Past Meetings

June 14, 2007

Agenda: E-mail

Six mac users participated in the June meeting of the H'PORT MUG : Jerry L, Bob S, Joe Y, Bob G, Jack H and Tom B. All enjoyed the beautiful new facilities of the Fred and Harriett Taylor Memorial Library. The library provides free high speed WiFi which will be available 24 hours a day. The WiFi range easily reaches the gazebo in the library yard and outdoor patio. The public is permitted and encouraged to use the WiFi network even when the library is closed. An encrypted password for the network is available at the front desk - it can be entered into your mac and saved in the Keychain.

POP3 (Post Office Protocol) refers to a protocol used to retrieve e-mail from an internet server. There are many good sites providing free POP3 access such as Google's Gmail, BlueBottle, Christian.net, EmailAcc, and FreePop3. Read the pros and cons of eleven free POP3 e-mail providers by Charles Moore at AppleLinks. A POP3 account is the type that can be accessed via Mail, Outlook, Eudora, and other on-board computer applications.

Mail - A demo was given on how to set up the Mail application on the Mac to retrieve e-mail from several POP3 accounts. The POP3 accounts must first be registered by going on-line to those sites and following the directions for each. After the accounts are registered, open up the Mail program on your Mac by clicking the icon in the dock. Follow the directions. Some of the specific features explored were:

How to set up a POP account in Mail
How to do Group Mailings in Mail without showing everybody's address
How to create new Folders in Mail to organize e-mails
How to regulate Junk Mail (Mail>Prefs>Junkmail)
How to leave / remove emails from the internet server (Mail>Prefs>Accounts>Advanced)
How to guard against excessively large files being downloaded in Mail (Mail>Prefs>Accounts>Advanced)
How to search all e-mails in Mail's folders (use the Search window in the Mail window)
How to e-mail a URL link using Mail with the Safari web browser (Command-Shift-I)
How to e-mail a complete webpage, including hyperlinks in Safari (Command-I)

Use Port 587 in Mail Prefs for outgoing mail (rather than default Port 25 -: read why here

AddressBook2CSV -You can easily export addresses from your Address Book to an on-line POP3 account by using this free application. Download 287k

Mac Maintence

OnyX is a fantastic free multifunction utility (maintenance, optimization, and personalization) for Mac OS X 10.4.3 and higher. It allows you to run miscellaneous tasks of system maintenance, to configure certain hidden parameters of the Finder, Dock, Safari, Dashboard, Exposé, Disk Utility... to delete caches, to remove a certain number of files and folders that may become cumbersome, to see the detailed info of your configuration, to preview the different logs and CrashReporter reports, and more. For example, you can change the default format for the Screen Capture feature (Command-Shift-4) from PNG to JPG, GIF, TIF, etc.. Download 9mb.

More Cool Dashboard Widgets

Daily Mac Tip Discover new features on your mac everytime you click on this widget. Many helpful surprises! For example, have you ever saved a file and then wondered where in the world you saved it to? Quickly find the proxy path by Command-clicking on the title bar at the top edge of the file's window. Did you know there is a subtle visual clue that tells you whether or not you have saved your document? Widget Download103k

GuitarChords allows you to search for fingering diagram as well as sound of chord. Widget Download 111k

Logos Bible Widget provides a lightning-fast way to look up any Bible verse in either the King James Version or English Standard Version. Read an excellent review of the Logos Bible Widget by Charles Moore. Widget Download 2.8mb

Next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, July 19, at 7pm in the new library.

To view more highlights of Past Meetings, go to the H'PORTMUG homepage.

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