Macworld's best tips, tricks, and How-To's

Search for iTunes music by star rating

Want to filter your iTunes library by rating information? Just type some asterisks.

Obtaining free GarageBand soundsWant to add free software instrument sounds to GarageBand? SoundFont is the answer.
ExpressCard/34 Buyers’ GuideIf you've got a MacBook Pro, you've got an ExpressCard/34 slot (instead of the old PC Card slot). Jeff Carlson explains a few of the ways you can use that slot to beef up your laptop.

Latest Help and Tips

Search for iTunes music by star rating
Want to filter your iTunes library by rating information? Just type some asterisks.
Obtaining free GarageBand sounds
Want to add free software instrument sounds to GarageBand? SoundFont is the answer.
ExpressCard/34 Buyers’ Guide
If you've got a MacBook Pro, you've got an ExpressCard/34 slot (instead of the old PC Card slot). Jeff Carlson explains a few of the ways you can use that slot to beef up your laptop.
Earthlink and the devil's spam filter
Want to make friends and influence people? Dial down Earthlink's address-approval "feature."
Record any sounds
Many fleeting sounds that play on your Mac are worth preserving. With the help of the right software, you can record and edit audio files and add them to iTunes for future use.
View inline PDFs in Firefox 3
While you can view PDFs in a browser window using Safari, you have no such luxury with Firefox 3. But now there’s an extension called ‘firefox-mac-pdf’ allows you to do just that.
Watching the Olympics on your Mac
Yes, you can too watch NBC's streaming Olympics coverage.
Recording Studio: Choose the right guitar
Because Jim Dalrymple records all of his music on the Mac, he tends to focus on software designed for that purpose. However, there are other important factors to consider from the outset—one of the most important is choosing the right guitar for the job.
Custom print sizes in iPhoto '08
The N-up and Sampler templates are gone from iPhoto '08. Use a custom print size to get close to their results.
Bugs & Fixes: Fixing a Spotlight search failure
Ted Landau offers two ways to repair a corrupted Spotlight index—one involving a Terminal command and the other using a shareware program.
Use an AppleScript to force a desktop picture change
Here’s an AppleScript that will cause your desktop image to change, in whatever order you have set, each time it’s run.
Launch System Preferences with a keyboard shortcut
If you don’t keep System Preferences in your Dock, you can always create a keyboard shortcut for those times you need to open System Preferences.
Troubleshooting iPhone and iPod touch issues
Learn a few things you can try when experiencing issues with your iPhone or iPod touch running the 2.0.x software.
The limits of iPhoto slideshows
Are iPhoto slideshows completely un-shareable? Limited, yes, un-shareable, no.
Use a Mail rule to help identify relevant messages
Use a built-in feature of Mail’s rules to easily identify messages from those you’ve recently e-mailed.
Automating Software Update downloads
You've got a three-hour window between 3 and 6 AM to get your Apple updates over a questionable broadband connection. Here's one way to go about it.
Resolving preamp problems
Thanks to reader suggestions, Jim Dalrymple was able to come up with a recording setup that gives him enough preamps for his microphones. As a result, his album recording project is back on track.
Bugs & Fixes: Vanishing contacts and calendar events
Ted Landau tells you what to do if contacts and calendar events synced via MobileMe suddenly disappear from your iPhone. And he returns to smart flash drives, the subject of last week’s column.
Force subscribed calendars to sync to MobileMe
MobileMe won’t sync all the events from your subscribed calendars. Until such time as it does, this hint provides a usable, if not perfect, workaround.
Send clickable links in Mail's Subject field
Send clickable links in a somewhat unexpected field in Mail.