With a brand new video tutorial published every week, ScreenCastsOnline covers all aspects of using your mac including:

• Learning to use the latest Apple and top 3rd party software applications
• Mastering the utilities and built-in features that come with every mac
• Lots of help for switchers and those new to the mac
• Learning about some of the latest web based services and applications from MobileMe to Google ..........and much, much, more!

All delivered in a friendly, relaxed, easy to follow format that you can watch as many times as you’d like, all at your own pace.

The show is delivered to you via iTunes automatically and you have the choice of receiving a free show every two weeks, or you can join as a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member and get a brand new, up to the minute show every week, bringing you lessons on the latest updates to the mac and mac software directly to your mac, Apple TV, iPod or iPhone. As a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member, you also get immediate access to a huge library of downloadable tutorials, covering a wealth of mac related topics.

The most recent shows are listed below, but be sure to check out all the available shows by clicking on the categories in the sidebar or using the Search facility. I hope you enjoy the shows!

Don McAllister - Host/Producer

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Handbreak has been available for quite a while now and is acknowledged as one of the best applications to allow you copy convert your DVDs into media files playable on your Mac, your Apple TV and you iPod or iPhone. With the latest release, Handbrake is now capable of converting any video file, not just DVDs!

Add in over 600 changes since the last release, performance increases, better video quality and a whole slew of new presets to make Handbrake easier to use, and you'll appreciate that the updated application is well worth of a re-visit. Not only that, but Handbrake is open-source, GPL-licenced, multi-platform and also completely free! In this weeks show I take you through:

• Installing Handbrake and any supporting applications
• Converting a DVD to Apple TV format
• Converting TV Show DVDs to individual episodes

Although Handbrake will create stunning copies of your DVDs and video files, you also need to update the converted files with metadata. Extras like cover art, descriptions, titles, actors, dates, genres, chapter labels, etc, all help when transferring your physical video collection to an online library. Now you can enter all this information manually, but why not do it automatically? In this weeks show, I also look at a great application that will do it all for you by grabbing information from Amazon or tagChimp, and that's MetaX.

MetaX will search multiple information stores on the internet and allow you to choose the metadata you wish to tag your video files. Once you've assembled the information, MetaX will copy your original file, write the metadata to your video file and pass it along to iTunes for syncing with any of your devices. All with a single click! You can even setup Handbrake to pass any converted files directly into MetaX for tagging once completed.

Links: Handbreak, MetaX, Ripit, Mac The Ripper, VLC

Here is a direct link to episode SCO0108 - Accessing Usenet Content as mentioned in the show.

Discussions: Forum

Extra! Members Version formats	1280x720 - Full HD Resolution 1280x720 - Full HD Resolution with overscan 960x540 - HD Resolution 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution All versions with embedded chapter markings and available via iTunes, Miro or by direct download from the Extra! members site
Free Version Formats	This show is only available to ScreenCastsOnline Extra! members

Become a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! Member
Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

To View the Sampler for the Full Free Show
Subscribe to either the free versions of the shows in iTunes, and have this trailer plus subsequent free shows delivered to your computer each week by clicking the links below!
Free High Definition version of the show in iTunes or Free iPod version of the show in iTunes



Watch the trailer for this show from this web page by clicking on the video below.

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Tags: ripping, Handbrake, metax, ripit, mactheripper

Slight change of plan this week - Following the recent MailTags episode [SCO0174] I mentioned the availability of a new version of Mail Act-On. As the original show was recorded in advance of my trip on MacMania8, I didn't have time to check on the new version of Mail Act-On until after the first show was published. As soon as I did try it however, it became immediately obvious that I really needed to cover Mail Act-On in a new show as the package had been dramatically enhanced and was the perfect partner for MailTags.

So this week I've put together a tutorial all about Mail Act-On v2

Mail Act-On allows you to assign keystrokes that allow you to tag and move your emails, all from the keyboard, dramatically reducing the amount of time it takes to manage and organise your mail.

In this weeks show I cover:

• Introduction to Mail Act-On
• Using the Pop Up menu
• Mail Act-On Rules
• Setting up Mail Act-On Keystroke Rules
• Setting up Mail Act-On OutBox Rules
• Mail Act-On Preferences

I also include a special bonus section for any OmniFocus users who wish to use the MailTags integration with OmniFocus to move emails seamlessly into OmniFocus pre-propulated with Project and Due Date information. There will be full OmniFocus show in the next month or so.

You can find out more about Mail Act-On by visiting the Mail Act-On website or take advantage of the 10% discount (please note - only available up to December 31st 2008) by visiting the special webstore for ScreenCastsOnline viewers.

UPDATE: As luck would have it, the Mail Act-On server hosting company are having some issues today so I've posted the DMG file on this temporary link until the server is back up :

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/19277/MailActOn201.dmg

Discussions: Forum

Extra! Members Version formats	1280x720 - Full HD Resolution 1280x720 - Full HD Resolution with overscan 960x540 - HD Resolution 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution All versions with embedded chapter markings and available via iTunes, Miro or by direct download from the Extra! members site
Free Version Formats	960x540 - HD with overscan - Download 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution - Download.

Become a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! Member
Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

To View the Full Free Show
Subscribe to either the free versions of the shows in iTunes, and have this show plus subsequent free shows delivered to your computer each week by clicking the links below!
Free High Definition version of the show in iTunes or Free iPod version of the show in iTunes



Watch a low resolution version of this show from this web page - Click on the video below

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Tags: mail, mailtags

Actually, the title of this weeks show is a little misleading! Yes, the utilities featured in this weeks show will make using a large screen monitor easier, but they also will assist you on smaller monitors and even laptops. This show covers various utilities that can help you with managing how you move your cursor and your windows on screen. The utilities help you speed up your workflow by giving you some extra control over and above how OSX is designed to work delivering a much more efficient way of working (especially if you do use a large monitor).

For viewers of the free feed, I've included a full segment from the Extra! members only show as a taster but also to see if we can boost the sales of this particular app, for reasons that will become apparent as you watch the clip.

In this weeks full Extra! members only show I cover:

My Mouse Recommendations - A quick look at my Mice of choice - The Logitech MX Revolution Mouse and the VX Nano Mouse. I also give you a demonstration of the benefits of the dual function scroll and flywheel mechanism. Links: Logitech MX Revolution Wireless Laser Mouse Logitech VX Nano Cordless Laser Mouse for Notebooks
SteerMouse - A fully featured advanced driver for USB and Bluetooth mouse. SteerMouse allows to to fully program a wide variety of Mice and I show you my most favourite feature - a way to make your mouse pointer zoom across the screen automatically and land dead center on the default button of dialog boxes - no wrist movement required! Link: SteerMouse Website
DejaMenu - A real boon for large screen or multiple monitor setups. You know how OSX arranges the Application menu bar across the top of the primary display? Well it can be a real pain constantly moving the mouse pointer from the left, right or bottom of the screen all the way to the top. And when your application window is on a separate monitor from the application menu bar - grrrr! Well DejaMenu is a free utility that comes to the rescue by allowing you to assign a key combination to pop up the application menu right under your mouse pointer - no matter where it's located on the screen. In the show I also show you how easy it is to remap the DejaMenu key combo to a single mouse button using SteerMouse. Link: DejaMenu Website
MercuryMover - (This full segment is included in this weeks sampler version of the show and available for free) Whilst all these tips assist you using your mouse, true power users know that the keyboard is the way to go to speed up your workflow. On any Mac, constantly moving and resizing windows using the mouse can be a real time drain. The constant moving from keyboard to mouse and back again can add seconds to your workflow that over the space of a day, a week and a year, can waste an extraordinary amount of time. So wouldn't it be great to be able to resize and move windows directly from the keyboard with a couple of simple keystrokes? Well you can using MercuryMover! This simple but effective application allows your to move and resize windows by 1 pixel, 10 pixels or 100 pixels at a time and will also allow you to move or resize to the edge of the screen. You can even center or maximise your selected window with a single keypress. As well as these built in shortcuts, MercuryMover also allows you to save custom keyboard shortcuts that will allow you to save the size, position or both for any window on screen. Do you always want Safari to be the same size and position when you use it? Well you can reapply a saved setting via MercuryMover and resize and repostition the window everytime with pixel point accuracy. MercuryMover is currently available at a reduced price but ScreenCastsOnline viewers can get an additional 10% off by visiting a special store page. With each copy of MercuryMover sold, $2 of the purchase price will be donated to the National Cancer Coalition Link: MercuryMover Special Offer Page

Discussions: Forum

Extra! Members Version formats	1280x720 - Full HD Resolution 1280x720 - Full HD Resolution with overscan 960x540 - HD Resolution 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution All versions with embedded chapter markings and available via iTunes, Miro or by direct download from the Extra! members site
Free Version Formats	This show is only available to ScreenCastsOnline Extra! members

Become a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! Member
Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

To View the Sampler for the Full Free Show
Subscribe to either the free versions of the shows in iTunes, and have this trailer plus subsequent free shows delivered to your computer each week by clicking the links below!
Free High Definition version of the show in iTunes or Free iPod version of the show in iTunes



Watch the sampler (including the full segment on MercuryMover) for this show from this web page by clicking on the video below.

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If you're like me, email is an essential part of my day to day activity and I really need to keep on top of the vast volume of email that flows in every day from friends, colleagues and business associates.

If you're an organised person, you may already have a system in place that handles your email effectively along with all the other sources of information that we need to manage each day. If you're a productivity ninja, you may already have a fully blown "Getting Things Done" or GTD system in place allowing you to be the master of all your information and live in a perment state of nirvana!

More than likely, you may still be looking for the best solution to fit your needs!

Over the next couple of months, I'll be covering some of the top GTD applications for the Mac, but it's possible that you may not need an extra layer of complexity if you can just get on top of using your email. That's where this weeks show comes in, and introduces you to MailTags, a great plugin for Apples Mail application.

Mailtags allows you to tag your individual emails with additional information such as as keywords, project, reminders, colours and notes. It also allows you to directly integrate your emails with iCal using to dos and events. Once you've tagged and classified your emails, Mailtags then allows you to organise and retrieve your emails in many different ways such as enhanced mailbox list views, smart mailboxes and spotlight searches.

This show takes you through:

• Introduction to MailTags
• Installation & Setup
• MailTags Configuratiom
• Tagging Using MailTags
• Keywords & Project Tags
• Tickler Dates & Priority
• Message Colour
• To Dos & Events
• MailTag Notes
• Accessing Your Mail Using MailTags
• MailTags List View
• Searching Using MailTags
• MailTags and Smart Mailboxes
• Example Smart Maiboxes
• Tagging using Rules

You can find out more about MailTags by visiting the MailTags website or take advantage of the 10% discount (please note - only available up to December 31st 2008) by visiting the special webstore for ScreenCastsOnline viewers.

Discussions: Forum

Extra! Members Version formats	1280x720 - Full HD Resolution 1280x720 - Full HD Resolution with overscan 960x540 - HD Resolution 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution All versions with embedded chapter markings and available via iTunes, Miro or by direct download from the Extra! members site
Free Version Formats	960x540 - HD with overscan - Download 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution - Download.

Become a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! Member
Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

To View the Full Free Show
Subscribe to either the free versions of the shows in iTunes, and have this show plus subsequent free shows delivered to your computer each week by clicking the links below!
Free High Definition version of the show in iTunes or Free iPod version of the show in iTunes



Watch a low resolution version of this show from this web page - Click on the video below

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Tags: Email , mailtags, tagging

Another Mac Montage this week! A couple of tips I use every week to create the show and associated supporting documents and graphics along with a great way to personalise your emails, together with a look at an OSX application.


This weeks tips in detail are:

Finding and capturing HiRes Icons in OS X: Now that Leopard supports huge 512x512 icons, application designers have gone to town, creating beautiful HiRes icons for all of your favourite applications. Not only that, but Apples own designers have created many, many beautiful HiRes icons for folders, software and even Apple hardware devices. This tip will show you how to find them on your system, copy them safely and create your own transparent png graphics for use in graphic projects and presentations - all for free. The tip also includes a handy little trick for capturing those gorgeous 512x512 icons from third party applications too!
Creating eMail Stationery Templates: Another new feature in Leopard was the inclusion of full colour HTML based email templates to brighten up your emails. Whilst, the pre-built templates are all very nice (!) wouldn't it be great to design your own personalised eMail templates for personal or business use? Well this tip shows you how to do just that! By examining an existing email template, this tip steps you through the structure of the template and shows your how to amend the template to suit your needs, then save it as a custom template.
Using The OS X Dictionary: he dictionary has been around for a while, but has been greatly expanded in Leopard to allow you direct access to a Thesaurus, and Apple dictionary and even direct access to Wikipedia. This tip also shows you a simple keyboard shortcut that allows you to look up words in any Cocoa app without having to load the full dictionary application - very cool!
Capturing Single Frames in Quicktime Movies: This simple tip shows you how to capture a single frame in a Quicktime movie and export it to png or jpeg format.As promised, the second of an occasional series of various hints and tips on getting the most out of your mac. Instead of the show focussing on a single piece of software or subject, I mix it up with several unrelated hints and tips on various aspects of using a mac. Each tip is directly accessible via chapter marks so you can either watch all the tips in sequence or jump straight to the tip you'd like.

Discussions: Forum

Extra! Members Version formats	1280x720 - Full HD Resolution 1280x720 - Full HD Resolution with overscan 960x540 - HD Resolution 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution All versions with embedded chapter markings and available via iTunes, Miro or by direct download from the Extra! members site
Free Version Formats	This show is only available to ScreenCastsOnline Extra! members

Become a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! Member
Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

To View the Trailer for the Full Free Show
Subscribe to either the free versions of the shows in iTunes, and have this trailer plus subsequent free shows delivered to your computer each week by clicking the links below!
Free High Definition version of the show in iTunes or Free iPod version of the show in iTunes



Watch the trailer for this show from this web page by clicking on the video below.

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Tags: Launchbar, itunes, Safari, Numbers, dictionary, quicktime, Preview, mail

As well as covering the best in both Apple and third party software, I also like to cover OSX and some of the hidden features that continue to amaze me. One such feature is the inclusion of speech technologies within OS X Leopard, something that Apple has included with all versions of it's operating systems since the early 90s.

However, OS X Leopard made some significant advancements in these technologies and introduced a new computer generated voice called Alex enabling the inbuilt Text to Speech functions become viable and in fact, extremely useful.

As well as Text to Speech, OS X also has a full range of speech recognition technologies built right in, at no extra cost, allowing you to control your mac and access many application functions with just your voice - very cool!

So this weeks show examines such features including:

• Text to Speech Setup
• Selecting Text to Speak
• Proof Reading using Text to Speech
• Automator Action to convert PDFs to Audio and import into iTunes
• Configuring Speech Recognition
• Using Speech Recognition
• Demo of some Typical Commands

By the end of the show, you'll have a good appreciation of just what is possible and be ready to try it out for yourself!

Links: Speakapedia

Discussions: Forum

Extra! Members Version formats	1280x720 - Full HD Resolution 1280x720 - Full HD Resolution with overscan 960x540 - HD Resolution 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution All versions with embedded chapter markings and available via iTunes, Miro or by direct download from the Extra! members site
Free Version Formats	960x540 - HD with overscan - Download 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution - Download.

Become a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! Member
Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

To View the Full Free Show
Subscribe to either the free versions of the shows in iTunes, and have this show plus subsequent free shows delivered to your computer each week by clicking the links below!
Free High Definition version of the show in iTunes or Free iPod version of the show in iTunes



Watch a low resolution version of this show from this web page - Click on the video below

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Amazing! Yes, that's the word I'd use to describe this brand new service which allows you to store, sync and share your files and photos. The new service is called "Dropbox" and is fully cross platform with clients for the Mac, Windows and Linux. Add in a fully featured web interface plus an iPhone optimised web site, and your files and data can be seamlessly synced across all your computers and accessible from any machine with an internet connection. In some respects, Dropbox looks to be the service we were all hoping iDisk was going to be when re-launched as part of MobileMe.

The free version of Dropbox gives you a whopping 2GB of free storage space, but don't make the mistake of treating this as just another online storage system. Dropbox has all sorts of extra features allowing you to share your files and photos easily via publicly addressable URLs, full file versioning and easy recovery, recovery of deleted files, special online photo galleries and much more. This weeks ScreenCastsOnline Extra! members show demonstrates all these features and more. The full show covers:

• Intro & Setup
• Using Dropbox
• Using the Dropbox folder
• Sharing Files From Your Public Folder
• Dropbox Web Interface
• File Versioning and Restoring
• Syncronising & Sharing
• Syncronising Between Macs
• Sharing Dropbox Folders
• Recovering Deleted Files
• Using Photos and Dropbox

In addition, I also demonstrate how 1Password users can migrate from MobileMe syncing of their 1Password data to use the brand new Agile Keychain facility within 1Password, and use Dropbox to synchronise instead. This allows for a more feature rich, efficient and more robust syncing solution than using MobileMe.



Links:
Dropbox
MacReviewcast
macbites
1Password Blog
ScreenCastsOnline Forums

Discussions: Forum

Extra! Members Version formats	1280x720 - Full HD Resolution 1280x720 - Full HD Resolution with overscan 960x540 - HD Resolution 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution All versions with embedded chapter markings and available via iTunes, Miro or by direct download from the Extra! members site
Free Version Formats	This show is only available to ScreenCastsOnline Extra! members

Become a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! Member
Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

To View the Trailer for the Full Free Show
Subscribe to either the free versions of the shows in iTunes, and have this trailer plus subsequent free shows delivered to your computer each week by clicking the links below!
Free High Definition version of the show in iTunes or Free iPod version of the show in iTunes



Watch the trailer for this show from this web page by clicking on the video below.

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Tags: Sync, dropbox

This week is the final in the short series of product updates (at least for a month or two!) and I take a look at the newly launched version of PDFPen - PDFPen v4.

As well as PDFPen, I also take a look at a side benefit of some of the new features of PDF Pen that will help Evernote users in enabling PDF files to be fully searchable in Evernote.

As we're talking about PDFs, I also take a look at a free utility that allows you to take a standard full sized PDF and convert it automatically into a printable A5 booklet - very cool!

PDFPen has always been a great low cost PDF editor with some features previously only found in very expensive, top end editing applications. With the advent of PDFPen 4, there are even more features and the show will take a look at:

• Newly revised User Interface
• New Thumbnail view in the sidebar
• Optical Character Recognition (OCR) - This is a big one, enabling you to take your scanned, uneditable and unsearchable PDFs and convert them automatically to have full searchable and editable text.
• New Highlighting & Annotation Features
• New Print options for Comments and Notes
• New TIFF Output

The show also covers:

• Using PDFPen to