Help Section

hat is this?

'This' is smallish manual which lists the majority of the most common major and minor problems faced by users of Macs which I have dealt with at one point or another during shadow worrying. Over this time a lot of errors which I believe to be machine specific have been mentioned, so if somewhere it says that this error is more common on the Duo 230, it is because from my experience, it has happened either exclusively or very nearly so on that computer. It may just have been 'how the dice came out' but more often than not, it is something to do with the internals of that type. Hopefully, this should provide answers to some of the more common problems; I hope so anyway.

y the way, if you do get errors, always check the obvious first. While shadow working, I was called out to fix a broken monitor which broke because the plug was not in and a dead mouse which was not working because someone polished their mouse mat with furniture polish!

I have, naturally, done it myself. When finding that all the colours on the monitor had turned yellow, I nearly had hysterics, but the reason was that the monitor lead was in too far. It should be a warning that you should always check your leads, not just that they are in, but are in the right distance and do not have bad contacts,

Layout and Links
Pictures
Useful Applications
Inside Information
Compressors
Speed Programs
About the Memory

Word about Layout and Links

 In this set of pages, any links that would take you to an application will take you to the page that contains the application to download rather than actually downloading it. There are a number of reasons for this:

  1. Not having a modem myself I can only give the odd URL that I know
  2. These sites often have links to other mirror sites which contain the document, and almost always have other applications of interest that might catch your eye while you are there.
  3. The application is not always available for downloading, so you will at least have the knowledge that the link is correct. You can then try again later, rather than having a general error that says nothing or that the link itself might be wrong.
his should not cause a problem as most browsers have a [BACK] command that will take you back anyway.

Pictures

ictures are at a moderate level, there are not too many, and most do not have links attached to them. My reasons for this are that otherwise it would take to long to load the pages. Since an unloaded picture is still a link, it can be very difficult to tell where they are going to take you. The only major link picture is one that will appear last at the middle of the bottom of every page. It looks like this one here and always takes you to the index. If you do not load pictures, just remember that the bottom picture on each page is the index.

seful Applications

 Netscape is in my opinion the best internet navigator around and is well worth taking a look into if you do not have it. You can get hopefully quit near to it by clicking here.

For anyone that really wants to get into the Macintosh and down into the nitty gritty of programs, ResEdit and The Norton Utilities are a good bet. ResEdit is freeware and can be found in many sites on the internet, here, for instance, along with many other useful little utilities. Norton is a bit more difficult to get at. It is a commercial package by Symantec and will cost you at least the better part of $100.

All those who are tired of going through menus for commands in the Finder, especially the memory control panel to change colours and resolution, should try and get hold of Desktop Strip, a program like Control Strip on the portables, that allows you to carry out numerous functions without digging through menus and control panels.

nside Information

To get information on applications, you can select them in the Finder and either press [Apple + I] or select Get Info from the File menu. The information box that this calls out is useful for viewing memory sizes and miscellaneous information. It is always worth setting the Preferred Size of an application up about 100k or so above the suggested size as it can stop a lot of 'only just out of memory' problems, and may marginally increase the speed it runs at too.

owever, people sometimes want a few more options than this. Snitch is a program that will increase the size of the 'Get Info' window and include a few more functions. Click here for more info.

ompressors

There are three major compressors around that may worth getting your hands on. Compression, is not only useful for those who want to save Hard Disk or Floppy Disk space, but it also makes up- and downloading software much quicker. This means money saved, which will (as far as phone bills are concerned), very quickly outweigh the minimal cost of the compressor.

The first is a commercial (and PPC native for those who have them) one by Stmantec again. Disk Doubler does quite a good job and has its own menu so it is extremely easy to use (the INIT that supplies the menu will cost you 111k or so of RAM but is not essential for those worried about memory). For those who are worried about integrity though, it does not support encryption of any archives made. It has a variety of compression types ensuring maximum performance and

Second up is Compact Pro, possibly the least useful as it does not come PPC ready at all and although shareware, does not allow encryption unless you register it. It does not have an overly easy to use system, but is quite efficient at compressing. It is quite commonly used on the internet, so it can come in handy.

Last but not least is Stuffit, a very useful, and small utility that is the main one used by people that upload to the internet. It is shareware by Aladdin and if registered, can encrypt and open multiple archives at once. You should have a copy of this or Stuffit Expander if you want to download anything in particular. The program can put lots of files into one large archive and allow you to view those files like you would when you navigate through folders with an Open command. Files and folders can be compressed into and out of folders leaving everything else intact.

Extra Speed Software

Symantec have come with a large amount of extra software to speed up your computer:

emory

Memory is something that the majority us wish we had a better supply of us, both in and out of the computer. It is important, however, to know which sort of memory is which: * Both of these functions can be set up in the Memory Control Panel.

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