[ajbaker]

Hello there. I have been using OS X for a couple of years, but last weekend I ended up setting it up for my sister.. on her new G5 and studio display (damn that's a nice combination!)

All went well (obviously) but there were a few niggling issues I could not answer properly. Anyone able to help?

1. The G5 is permanently connected to a couple of other machines via an ethernet hub. Internet access is via the G5's 56k modem. Mail will only check for new mail if it is connected to a network - problem is in this scenario it is not connected to the internet, and therefore cannot access the mail server. Is there anyway (apeart from preventing mail to check mail every x minutes) to prevent Mail checking if only the ethernet network is live? I played with the hierarchy in network prefs to no avail.

2. Another Mail problem. My sister often replies to an email, quoting the reply at the bottom. She generally uses a signature. Mail had a tendency to insert the signature at the bottom of the email, after the quoted text. Is there any way to get it to insert a signature (automatically) before the quoted text?

3. With such a huge screen, there is no reason not to display the date and time in the menu bar. Since this is not a Jaguar option, is there a utility to do just that? Tried VT for 'date menu' - nothing!

4. The default install of Jaguar and Classic prevented me from starting AppleTalk in Classic. Why? Everything was ok after copying across a Classic folder from another machine. Strange.

5. Until her copy of Adobe InDesign arrives, she is stuck using Quark in the Classic environment. Is there anyway to make use of Quark easier with the dock at the bottom of the screen and not hidden? Ie when zooming a window, prevent it from going behind the dock?

6. Fonts. Many of the fonts she uses are Type 1 with associated bitmaps. Copying these directly from her old machine left lots of strangely named type 1 fonts in the Fonts folder. I was under the impression utilities like TypeReunion were not required but it appears they are. Will Panther remove this requirement. Is there anything like TypeReunion for OS X?

7. Is there any way to make the loading of Classic invisible? (Might try macosxhints for this one!)

8. Are the HP ScanJet drivers reliable yet? Read around 6 months ago people were having huge problems with them?

9. When connecting to a networked machine, should the list really take so long to appear? After opening Connect to Server, it takes around 10 seconds to list 2 AppleTalk machines (OS 9) and one Win 2000 box. Creating an alias makes this easier obviously, but still! Incidentally, when you create an alias, should it not remember your password if added to the Keychain?

Sorry for the long list of problems. I really hope people may be able to offer some of that Mac friendly support on this. Many thanks,

Andrew Baker

[Judge_Fire]

Originally posted by ajbaker:
2. Another Mail problem. My sister often replies to an email, quoting the reply at the bottom. She generally uses a signature. Mail had a tendency to insert the signature at the bottom of the email, after the quoted text. Is there any way to get it to insert a signature (automatically) before the quoted text?

Bumping you up with the easiest one - this has been adressed in the Panther (10.3) version of Mail. If you're not considering upgrading just yet, I'm afraid this might be hard to achieve with Mail, but there are other more configurable apps, of course.

J

[ajbaker]

At a price of £14 why would she/I not be thinking of upgrading?! Seriously though thanks for the reply.

A

[mikemako]

Originally posted by ajbaker:
3. With such a huge screen, there is no reason not to display the date and time in the menu bar. Since this is not a Jaguar option, is there a utility to do just that? Tried VT for 'date menu' - nothing!

Maybe you could try wClock.. It's my favorite menubar clock. Just add it to your "login" items.

6. Fonts. Many of the fonts she uses are Type 1 with associated bitmaps. Copying these directly from her old machine left lots of strangely named type 1 fonts in the Fonts folder. I was under the impression utilities like TypeReunion were not required but it appears they are. Will Panther remove this requirement. Is there anything like TypeReunion for OS X?

I'm not sure what "Type Reunion" is, but Panther will make font management a lot easier with Font Book. In Jaguar, you would need to you a 3rd party utility that probably costs a lot! Font Doctor X is a good one.

7. Is there any way to make the loading of Classic invisible? (Might try macosxhints for this one!)

Isn't there an option under the Classic prefence pane in System Preferences to do this? Something like "Hide Classic while loading"..

8. Are the HP ScanJet drivers reliable yet? Read around 6 months ago people were having huge problems with them?

yes they are reliable. Just plug in the printer and it should work fine.

[jbhopper]

Originally posted by ajbaker:
2. Another Mail problem. My sister often replies to an email, quoting the reply at the bottom. She generally uses a signature. Mail had a tendency to insert the signature at the bottom of the email, after the quoted text. Is there any way to get it to insert a signature (automatically) before the quoted text?

Get your free update to Panther - there's an option for it.

3. With such a huge screen, there is no reason not to display the date and time in the menu bar. Since this is not a Jaguar option, is there a utility to do just that? Tried VT for 'date menu' - nothing!

Check the Date and Time System Pref - it's in there - the Menu Bar Clock tab. Or if you want it bigger use the included Clock App in the login items.

4. The default install of Jaguar and Classic prevented me from starting AppleTalk in Classic. Why? Everything was ok after copying across a Classic folder from another machine. Strange.

You can turn Appletalk on and off from the OSX System pref, not the Classic Chooser.

5. Until her copy of Adobe InDesign arrives, she is stuck using Quark in the Classic environment. Is there anyway to make use of Quark easier with the dock at the bottom of the screen and not hidden? Ie when zooming a window, prevent it from going behind the dock?

Nope, classic apps aren't dock-aware. I just use auto-hide all the time.

6. Fonts. Many of the fonts she uses are Type 1 with associated bitmaps. Copying these directly from her old machine left lots of strangely named type 1 fonts in the Fonts folder. I was under the impression utilities like TypeReunion were not required but it appears they are. Will Panther remove this requirement. Is there anything like TypeReunion for OS X?

Panther's Font utility may help with this, or get Suitcase X1, it's got auto-opening and seems to work well.

7. Is there any way to make the loading of Classic invisible? (Might try macosxhints for this one!)

You could try to put the classic startup app (/System/Library/CoreServices/Classic Startup.app) in your login items and set it to hide. But then it's always open even if you don't need it, but if you're using quark.. that's probably ok

-That's all I got for now. Enjoy the G5.

[ajbaker]

Maybe you could try wClock.. It's my favorite menubar clock. Just add it to your "login" items.

Thank you for that one. Perfect. Shame I didn't find it during my search in VT.

Check the Date and Time System Pref - it's in there - the Menu Bar Clock tab. Or if you want it bigger use the included Clock App in the login items.

Nice thought. Sadly it is not. It will only display the day of the week and time. However there is a hint on MacOSXHints to do this without additional software:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...ery=clock+menu

I'm not sure what "Type Reunion" is, but Panther will make font management a lot easier with Font Book. In Jaguar, you would need to you a 3rd party utility that probably costs a lot! Font Doctor X is a good one.

Did have every intention, but the Font Book link alone would persuade my sister to buy Panther at full price!

Panther's Font utility may help with this, or get Suitcase X1, it's got auto-opening and seems to work well.

Font Book looks great. If that doesn't help, I am sure Suitcase will provide everything if they provide a Panther update.

Isn't there an option under the Classic prefence pane in System Preferences to do this? Something like "Hide Classic while loading"..

No. Surprisingly. As it turned out I used this hint from MacOSXHints:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...;query=classic

You could try to put the classic startup app (/System/Library/CoreServices/Classic Startup.app) in your login items and set it to hide. But then it's always open even if you don't need it, but if you're using quark.. that's probably ok

Similar to the one above.

yes they are reliable. Just plug in the printer and it should work fine.

I was referring to the HP ScanJet scanners; in particular the 5490c. Anyone any comments? After browsing many websites I am still not clear if scanner functionality will be available from within Photoshop, as it used to be with OS 9 and the Linotype scanner she had.

Get your free update to Panther - there's an option for it.

Free? I am aware it can be purchased for £14 (postage according to Apple!), which is almost free. How could I get it for free? (Legally!)

You can turn Appletalk on and off from the OSX System pref, not the Classic Chooser.

That's exactly what I thought. It was turned on in OSX System Prefs, but showed as inactive in the Classic Chooser, and would not start from there. Whenever I tried accessing the printer from Classic it raised an error about AppleTalk not being active. Strange, but cured by copying the Classic folder from elsewhere.

Nope, classic apps aren't dock-aware. I just use auto-hide all the time.

Shame there is no other method.

Many thanks for everyone's help thus far.

[mitchell_pgh]

I'm all for saving a few bucks... but Panther isn't just another Software Update upgrade...

[mitchell_pgh]

A few other things... Quark 6 is OS X native... InDesign is nice, but if she wants Quark, it's only $200 US for a copy if you already have a copy.

There is no other way to get a Panther upgrade without paying for it. If you work for the government or an educational institution, you get a deal, but that's about it.

[ajbaker]

A few other things... Quark 6 is OS X native... InDesign is nice, but if she wants Quark, it's only $200 US for a copy if you already have a copy.
There is no other way to get a Panther upgrade without paying for it. If you work for the government or an educational institution, you get a deal, but that's about it.
I'm all for saving a few bucks... but Panther isn't just another Software Update upgrade...

LOL. Absolutely. I'm delighted that £14 is an option - I would have been happy to pay full pr... oh wait, maybe I wouldn't. £14 is very good though, so no complaints here.

As for Quark. My sister is quite reactive, and has taken offence to many of the decisions (and indecisions) they have made since she purchased Quark 4. She has purchased the Creative Suite - should InDesign not suffice or should she not be able to send InDesign files to print I guess she may consider Quark. (Or switch printers!)

Does anyone have any thoughts on the networking issues I raised at the top of this thread?

A

[mikemako]

Here's the link for your printer's drivers. Try it out! hope that helps..