G Rated Tips For X
Photo Editing in iPhoto

Launch iPhoto and choose iPhoto>Preferences. Midway down you'll see a set of photo-opening options. Click "Opens in a separate window." This lets you open all images in a new window with a double-click. Return to your image library and double-click an image  to edit. The image will appear in a new window.

Now click the toolbar button in the top right of the window header--it's a small, clear, oblong button. This reveals the Edit Toolbar, which offers you Zoom, Fit, Rotate, Crop and Red Eye tools. You can also choose to customize the toolbar by clicking the Customize icon at the right. Additional items include the Black & White tool and a selection of presized crop tools.

Write Faster in Word

Did you know that you can use your own special shorthand language to help you write more quickly in Word? For example, instead of typing someone's full name, you might type only the person's initials. The AutoCorrect feature in Word could automatically substitute the person's full name in place of your shorthand initials.

To do this, simply choose the AutoCorrect option under the Tools menu. In the Replace field, type in your shorthand notation. In the With field, type in the full text. You even have the option of formatting the text to make this feature even more useful. Click the Add button when you're done, and Word will smartly replace your shorthand notation with the full text, saving you time

Your QuickTime Connection Speed

The QuickTime System Preference includes a setting for your network connection speed that may determine the size (and quality) of movies you can download from some websites. Apple's QuickTime movie trailer page, for example, automatically detects your connection setting and sends you an appropriately sized movie. The default setting is for a 56Kbps modem, however, so many DSL and Cable modem users are needlessly receiving substandard media files. Select System Preferences from the Apple menu and click on the QuickTime icon. Now click the tab marked Connection, and select your actual connection speed from the popup menu. So long as you don't mind waiting a bit longer, you can select Intranet/LAN to ensure you receive the best quality movie files. You should input your actual connection speed, however, if you intend to watch streaming media (such as Steve Job's Macworld Keynotes).

Granddaddy of all Disk Utilities

Here's a tip sent to us Neil Kund-Schubert, one of our readers - "OS X has the granddaddy of all disk utilities built right into it. Here's how it is accessed. You start your computer holding down the Apple + S keys. This will boot you into the single-use mode of the OS X UNIX system. When the boot is complete you type fsck -y (that's fsck "SPACE" -y). This is a command that stands for File System Check and the switch -y tells the system to make corrections without asking you if you want to make the corrections (similar to the preference you can set in Norton that fixes problems automatically). When this is finished running you will either get a text line that says that something was fixed, in which case you should type fsck -y again, or you will get a text line stating the disk appears to be fine. Continue to run the fsck -y command until you get the disk appears to be fine readout. At this point you type exit and then machine will boot into the multiple user mode with the OS X GUI in place."

Trash With Ease

Do you ever find yourself searching for the trash can under layers and layers of open windows just to delete an item? Don't bother! You can delete any item in the Finder with a simple keystroke. Click once on the icon to highlight it and then press command-delete. The item will be instantly whisked to the trash can, where it sits until you select "Empty Trash..." from the Special Menu.