Posts Tagged ‘mac’

Posted on February 3, 2009 - by admin

Using MacJournal To Organize Your (Knitting) Life

If you have a PC, you may want to read this post anyway, as there may be a similar program out there for you that does this same type of organization, but, this post is actually for those of you who own and operate a Mac.

If you have been reading this blog over the last month or so you would know that I just recently became the proud owner of a MacBook.  When I started exploring all the nifty things my MacBook could do, I came across the MacJournal. Can I just say Wow?!? The way this program has organized my knitting patterns (and other parts of my life) is just amazing!

Let’s go back to the beginning. When I had a PC, I would keep all my downloaded patterns (free or not) in file folders. These were organized by category like shawls, socks, hats, etc. While I found this organization structure to be helpful, it led to having various file formats in the same folder. For example, in the Shawls folder I would have some PDFs, some Word Documents, and even some HTML patterns. As a result, when I wanted to “browse” my pattern collection for something new to cast on, I would have to open various different programs to see the different patterns in the file folder.

Fast forward to today.  MacJournal is a program that you can get for Mac computers.  It seems that it was intended to be a “journal” program, which it is, but it is so much more!  I am able to drag PDF files into the journal entries and see them without opening them.  I can also drag and drop the PDF files in and out of the program, print them, add notes to the entries, etc.

All my patterns are no longer in notebooks on the shelves, but scanned and saved in one SEARCHABLE place, the MacJournal.  Even my online purchased patterns are included.  I can open a web page in my browser that has a pattern on it and “print” the page directly to MacJournal.  The titles of the “journal” entries become the titles of the patterns and I have the patterns organized by craft, with sub-catagories within (see screen shot below).

For those of you who own a Mac and have not checked out this application, I cannot recommend it enough for this purpose.  Oh, it also organizes your receipts, recipes, notes, and if all that isn’t enough, it is also a journal notebook that can be password protected.

Fair Winds

Posted on December 2, 2008 - by admin

Last Night’s Discovery

Many of you know from previous posts that I like to knit from charts displayed on my computer screen.  When I was using the PC, I used an application called jruler, which I could drag across the screen and place just below the line on the chart that I was working on.  Since I have moved to the Mac, I have not been able to find a ruler program that works the same way.

This was driving me crazy and when that happens I start to improvise!  I remembered a roll of “tape” that a friend in the crafting industry had given me several (8) years ago and set off to find it.  Yes, I do keep stuff that long, if I think it will be useful one day…  Anyway, this “tape” is actually more like very thick saran wrap.  It is plastic, blue and does not have any stickiness to it at all.  But, it does stick to itself and to glass.  See where this is going…LOL  I was so excited when I placed a length of it on my screen and it stayed.  Here is the proof:

The “tape” is called amazing tape.  Think about the uses…you can wrap it around cones of yarn to keep them from unwinding, since it “sticks” to itself.  Awesome!!

Posted on November 28, 2008 - by admin

The Mac Has Arrived, Now What?

Ok, so I have now opened the new computer and booted her up.  Wow, what an amazing difference.  Even the packaging is different from the HP/Dell stuff.  If you have ever purchased an Apple product you know what I am talking about.  They employ some real geniuses in their marketing department.  The packaging and presentation of the products is unprecedented!  Opening this computer (even the box that the mouse came in) was like opening a shiny new Christmas Present.  Every seal that was broken was followed by an ohh or ahh!!  Too funny.

Now the fun of transferring data, fonts, and programs begins.  Not to mention the learning of an entirely new operating system.  Which I can say that I already LOVE!!!  Talk to you all later, I am off to play work with my new toy data manipulating device.

Posted on November 18, 2008 - by admin

Totally and Completely Bummed!

Well, between the time I created the video for the last post and this post, something has gone terribly wrong with my windows explorer.  This is the file manager window that opens when you want to look at your files, folder, whatever.  It will no longer allow me to view thumbnails.  This means that I cannot "pre"-view the photos I take for the blog. 

When a thumbnail is present in a folder that opens I get a message that the window has stopped working and is closing now…Then the obviously, overly stupid two buttons that say "OK" and "Cancel"!!

NO, it is not ok and I don’t want to cancel….Argghh!!  I did manage to get one good photo saved for this Thursday’s post, but all other photo posts are going to be slow in coming for a few weeks.  The ONLY thing that makes this better at all is that I am officially replacing my Windows Vista PC with a Mac!!  (now it will be sooner than later)  I’ll keep you posted…