by Bret Capranica | Sep 27, 2009 | MiniPost
This is a good buy and worth it. While I use a Mac for most things, I use Windows on my Mac for a few apps. Students “” Buy and DOWNLOAD Windows 7 for $29...
by Bret Capranica | Sep 19, 2009 | Featured Articles, Ordinary Pastor, Pastoral Ministry, Technology
In this post I want to review a few applications every ordinary pastor (or person) can readily make excellent use of – and the best news is that all of them are free. While the web can be a major distraction for productivity, it can also be an amazing tool for getting things done. Here are tools from the web I use every week (some almost every hour): Safari Web Browser: I have been a Firefox fan for a long time. I loved the various plugins available that gave me greater connection to social media like Twitter. However, I’ve found that having constant connection to social media while working on high priority tasks on the web is too distracting, so I really use few plugins on Firefox any longer. The new Safari 4.0 I have found to be faster than Firefox. It certainly loads faster and is speeder in browsing the web. It also has a cleaner interface than Firefox. I have gone back and forth with Firefox and Safari, but tend to find Safari to handle my needs more simply and faster than Firefox. Email. I have all of my e-mail accounts dumping into my Gmail system. Our church uses Gmail with our own domain name. We can have access to one another’s calendars on the web or on our iPhones. Gmail via the web has been my mail client of choice for months. It loads very quickly and I have instant access to all my mail. I can quickly mark all of my mail read and star those I want to follow up on. I have a general rule that I respond to...
by Bret Capranica | Sep 18, 2009 | Featured Articles, Technology
Finder vs Pathfinder. One of the newest apps I use all the time is Pathfinder. In Windows, the way to navigate through your computer’s inventory is through what they call Explorer. It is much improved in Vista/Windows 7 over XP. In the Mac world, the way to traverse through your computer is through what they call Finder. I’ve grown to enjoy Finder over Explorer because it is simply more simple than Explorer. However, Pathfinder takes the Mac Finder to a new level. To see its full functionality, see the Pathfinder screencast. But here are a few of my favorite and most used items (I’m honestly just learning to use the vast array of tools in Pathfinder). One click movement through files and folder (this is the same as Finder). Quick-link drop-down menus allow for faster navigation to your files and folders. Tabbed browsing allows for multiple file locations to be accessed easily and quickly. Multiple view capabilities – for example, I may want to use both the columns view with the cover flow view. Setting up two view panes in the same window allows for much easier drag and drop of files from one place to another. Fully customizable tool bar puts the items for one-click navigation within easy range. Finding recently used file, documents, and applications is very simple and can all be done right within Pathfinder. I also find myself using the app launcher through Pathfinder also. It is a very quick and easy way to find the app your ready to open. There are many more features, and the Pathfinder screencast will demonstrate most of them. This is...
by Bret Capranica | Sep 14, 2009 | Featured Articles, Ordinary Pastor, Pastoral Ministry, Technology, Time/Life Management
[YouTube Video] Hey everyone, today’s blog post (and a few others this week) is a screen cast from my desktop in my study at home. I am currently using a 2.4 GHz iMac. I also have a MacBook Pro for portability (I’m hardly ever without my laptop) and its set up exactly like my iMac. What do I find to be some of the best applications I tend to use every week? Which are some of the most helpful to me as a pastor? This week I’ll be taking a look at my desktop and sharing with you the apps that find their way into my workweek. In general, just take a look at my doc (the bar of icons at the bottom of my screen). I don’t have any on there that I don’t regularly use. I’m going to give a quick overview today and then throughout the week, I’ll screen cast some details on those that I find most helpful. Finder. The way you find your way around the Mac environment is basically through the “Finder.” It’s comparable to Windows Explorer in the Windows environment. Pathfinder (instead of finder). It is much more versatile and worth the small amount it costs. It makes Windows Explorer and Mac Finder look useless. Safari (I’ve left Firefox behind for the most part). Google. For e-mail, calendar, contacts, chat, and tasks. Also Reader. Few Google docs. I will review a number of the web applications (WordPress, Picasa, etc.) that I use all the time. Dropbox. This is an excellent file sharing and synchronizing software. You can share any files with anyone,...
by Bret Capranica | Sep 3, 2009 | MiniPost
O.K., here’s where Windows does seem to outshine Mac – uninstalling a program. Windows has a great “uninstall” feature that cleans up the system when you want to remove a program. Mac is limited here. Check out this article for some help. Uninstalling Applications |...
