How to Print from Snow leopard to Windows 7

I finally figured out how to print from my MacBook to a Deskjet 932 attached to my Windows 7 box. I got a lot of help from the comments at My First Mac on my article on connecting a Windows 7 box to a Snow Leopard box. This is a group effort.

Andre Da Costa, Microsoft MVP, figured out how to do it between Leopard 10.5 and Windows 7. Now some factors changed between 10.5 Leopard and 10.6 Snow Leopard. Snow Leopard handles printing as a System Preference, not a Utility program.

So here is how I did it.

First, the Windows side:

1. You want to go to the Control Panel and select the “Programs and Features Pane”.

2. Click “Turn Windows Features on or off”.

3. Go to Print and Document Services

4. Click on the plus sign immediately to the left of “Print and Document Services” so that you can turn on the individual services within Print and Document Services.

5. Turn on the LPD protocol

6. Now go to Printers and select the printer you want to share with your Mac.

7. Ensure printer(s) are shared. Make sure the shared name is one contiguous word, like “Deskjet_932”

On the Mac side:

1. Start the Print & Fax System Preference.

2. You see a list of printers in the left-hand sidebar. At the bottom you see a plus and minus sign.

3. The plus sign adds printers, the minus sign removes printers. So click on the plus sign!

4. Click on the “Advanced” icon

5. For the Type, you want “LPD/LPR Host or Printer”

6. For Device, leave it at “Another Device”

7. For URL you want to enter “lpd://. For example, mine is “lpd://192.168.1.68/Deskjet_932

8. For Name, enter a descriptive name that means something to you.

9. For Location, enter a descriptive name that tells you where you put the printer

10. For Print Using, you want to use the specific driver for that printer. Do not use Generic Postscript printer! Use “Select Printer Software…” to find the printer driver for your printer.

11. Now click on the Add button to add the new printer.

You’re done. Try printing a picture or CNN article as a test.

Where to go for Christmas present help

Merry Christmas from MacValley! This is not Festivus, the Airing of the Grievances takes place next Wednesday in the comments section.

If you are frantically looking for help with your new Mac, let me point you to Lifehacker's Christmas Guide to New Macs

If you got a new Windows machine, Lifehacker has help for you too.

If you got a new iPod Touch/iPhone/iPad, Lifehacker is where you should go. Likewise for a new Android phone.

Merry Christmas to all, a belated Happy Hannukah, too, and any other holidays as well. Comments are welcome today. I'll check them and my e-mail during the day until 4 PM PST. Then I'm headed for Christmas dinner at my relatives.

Tom Briant

Editor, MacValley Voice

Christmas Eve Special to All-Yes, Even You in Reseda

Merry Christmas to All. If you don't celebrate Christmas, just keep reading, it gets better.

Maczot.com is having a promotion today with Agile Web Solutions. They make 1Pass, the great password protection software. You can save 40% today on both Mac and Windows software to protect your passwords.

Gawker Media got hacked this year and a lot of people used "password" as their password. Two close friends of mine got hacked this year. Don't you, a complete stranger, get hacked either. Get off your duff, stop swilling the leaded eggnog from Costco, and go to Maczot.com. Save 40% and gain peace of mind.

Don't hesitate, this deal goes away at the stroke of midnight. Then the Ghost of Christmas Future will show you hackers cackling as they break open your bank account.

Tom Briant "The Grinch"

Editor, MacValley Voice and Macvalley.org

Replacing a loved one's Windows XP box with a Mac Mini

If you want to replace a Windows XP computer with a Mac Mini, especially at this date, you need to keep several things in mind:

1. Keyboards and mice: The Windows XP box probably uses PS/2 connectors for the keyboard and mouse. The Mac Mini only has USB connectors. If you want to use your old keyboard and mouse with a Mac mini, you need a USB to PS/2 adaptor. They look like the photo above, a USB plug on a cable from one end, two PS/2 jacks coming from the other.

You can easily spend $25.00 on this and that's at Best Buy. You can get them at Staples and other large chain office supply stores. Fry's Electronics has the best price of $15 or less.

Remember you want a USB to PS/2 Adaptor. The best brand is Belkin or SIIG.

2. Monitor: If you still intend to use a CRT monitor with the Mac Mini, you'll need a special adaptor, the mini-port to VGA adaptor. That's only available at the Apple Store. At the mall. Which is a zoo!

If you have a HD TV, you can use that as the monitor, as the Mac Mini comes with an HD TV port. Now you'll need a cable!

If you or the loved one you're buying for upgraded to a flat-screen monitor, it should have a DVI input. The Mac Mini already comes with a HD TV to DVI adaptor.

3. Printer: If you or your loved one has a color printer, it probably connects to the computer with a USB cable if you purchased it since 2000. No problems there.

Older laser printers probably have a parallel printer port, which connects to the computer with a thick cable and a plug that's 2" wide. That won't work with a Mac Mini.

If you don't know what kind of printer they have, ask at an appropriate time. If you don't know, 5 $20 bills are always a good solution.

As for software, use the Google. You could also buy them a copy of The Missing Manual-Snow Leopard edition by David Pogue. It's in the computer section of Borders or Barnes & Noble.

You can e-mail me at thomasbriant@me.com. It's the e-mail address by my picture.

All the News that's fit to upload

#1 Microsoft still planning to introduce Windows 7 tablets. I suggest that Mrs. Steve Ballmer have Brian X. Chen’s article from Wired tattooed on Mr. Steve Ballmer. Someplace that hurts.

#2 Good news. Nisus Software will sell their word processor Nisus Writer Express for 1/2 price, $22.50, for one day. Tuesday, December 21st. No coupons, just show up with your plastic in hand to make the purchase. That’s www.nisus.com on Tuesday, December 21st.

#3 Least funny article of the year. Joshua Kor’s article in the Huffington Post about his failed experiences as a switcher was a fake! A satire! I say we yank his computer and give him a pencil and paper. That’s about all he’s up for. Idiot.

#4 But on to good news! If you want help with Spotlight, try out the beta of Houdah Sofware’s new Tembo. I’ve tried it and found it most helpful. It’s in beta now and will come out in the new Mac App Store in January. Get the beta here and try it for yourself.

That's all for now.

Moving iTunes from PC to Mac

I also write for the My First Mac web site. In talking to the editor, Chris Kerins, he told me that many switchers to the Mac had installed iTunes on their Windows machines. They probably set up playlists, too. Now how do they transfer their music and associated metadata, such as playlists and song ratings, over to the Mac successfully? That's their #1 question.

Kirk McElhearn at Macworld tackled this question. His post is here. I suggest you read it before moving your years of music over to your new Mac from your aging Windows XP box.

Well, I set up a test Mac using an external hard drive I keep for such purposes. I installed Snow Leopard and then ran Software Update twice to bring the machine up to date. No Terminal work involved.

Well, Kirk's procedure works without a great deal of pain. I will summarize it for you.

First, make sure you use the latest version of iTunes, which is 10.1, on both machines. Run that software update! This procedure demands at least iTunes 9.

Second, on the Windows side, open iTunes preferences by going to Edit>Preferences. Click the Advanced tab. You want to check the "Keep iTunes Media folder organized" and the "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library"

Then you go to the File Menu. Go down to Library. It will have several selections. You want Consolidate Files. Check it and then click OK. iTunes will then do housekeeping to make sure all the files's locations on the drive agree with their location in the library file. Be warned, this could take a while.

After you've consolidated your library files in the iTunes folder and made sure the library file is accurate; now it's time to copy the iTunes folder from your PC to your Mac.

Kirk pointed out that a lot of people have opted for wireless networks in their homes instead of laying down Ethernet cable. Wireless networks, by and large, run slower than wired ones. Kirk suggests you use an external hard drive instead of wireless networks. Even with a wired network, it took me over 3 hours to copy 67 Gigabytes from my Windows machine to my test Mac.

I'll refer to Kirk's article for information on where to find your iTunes folder on your Windows machine. It varies on whether you use Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7.

Now, do you already have an iTunes folder inside of your Music folder? Assuming you haven't put any music in it, you need to move this iTunes folder out of the Music folder. Just move it to the Desktop for now.

Once you've copied all the files into your Mac's Music folder, you can start up iTunes on your Mac. When I did it, iTunes recognized the library and files. But then it took a few minutes to process them.

When this processing was done, iTunes played an interactive tutorial on how to use iTunes.

Additional issues. You must remember your iTunes account passwords. If you've had several different ISPs and different e-mail addresses, you've probably had at least two iTunes accounts under which you purchased music. Dig them out!

If you forgot your passwords, iTunes will let you reset them. Now remember to write them down!

Lastly, if you don't intend to use iTunes on your old Windows machine, go under the Store menu of iTunes and choose "De-authorize computer." You only get to have 5 computers running iTunes. Don't waste it.

To summarize: Moving your iTunes library and associated data from your Windows machine to your new Mac is relatively easy, involving no editing of files if you remember to use the latest version of iTunes on each machine. It does take time to copy files from the Windows box to the Mac. Remember to find your iTunes accounts' information if you have to authorize protected media.

And if you're done with iTunes on the Windows box for Heaven's sake, DE-AUTHORIZE IT!

Sharing Music Between Computers

Sharing Music Between Computers

Hello, I’ve been working on sharing music between my 3 computers. One Mac, one Windows, one Linux. I’ve let my inner nerd fly his nerd flag!

Anyway, let me outline this situation. You want to host a party or family celebration. You’ve got the perfect music for it. The problem is that you keep your music on your Mac back in your bedroom. You keep your music on a separate external hard drive.

You don’t want to run a cable from your bedroom to the stereo in the living room. You’ve got house-wide Wi-Fi courtesy of your ISP’s router, though.

You do have a netbook available. It’s a cheap Windows XP netbook used for looking at cat videos on Youtube and it has built-in Wi-Fi.

The solution? Hurry up, download Pulptunes for Mac, and configure it.

Pulptunes is a Web server for iTunes. To configure it, you need to provide it with the location of your iTunes XML file, which you will find in your /iTunes folder. Pulptunes makes it easy and assumes you keep your iTunes library on Macintosh HD. If you don’t keep your iTunes library on Macintosh HD, though, it’s easy to direct Pulptunes to that library.

Even better is that Pulptunes incorporates a Flash-based Web player for MP3 and M4A files. Take that cheap netbook, open its Web browser to http://: (your ip address)15000 and you ‘ll see the Pulptunes player open up. All your music files in MP3 and M4A format are there, plus you’ve got all your playlists.

If you ripped Bing Crosby’s Christmas album for this occasion, you probably ripped it to M4A format.

Pulptunes has versions for Mac, Windows, and Linux. I would say that you’ll find the Mac and Windows versions most useful, because Pulptunes works hand in glove with iTunes. To make it work on Linux, you have to copy an iTunes.xml file and edit it. That’s a pain.

If you’re not into iTunes, try Sockso, a simple Java-based Web music server.

2010 - MacValley’s Best Year Since I Can’t Remember When

December 1st was our last meeting for 2010. And it was a doozy. Ken Gruberman presented ‘Hallmark Studio for Macintosh’ from Nova Development. It’s like having your own personal designer for cards, calendars, and other goodies, all with that unique Hallmark look.

And what a prize drawing we had! Ken brought a bundle of software from Nova Development. Two boxed editions of ‘Hallmark Studio’, one ‘HGTV Home Design’, along with ‘Thomas & Friends Misty Island Rescue’ for the kids and grandkids. Plus so much more.

And to top it all off, Ken’s wife, Ellen Snortland, brought the Grand Prize -- her outstanding Kransekake. It’s a Norwegian Christmas treat you have to see and taste to believe. Find out more on Ellen’s website: http://www.authenticscandinaviangoodies.com/ And Ken and Ellen also write for the Huffington Post.

It’s been such a great year for MacValley. We’ve had some outstanding presenters. Beginning with Apple Consultant Network expert Justin Bradshaw, who presented a Freebie Special, on to Jay Gonzales of MacSpeech. Our own Tom Briant gave an amazing presentation on iTunes. MacValley emcee and Apple Listed Consultant Elena-Beth Kaye showed us how to use iPhoto to transform vacation snapshots into absolutely great photos. And so much more (www.macvalley.org/meetings)

I am so proud of our group, and I am deeply grateful to each and every one of our presenters and our prize donors. These are the people whose generosity makes MacValley the get-together place for all LA MacUsers.

As is traditional, we will have no meeting in January. Arnold and I will be going to MacWorld, and we hope to see you there.

We’ll be back in February with Arnold’s second presentation on how to keep your Mac and your online accounts secure.

I don’t know how we’ll ever top 2010. But we’ll be planning for some top-of-the-line presentations in 2011, so stay tuned.

And may you all have a Happy Holiday Season!

Cristael Bengston,

President, MacValley Users Group