Most versions of iTunes for Macintosh and Windows have some sort of ‘Export’ function, allowing you to export a list of songs into several formats, including plain text, Unicode and XML. Although these formats may be fine for importing into databases, they are rather clumsy to deal with if you just want a simple reference list of your songs.

Fortunately, there is a really easy way to create a listing of all your songs (or a part thereof, if you wish), either to print out, or to create a neat and orderly PDF reference.

In iTunes (FREE download), there is a command that allows you to create a formatted list of the songs or albums in your iTunes library. To begin, make sure you have selected ALL of your music by clicking ‘Music’ in the left navigation pane. Also, make sure don’t have any search terms enabled by clicking on the ‘x’ in the search field at the upper right corner. Now, you should have all your songs available for creation of your listing; you can look at the bottom of the iTunes window to see just how many songs are in your library.

With ‘Music’ selected in the left pane, and no searches active, select ‘Print’ from the File menu (or press command-P). Feel free to explore the various options in this dialog box: With the Song Listing option, you can choose to print the list according to song title, by the date last played or by the one- to five-star rating that iTunes lets you assign to songs in your library; You can also print jewel case inserts to your liking. For our purpose, however, we will be printing a list sorted by albums; so, select ‘Album listing’ from the print options. From the drop-down menu, select ‘Songs by album’. This format also displays album-cover artwork you have imported into iTunes.

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Occasionally, I find that I have duplicate entries in my Address Book. Well, they’re not really duplicates — they just have the same name. One may have work information, while the other might have personal details. Wouldn’t it be great if you could easily combine those two cards into one? Fortunately, there’s an easy way to do just that in Address Book.

How did I get two cards for the same person, anyway? Most likely, I imported a vCard attachment from an email, forgetting that I already had an existing entry for that person in my Address Book. Or maybe I just added another entry by accident, manually.

Regardless of how it got duplicated, here’s how to merge the two into one:

1. In Address Book, locate the two “duplicate” cards you’d like to merge. Select them both by clicking one one, then command-clicking the other. They both should be highlighted.
2. In the Card menu, select “Merge Selected cards”.



3. Voila! The two cards have been combined into one, with information from both cards!

Lately, I’ve had quite a few discussions with clients about the shrinking empty space on their hard drive. Before they know it, they’re getting the “Your hard disk is full” message.

This isn’t too surprising because, if you are like me, you take bazillions of photos and rarely delete any. And as digital cameras are capable of higher and higher resolution, their file sizes are getting larger. (Let’s not even talk about all those songs in iTunes!) Your main hard drive contains the system files for Mac OS X and all the files for all the users. Eventually, even with the best of housekeeping, you will run out of space. At that point it makes sense to invest in an external hard drive, and do a little shuffling around of files to make room on the main drive.

Just about any external drive will work. The most common type has a USB 2.0 connection. Others have Firewire connections. For all around versatility, get one with dual connectivity — both USB 2 and Firewire. You’ll also find that they come in an ever increasing range of capacities — from small 160GB models to 1TB monsters. There are lots of choices. Get the biggest one you can find at the cheapest price! Personally, I have several of the MyBook series of drives by Western Digital.

Once you have your new external hard drive, you can make the move to transfer your entire iPhoto library to it. This will free up a sizeable amount of space on your main hard drive so you can, well… fill it back up again with something else.

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Many computer users are concerned about the security (or lack therof) of personal data on their computer. Whether it be passwords, account numbers, bank records, personal correspondences, or any other number of private details, there needs to be a secure way to keep them from prying eyes.

Yea, this post is about making encrypted .dmg files; however, I feel I must first say a few things about security in general. For more detailed information about security, see HERE.

Minimally, if you’re the least bit concerned about protecting data on your computer, you should disable the Automatic Login feature in the Accounts System Preferences (Apple menu > System Preferences > Accounts). This way, when you turn on your computer, you’ll be required to enter your password at the login screen.

If you are ever away from your computer when others are around, you should also take a look at the Security settings in System Preferences, and set them accordingly.

Speaking of Security settings in System Prefs, there is a function in Mac OS called “FileVault”. This is a method of securing data by encrypting everything on your computer. When you access something, FileVault decrypts it on the fly, and encrypts it again when you’re finished. Although this method has been proven effective in thwarting prying eyes, it has its cons. Search Google for “FileVault pros and cons” for more information. Personally, I don’t use it.

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