Recently a number of readers have been kind enough to write with ideas, comments, and questions.  Some of the questions I have even been able to answer!  I am going to review some of those issues and questions in this column, since they may well be of interest to others.

Deleting Bookmarks

The first is a question about deleting Bookmarks from the Safari browser.  It is one of those things that is easy to do once you learn how to do it, but if you don't know where to start, it can be like trying to order a hamburger in French if you don't know how to speak French.  Here are the steps.

1. Open Safari
2. Click once on the Bookmarks Menu
3. Choose Show All Bookmarks  (This will make the list of bookmarks remain open so that you can move the pointer around wherever you want it to go)
4. Highlight the bookmark you want to delete by clicking on it once
5. Hit delete

1. Open Explorer
2. Click once on the Favorites Menu
3. Choose Organize Favorites
4. Highlight the bookmark you want to delete by clicking on it once
5. Hit delete

Add a Favorite To the Bookmark Bar

1. Open Safari
2. Open the actual site you want to bookmark.  For instance if you wanted to bookmark The Mac Observer you would go to the TMO home page which is located at http://www.macobserver.com. 
   With that page open,
   
   
3. Choose Bookmarks
4. Choose add Bookmark (A small window will open that first shows you are saving The Mac Observer and giving you the chance to shorten the name to save space)
5. Rename as you choose, then, with that small window still open, 
6. Choose Bookmarks Bar from the pulldown menu, and then click Add.  Your new bookmark should appear in your bookmark bar.

An irritated reader wrote to grouse that Apple couldn't make iCal sophisticated enough that one could simply duplicate meetings from one day to another -- such as a meeting that happens every Tuesday from 1:00 to 3:00.  I have to admit that I shared her pain.  It didn't seem all that complicated to me either.  Cut/paste?  Weren't those pretty basic concepts?  We can track rockets to Mars, but we can't cut and paste a weekly meeting to reproduce it from week to week?

Before I start tearing out what hair I have, let me reassure my reader, myself, and anyone else bothered by this earth shaking issue that this problem has been fixed in Panther.  One can drag and drop meetings and meeting details to their heart's content.

He Needs a Free Game

One reader wrote asking if I could recommend a free game that doesn't involve cards, shooting, golf, chess, or space.  He added that he is "so broke from Christmas that he needs something free to go with his pine float."  (For anyone not from the deep south, a pine float is a glass of water with a toothpick in it.)

You know, it just so happens I do.  Our local Macintosh Users Group (MUG) gave each member a CD of applications during our December meeting and one of the applications is a nifty little free application called JewelToy 1.3.0 by Giles Williams.  It is for OS X or higher.  It can be downloaded from Version Tracker.  I have seen other similar games, but this one is well designed, and it is free.  The object is to earn points by getting 3 like jewels in a pattern so they can be removed while meeting a time line.  There is an easy, hard and difficult level.   Personally, I find "easy" to be quite difficult.

This Reader Got Ripped Off

The letter I got from the next reader really made me mad because someone took advantage of the fact that she was a newbie.  All she wanted to do was keep a simple database of product sales from a home business.  Who bought what, when: When the items were paid for and when they were shipped. Simple stuff.  She didn't even need any calculations done.  

She couldn't figure out how to use the database apps that came with her Mac.  She didn't know anything about shareware or freeware either.  So, some guy charged her a bunch of money to create a database, but didn't provide her a back-up copy of it.  Then, when her older Mac died and she got a new one, told her she would have to pay him all over again to make it for the new machine.  At this point she is totally intimidated by the whole computer thing.

Please note that it's possible that there is something about this situation we don't know, but my point is that she needs an inexpensive solution to her problem.

It took me about 20 minutes to find a freeware application that will solve her problem.  It is called Little Office 1.6 for OS X and was created by Rocco Zippo, and is based on File Maker Pro.  Although free, the author accepts donations through PayPal if the user is so inclined.  

This application allows the user to keep an address file, an overview of transactions containing all the information the reader mentioned, create invoices, and it will automatically backup information. In addition the reader can backup her documents to CDs once she gets her new computer.  Little Office 1.6 can be downloaded from Version Tracker.  Of course, what the guy should have done in the first place, and legitimately charged her for, was teach her how to use the data base app that came with her computer, but that is another story.  Since she doesn't live near me then this is my second best solution.