Articles by Matt Cone
Matt Cone is a technical writer at Fastly. He has experience creating documentation for organizations like Linode and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Matt’s first book, Master Your Mac, was published by No Starch Press. To get in touch with Matt, visit https://www.mattcone.com.
Safeguard Your Files with Online Backups
September 4, 2007
We all know we should back up our files, but who actually does? Well, we do most of the time, and right now we’re using two services to back up our email and critical work files - some PDFs, a book project and a lot of Photoshop PSD files. We have about 2.5 gig worth of “stuff” that needs to be backed up. At the moment, we’re using “Backup” from Apple since we have a .
How to Add Email Accounts to Apple's Mail
August 23, 2007
Every Mac comes with Apple’s very own killer email client. It’s called Mail, and in our opinion, it’s one of the greatest applications ever. Thanks to Mail, you don’t have to check each of your separate email accounts online anymore. Just pop them all into Apple’s Mail and you can read all of your messages in one simple application. But how do you get your email accounts into Mail? Or, if you’re already using Mail, how do you add other email accounts?
How to Automatically Open Applications on a Mac
August 10, 2007
Did you know that you can set applications to automatically start when you turn on your Mac? It’s an extremely useful feature that can save you a couple minutes every day, especially if there are certain applications you use all the time. Here’s how to do it: From the Apple menu, select System Preferences. Select Accounts. Select the Login Items tab. To add applications to the start up list, click the + button and select the application.
How to Publish iCal Calendars to the Web
August 9, 2007
Apple’s iCal is one of the best applications you can use to keep track of events, appointments, meetings, classes, and other everything else scheduling. But when you’re away from your Mac, how are you supposed to find out what you have lined up for the day? If you use iCal’s publish to web feature, you can simply visit your website for the latest and most up-to-date version of your calendar.
Change Your Default Web Browser and Email Client
August 7, 2007
You can come across links to web pages and email addresses in everything from Word files to PDFs these days. When you click the links, your Mac opens the website or email message in your default web browser and email client, which by default is set to Safari and Apple’s Mail. But what if you use Firefox or another web browser? What happens if you use another email client to send and receive email messages?
Mac System Monitoring Apps
August 3, 2007
There are millions of car owners out there who will probably never look under the hood and see their vehicle’s engine. They don’t care whether or not their engine is overheating or their oil pressure’s jacked up or their car battery is about to conk out on them. As long they can drive, they’re good to go. And in the same vein, many Mac users don’t care about their computer’s inner workings.
How to Use .Mac
August 1, 2007
If you’re new to Macs, or if you’re not all that savvy with tech stuff (like creating websites and backing up important information with an online service), you should look into Apple’s .Mac service. It’s a $100 per year service that unlocks a number of cool features built into your Mac. In fact, some of the features are so cool that even seasoned Mac users spring for it. Here are just a few of the features that come with .
Mailplane: Better Gmail for Your Mac
July 30, 2007
When we discussed Google applications a couple weeks ago, we mentioned several applications that allowed you to check your Gmail account from your Mac’s Desktop. But these are only good insofar as you can see that you have new email messages waiting to be read. To actually read the email messages, you still have to open up a web browser and long into Gmail. We’ve also discussed how to use Gmail with Apple’s Mail, which works great if you only use your Gmail account on your Mac.
A Greenhorn's Guide to the Mac Web
July 27, 2007
Google and RSS feeds have fundamentally rewired the Internet in recent years. Instead of visiting our favorite websites on a daily basis, we search for content and sift through it in our RSS readers. But if you’re looking for the most up-to-date content from sources you trust, there’s still no better way to get it than visiting the actual websites. Which websites should you visit? That’s a good question. Until now, we’ve resisted the temptation to provide a links section on Macinstruct.
Use Your iPod as a Portable Hard Drive
July 26, 2007
If you own a Mac (or any computer for that matter), chances are you’ll eventually have to transfer files to another computer. And you’ll probably want to back up your irreplaceable files and data, too. For these relatively trivial tasks, we recommend that you use your iPod. After all, your music, movies, and pictures probably take up less than half of your iPod’s hard drive space. You can use some of the free space as a storage device!