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What to do when your computer won't turn on

One of the scariest things that can happen to your Mac is a failure to turn on at all. You press the power button and nothing happens - no startup sound, no light, nothing. If this happens, you can check several things before hauling your Mac to the nearest Apple Store for repair.

First, trace the entire flow of electricity to your Mac. Check your Mac's power cord to ensure it is firmly seated where it connects to the computer as well as where it plugs into the wall. If it goes through an outlet strip or a UPS, make sure that's also connected and turned on. Also check that any surge protectors are still working - a power surge might have knocked them off. You can confirm that an outlet is good by plugging in something else, such as a light. If the outlet and all cable connections check out, make sure the power cord has no crimps, breaks, or other damage.

Once you've established that your AC power path is good, it's time to look at your Mac itself. Unplug everything you can - not the power cord, your mouse and keyboard if they're wired, and your monitor if it's not built in - but disconnect everything else and try pressing the power button again. If your Mac turns on, you know that one of your peripherals was at fault.

If your Mac doesn't turn on, it's worth trying to reset your Mac's SMC (System Management Controller), a chip that manages a number of hardware functions - including the operation of the power button. Directions vary by Mac model; see Apple's instructions for details (http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964).

If you have a Mac laptop, its battery should last through most power outages, so you may not notice that you have a power-related problem until the battery runs out, at which point your Mac might simply appear to be dead. So try all the above tips, but also check your power adapter. If you have an AC cable attached to the adapter (as opposed to a plug going directly into the wall), make sure that cable is securely connected. If you have access to another AC adapter, switch to it briefly - that will tell you whether the original adapter is bad or whether it's something in your Mac itself.

Still no luck? In that case, it's time for professional help. An Apple Store or authorized repair center should be able to diagnose and fix the problem.

Launch files and apps on a scheduled date

If you've ever wished you could schedule the opening of a specific file, or set an application to launch on a specific date and time, either on a one off basis or on a recurring scheduled event, you can actually do both right in macOS with the help of none other than the default Calendar app.

• Open Calendar in macOS and create a new event, either by clicking the [+] plus button or by double-clicking on any date
• Double-click the event to display event details
• Click on the date and time section
• Pull down the "alert" menu and choose "Custom…"
• Pull down the "Message" menu and choose "Open file"
• Directly under the menu, pull down the next menu and choose "Other...", then use the file browser to select the file you want to open on a schedule
• Choose "OK" when finished

Once the date arrives, the selected file will launch automatically in the default application at the date and time specified in Calendar as the alert. Use the “repeat" function to set the file to consistently relaunch on the given date and time provided. These can be standard, or custom repeating schedules like every last Friday of the month. The repeat feature is an excellent additional trick for repetitive tasks that use the same file, like a weekly or monthly earnings report, tax document, expense sheet, or whatever else requires regular use on a scheduled basis.

 

Safari ".com" shortcut

Posted in Safari Tips & Tricks

In the previous versions of Safari you could navigate to a URL without having to type ".com". The same can be done in Safari 10 with one extra keystroke.

Entering "apple" in the location bar of Safari will yield you Google search results for those terms. However, including a trailing slash will cause Safari to add the ".com" to a logical location in the address, and take you to that URL. So, "apple/" will take you to "apple.com". Finally, if you type “apple/macbook”, Safari will go to "apple.com/macbook”.

Quick print from Finder

Posted in Finder Tips & Tricks

Despite the promise long ago of the paperless office, we still need to print documents from our Macs at times. The usual launch an app to print a document routine works fine for that, but you can save a little time by printing your files directly from the Finder.

Printing a document without first launching the app that created it is easy. Just select the document and use the Command-P keyboard shortcut (or go the the File menu and choose Print). The default app for the file's format will launch, and in most cases will send the document to your default printer without any interaction.

Applications that expect more user input before printing, like professional design apps, will wait for you to configure your print settings before putting ink on paper. It adds back in an extra step, but for file formats that default to Preview, it's as simple as select-and-print.

Essential keyboard shortcuts for the Open and Save dialog

The next time you end up in an Open or Save dialog window, try out a few of these helpful keyboard shortcuts to make navigating around the dialog and filesystem much faster.

Command+D
Selects Desktop as the destination.

Command+Shift+H
Sets the Home directory as the destination.

Command+Shift+A
Sets Applications directory as the destination.

Command+Shift+.
Toggle invisible items.

Command+Shift+G
Bring up Go To Folder window.

Command+R
Open the selected item in the Finder.

Command+F
Move the cursor to the Find field.

Command+.
Close the Open/Save dialog window.

Spacebar
View the selected item in Quick Look.

Tab
Tab key auto-completes paths and file names from the aforementioned Go To Folder window.