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Creating custom views in Illustrator is a great trick you can use to save time. Custom views are great for viewing complicated illustrations and documents with many Multiple Artboards, or sections of an Illustrator document you are constantly revisiting. Vectips has a great little tutorial to show you how you can use Illustrator’s Custom View capability to your advantage.
Save time with Custom Views in Adobe Illustrator
Save time with Custom Views in Adobe Illustrator
Apple’s new pro Mac
Apple’s new pro Mac
Has Apple already released it’s latest Mac for pros? The upper-end iMac can now be configured with an Intel Core i5 or i7 quad-core processor, a 2TB hard drive, and up to 16GB of RAM; and the mammoth 27″ LED screen is nothing short of stunning. With all this power in Apple’s supposed consumer-level desktop, one has to wonder if there’s any need for a MacPro by anyone shy of George Lucas working on the next horrible sequel to StarWars. As a designer, I’ve spent the last 20 years accepting the fact that I had to buy the most expensive model of Mac available in order to get the power I needed to edit large multi-layered Photoshop files and videos. Buying a G3, G4, G5, and even the early MacPros was the only way to get a Mac which would support enough RAM to accomplish my job without adding two days to the work week.
Deleting applications easily in Mac OS X
Deleting applications easily in Mac OS X
It’s no secret that Mac OS X doesn’t always make it easy to completely delete an application from your system. There are preference files littered all over the hard drive, and most apps not offering an uninstaller, it’s a real pain in the behind. Even apps that offer an uninstaller inexplicably don’t always delete all the files. While there is no foolproof way of removing ALL those files, AppCleaner goes a long way in making the task easier. AppCleaner is a free utility from FreeMacSoft that like other app-remover applications like AppZapper, removes applications and their supporting files. Unlike AppZapper though, AppCleaner offers the option of running in the background – meaning you don’t have to remember to use it. 
The SmartDelete preference option in AppCleaner sets your system to automatically gather all the files attached to a particular application when you drag that app to the trash. You can then selectively decide if you want to delete all or some of the related files along with the application itself. You can also protect your preferred applications from accidentally being deleted if you so choose; a nice little safety valve. I used AppZapper for quite a long time until I came across AppCleaner a few years ago. I’ve been using it ever since with no problems whatsoever. As I stated earlier, no app uninstaller is perfect. But AppCleaner is the best I’ve used at finding all the files associated with an app. And I love that it does it automatically. AppCleaner is free, runs in Mac OS X 10.4 through 10.6.1.
Apple’s Magic Mouse: Ouch!!!
I recently got to use one for a day of design work, web surfing, and general computing, and got my answer. The Magic Mouse is compact, and glides smoothly on your desk. The cursor was very responsive, and not the least bit “jumpy” on any surface I tried it on, including my lap. But that’s pretty much where the love affair ended for me.
The very thing that makes it so stunning to look at also makes it so uncomfortable to use. After about an hour of working in Photoshop and InDesign, my hand was cramped from squeezing it. It’s just too low-profile for long-term use. I felt like I had to work too hard to keep control of it. While the touch clicking and scrolling was easy enough, using the limited gestures available was virtually impossible for me. I simply couldn’t hold the mouse and swipe at the same time without contorting my hand to the point of causing more cramps in my fingers. The amount of time wasted trying to get the gestures to work could be accomplished the old-fashioned way. Of course, nobody says you MUST use the Magic Mouse for your daily computing needs. Due to its compact size and Bluetooth connection, the Magic Mouse makes a great compliment to your MacBook Pro when you’re on the road. It’s also fine for users who may not require a lot of mousing around, such as writers or anyone who makes extensive use of the keyboard vs. the mouse. At $69 though, the Magic Mouse is awfully expensive for a “backup” mouse.