Tag Archives: eMail

fixed : can I attach an edited online document (downloadable PDF) directly into an eMail ?

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Question :
I am witing an eMail to a service desk to get help on a product and I want to show them which part is broken in a drawing. I found an online document (a downloadable PDF) in which I can easily draw a circle arround the defective part. Do I just need to download the PDF onto my Mac, then draw the circle on it in Photoshop (or something) and then attach it to the eMail I am writing…

Or is there a faster way to do this ?


Answer :
The option you are describing is okay, but it can be done easier. So without having to save the PDF to your Mac first. To do so. do this :

– open Mail.app on your Mac and write the eMail
– then open Safari.app on your Mac and find the webpage with the online PDF that you would like to include in your eMail
– then in Safari.app, right/option-click on the document in your browser window and choose “Open with Preview” from the pop-up list and the PDF web page will be opened in Preview.app
– then, in Preview.app, click on the Markup-button (the icon of a circle with a tip of a pencil in it, in the menu bar of the picture preview window) to see the editing tools
– then, in Preview.app, draw the circle in the color you need onto the PDF
– when done, click on the Share-button (the icon of a square with an upward pointing arrow in it, in the menu bar of the [picture preview window)
– from the pull-down menu that appears, choose “Mail”
– now a new (nearly empty) eMail will open in Mail.app with just the (edited) PDF in it
– now click&hold on the PDF file and drag&drop it from the nearly-empty eMail into the eMail that you want to send out
– then, with the edited PDF attached, send out the eMail

That’s it !
enjoy 😉

Note : if you want to double check that it is actually the edited version that you are about to send out, just click on the PDF file in the ready-to-send eMail and you will see that the edited version of the PDF is opened in Preview.app

fixed : delete multiple old mails at once in Mail.app on iPhone or iPad

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Question :
On my Mac, in the Mail.app, I’ve always been fond of the option to select multiple eMails (mostly junk-mail) and delete them at once… but on my iPhone I have to delete each mail one-by-one (swipe left, click More, scroll down, click Delete Message) …that’s no problem if it’s only 5 eMails, but when it’s 10 or 20 eMails that I want to delete, it takes a lot of time and a lot of swiping…
Now a friend adviced me to sart using the Gmail.app to do this… and Gmail.app has this as a standard feature, and Mail.app doesn’t (as far as I know) …but I love using Mail.app and prefer to keep using Apple’s own stuff…

Isn’t there any way to do this in Mail.app ?


Answer :
YES, there is !
Okay – it’s slightly more complicated than in the Gmail.app for some unknown reason… but the option is there – to use it, do this :

in iOS / on iPhone :
– open Mail.app
– if you’re not already in the mailbox that you want to delete the eMails from, open the proper mailbox in the Mailboxes list window
– in the window where all eMails are listed, click Edit (top-right)
– now all eMails will slide slightly to the right and at the left, a round checkbox will apear in front of each eMail
– then, check all eMails that you want to delete (or move)
– when all are selected, click Move (bottom-centre)
– from the popup, select Move Message
– then, on the next screen click on Bin (or Trash) to delete all selected eMails
– the screen will automatically close and go back to the previous screen (your selected mailbox)

in iPadOS / on iPad :
– open Mail.app
– make sure you are in the right mailbox, if not, click the menu icon (top-left) and select the desired mailbox from the list that appears on the left, and click on the menu icon (top-left) again to close the list of mailboxes that had appeared on the left
– in the window of your desired mailbox, the list of eMails will be visible on the left and the preview of the selected eMail will be in the middle and right
– then click on Edit (top-right-in-the-left-column), above the list of eMails
– now all eMails will slide slightly to the right and at the left of them, a round checkbox will appear in front of each eMail
– then, check all eMails that you want to delete (or move)
– when all are selected, click Move (bottom-centre-in the left-column)
– from the popup, select Move Message
– then, in the list that appears on the left, click on Bin (or Trash) to delete all selected eMails
– the slide-in menu will automatically close and you will be back in the regular screen of the active mailbox

Note : both on iPhone and iPad, you can also use this method to move multiple eMails to the junk-mailbox or archive them to any desired mailbox

That’s it !

enjoy 😉

fixed : iOS Mail.app “Fetch New Data” settings page completely greyed out

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Question :

I have troubles with my eMail on my iPhone, so I started to look for solutions in the iOS Settings.app ; I don’t know if this is relevant for the solution to my mail-problem, but I found that when I try to adjust the settings for Fetch New Data (in the Settings.app > Mail > Accounts > scroll down to bottom) is turned OFF, and when I click on it the entire Fetch New Data settings page is greyed out, so I can’t switch it back ON and have my mail checked automatically…

What is wrong ? How can I fix this ?

Answer :

Relax, there’s nothing wrong… it’s just strange that iOS isn’t telling you why the entire page is greyed out and how you can fix this…
The thing is : your iPhone is in Low Power Mode (a.k.a. Battery Saving Mode)… (if you look closely, you will see that the battery indicator top right is yellow in stead of white or green)
To fix this, do this :

  • swipe down from the battery indicator top right
  • in the window that opens, scroll down to the white tile with the battery (in yellow) and click on it
  • now the tile wil turn dark and the battery will turn white
  • if there is no battery-tile, then go to Settings.app > Battery and switch the slider at Low Power Mode to ON
  • to check, go to Settings.app > Mail > Accounts > Fetch New Data and you will see that you can now set everything as you like

    That’s it !
    enjoy 😉

fixed : change mail flag color in Mail.app on iPhone / iPad

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Question :

I really like the ‘flag message’ option in the macOS Mail.app to quickly flag messages I have read but want to keep around to act on later. The option to differentiate the flag color makes it even more useful for me.

Still… on my iPhone and iPad I can see the flag colors I have set on Mail.app in macOS, but I can’t seem to change the flag color… I can just flag a message, but it will automatically (auto-magically ?) set the color and I can’t seem to change it…

Isn’t there any way to change the mail flag color on iOS and/or iPadOS ?

 

Answer :

Yes, there is…

But… it might not be were you would expect it…

To quickly flag a message in iOS or iPadOS, do this :

  • when going through the list of mail messages in Mail.app, select the mail message you want to flag and slide it to the left
  • now, you will see 3 options : “More” (grey), “Flag”/”Unflag” (red) and “Archive” (purple)
  • click on “Flag” and the mail message will be flagged
  • …but the flag color cannot be chosen or changed this way

An alternative way to flag a message in iOS or iPadOS is this :

  • when going through the list of mail messages in Mail.app, click&hold the mail message you want to flag
  • now the mail message will open in a new window, with a menu list below it
  • click on “Mark…” from the menu list
  • in the next menu that opens, click on “Flag” and the message will be flagged
  • …but the flag color cannot be chosen or changed this way

But… the way to also be able to choose or change the flag color in iOS or iPadOS is this :

  • when going through the list of mail messages in Mail.app, select the mail message you want to flag and slide it to the left
  • now, you will see 3 options : “More” (grey), “Flag”/”Unflag” (red) and “Archive” (purple)
  • click on “More” ( do NOT click on “Flag” here ) and a pop-up menu will appear with full options
  • in the pop-up menu, click on “Flag” and you get the option to pick a flag color (or to unflag entirely)
  • note : when you choose or change a flag color, you will be returned to your inbox, but when you click “Flag” or “Unflag” here, you will stay in the pop-up menu and have to close it manually (by clicking the X-button top-right) to return to your inbox

That’s it !

enjoy 😉

 

fixed : quickly create GIF from QuickTime or MP4 video

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Question :

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 :

  • get GIF Brewery 3 from the Mac AppStore ( the $5 price tag is worth it if you plan on doing this more frequently )
  • first, open the video source in QuickTime.app
  • then, in the top menu bar, click on “Window”
  • 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
    • if not… redo your editing and try again

That’s it !

enjoy 😉

 

fixed : compress video for WhatsApp (or eMail)

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Question :

I would like to send a small piece of a video I just shot at a birthday party to a group of friends on WhatsApp, but it’s too big to upload.

How can I compress it for easy viewing on Whatsapp ?

 

Answer :

If you have shot the video on your iPhone you can send it right away, and iOS will do the compression for you.

However, if you already have the video on your Mac and you want to compress it before you send it using WhatsApp Desktop (for macOS), do this :

  • make sure you trim down the length of the video to a clip that only includes the most relevant part of the video
    • you can do this in QuickTime Player (included in macOS for FREE)
  • use Smart Converter (FREE from Mac AppStore) and choose ‘for iPhone or iPod’, then click ‘Convert’ to convert
    • this will convert to an .mp4 video with 1280×720 resolution at 30 frames per second and AAC sound (file size ca. 10MB per 10 seconds)
  • use Handbrake (FREE from handbrake.fr) and choose ‘Presets’ > ‘Gmail Large 3 minutes 720p30’, then click ‘Start’ to convert
    • this will convert to an .mp4 video with 1280×720 resolution at 30 frames per second and AAC sound (file size ca. 2MB per 10 seconds)

Note : even though the frame rate and screen size are the same, the ‘Gmail’-ready file will be much smaller than the ‘iPhone’-ready file, even though (or rather ‘because’) this comes with the downside that quick-moving objects will blur in the ‘Gmail’-ready video (compared to the ‘iPhone’-ready video that hardly has any blur and is similar in size and quality to the ‘Fast 720p30’ preset in Handbrake) 

That’s it !

enjoy 😉