June 2007

Understand Email Part One
Mac Tip #295/27-June-2007

Email is a very popular activity for most computer users. When you buy a new Mac it arrives with email software already installed: Mail.app. Look in the Applications folder or click the ’stamp’ icon in the Dock.

Mail.app is not the only email software — you can use any email ‘client’ you like. If you use different software these Tips will still be informative and useful.

Of course, if you’re a subscriber to the MacTips you probably already use email, but some explanation of what’s going on will allow you to take more control.

Email has been around a long while: many decades in fact. But how we use it has changed considerably in that time.

A common pattern is that Person A (Ann, for example) writes a message on her own computer, addressed to Person B (Brian).

When Ann sends the message it travels from her computer to her Internet Service Provider’s computer where a special piece of software called SMTP receives it. The SMTP software works out where to send the message so it will reach Brian. It then sends the message on its way.

After some travelling about, the message reaches Brian’s Internet Service Provider (ISP), where a piece of software receives the email and stores it in Brian’s mailbox on the ISP’s computer.

At some time or other Brian tells his email application to check for new email. His email software connects to software called POP on the ISP’s computer. The two of them exchange a name and password. Then Brian’s email client removes the message from the server, stores it on Brian’s computer and lets Brain know it’s there.

This is definitely not the only way to do email, and there can be many variations on this pattern, but it is very common. If you understand this sequence of events then it makes it easier to understand email settings and what can go wrong, along with how to use email software more effectively.

In the MacTips Learning Centre

• History of Email
• How Email Works

Annoying Acronyms

ISP

Internet Service Provider

SMTP

Simple Mail Transport Protocol

POP

Post Office Protocol

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Toolbox: Multiple Clipboards
Mac Tip #294/20-June-2007

One of my most-used programs gives me multiple clipboards.

When you Cut or Copy something it is stored on the Clipboard. But the built-in clipboard can hold only one item, so as soon as you Cut or Copy something else the previous item is removed.

That’s a huge pain if you’re trying to copy information from separate areas in one place and paste it all together in another place. Think Name and Address, for example: switch to File A and copy Name, switch to File B and paste, back to File A for Address Line 1, switch to File B and paste, back to File A for Address Line 2 and so on and on.

Software that offers multiple clipboards allows you to ’stack up’ information, because it keeps the 10 or 20 or 100 items you most recently Cut or Copied, and lets you Paste them whenever you like.

With multiple clipboards you could assemble that name and address like this:

• switch to File A and copy Name, then Address Line 1, then Address Line 2 and so on.
• switch to File B and paste, paste, paste.

That’s much more efficient, quicker and easier.

After some experimentation I seem to have settled on Jumpcut.

Jumpcut is free and open source. It puts a small ’scissors’ icon in the menu bar, from which you can choose which item to paste. There are also a couple of Preferences you can set, including how many items to remember, and a keystroke for calling up the clipboards.

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The Software Series: Sparkle and other updates
Mac Tip #293/13-June-2007

More and more programs these days include an automatic check for updates. Many of them use a sub-program called Sparkle, while others, such as Microsoft Office, use their own system.

For each program you use check the Preferences to see if you can set it to automatically check for updates. In the screenshot you can see that NetNewsWire 3 includes an option to check daily for updates, and also a button for an immediate check.

The web browser Opera, on the other hand, doesn’t have a setting, but you can check for updates any time by choosing Check for updates from the Help menu.

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iTunes has a Check for Updates… menu item too, but it’s under the iTunes menu, so you can see you might have to search around a bit.

If you use Microsoft Office look in the Applications folder for Microsoft AutoUpdate.app. Double click it to start it up and you’ll see you can choose how and how often to check for updates to Office.

There can be many reasons why an application might be updated: to add new features, to fix problems, or to improve security.

In general terms it’s a good idea to try to keep your software up-to-date, but if you find that difficult for some reason at least watch out for the security updates.

Two places to watch out for information about updates to all Mac software are VersionTracker and MacUpdate.

At those sites you can also read the opinions and comments from others about the software you’re interested in (and contribute your own opinions too, of course).

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