Sep 03, 2010

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Download a la Mode v11 - Mac Utilities and Online Polling Tools

Miguel Guhlin

“SWF files?” I muttered to myself. “How do you play those kinds of files on a Mac?” This is one of the several questions that are discussed in this Mac and web focused installment of Download a la Mode. A few other questions include:

Mac-Related Questions

  1. How do you play SWF files on a Mac?
  2. How do you work with compressed (e.g. ZIP) files on a Mac?
  3. How can I quickly browse my audio, image, video libraries?
  4. How do I re-map keys on my keyboard when running Windows?
  5. What do you recommend as a clipboard manager for Mac?

Web-Related

  1. How do collect data via a survey or poll?
  2. How do I share long web addresses with others as short URLs?

Without further ado, let’s jump into the utilities list.

Mac-Related Questions

How do you play SWF files on a Mac?

Looking for a SWF player? I sometimes encounter an SWF file and find myself scrambling to find a player for it on a Mac. Although I could use Flash Player that comes with the Adobe Creative Suite (Macromedia Suite), on one Mac that I use, I don’t have that program loaded or installed. So, what to use?

A quick search yielded two programs. There may be more, but these are two:

  1. SWF & FLV Player: Based on the standard Adobe Flash player for Mac OS X, SWF & FLV Player by Eltima Software offers advanced and unique features that allow you to play, rewind, fast-forward and preview SWF and FLV files frame-by-frame, and also create and manage playlists, zoom movies in and out, fit to current window size or restore to original one, set playback quality, control Flash security, check SWF file’s comprehensive information and lots more.
  2. iSwiff Flash Player: iSwiff plays .SWF files than QuickTime player, as it uses Adobes’s Flash web plugin for playing the movies. It also can export to Quicktime, but this feature has been removed from Quicktime 7.1.3 so may not work. However, there are other programs that you can use to convert SWF.

The real question is, how do you convert an SWF file to something else, like MP4 or FLV using freeware or free open source software?

Download these programs at:

How do you work with compressed (e.g. ZIP) files on a Mac?

Stuck with a folder full of documents or files you want to send to a friend via email? Then, one of the best ways to accomplish that is to compress and drop and all the files into ONE compressed file. Mac OS now comes with built-in zip (right click on a file or folder and choose ARCHIVE) capability. However, there are a variety of zip utilities you can use on the Mac. They offer the additional feature of being able to browse the contents of a zip file and decompress, or extract, that file individually.

Here is a short list of file compression utilities. As to unarchiving, or unzipping, compressed files you may receive, I encourage you to use the fantastic UnArchiver utility.

Download Links:

How can I quickly browse my audio, image, video libraries?

In my workshops, I often have to quickly find media that matches the needs of my audience. Since media includes a variety of items—video, audio, photos, bookmarks—I find myself using the Karelia iMedia Browser. This no-cost media browser “allows users to browse their libraries of photos (iPhoto, Aperture, and Pictures folders); music (iTunes library, GarageBand songs, and Music folders); movies (from iTunes, iPhoto, and Movies folders), and bookmarks (from several leading web browsers).”

One of my favorite features is that it allows me to “view” a video as a thumbnail without having to launch a program like Quicktime or VLC Media Player. This makes it indispensable when searching through my extensive video clip collection.

Download Links:

How do I re-map keys on my keyboard when running Windows?

Although I run VMWare Fusion on my personal Macbook, I found myself at the end of a budget year without the funds to buy Fusion for the work Macbook. So, I spent the hour it took to setup a Macbook with 160gig hard drive, 2 gigs RAM with Mac OS X and Windows running off of Bootcamp.

The install went great by the 3rd time I did it, and everything loaded without problems. I soon had Windows humming along the way I like it with my favorite applications. However, one thing was driving me crazy…how to remap the Apple-Command key to be the Control (CTRL) key. To do that, I used Key Tweak, a free program that describes itself in this way:

Keytweak is a free keyboard remapper for Windows NT/2000/XP. It makes use of Microsoft’s Scancode Map registry key to remap your keyboard. VB6 Runtime files are required, but are already present on Windows 2000/XP.

I used the Half Teach feature to scan a single key. You basically choose scan a single key then press the Apple-Command key on your Macbook keyboard, and voila! You can then choose a destination key to map to.

Download Link:

What do you recommend as a clipboard manager for Mac?

“How often have you copied something only to find that you need it a few minutes later but you’ve already copied another item?” So goes the advertising at the web site for the no-cost PTH Pasteboard 4. Use Pasteboard to copy multiple items to your clipboard and then paste them when you need them without having to copy again.

Download Link:

Web-Related Questions

How do collect data via a survey or poll?

Conducting surveys and polls is great. When I need to conduct a survey, I try to use tools that give me control of the survey data (e.g. UCCASS or Moodle’s built-in survey feature). However, sometimes that level of security just is not needed.

The hardest part about surveys is not collecting the data. Rather, it is designing the surveys and then analyzing the data. Although it would be too much to hope for to simplify both ends of the process—the design of the survey and data analysis—what if the latter could be made easier?

Here are 10 alternative online poll/survey sites you can take advantage of, all at no-cost:

and some “new” arrivals that work wonderfully well:

How do I share long web addresses with others as short URLs?

Three nifty tools for shortening those long URLs are available. I like to use SnipURL, TinyURL.com or URLTea.com to get short web addresses that I can email to people or put into publications. But now, there are three I’m aware of. The bad thing with long addresses is that they get shortened—and therefore, won’t work—in some email programs. A short URL eliminates that problem.

Of the three, my favorite is SnipURL since it allows you to “rename” the URL. Instead of a hard to remember character string (1t3r), you can have people go to http://snipurl.com/whatever where “whatever” is what you type in.

Links:

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