When you import photos into your iMovie picutre slideshow, the photos are cut off.

Try playing with this setting to fix this issue:

1. Control click the project title in the Project Library.

2. Set the Initial Photo Placement to Fit in Frame.

I recently have come across many problems connecting to the Airport. It takes a long time to find the network lately. This happens with every computer in my house. Here are a few things you can try to solve this speed issue:

1. Open System Preferences.

2. Click Network.

3. Click Advanced.

4. Drag your network to the top of the list.

5. Click OK.

If that doesn’t work, try the following:

1. Trash the SystemConfiguration folder located at /Library/Preferences/

2. Trash the com.apple.systempreferences.plist file located at Home/Library/Preferences/

3. Restart the computer and try to connect to the Airport again.

These last steps worked for me.

See also: Airport Slow to Connect

Q: In Safari for Mac OS X, the Address Bar is grayed out. How do I fix this?

A: Try navigating to Users/yourname/Library/Preferences and trash the com.apple.Safari.plist file.

The list of compters in the Screen Sharing application can become mighty cluttered. It’s common for the list to contain computers that don’t even exist anymore. You can remove computer names or IP addresses from this list.

The file that controls this list is located at /Users/yourusername/Library/Preferences/com.apple.ScreenSharing.plist. You can trash this file if you wish to clear the list out entirely. If you wish to just remove items from it, download and install the Property List Editor so that you can double-click this file to edit it.

If you find that your Dashboard doesn’t come up properly, has frozen or doesn’t do anything when you try to open it, you may have to reset it. Here’s how:

1. Navigate to ~/Library/Preferences/

2. Delete 2 files:

• com.apple.dashboard
• com.apple.dashboard.client

3. Log out then log back in.

Give the Dashboard a try. Hopefully it works now.

In Mac OSX, you may encounter a problem where the Special Characters option crashes, disappears, freezes or doesn’t appear at all.

To solve this problem, try trashing the  ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.CharPaletteServer.plist file. The file should recreate itself and should fix the issue.

When trying to sync photos between your iPhone 3G and your Mac, you get an error:

The iPhone “Name’s Phone” cannot be synced. You do not have enough access privileges for this operation.

To resolve this issue, you will need to delete the iPod Photo Cache file on your Mac.

1. Go to your Pictures folder (~/Pictures).

2. Hold down the Control button on your keyboard, click the iPhoto Library file and select Show Package Contents.

3. Locate the iPod Photo Cache folder and delete it.

Now try to run through the sync process. Hopefully it works now.

See also:

Can’t Sync Photos to iPhone…

Photo Sync creates iPod photo Cache

If you live in a house with a family, starting up your Mac can be a problem late at night. That startup chime can really wake people from their slumber. You can disable the sound though through the use of third party software.

1. Download and install StartupSound.prefPane.

2. Open System Preferences.

3. Click Startup Sound.

4. Click the Mute checkbox to turn off the startup sound completely. You can also just lower the volume if you wish.

See also: Control the startup chime’s volume

I recently was using iPhoto on my Mac Powerbook, and received an error:

An error occurred while trying to save your photo library.

It also said:

Some recent changes may be lost. Make sure your hard disk has enough space and that iPhoto is able to access the iPhoto Library.

I was lost about what to do. Luckily I found this post about the issue.

As instructed, I…

1. Downloaded BatchChmod.

2. Using this software, I applied the settings below to my iPhoto Library Folder.

Image Source

These steps worked great. I no longer have the annoying error message.

You might be bored of the typical colors on your Mac OS X Leopard computer. Many people like to invert the colors because it may be easier on your eyes. Here’s how:

1. Open System Preferences.

2. Locate the row labeled System.

3. In the System area, open Universal Access.

4. Under Display area, press the White on Black button.

How to reset or zap the PRAM in Mac OS X: Leopard.

1. Restart your computer while holding down the keys Command+Option+P+R.

2. Wait for your computer to chime twice before releasing the keys.

The screen will flash when the PRAM resets.

Mac OS X Leopard users have been looking for a way to make the Leopard sidebar icons larger. We’ve seen quite a few emails asking us if there is a way. However, there is no current way to make the Sidebar icons bigger. We urge you to let your Leopard desires be known to Apple.

Want to protect a Word 2008 document from certain eyes? You can set a password on it.

1. Click File > Save As.

2. Click Options.

3. Click the Show All button

4. Click the Security button.

5. Type a password in the Password to Open.

6. Click OK.

7. Type the password again.

8. Click OK.

If you want to prevent changes to a Word 2008 document, you can password protect it from being changed.

1. Click File > Save As.

2. Click Options.

3. Click the Show All button

4. Click the Security button.

5. Type a password in the Password to Modify box.

6. Click OK.

7. Type the password again.

8. Click OK.

If you are reviewing a document for a colleague, it will be easier to track changes if you enable Track Changes in your Word 2008 document.

1. Open the document.

2. Click View.

3. Click Toolbars.

4. Click Reviewing.

Enable or disable Mac OS X: Leopard from prompting for a password after waking up from a screen saver or sleep.

1. Open System Preferences.

2. Open Security under the Personal section.

3. Click the System button.

4. To disable the password prompt, uncheck the box for Require password to wake this computer from sleep or screen saver.  To enable it, place a check in the box.

How to enable or disable the built in Mac OS X: Leopard firewall.

1. Open System Preferences.

2. Open Security under the Personal section.

3. Click the Firewall button.

4. Do one of the following:

• Select Block all incoming connections to enable the firewall to block all incoming connections. Certain programs may not function with this setting though.
• Select Limit incoming connections to specific services and applications, then click the arrow next to Services to expand the list of services and then use the menu to the right of each service to allow ir disallow connections. You can do the same with Applications.
• Select Allow all incoming connections to disable the firewall.

5. Close System Preferences when you’re finished.

Make RSS feed headlines into a screen saver in Mac OS X: Leopard.

1. Open System Preferences…

2. Open Desktop & Screen Saver.

3. Click the Screen Saver tab.

4.  In the left-hand pane, choose RSS Visualizer.

5.  Click the Options… button to choose your a feed.  Close the pane when you are finished.

How to add a BlueTooth device in Mac OS X: Leopard.

1. Open System Preferences > Bluetooth.

2. Ensure Bluetooth Power and Discoverable is turned on.

3. Click the + button.

4. Click the kind of device you have, and click Continue.

5. Click the name of the device you are adding, and click Continue.

6. You may get a prompt to enter a password. Enter the password for the device you are adding. The password should be either on the BlueTooth device or in the manual. Follow prompts on the device if necessary.

By default, Time Machine performs a backup every 3600 seconds. You can change this setting with Terminal commands. This example sets it to 9600 seconds.

1. Launch Terminal from the Utilities folder.

2. Type the following and press Return or Enter on your keyboard.

sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.backupd-auto StartInterval -int 9600   

Now Time Machine will backup your items every 9600 seconds. You can change the 9600 value to whatever you like.