Mac questions

Mac based questions and answers about a variety of topics and issues.

Word 2008
I am having difficulties with Word 2008. I just installed it on my MacBook Pro, and it is really unstable. I have had to force quit many times during report writing. I endeavoured to save my documents in 97-2004 and then it said it would reformat it, which it did, and then changed all my margins etc. That was not so much of a problem but I lost data several times. I did the updates for any fixes but still appear to be having trouble. I even ran out of RAM on my MacBook Pro, with 2GB memory at one point and only had 2 applications open!
I have been using Office 2008 for a while and found that the latest patches have made it a lot more stable. Does your document contain many photos and, if so, how are you putting them into Word? I have found that by using the object palette from within Word to add photos directly from iPhoto makes the document size a lot smaller.
Reformatting a document from docx to doc format may well change the appearance of the document, as they are very different formats. It may be worth running a compatibility report (from the File >> Save menu).
If the report is finalised, then using a PDF should alleviate any formatting problems between different versions. (File >> Print >> PDF)

Converting movie files from PC to Mac
We make a lot of Photo Stories and send them home, as we are a Windows environment. We now have a Mac family. Can I convert the wmv file a Photo Story makes into anything a Mac can read?
Try downloading and installing Flip4mac from Microsoft on the Mac, which should allow QuickTime to play wmv files.

Sending movies home created on a Mac
We use Macs and often send movies home to PC computers. What is the best way?
For sending movies home to PC computers, you can use the QuickTime format and tell parents to download QuickTime. Alternatively, from iMovie, share/send to iDVD and burn it onto a DVD which will play on most computers/DVD players.

Compressing files
I am trying to save a PowerPoint as a PDF to compress it, but I only get one page. The same happened when I saved learning stories as PDFs but they were also only one page long, so I saved them separately. I looked in the help section of PowerPoint but nothing was suitable.
PDF doesn't always make the files that much smaller. It depends on the number and quality of the photos contained within.
You should just be able to open the PowerPoint. Choose File >> Print, click on PDF in the bottom left corner, make sure that all pages are selected, then print. However, I don't think it will make the file much smaller.
To compress your report, I would place all the components in one folder, then right click or (if using a laptop) hold down control and click the folder, then choose ‘create archive’ of "folder name". This will create a zip of the folder. (For people running 10.5.x, then the option is compress "folder name").

iMovie rotation
I'm creating a movie in iMovie (not the latest version). Unfortunately I have 2 sections where I held the camera in a vertical position and the footage goes sideways. How can I rotate this footage?
Apple only provided rotation in the latest version of iMovie (08) and subsequently 09. For previous versions I have used a plugin called Turnclip, which is free.

Mac zoom turned on
When we move the mouse, the whole screen seems to move with the arrow on the screen.
This is when you can zoom in to the screen and then move around by moving the mouse and the screen also moves with the mouse. To zoom out all the way, hold down the option and apple keys and the minus key. (If you want to zoom in, you do the same but hold down the plus sign instead of the minus). This should then stop the problem. You can go into the System Preferences and then 'Universal Access' to turn the zoom function on and off.
The shortcut for this is:
hold command option and 8 all together.

Copy a centre-made DVD
How can I make a copy of a DVD that I have produced in iDVD? What I have done is get rid of the original iMovie footage after producing the DVD in iDVD. Now of course whenever I insert the DVD, the player opens automatically and the movie commences. Is there a way I can produce a copy from this one and only source?
There are a few programs that can help you with this. However, if you just want to copy a DVD that you have created, then an easy way is to create a disk image of it and use that to burn further copies of the DVD.
Put the DVD in the drive and Command Tab back to Finder (command key and tab key pressed together). Click on ‘Go Utilities’ and select ‘Disk Utility’. Click on your CD/DVD drive on the right-hand side. You should see the drive and the DVD; you want to click on the actual DVD.
Click on ‘new image button’ on the tool bar; you will need to select a location. Assuming you have enough disk space on your disk, the desktop is an ideal location. Then, select image format to DVD/CD master.
Once complete an image will have been created on your desktop and this image will also currently be mounted. Eject your DVD, go back to ‘Disk Utility’; you should now see this image mounted on the left hand side. Select it and choose ‘Burn’.
You should now have successfully copied your DVD.

Compressing photos
Could you outline the process for compressing photos on a Mac?
On a Mac, I tend to use iPhoto and then use File and Export. Depending on the version you are using you can either change the quality or the actual size.

Anti virus on a Mac
What do you recommend as adequate antivirus protection on a Mac?
If you are running in a sole Mac environment and not emailing attachments to Windows users then iAntivirus is a good protection. However it is limited in that it only scans for Mac specific threats. It only runs on Leopard (10.5).
As a scan tool I also use ClamXAv, which I use to regularly scan my system. This is solely a detection tool.
Both of the above are free tools.
I have also looked at the latest MacAfee and was pleasantly surprised by how unobtrusive this was running as a live scan. Historically, live scanning on a Mac has come with a huge hit on your processor. I have used this to clean an infected Mac. If you run MacAfee, you need to have the ClamX AV engine uninstalled.

Posting movies to a blog
We are having trouble posting short video clips to our blog. These have been recorded on a digital camera and downloaded with the still photos into iPhoto. I've tried to move them into iMovie without success and get an error message when trying to post to our blog. Any tips?
I have had much better results posting videos from Firefox than I have with Safari to Blogger.

Stuck DVD
I have a mini Mac and have a DVD stuck inside. It is not registering anywhere on the computer so I can't eject it and I have no 'eject' on my keyboard. When I try to burn an iDVD movie to it, it just whirrs and a message comes up “getting disc ready” which doesn't go away.
Shut the Mac mini down, and then power it up again. As you power it up, keep the mouse clicked down. This will force an eject of the disc.

Deleting unwanted footage in iMovie 08
How do I delete unwanted footage from the event library in iMovie 08?
iMovie 08 no longer imports clips to projects; it stores them as events so that they are available to any movie you are working on. There are generally two types of movies in your events: movies that are stored in iPhoto (generally taken with a digital still camera) and movies that you have imported (either from digital video camera, iSight etc). To remove the iPhoto movies, you need to delete them from iPhoto. To remove the other movie events, you can control click the event and select ‘move event to trash’. Control clicking is holding down the control key on the keyboard and clicking; this is the same as a right mouse click. This is also accessed from File >> Move event to trash or the keyboard shortcut Command Backspace.