on the Scanner’s icon in the Dock
from the popup-menu, select “Options”, then “Keep in Dock”
now, the scanner’s icon will be moved to the left and it will stay in the Dock even after you close the scanner software
so, next time you want to scan anything, just click on the scanner’s icon in the Dock to open the scanner software
That’s it !
Note : creating a direct link icon in the Dock for your printer can be done in the same way
My Canon CanoScan 5600F is scanning great, even after all those years. The only problem I’m encountering with my new Mac is that I get a “Scanner reported an error” message when I try to start it from the shortlink (alias) I have in my Dock.
The exact error message is : “Scanner reported an error Cannot communicate with scanner for these reasons: – Scanner is turned off. – USB cable is disconnected. Please check and try again.” But the USB cable is connected properly and the scanner is turned on, so that can’t be the problem.
What can I do to fix this ?
Answer :
This problem was introduced some years ago, possibly somewhere within the shift from OSX to macOS. It seems to have to to with the start-up sequence of macOS’s build-in scanning software or the scanner going into some sleep mode. The solution is simple, even though it is more of a workaround than an actual fix. So if you run into this problem, do this :
turn the scanner off using the ON/OFF-switch on the outside of the scanner (the physical hardware button)
then, click the blue OK-button in the “Scanner reported an error” window
then, close the “Scanner” window by clicking the red dot button top-left
…or by going to Apple-menu (top-left) –> System Preferences –> grid-icon (top-center) –> Printers & Scanners –> Scanners –> CanoScan 5600F (or whatever your scanner is called) –> Open Scanner
now, turn the scanner back on using the ON/OFF-switch on the outside of the scanner (the physical hardware button)
now the scanner should load the scan preview automatically (as if you had clicked the Overview-button)
just make sure the scan area hasn’t been reset, so…
…either uncheck “Use Custom Size” and make sure “size” is “A4” (or anything suitable)
…or manually line out the scan area in the preview
For my social media I regularly want to create a .gif-animation from small clip out of an .mp4-video file that I have, but I don’t have a lot of video-editing skills or specialised software.
Is there a simple way to do this ?
Answer :
There are lots of ways to do this. And no video-editing skills are required to do the most basic, but with some editing you can quickly get better results.
I would recommend buying the $5 GIF Brewery 3 from the Mac AppStore and doing the editing in QuickTime (or iMovie).
The recommendations for a good GIF-animation for most social media are (suggested by .gif-database GIPHY) :
duration of about 6 seconds (shorter is better)
file size close to 8MB (smaller is better)
video resolution of 480 pixels (or 720 pixels maximum) on the shortest side (depending on either landscape or portrait view, or square, or any custom size)
total number of frames of 100 maximum (less is better)
If you just want to turn part of an existing video into a GIF, do this :
then, in the pulldown menu, click on “Movie Inspector”
then, check out the number that is at “Encoded FPS” and remember it (you need this later)
then close QuickTime.app
now, open your source video in GIF Brewery 3
then, in the video slider below your video, slide the green slider to match the first frame of your desired GIF
and slide the red slider to where you want your GIF to end
click on the PLAY-button (black triangle left of the video slider) to preview your GIF
if the preview-length is not okay, readjust the green and/or red slider to improve your clip
now, in the editing window, click on the Resize-button top left
then, in the popup window, make sure “Maintain aspect ratio” is checked
then, move the Scale-slider until either Width or Height is 480px (if the clip size is less than 5 seconds, you could also stop the Scale-slider at 720px)
now, in the editing window, click the Settings-button top right
then, at “Frames Per Second” set the fps to match the “Encoded FPS” of the original video
again, click on the PLAY-button (black triangle left of the video slider) to preview your GIF
if the preview-speed is too slow, adjust the Speed-slider to a higher value (anything less than 110%, even 103%, will usually do)
if the preview-speed is too fast, adjust the Speed-slider to a lower value (anything over 95% will usually do)
then, make sure there’s a checkmark at “Optimize GIF colors”
then, adjust the ColorCount-slider to 48
again, click on the PLAY-button (black triangle left of the video slider) to preview your GIF
if the preview looks okay, leave the ColorCount-slider at 48
if the preview looks too dark or otherwise odd, adjust the ColorCount-slider to a higher value like 96, 128, 216 or 256, but make sure to set it as low as possible
then, click the “Create”-button (at the bottom, slightly right of the middle, with a beer glass in it) to generate the GIF
then, click on the Save-button (bottom right)
in the popup window, type the name you want your GIF to have, set the location where you want it stored and click the Save-button
then, browse the Finder to find the GIF’s icon and ALT-click on it
first, select “Get Info” from the popup menu and check if the file size is 10MB or less
if the file size is over 10MB, go back to GIF Brewery 3, lower at least one of the values you have set there and create an extra version of your GIF that has a file size of 10MB or less
as mentioned before, the main values you can adjust are :
Length of the clip
Scale / Resize (might make the picture more grainy)
Frames Per Second / FPS (might make motions less fluent)
Color Count (might make the colors less vibrant)
then, ALT-click on the GIF’s icon again and select “Open with” from the popup menu and select your internet browser (probably Safari) to preview the animated GIF
If you are happy with the end result, you are ready to post the GIF on your social media
I’ve been using Password Dragon passwordmanager for years and I’m very satisfied with it. But since I’ve upgraded my Mac to macOS 10.15 Catalina, it won’t run anymore.
I’ve called Apple Support and they’ve told me that it is because it’s a Java-app, not a true macOS-app, an that they’re not supporting that…
I desperately need acces to my passwords in Password Dragon…
What can I do ?
Answer :
The fact that it’s a Java-based app is not the real problem (as long as you have the latest version on Java installed on your Mac). The real problem is that since macOS 10.15 Catalina, macOS has very strict security and privacy settings (compared to any previous version of macOS, OSX or MacOSX).
To get Password Dragon running in macOS 10.15 Catalina or newer, do this :
click on the Apple-icon in the top menu bar
in the pulldown menu, click on “System Preferences”
when the “System Preferences” window opens, make sure you are in the main window (if not, click on the ‘dots-on-a-grid’-button in the top bar)
click on the Java-icon
in the Java Control Panel window that opens, select the Update-tab
then click on the ‘Update Now’-button and put a checkmark at “Check for updates automatically”
when you are told that you are running the latest version of Java, go back to the main System Preferences window (by clicking on the ‘dots-on-a-grid’-button in the top bar)
in the System Preferences window, click on Security & Privacy (the iron Home icon with the circular dial in it)
in the Security & Privacy window, click on the ‘Privacy’tab
then, in the list on the left, click on ‘Files and Folders’
in the list that appears on the right, scroll down to ‘java’ and make sure there’s a checkmark in the check box at “Documents Folder”
now, close the System Preferences window and open the PasswordDragon.app
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