Website FAQ

About Website FAQ

This section contains Frequently Answered Questions about the macintechsig.org website. It contains important information about our website and how you can get the most out of your visit.

Registered members of macintechsig.org may post followup questions on any of the topics here by using the comment link at the bottom of any page.

Getting started is easy, just click a link below to view the related FAQ.

We welcome your feedback and comments.

Thanks for visiting.
macintechsig.org admin. team

Browser Support

What web browsers does the website support?

We're proud to say this site is W3Ci compliant so if you are using any modern browser that supports web standards then the site will behave consistently across all those browsers.

Here's a partial list of web standard compliant browsers (some are more compliant than others):

What about Internet Explorer for Mac OS 9?
Internet Explorer 5.x was great in OS 9 and OS 8, in fact it was one of the first browsers re-written to start complying with the emerging web standards movement. Sadly, while Internet Explorer follows a few of the W3C web standard items, it falls well short of the mark these days. It falls so far short that even MicroSOFT has stated they will no longer be supporting Internet Explorer for the Mac. Sorry folks but it's time to get a better browser (a harsh statement but true).

What about Netscape Navigator?
Sorry, but again we're back to waving the web standards banner and Netscape of old just doesn't make the grade. It was a by product of the browser wars with Microsoft and sadly it's lost the fight on several fronts. Again, it's time to get a better browser.

Do we have a recommended browser?
For our Windows cousins we highly recommend FireFox. This site works fine in Internet Explorer for Windows but FireFox is just better on so many levels.

For the Mac OS, you really have a lot of choices. Of course the site works fine in Apple's Safari browser. Safari also has the added benefit of using the Mac OS X built in spell checker so you can spell check items on the fly before submitting a post. FireFox or Opera are also both excellent choices. In fact, this website (and many other websites we visit) actually feels crisper in FireFox than Safari -- don't ask us why -- the content is the same but it just feels quicker.

Connecting our iDisk Public Folder

To mount our iDiski Public Folder on your Desktop using Mac OSi X Tiger or Panther:

  1. Click on your Desktop to make the Finder the active application
  2. Choose Go menu > iDisk > Other User's Public Folder...
  3. In the dialog box, enter mtug in the Member Name field and press Connect
  4. Double click a folder name to open a folder and drag a file onto your desktop to copy it to your computer

To connect to our Public iDisk folder using a different version of Mac OS X or Windows, please read this Apple Support Article for details.

How Do I...

How Do I type of questions

This section of our WebsiteFAQs deal with How Do I... style topics. Please note, these are how to steps related to using the macintechsig.org website. If you're looking for How To style questions and answers regarding specific software applications please visit our Forums or Search this website.

Finding the Most Recent Posts

How do I find the most recent, newest, or most recently changed posts on this website?

Finding the most recent posts on this website is only one click away, do this:

  1. Login with your user ID and password
  2. Cick Recent Posts in the Navigation area on the right of the screen
  3. A complete list of all recent posts are displayed
  4. Posts which you have not read have a red new tag next to their name
  5. Click on a link to read the post

Hints:

  1. Posts which have been edited since you last read them also have a red new tag next to their name.
  2. If you have logged in, you will see all the premium and guest content.
  3. If you have not logged in, the list of recent posts displays only those items with guest access.

Making Text Bigger

I find the text size on this website too small to read comfortably. How can I make it easier to read?

That's a great question and it's a very easy fix.

All of the text on this site can be made larger or smaller using standard features built into web standard compliant sites like this one, and build into web standard compliant web browsers like Safari, FireFOX and others.

To make the text bigger in Safari, do this:

  1. choose View menu > Make Bigger
  2. all text on the site will be larger, including text in the body of pages like this one and all the navigation items.

Notice that the content of the site reflows automatically to accommodate your larger text size. To make the text smaller simply go back to the View menu and choose Make Smaller

Hint:You can also add an icon to the Safari tool bar that let's you enlarge and reduce the size of text by clicking on an icon. To add Text Sizing icons to your Safari tool bar, do this:

  1. choose View menu > Customize Address Bar...
  2. a sheet will drop down from the Safari document window
  3. drag the Text Size icons from the Sheet onto the Safari Address Bar and press Done

Now you can change the text size up or down simply by clicking on the appropriate icon.

If you're using a web browser other than Safari, for example FireFOX, you're are going to be looking for menu items named something like Text Size. Typically those types of menu items appear in a web browsers View menu.

Hint: You can also use key command short cuts to do the same task, and they are often the same in man web browsers. Press Command + to make text bigger. Press Command - to make text smaller

Optimizing Screen Space

I'm using a computer with a small monitor and the main content area on this website is too small. How can I reclaim more screen space to make reading content easier?

The main content area (the white area you're reading this in) is designed to be readable at screen resolutions of 1024x768 or higher. However, we understand that not everyone has monitors which support that resolution, or perhaps you're using a smaller laptop display. With that condition in mind, we've provided the ability for you to customize some of the primary navigation elements of this website.

To shut off some of the navigation elements and reclaim more space for the main content area, do this:

  1. login with your user name and password (or register if you don't have one)
  2. click the my account link in the left hand navigation column
  3. scroll down to the block configuration section
  4. the blocks with check marks all appear on the right side of your screen
  5. click on a box next to a block name to uncheck it
  6. scroll down and press submit

If you unchecked all the blocks, then they no longer appear in the right hand navigation column and the main content are (the white area you're reading this in) will fill up that space. The settings are remembered by the website and are saved with your user account settings.

In most cases, all of the content that appeared in the right hand column was a summary of information from the primary site sections. To find that content just click on any link to go that site section. For example, click Forums to visit the forums and see the recent entries that were summarized in the right hand column.

Information such as Who's Online and Who's New is not displayed anywhere else on site except the right hand navigation column.

Seeing Additional Help

Contextual Help for website features

Some features of this website have specific help articles associated with them. For example, there is specific help instructions for posting Polls, Forum Topics or adding Comments.

Just look for this icon [inline:1] at the top right corner of the page when making a New Poll, Forum Topic or Comment. Clicking on that will display additional information, hints and tips.

If you're looking for help on how to format your messages for various special effects such as bold or italic fonts (and many others) click this icon [inline:2] next to various text and form fields to see additional information about the related item.

Generally, there is a lot that you can do within this online community to please take your time, look around, and explore. The water is fine so come on in Cool

Working with bookmarks

How do I create and manage bookmarks?

Here are the general rules as they apply to working with bookmarks:

  1. Bookmarks are available to registered visitors only.
  2. Bookmarks are saved with your user name and stored on macintechsig.org, not in your browser. This allows you to access your bookmarks from any computer, not just the computer you might use at the office, in the school computer lab, in an internet cafe or other location.
  3. Your bookmarks can contain links to macintechsig.org pages or to any page on a different website.

For detailed, step by step, instructions please visit the links noted below.

Adding Bookmarks

Quick Link is the fastest and easiest way to add a bookmark to any macintechsig.org web page.

To add a bookmark to any macintechsig.org page using Quick Link, do this:

  1. Login with your macintechsig.org user ID and password.
  2. A special Bookmarks section appears in the navigation area.
  3. Open the page you want to bookmark and click Quick Link.
  4. The Create Bookmark Page opens. The default name of the page is automatically entered in the Title field.
    • Optional:Delete the default name and enter your own custom name.
  5. Do not change the default address entered automatically in the URLi field.
  6. Press Save; the bookmark is added to your navigation area.

To add a bookmark to a web page on a different website, do this:

  1. Click Quick Link to open the Create Bookmark Page.
  2. Enter a name for the page in the Title field.
  3. Enter the address in the URL field and click Save.
  4. The new bookmark is added to our navigation area.

Hint: It's easy to make a mistake when entering the address of a website. We recommend visiting the website, copying the address from the browsers Address field, then pasting that information into the URL field to avoid any data entry errors. Remember, some website addresses are case sensitive so be careful when manually entering addresses.

Deleting Bookmarks

To delete a bookmark, do this:

  1. click on the Delete Icon next to the name of a bookmark
  2. The bookmark is automatically deleted

Caution:This operation cannot be undone.

Managing Bookmarks

The same basic process for adding bookmarks is applied to managing a bookmark. You may rename the title of a bookmark, change the address (URLi) of a bookmark, or delete the bookmark entirely from your bookmark menu.

To manage existing bookmark, do this:

  1. Click Manage in the Bookmarks navigation area.
  2. Your personal list of bookmarks is presented.
  3. To Edit the name or address of a bookmark click Edit next to the bookmarks name.
    • Enter a new name or address and press Save
  4. To Delete a bookmark click Delete next to the bookmarks name.

Links and Icons

Why do some links on caddpower.com have a small icon and what do they mean?

We use icons to help you distinguish, at a glance, what a particular link might be for or where it might take you.

Name of Link A link with no icon takes you to content within this website.

quicktime movie Link Name.mov A link to a QuickTIME demonstration movie file.

Name of Link external website link An external link to a website or web-page (i.e. a link which is not part of this website)

www.example.com is pretty much what it looks like, a link to a website or web-page which is not located on this website but the link is spelled out so it didn't need the external website link icon next to it.

Oops... why are you seeing this page

Why are you seeing this page?

Some content and features of this site are restricted to registered MacinTech and Multimedia SIGi Members only. However, don't give up as there are some common reasons why you're seeing this page and there are some easy things you can try to correct the problem:

  1. Links from other websites: If you were following a link that was posted on another website, it's possible the link from the other website was to Member Only content on our site; that means you need to be logged in here to see that content so try Logging In and try the link again. Don't have an account? No problem, you can set one up.
  2. Someone emailed you a linked page from this site: It's possible a friend of yours emailed you a page or a link to page on this website. If that person was logged into this site and viewing Member only content, then you'll also need to be logged in to view that content. If you have a Macintech/Multimedia SIG website user ID, log in and try the link in the email again. If you don't have a user id for this site, you can register for one, then log in and try the emailed link again.
  3. Internal Links: If you clicked on a link from a general website article it might lead to Member only content. Please login and try the link again or try searching this website for a more up to date link.
  4. Recently Registered: If you have recently registered to use this website and are a Macintech or Multimedia user group member, it may take up to 72 hours for your account to be granted Membership Access privileges. We apologize for the delay but it takes time to review each request with our database of registered club members.
  5. Forgot your Password: If you forgot or lost your password you can Request a New Password. You may change the password after you have logged in. Remember, passwords are case sensitive. The password field will display a Caps Lock symbol as a reminder to turn off your Caps Lock key when entering passwords. If you password contains case sensitive characters use the Shift key instead to enter only those characters.
  6. Access Privileges: If you are currently logged in and received this error page, then you may not have sufficient access privileges to view a particular page or perform a particular task. You can Contact Us describing the content you were trying to access or the task you were trying to perform and we will review your request for additional access privileges.

Features and Content restricted to registered MacinTech and Multimedia SIG members only include:

Thanks for visiting and we apologize for any inconvenience. If you still can't find what you're looking for or continue to have problems accessing this site please Contact Us and we'll do our best to help.

macintechsig.org admin. team

Page Not Found but you can try...

Looking for something at macintechsig.org?

We're sorry. We tried really hard but after looking everywhere on our site we just can't find the page you requested. However, don't give up as there are some common reasons why that might have happened and there are some easy things you can try to correct the problem:

  1. If you typed the URLi yourself, please make sure the spelling is correct and that you have the complete path. In some cases URL's are case sensitive.
  2. If you were following a link from another website, it's possible their link is obsolete or incorrect. We recommend searching our website to find what you're looking for. The search field is located in the top right corner of every macintechsig.org web page.
  3. If you clicked on a link within macintechsig.org there may be a problem with the link or you may not have logged in. Please login and try the link again or try searching this website for a more up to date link.
  4. Try using any of the links at the top of this screen, what you're looking for may be in one of those frequently requested sections of our website.
  5. Try using the Recent Posts link in your navigation area on the left of your screen. That will take you to a list of recently posted articles, it's possible what you were looking for is there.

Feel free to Email Us if you still can't find what you're looking for or if you'd like to report a broken link.

We apologize for any inconvenience
macintechsig.org admin. team

RSS News Feed Links

Does the MacinTechSIG.org website have an RSSi Feed?

Yes, we publish several different RSS Feeds for content on this website. The reason we provide multiple feeds is so visitors can subscribe to just the content they're after.

Use the links below to find out more about how to subscribe to some of our content specific RSS feeds.

Forum Specific RSS Feeds

How do I subscribe to an RSSi News Feed for a specific MacintechSIG.org Forum?

Being able to subscribe to a RSS News Feed for a specific MacinTechSIG.org forum is an easy way to say in touch with only the information you need without having to visit the website. When you subscribe to a Forum Specific RSS feed, any new particles posted to that specific Forum will automatically appear in your RSS News Feed reader application.

Please note that Forums which contain Member Only content will produce an empty RSS feed in your news reader. We're aware of this limitation but are unaware of a method to have this content published and still maintain Member Only Access. Until we can determine a practical solution you'll still need to visit the site to get the latest member only perks.

What To Do:
We will provide an example here on how to subscribe to the Podcasting Forum. The same steps may be used to subscribe to any Forum on the MacinTechSIG.org website.

To Subscribe to a Forum RSS Feed, do this:

  1. Navigate to the page of our choice. In this example, navigate to the Podcasting Forum
  2. Click on the RSS icon that appears at the bottom of the list of current posts in the forum (see screen shot below)
  3. Follow the screen prompts to complete the subscription process and have the feed display in your news feed reading program of choice
  4. Each time a new post is added to our the specific forum, your news feed reader application will display a brief summary and a link back to our website for the full article

[inline:1]

To subscribe to a different forum, simply open your Forum Page of choice in step (1) and repeat steps (2) through (4).

Please note, we're aware of a problem when subscribing to this RSS feed with FireFox. However, the news feed subscription works correctly with Safari and Opera (and may work with other browsers). We apologize for any inconvenience however the feed is generated automatically by Drupal and we just don't know how to correct the condition so it works correctly in Firefox. When we have a fix this article will be updated.

Front Page RSS News Feed

How do I get a news feed for only the content that appears on the front page of the MacinTechSIG.org website?

We provide two methods to subscribe to the an RSSi Feed for content that appears on the front page of our website. When you subscribe to the Front Page RSS feed, any new particles posted to the Front Page will automatically appear in your RSS News Feed reader application. Subscribing to our Front Page feed can be an easy, and time efficient, method of staying in touch with what's going on without having to visit the website. Please note that Member Only content is NOT published to the RSS feed, you'll still need to visit the site to get the latest member only perks.

Please note, we're aware of a problem when subscribing to this RSS feed with FireFox using either method described. However, the news feed subscription works correctly with Safari and Opera (and may work with other browsers). We apologize for any inconvenience however the feed is generated automatically by Drupal and we just don't know how to correct the condition so it works correctly in Firefox. When we have a fix this article will be updated.

Method One: From the left hand navigation area:

  1. Click on the RSS icon that appears below the Syndicate section at the bottom of the left hand navigation column in your browser window (see image below)
  2. Follow the screen prompts to complete the subscription process and have the feed display in your news feed reading program of choice
  3. Each time a new article is added to our Front Page, your news feed reader application will display a brief summary and a link back to our website for the full article

[inline:1]

Method Two: From the Address field in Safari:

Please note, this method will subscribe you to the Front Page news regardless of which page you may be viewing on the website. In a perfect world the RSS feed link in the address bar would subscribe you to a feed for the currently displayed page. Again, this is a quirk of Drupal and we're just don't know how to correct that condition. When we have a fix this article will be updated.

  1. Click on the RSS icon that appears in the Address Field at the top of the Safari browser window (see image below)
  2. Follow the screen prompts to complete the subscription process and have the feed display in your news feed reading program of choice
  3. Each time a new article is added to our Front Page, your news feed reader application will display a brief summary and a link back to our website for the full article

[inline:2]

Registering for this website

This website is an online community for registered Macintech and Multimedia User Group members.

Guest visitors are always welcome and you are encouraged to browse all the content on our website. However, you will not be able to post comments, vote on online polls, or participate in forum discussions. Please stroll around to learn more about us.

Macintech and Multimedia User Group members:
If you are a registered member, dues paid and in good standing, with the Macintech and/or Multimedia User Group then you should complete the online form to create a new account.

An automated email containing your password and additional information will be sent to the email address you enter in the form so please check your email address carefully.

It can take up to 48 hours for us to process your request and activate your account for Membership privileges. Additional information is detailed in the automated email that is sent when you request your new account.

What is a SIG

What does SIGi mean?

SIG is short for Special Interest Group

In our case, the Multimedia Special Interest Group (SIG) is an Apple User Group that is a child to our parent group, the Macintech Users Group. Our SIG specializes in the discussion of Multimedia related topics.