Declutter: Four Icons for the Same operation in Toolbar?

In an open iWork document, you may have these four icons in the Toolbar: insert a Text Box, insert a pre-designed shape from the Shapes drop-down menu, insert an object from the Objects drop-down menu, insert a Table, and insert a Chart.

This is all very well when you start using iWork, or use it for one particular purpose, e.g. for writing texts with an occasional image. 

When you progress to more sophisticated uses, with complex designs requiring multiple operations, such as moving objects, layering, masking, editing images, – you may want to add icons for these operations to the Toolbar. And it becomes cluttered. Some icons can even be pushed out of the view in the Toolbar. 

This is the point when you may want to consider removing Text Box, Shapes, Table and Charts icons from the Toolbar. To remove the icon, press Command and drag the icon off the Toolbar. It will disappear in a puff of animated smoke.

To insert a text box, a shape, a table, and a chart, you can now use the one remaining icon – Objects, with its drop-down menu. 

Click on Objects in the Toolbar, and you will see Text Box, Shapes with an additional menu, Table, and Charts, with an additional menu. Choose what you need to insert. 

To put the icons back into the Toolbar, go to the View menu and choose Customize Toolbar. Drag the required icons to the Toolbar strip at the bottom of the dialogue and click Done.

If, in your work, you have a few operations or tools that you use often, put them in the Toolbar for one-click activation. Use the same path: View > Customize Toolbar. Drag icons to the Toolbar strip.

Vector. Don't panic.

Here is another of my short reassuring notes for those iWork users, who don't have specialised technical knowledge (which they may not need, anyway).

If you go on an internet forum for help, get bombarded by stern technical questions from the regulars waiting for fresh meat, you can get confused instead of enlightened. Don't.

When you hear about vector graphics that are not mentioned in iWork manuals or help articles, don't panic or despair. PDFs, that iWork is perfectly capable of producing, is as good a vector image as any other. So, ignore vector and concentrate on PDF. The point about vector graphics is that they can be resized without losing crispness. This is usually all you need to know.

Here's a short excerpt from the Wikipedia article on PDFs:

A PDF file is often a combination of vector graphics, text, and bitmap graphics. The basic types of content in a PDF are:

• text stored as content streams (i.e., not text)

• vector graphics for illustrations and designs that consist of shapes and lines

• raster graphics for photographs and other types of image

In later PDF revisions, a PDF document can also support links (inside document or web page), forms, JavaScript (initially available as plugin for Acrobat 3.0), or any other types of embedded contents that can be handled using plug-ins.
...
Two PDF files that look similar on a computer screen may be of very different sizes. For example, a high resolution raster image takes more space than a low resolution one. Typically higher resolution is needed for printing documents than for displaying them on screen. Other things that may increase the size of a file is embedding full fonts, especially for Asiatic scripts, and storing text as graphics.

Read more on Wikipedia about vector graphics here.

Pagès on the march.

More Pages in more unexpected places. This time - on a tea label. 

I was in Rennes the other day and ordered tea in the local cafe. The French tea makers, who own the Pagès label, have been in existence since mid-19th century. Their website is here. 

The tea was nice though pricey and their shade of blue is also attractive. I’ve copied the blue, similar to St Patrick blue, in my color palette. 

If you want to recreate the colour, here’s it’s CMYK reading:

In an open Colors Inspector (viewer), click in the color tab (well) and drag the color to the palette grid at the bottom of the viewer. Use this technique to store colours that you copy of photographs and pictures for future re-use.

Wikipedia has an article on the blue colour, its history and symbolism, including RGB, CMYK and other readings for blue.

How to add a picture frame and a copyright signature.

To add a picture frame with curved edges, that looks like an old fashioned photo print, and then add your signature with the copyright sign, you can do this:

1. Import your photo into an iWork document (drag and drop)

2. In Graphic Inspector, click on the drop-down menu under Stroke and choose Picture Frame.

3. Click on the picture frame styles menu and choose the one which gives a ‘curved edges’ effect. Adjust the shadow with the slider there. 

4. To add your copyright signature to the picture, click on Text Box icon in the Toolbar and type in your name. To add the copyright sign (©), press the Option key (alt) and type G.

5. Change the colour of the text to white to place on darker parts of the picture. Select text and click on the colour well in the Text inspector. Choose colour in the Colors Inspector.

6. Move the text box to a corner of the picture, rotate vertically if you want to. To rotate, press the Command key and drag one of the handles of the Text Box.

Export your iWork document to PDF or other graphic format. 

How to draw an arrow with two clicks.

When you want to point out a detail in the drawing or a photo, you can do it with two clicks of the draw tool. After you've finished, make an image of the drawing or the photo with the arrow.

It can look like this.

This is how to make the arrows:

1. Choose draw tool from the shapes menu. Make a line in two clicks. Drag the mouse around after each click to make line curving.

2. In Graphic Inspector click in the colour well and choose colour.

3. Click on line thickness arrows to set the thickness of the line.

4. From endpoints menu choose an arrowhead style. 

5. Drag the line’s handles to make it point to the object or detail you want to point out. 

6. Drag curving propellers to curve the line.

7. Duplicate the line and edit the new line to point to another object or detail. Repeat if you need more lines.

Read more in my new book 'iWork for Mac OSX Cookbook' (2012), follow me on Twitter at iworkinpages, like my page I Work in Pages on Facebook and add me to your circles on Google+

Ribbons. Draw your awareness ribbon in iWork.

Coloured ribbons are widely used for various awareness campaigns and to show support for particular causes. Often you can download a ribbon of your choice from the Internet. And you can also draw your own in iWork.

I made this pink ribbon (often associated with breast cancer awareness campaign) with the Draw tool. 

- Go to Shapes drop-down menu, choose the last option - Draw tool. 

- Make six clicks with the tool to create the rough outline of the ribbon. If the shape has colour fill, go to Graphic Inspector, click on the Fill drop-down menu and choose None.

- When making a click, drag the mouse around slightly to make the shape (line) editable. The dot will show 'propellers' that will let you change the curves of the ribbon.

- Go to Format>Shape>Smooth Path to make the ribbon rounded (curving).

- In Graphic Inspector, click on the color tab under Line and choose a colour in the Colors Inspector (Viewer).

- From the line styles drop-down menu, choose a style. This picture shows the Graphic Inspector with the settings for this ribbon.

- Curve the contours of the ribbon: click on the tip of the propeller of the selected dot, drag the propellers, extend them or push in to change the curves.

- To give more volume to the ribbon, add shadow by clicking in the checkbox in Graphic Inspector. Remember that shadows also have colours. Click in the colour well and choose a complementing colour for the shadow.

Save when finished. 

Import your portrait, send it to back (under Arrange menu) and move the ribbon over it.

Make the iWork/Pages document into a graphic file - share via Share menu, save to iPhoto or make a screenshot - to use on your website or elsewhere.

This photo shows the ribbon with its editing points (red dots). The numbers show the sequence of clicks with the Draw tool.

This ribbon is a relatively simple design made with a single line. You can make a more sophisticated ribbon by creating an editable shape(s) and giving it gradient color fill like in this white ribbon I designed earlier.

Read this Wikipedia article about the various types and colours of awareness ribbons.

For how to put a ribbon or a badge on your photo read this post: 'Put Remembrance Poppy on Your Photo.'

The Preview Confusion. (Applespeak)

Apple is famous for using plain English, straightforward language in its manuals and simple names for tools and applications.

However, this same love for simple elegance occasionally leads to confusion.

One example is Preview.

Preview means what it says – view before you use it. View a document before you print or send it, view an application package to see what it is, view an enlarged icon of a file with information about it. Preview is capitalised in windows where it is shown.

But on the same Mac you have an application called Preview. From one version of Mac OS to another it has become an increasingly powerful an versatile programme that opens - and creates - PDFs, opens graphic files and allows photo editing and image manipulation, including cropping, cutting and applying Alpha (transparent background).

In Preview, you can change a PDF to JPEG or PNG. Graphic file formats can be changed from JPEG to PNG and vice versa.

When in print dialogue, click on Preview to check the proof of a document and then save it to whatever file format you need via Preview's own menu.

Because of its self-deprecating name some Mac users still don't realise the full power of Preview.

I don't know if this confusion can be avoided, but I just wanted to point out this quirk of Applespeak. Explore Preview and use it more. 

The Yawn. A Drawing.

Here, I was experimenting with drawing a yawn.

After Edvard Munch's picture The Scream was sold for a record-breaking $120 mln. earllier this year I was interested to see how to show a yawn and not a scream. Graphically they are not that different. Well, this is a yawn, and not a scream.

I've used the Pages draw tool to make the shapes and Gradient Fill with Mercury and Magnesium from the Crayons box in the Colors Inspector to give the face and the hand some volume. The inside of the mouth is Steel. The outline is one of the lines in Graphic Inspector.

Here, you can see all the shapes selected.

It may be tricky to make the small shapes for nostrils. Make one and then duplicate it.

I didn't draw the nose. Instead, I've added shadows to the nostrils and increased the blur and the offset of the shadows. Then, I rotated the shadow direction wheel to make the shadows go upwards. Here is the Graphic Inspector showing the settings for the nostrils.

This is a simple picture that can be used as clip art, an avatar or a favicon.

Draw one yourself or commission similar for I Work in Pages.

Colour of Gold

Gold is yellow. Simple yellow is dull, but the yellow of gold glows.

Here, the glowing effect of the letters is achieved with a little known, but relatively easy graphic design trick.

- Type the text in your usual black.

- Turn the text into an image: make a screenshot, 'print' to PDF or export to iPhoto as JPEG.

- Reimport the image of the text into your document.

- Rub out the black letters with Instant Alpha (under Format menu).

- Insert a shape, for example a Rectangle, from the Toolbar.

- In Graphic Inspector, choose Gradient Color fill, and choose Cantaloupe and Tangerine from the Crayons box. 

- Under Arrange menu choose Send to Back. The shape will slide behind the lettering and its colors will be seen through the letters. 

- With Alpha, we made them into 'holes'. It is through these holes that we see the colour. 

- Select the image of the text. In Graphic Inspector, tick the Shadow checkbox. As the 'letter-holes' are now represent the edges of the object, they throw shadows too. 

- Click in the color well below the Shadow checkbox and choose Cantaloupe. The shadow will give additional glow to the letters.

Wikipedia has an article on the Colour of Gold which gives RGB and CMYK readings for variations of the color. Open Colors Viewer/Inspector (Command+Shift+C), click on the sliders icon and choose CMYK from the drop-down menu. Type in your preferred CMYK reading to get the colour of gold you want. 

Drag photos from folder Preview to import.

Recent versions of OSX have document preview in folders. You don't have to open a document to see its content.

What's also handy, is that you can import a graphic image into an iWork document straight from the folder Preview. Just click and drag. When green button with a plus sign and black arrow appears, the Pages document is ready to 'take' the picture.

It works with both column view (click on a file and see its Preview) and Cover Flow (slide show) view.

With Quick View it doesn't work unfortunately.

Advanced Gradient Color Fill in iWork graphics.

This drawing shows how Advanced Gradient fill in iWork can be used to give volume to your designs.

Current versions of iWork have the Advanced Gradient colour fill option. Open Graphic Inspector and click on the Fill tab to choose this option.

Click on the sliding arrows under the colour well and when Colors Viewer opens choose the colors to mix. You can mix two or more colours. Dragging the arrows changes the 'proportions' of the mix.

The two square icons below the colour well are to choose the direction of the mix. The one on the left mixes colours sideways, the second - like ripples on water. Dragging the blue point in the middle changes the position of the centre of the 'ripples.'

Next, under Stroke, click on the drop-down menu, choose Picture Frame. From the Picture Frame menu select the one with blurred edges.

Move the gradient-coloured shape over the caterpillar's body and head, duplicate and move around. To move the shape behind the caterpillar's eyes and mouth, use Arrange>Send Backward.

You can, of course, give Advanced Gradient fill to the main shapes themselves.

Common PDF export problems in iWork/Pages

A reader writes:

I've made several scientific posters in Pages '09 and now want to share them with colleagues for feedback via PDF files. I have found that no matter how I export them (print to PS then save as PDF, or direct export to PDF, or print to PDF), some images become really poor quality and some Pages features (like shadows and frames around images) are missing in the PS or PDF versions. I suspect the image quality may have to do with the fact that I'm working with images people sent me already imported in a powerpoint file (and for the final versions I would obtain the original images), but the issue of dropping some of the Pages specific formatting seems strange. Any ideas? - Wendi

Wendy, hi,

- First of all check the quality of the original images without any iWork/Pages features. Open them in Preview and check info. Good quality images should have DPI of 300 or above in real dimensions. A small image may have 300 DPI but when you enlarge it the count may drop.

- Assuming you use Acrobat for producing PDFs, check Acrobat settings for PDF, you may have to change them to a higher setting.

- Some of the picture frames in Graphic Inspector (the ones that look like old-fashioned photo album frames) just don't work at high resolution in large dimensions. But if you want to achieve a similar effect in high resolution, create your own frames as objects using the Draw tool or find a high resolution photo of a framed picture/painting and put your image inside the frame by superimposing your image and adjusting dimensions of your image to fit inside the frame.

- Shadows have given me a lot of headache too. When I use them I make sure that any text in the document is well removed away from the shadow, otherwise it comes out fuzzed on PDFs.

Colouring a Building.

To colour a building, choose a picture that has large areas of consistent color.

Remove the color with Instant Alpha tool.

Add one or more shapes (eg. rectangles or ovals) and choose color fill or gradient color fill in Graphic Inspector.

Send coloured shapes to back. Send to Back function is under Arrange menu.

Coloured shapes will show through the 'holes' in the photo or the building that were created by Alpha.

Adjust the size and position of the coloured shapes. You can select the shapes by clicking on them and move them around by dragging or with the keyboard arrows.

If the shapes overlap, resize or move them.

You can also 'shuffle' them by using Bring Forward and Send Backward functions under Arrange menu. This moves shapes (images) layer by layer. To make this easier, add icons for Send to Back, Bring to Front, Send Backward and Bring Forward to the Toolbar. To do this, go to the View menu and choose Customize Toolbar. Drag the icons to the Toolbar and click Done.



This project is a homage to the Russian feminist punk-rock group Pussy Riot. Three members of the group are currently on trial in Moscow for creating an anti-Putin performance partly staged in the cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Read more about the trial in the New York Times and elsewhere.

Original photo of the cathedral is by Sergius, from Wikimedia. Used under GNU licence.

I Work in Pages. The Book.

Over the past several months I've been working on a book based on I Work in Pages blog. It is now finished and is scheduled for release in October by PACKT publishers.

It has the same 'look-beyond-the-manual' approach as this blog, and, of course, while some of the most popular topics of the blog are incorporated in the book, it is much more than the blog. There are many new tips and detailed how-to 'recipes'.

But to me, the most important element in it is to show how fun and creatively rich iWork can be when you stop thinking of it as a piece of software, a technical tool, but consider it as an extension of your own personality.

The book is available to pre-order on PACKT publishing website, as well as on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. It will also come in Kindle format.

Link to the book on Amazon.
Link to the book on Amazon.co.uk.
Link to the book on Barnes&Noble.

Minimalist Nude (5). A Video Tutorial.

This is a video of the whole process of drawing a minimalist nude with iWork's Draw tool.

1. Create shapes and lines by clicking with the Draw tool. 
2. Edit shapes and lines in Graphic Inspector: change colours, thickness and line style.
3. Make shapes and lines editable: Format>Shape>Make Editable.
4. Make shapes and lines curve: Format>Sahpe>Smooth Path.
5. Adjust curves with propellers that stick out of the selected editing point (red dot). 

I have skipped a few simple or obvious steps. Let me know if you want to know more, or would like to commission a similar work.

See the previous article in this series: 'Minimalist Nude (4). Work like Picasso' and other posts – finished work, steps and video tutorial on curving lines in Adobe Illustrator. And have a look at the copy of Picasso's dog made in iWork.



This YouTube video was originally made in Apple's iWork/Keynote, exported to iPhoto and then to QuickTime. The QuickTime movie was then uploaded to YouTube. 


Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Storing frequently repeated text. Stickies.

Stickies with stored text.

A while ago I wrote about various ways of storing and reusing chunks of repeated text. And quite recently I've stumbled upon an article on a Mac tips site on the same subject. The article recommends using TextOnTrays free application from TrainTrain Software. I can't say anything for or against the application. From its description it looks like a neat solution, certainly try it if you feel like it.

However, I want to reiterate the principle that I have often expounded on this blog – look at what you already have on your Mac before searching for additional software and installing it. The solution may already be there.

Over the past months I have been working on two large, long-term projects where I am constantly using repeated bits of text – headings, leads, intros, referencing etc. And for storing those ready chunks of text I've been using Stickies.

Stickies is a small word processing application that comes pre-installed on every Mac. It usually sits in the Dock when you start using your new machine. If you don't see it in the Dock it would be in Applications folder.

Because it's so light, it launches quickly with a selection of smallish brightly coloured windows that look like paper stickies.

Stickies are different from other word processing apps: all the windows you've created open when you launch the application. You can double-click in the window bar to collapse it. Collapsed Stickies don't flow down to the Dock but stay on screen. The first line of the Sticky text shows in the bar. On closing the Sticky you delete it. If you highlight a word, a phrase, a paragraph or all the text on a Sticky, it will stay highlighted until you deselect it or quit Stickies.

These features make Stickies perfect for quick scribbles and for keeping repeated chunks of text to which you want quick access.

• To add highlighted text to your document, in iWork, Mail or any other application, click on it and hold, then drag the text to your document. 
• The blinking cursor will indicate the insertion point. 
• Let go – and the stored text will land in your document.

You don't have to switch applications. When you work on an iWork document and the Sticky is in the corner of your screen, click on the highlighted text there and drag it to your document.

Scissors clip art for iWork

If your are looking for a clip art image of scissors or a text icon of scissors, in screen-top menu go Edit>Special Characters. 

When Special Characters palette opens, choose Symbols>Miscellaneous Symbols.

There are several scissors characters there. Choose a font variation click and drag into your document. Some font variation include scissors sitting on a dotted line – to indicate where to cut out a coupon.

This character will behave like a letter in text. But if you want a graphic image of scissors make a screenshot (Command+Shift+4) and import it into your document.

Character Palette has masses of clip art images, so check what's there before searching on the internet.

See also 'Clipart for iWork, where is it?' and 'How to design a coupon in iWork/Pages'.

Word Count is Wrong?

A correspondent writes:

I recently noticed that the Pages word count is not calculated correctly. I have reported it to Apple but I thought you guys should be aware of it. When the text contains hyphenated words, Pages treads them as individual words for the word count which is incorrect. 
In education they should be counted as one word and, as I am studying at the moment, it has become an issue, a small issue, but an issue never the less. 

See this previous article on this blog: Quick Word Count in Pages

Fakeflash Virus Infects Macs

The New York Times has published an article 'Widespread Computer Virus Indicates Macusers No Longer Safe'.  The trojan virus is called Fakeflash or Flashback. 

Apple has always held that computer viruses and malware only dogged its competitors, they write. That is no longer the case.

Apparently, the virus has infected half a million Mac users, about half of them in the United States. 

[...] users need not manually click on any malicious links or manually download any malware to get infected. The program simply downloads itself. Once downloaded, the malware’s creators gain a back door that gives them unauthorized access to the victim’s computer. For now, the article says, the malware’s creators appear to be using infested computers for click fraud, in which they manipulate clicks on a Web advertisement in exchange for kickbacks. But as with all malware, its creators can choose to use infected computers however they like.

The virus infects computers either through a pop-up fake prompt from Adobe Flash asking to install an update and type in their password, or and this is more frightening, attackers appear to have exploited a loophole in Java software that automatically downloads the malware onto victims’ machines.

As to how to deal with the threat, Apple issued two security patches for Fakeflash this week and encouraged Mac users to run their software updates as soon as possible. The New York Times author recommends F-Secure, a Helsinki-based security firm, published instructions for how to identify Fakeflash and remove the virus manually. Doctor Web, the Russian security firm that first discovered the virus, has created a simple online tool that allows users to check if their Mac has been infected.

How to Constrain Proportions Without Metrics Inspector

Press the Shift key as you drag the object's handles. 

Holding down the Shift key constrains proportions temporarily, just for when you need it. It's a simple trick when you want to get on with your project quickly. 

When working on a design, you mostly use Graphic Inspector. But changing size, rotating, flipping and constraining proportions is in Metrics Inspector. Some of these operations can be done without the Inspector, but it isn't obvious how to Constrain proportions without going to Metrics inspector. Using Shift avoids endlessly switching from Graphic to Metrics when you need to change the object's behaviour. 

To constrain proportions with Metrics Inspector: Put a tick in the checkbox next to 'Constrain Proportions'. It stops the graphic image distorting when it is resized – if you don't, the image will be squashed, when you pull horizontally, or stretched, if you pull vertically.

The Shift trick works with charts too.

File Exchange service iWork.com to be discontinued.

Apple has just announced that it is phasing out a few of its internet-based services. The announcement on their website says:

The core services provided by MobileMe have been rewritten to work seamlessly with iCloud. MobileMe will no longer be available as a paid sync service. If you had an active MobileMe account as of June 6, 2011, your service has been extended through June 30, 2012, at no additional charge. After that date, the MobileMe service will no longer be available.

And:

iCloud is free for iOS 5 and OS X Lion users.

Simultaneously, Apple emailed users of the iWork.com informing them that the service will be shut down 31 July 2012. 

For years Apple has insisted on keeping its own mail and file-exchange services on a paid subscription basis. First, it was Mac.com. Then Mac.com changed to MobileMe and iWork'09 suite got a paid file-exchange service called iWork.com. 

Some embraced it, others just ignored these paid services. They hardly offered anything of substantial value that wasn't already available free with Google or Facebook. Large iWork documents, while not accepted by some file-transfer services, can be uploaded to Google Documents. Smaller projects can be shuttled via email in Mac OSX versions beginning with OS 10.5. 

Still, I know serious professional publishers who have been using iWork.com for advertisers to proof their ads. Dropping this service will inconvenience those who have relied on it but in broad terms the step is welcome.

With iCloud becoming free the competition with Google and others enters a new stage.

iWork as a productivity suite continues even though it hasn't been upgraded for desktop computers, while for iOS new updates are being released. I can only suspect that Apple is developing iWork towards wider adaptability for mobile devices such as iPad and iPhone. One important sign of this was the introduction of ePub format to iWork/Pages in 2010. ePub format was designed for internet publishing and is already revolutionising the way publishers operate in a digital world. 

Newer versions of Mac OS, iCloud and iOS will show how this strategy is developing. OSX Mountain Lion is expected to be released in the summer of 2012.

See this previous article: 'Writers United: ePub update for Pages'.

Where is the Euro sign on keyboards.

NB: just checked it for the current Mac OS, it still works (July 2019)

Make of it what you will, but on the French AZERTY keyboard, the Euro is an option for the Dollar. 

And there is a slight difference in the position of the Euro sign in QWERTY keyboard layouts.

In US Qwerty layout, press Option+Shift and type 2:

⌥+⇧+2 = €

In British English Qwerty, just press Option and type 2:

⌥+2 = €

In AZERTY (France) layout, the Euro sign is on the same key as the Dollar sign on the right of the top letter row. Press Option and type Dollar:

⌥+$ = €

On British Qwerty, the dollar is Shift+4 and the pound is Shift+3. However, on US Qwerty, there is no pound at Shift+3. You have to type Option+3.

Why this confusion? Originally, keyboard layouts were developed for typewriters in 1880s and computer keyboards simply adopted the already existing layouts adding new signs as options. 

It's nobody's fault if € or @ are used today more frequently than § paragraph sign. Has anyone used § lately?

Read more in my new book 'iWork for Mas OSX Cookbook' (2012). Follow me on Twitter at iworkinpages, like my page I Work in Pages on Facebook and add me to your circles on Google+.

Coloured Edges for Colour-coded Sections (example)

I've recently described how create colour-coded sections in a book, a brochure or a magazine. This is how coloured edges look in a brochure:

It is a 'yellow pages' type directory in The Property Guide to Normandy, written, designed and produced in iWork/Pages and printed on a flat-bed press in France.

To make coloured edges in your publication, use shapes or boxes with Color Fill. Position them as bleeds – going over the outside margins in the pages of your publication. When it is trimmed and bound by the printers, the colour shows as a section in the publication.

See more details in this post: 'Colour Coded Sections: How to Colour Page Edges'

How to Make a Favicon. No Codes, No Technobabble.

I've recently put the photo of an apple from my garden as the favicon for this blog.
Favicon is a small icon next to the web address of your site or blog. Web platforms have their own brand favicons by default. To make your site stand out it makes sense to have your own custom favicon.
On the web, there are many different recipes on how to make a favicon and where to place it. They often involve editing HTML and other technical stuff, which puts off many users.
Another stumbling block is making a perfectly square image, a requirement for favicons.
If you work on a Mac and use Blogger (blogspot) it is easy to make a favicon without going into technicalities.

Here is the description:

1. iPhoto - Edit - Constrain - Square

- Choose or design the image for your favicon. 

- Import to iPhoto.

- Select the image and click Edit. When editing tool bar opens click on Crop. 

- Click on Constrain bar and choose Square from the drop-dwon menu. Move and resize the cropping square to have a close crop of the favicon image. 

- Click Apply.

- Check that the size of the image is below 100 kb: iPhoto>Photos>Show Extended Photo Info.  

If the image is still too big in size, reduce it in Preview>File>Save as... There is a slider to reduce the image quality. As you reduce it the size of the file also reduces. Preview dialogue shows the size. As it is a very small icon, the main consideration is to make it stand out, be recognizable, rather than maintaining the high definition of the image.

2. Blogger - Layout - Favicon - Edit - Choose Image - Open - Save Arrangement

- In Blogger Dashboard, click on Layout.

- In the Favicon window, click on Edit and the uploading dialogue opens.

- When you click on Choose image, in the sidebar under Media, click on Photos, choose iPhoto and click on Flagged. Click on your favicon image and click Open. 

Alternatively, drag the image from iPhoto to the Desktop and upload it from the Desktop.

It may take some time before favicon shows in different browsers. But it works.

Minimalist Nude (4). Work like Picasso.

This video shows the great artist Pablo Picasso at work. He paints several minimalist pictures with just a few strokes. Lines in his drawings can be replicated in iWork with the Draw tool.



See previous posts here (finished work), here (steps) and here (video tutorial on curving lines in Adobe Illustrator). And have a look at the copy of Picasso's dog made in iWork.

How to make JPEGs in Lion

For some reason, the popular path Print>PDF>Save PDF to iPhoto has been removed in Mac OSX Lion (10.7). Instead there is a Save PDF to iTunes option. It is difficult to see how widely macusers will need it.

Saving document to iPhoto has long been the easiest one-step way to produce JPEGs from iWork documents. Luckily, I have an older Mac which I’ve decided not to upgrade to Lion – and I still use the iPhoto option. 

If you only have Lion on your machine, here’s a simple two-step way to JPEGs.

1. Print>PDF>Open PDF in Preview 

2. File>Save>JPEG

Type Command+P (File>Print) to open Print dialogue. In the bottom left corner click on PDF and choose Open PDF in Preview option. 

When Preview document opens, type Command+S (File>Save) and in the Save dialogue click on the document format drop-down menu to choose JPEG. The document will be converted to JPEG. 

Next, you can crop or edit it in Preview or iPhoto.

If you are comfortable with Automator, try another path to JPEGs suggested on the Apple discussions forum. I haven’t tried it myself, so cannot vouch for it.

How to disable 'snap to grid' (Alignment Guides)

When you move or edit images and boxes in iWork, 'snap to grid' function can be very helpful – objects quickly jump to align themselves with the layout grid or with other objects.

In a design where there are numerous objects it can be maddening. Objects align with the layout grid and with other objects.

To disable this function, press Command after starting to move objects or dragg their handles.  Remember, after, not before, otherwise a different function – rotating – activates.

Apple doesn't actually use the term 'snap to grid'. Instead, we have Alignment Guides in iWork.

If your design requires moving and editing numerous objects, disable Alignment Guides. Under Application menu (Keynote/Pages/Numbers) open Preferences>General  and uncheck the boxes 'Show guides...' under Alignment Guides. The menu says 'Show' but in fact means activate or disable the snap to grid function.

What to do when text lines are squashed after copy-pasting.

When copy-pasting from a non-Pages document you sometimes get ‘crushed lines’, when there is no interval between the lines and they overlap one another.  Like in the picture.

To return text back to normal, select the whole ‘squashed’ passage, go to Text Inspector and in Spacing>Line click on the drop-down menu under the line spacing value window. 

Change the setting from Exactly to Single. This changes the setting  from points to lines and a measurement of one corresponds to the one-line interval between the lines. In the source document it was probably set in points, not lines. 

The text will now have the usual one line interval between the lines.

And of course – don't panic! Nothing's wrong with the computer or the programme.

A note to beginners.

I work in Pages is a blog for confident iWork users. In my posts I usually skip the obvious steps you find in manuals, guides and on some web-sites. 

You don't need to be reminded to 'open a Pages document, to open go to File..' or 'select the Object, then move it...' before you start the actual task. I think it only irritates people who want to get straight to the point and see the main clue to accomplishing the task. Usually there is just one crucial tip.

If, however, you find that something is missing or you can't understand how to get where you want to, do get in touch. The content of this blog is created by one man, me, the publisher and author. I'll never send you back to read the manual or scoff at anyone's inexperience or incomprehension. No RTFMs here.

And of course I learn from readers' questions myself – no one can know everything.

The content is not checked or endorsed by Apple or any other computer company or specialists. It is entirely based on my own experience. Take it on 'as is' basis and let me know if there is an error or if you've found a simpler way of doing the same task.

A man and a woman: how to show gender in logos.

I was working on a logo design this morning and thinking: how can I indicate the gender in the simplest of ways. I mean, without references to the obvious differences in the attributes of sex.

This is an idea that came to me when I was just staring at the Shapes drop-down menu. For the man's head, use Rectangle. For the woman's, use the Quote Bubble.

The body shape can stay the same, but the square gives it an immediate 'masculinity' effect. Rotate the Quote Bubble's small spike to top right, it will look like a pony-tail and give the shape a 'feminine' effect.

Simple and effective!

  This is a quick draft in low resolution png format. If you want to order a similar design, please contact the publisher.