Shortcut for Finding a Definition

                 Hmmmm.  What does this word mean?  Yes, you can go over to the Dictionary in your long-long list of icons there on the side of the screen.  But this morning Ruth Davis' emailed tip says to   "Hover your mouse cursor over top of the word you'd like to look up and press Command + Control + D. A dialog will then pop up with the word defined by the build-in Mac OS Dictionary."  The little box also lists some words from Thesaurus and Wikipedia.
           She also has free guides for Mac, iPad, and iPhone. 
        Macintosh trainer Ruth Davis publishes Mac2School's Weekly Tips for more than 1000 subscribers. If you want to feel more confident and be more productive with your Mac, iPad and iPhone, sign up for a FREE subscription to Mac2School's Weekly Tips at www.mac2school.com 

More to Say, More to Write

          Ah, technology!  Ah, new developments!  Ug, new acronyms and new terminology! 

         Off hand, do you remember what JPEG stands for?  What about DSLR?  What about …..?

        Mac to the rescue.  When you click on the Dictionary icon in the Dock here’s what comes up.  

        I expected Apple to provide answers to my growing list of acronyms, but did find some help by clicking on Wikipedia.  The Dictionary didn’t know, neither did the Thesaurus. 

        Click on Dictionary, look at the top menu. Click on Services and see some unexpected categories you can view.  (Remember to click on the little screen shots here to enlarge the size.  Then click on it again to shrink it back and come back to this page.)

        Add to iTunes as a Spoken Track.  Make New Sticky Note.  Summarize. 

        Check out Preferences.  Drag reference sources into the order you prefer.  You can even choose the type of pronunciation you wish to see. 

        I did find www.acronymslist.com  and a list of medical acronyms http://www.medindia.net/acronym/index.asp 

        Heard of Slovoed Dictionaries?  It offers a FREE dictionary of the month.  and can be viewed in Mac App Store.  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/slovoed-dictionaries/id524941905?mt=12  

More to Say, More to Write!

       So, you wrote something nice TO your mom for Mother’s Day, or you wrote something nice ABOUT your mom for your kids and grandkids. It’s so nice to write with Mac.  And you can print out the size of type that makes it easy to read.  But now, here comes Father’s Day.  Time to turn on your remembrances and your creativity again.

       Looking at an old photograph might stir up some memories.  Nifty to have so many pictures on your computer. Jot down your first ideas for your first draft.  (It’s not done yet!) 

        Writing about a hunting trip sounded promising.  But the first draft on the computer had too many “said” and “asked” words.  Go to Dictionary, and Thesaurus. Look at all the words to choose.  

      Go back to that draft of your writing and click somewhere on it. 

       Then do Command + F  to bring up Find and Replace.  I entered “said” and my happy computer put a nice yellow box around each instance of this word, one at a time.  I could choose which to delete and replace with a suitable synonym.  

        Another time, I wanted to write a fictional piece for some young cousins.  Going to Google, I typed in puzzle and then images.  I scrolled through a lot of clip art and photos until I found one to use.

  I’ve mentioned before, I use bluesquirrel’s program ClickBook for Mac to make booklets.  It shrinks down the type size and picture size to fit the page.  You have over 100 layouts to choose from.  www.bluesquirrel.com  

       You’ll have fun writing with Pages.

       Check our newsblog regularly to see all the info that’s being added.

       Keep up the good work.  See you next time.  Bring a friend!  

* * * 

                          This is today's handout, 5-17-14 at PMUG meeting, by Elaine Hardt 

Your Surprise for Your Family

With your handy Mac computer you can easily make a nice surprise present for your family.  Here’s three things that only YOU can do for your kids, grandkids, even the old folks!  

1. Make an “Old Time Favorites” cookbook from recipes handed down to you -- probably handwritten! Collect enough for 24 pages, some from each category.  Write something about who originally made that yummy stuff.
2. Make an “Shortcut Recipe” cookbook.  This is where you’ve updated and simplified your own favorites.  Instead of feeding 10, maybe change to feeding 2 or 4.  Use modern ingredients, the microwave, convection oven. 
3. Make a “I Remember When” booklet.  This is not your entire lifetime on 24 pages! Just some interesting highlights that you do recall.  Describe what makes those events significant in your memory. 

Jot down the first ideas that come to mind.  Let it rest a few days.  Reread and then rewrite. 

        Can you picture this as a 5 ½ x 8 ½ booklet which you’d staple?  Would it work better on full size pages, 3-hole punched, in a notebook? Or, a spiral-bound booklet? 

        In Pages go to File > New from Template Chooser.  See if you get any bright ideas after looking at these examples.  

That’s the screen shot pasted here to the left side. 

        With Microsoft Word: Mac 2011 you can go to File >  New from Templates and click to view Online Templates.  There are a lot from which to choose.  

        If you use the Blue Squirrel program, Click Book will do the layouts for various kinds of booklets.  http://www.bluesquirrel.com    Here’s the link for Mac ClickBook: http://www.bluesquirrel.com/products/cbmac/  It’s $49.95 for OS X, compatible with Lion and Mountain Lion.  Note special pricing on Print to iPad, iPhone, Android, or Kindle. They have more than 70 custom layout styles.

        You might even scan and paste in some photos.  Be creative! Picture the compliments!

        Help us spread the PMUG info,  www.pmugnews.blogspot.com   And write and tell us what you’re learning and doing:  edpr@commspeed.net   We want our PMUG to be helpful and friendly. It’s a time to enjoy and participate. 

 

Words, More Words, and Lots-a Words!

Yes, you use the Mac Dictionary.  How handy to have it on the dock, and easily look up definitions, the Thesaurus, Apple dictionary and Wikipedia.  But what about specialized dictionaries?  There’s a bunch!  

http://www.classicalworks.com/html/glossary.html  musical terms

http://www.epicurious.com/tools/fooddictionary   cooking terms 

http://www.medterms.com/script/main/hp.asp   medical

YourDictionary  http://www.yourdictionary.com/  lists most misspelled words,  how to do wild card search, brain training games, etc.

http://www.onelook.com/reverse-dictionary.shtml  know the idea you want to convey but are fishing for that certain word?  Describe the concept and up comes pages of suggested terms.  Good for generating a list of words in some category.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/  extra features make this a helpful site to check on. 

Going to Apple’s webpage brings up www.Dictionary.com/ , a free app for your iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.  

http://www.freebyte.com/dictionary/#specialized_dictionaries   lists some specialized dictionaries, free thesauri, translation tools, spellcheckers, games, images, reference desk. 

       Here’s fun with the Mac’s Apple dictionary.  Open it and type in “a” and up comes a list of every entry beginning with that letter.  You’ll find things you didn’t know! Explore and learn. 

       Today, smile at that person sitting next to you and introduce yourself.  Maybe they just moved here from  Last Chance, Iowa or Beanville, Vermont or Fort Necessity, Louisiana.   (Yes, I found those listed in http://www.accuracyproject.org/towns.html  Your birthplace listed there?)  

        See you next time? 

(This is the handout for 11-17-12 from Elaine) 

Mac Dictionary Will Speak to You

        It started with reading a news article about the horrible flesh-eating disease.  Wondering how much info the Mac Dictionary would give I looked up that long word "necrotizing fasciitis" and my curiosity just got started.  Would Dictionary read it to me?
        Yes, Mac will read aloud to you.  You can use this feature in Dictionary, Pages, Word for Mac, even news you highlight from Google, other Internet sites, and . . . get this!  You can listen to the PMUG newsblog being read aloud to you.

        Go to Apple in the menu bar across the top of the screen.  Click System preferences, under System click Speech.  On the Text to Speech tab, select the Speak selected text when the key is pressed check box.  Click Set Key, then press the combination of keys that you want to use to hear the text read aloud.  Then click OK.    I decided to use Command + S.  Now the fun of trying it out, here and there.  

        Oh, here's more about that flesh-eating disease.  Click on Dictionary, choose  Wikipedia and type in "flesh-eating disease."  Up it comes with medical explanations, photos, and links to further resources.  There's even a list of notable people who have been afflicted with it.  

Find That Word Fast

        Need a quick definition?  Ruth Davis from Phoenix who spoke to PMUG awhile back gives this tip:  Hold down the Command and Control keys and type the letter D.  Move your mouse then on top of the word.  The definition comes up as a pop-up menu.  This works in Mail, Safari, Pages -- but not in Word, Firefox and other non-Apple products.  Ruth sends out a "tip of the week" here.
        Here's something to try. I use it with Pages, and my trusty little Belkin mouse gives other helps.  Highlight a word, right-click and up comes a menu of choices: never hyphenate, cut, copy,paste, paste and match style, delete, select all, create new paragraph style from selection, spelling, proofreading, font, speech, and writing tools which lists Dictionary, Thesaurus, Search Spotlight, Google, Wikipedia, & Show Statistics.

Dictionary Features

Here's a copy of the PMUG meeting handout on June 2009, in case you missed the meeting.

June 2009: Dictionary Features

Got a Word?
The Dictionary that lines up so nicely in the Dock is full of words! Take a look . . .

When you click on Dictionary you have choices of All, Dictionary, Thesaurus, Apple, Wikipedia.

What good is that Apple Dictionary, you ask? Type a in the search box. Click on Apple. Up comes a list of the “a” words, all of which apply in some way to Apple products. “Aqua,” what is that? A double-click brings up the definition. Did you already know it meant “the graphical user interface and visual theme of Mac OS X”?

If you’ve got time on your hands, do the same thing with Wikipedia. Type in a and see what comes up. “A & W” links to several titles, so we choose “Root Beer.” Clicking here brings up an outline of contents and concise information, including nutrition facts. You’ll find links scattered throughout, each opening to a new website.

Now, Thesaurus. It tells you there are 997 entries for "a." From words to phrases you can find more words. Click on one, and feast your eyes on words with various shades of meaning.

Dictionary opens by announcing there are 943 entries for a. On the menu at the top of your desktop go to Dictionary > Services > Speech and click on Start Speaking Text. Hear the chosen word pronounced. You may find this more helpful that sounding it out yourself, using the diacritical marks given in the dictionary entry.

Note: You can also click Start Speaking Text when using Pages and highlighting the words or sentences you’d like the voice to read for you. In System Preferences choose Speech, and select the man’s or woman’s voice you like.

What’s Up?
Go to http://pmugnews.blogspot.com/ to see what’s up. There are 161 postings since we started this feature in April 2008. Browse and see what’s there.
Now, ask yourself, what news could I send to Elaine that would be of interest to other PMUG members? Click on editor@pmug.us  and email me what’s up.

See also the PMUG website at www.pmug.us/ and explore the info there. Webmaster is John Carter.
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