[Sampler for Extra Show] By popular demand, this weeks show is all about Bento by FileMaker. Bento is a very flexible and elegant database package that many people consider to be the application that was missing from iWork. It's a very powerful application that harnesses the power of database creation and sophisticated data manipulation in a very stylish and easy to use package - the epitome of a mac application! As well as allowing you to create your own databases (or libraries in Bento terminology) from scratch or via imported data, Bento also gives you direct access to your Address book data, along with your iCal tasks and events to design your own forms to view and manipulate your data. Eye candy is plentiful with the use of pre designed themes and the ability to create your own special views of your data via easily customisable forms. This weeks show takes you through the basics of Bento and even if you've no database experience, should give you enough information to start creating your own databases with ease. The show is an Extra members show and covers: ◦ Introduction to Bento
◦ The Bento Interface
◦ Core Concepts - Libraries and Collections
◦ Address Book Integration
◦ Records & Table View
◦ Form Views
◦ Creating a Library
◦ Adding Fields
◦ Form Customisation
◦ Themes
◦ Advanced Find
◦ Smart Collections More than enough to get you started! This is the first of a two part show on Bento and we'll look at some of the more advanced features in part two. LESS

[Full Free Show] It's been a while since I first found PDFPen, a great utility for editing PDFs. With the introduction of Version 3, however, the application now has some amazing features allowing you to edit the embedded images and text in the PDF itself! Add in the ability to create and insert text, images, signatures and scribbles into a PDF and even create your own libraries of often used material, no longer do you have to spend hundreds of dollars on Adobe Acrobat! This show is sponsored by Smile On My Mac, the publishers of PDFPen and covers: ◦ Introduction to PDFPen
◦ Manipulating PDF pages
◦ Working with Text
◦ Editing original PDF text
◦ Working with Columns
◦ Copying Text
◦ Searching for Text, Notes and Comments
◦ Working with Images
◦ Editing original PDF images
◦ Adding your own Images
◦ Filling in PDF Forms
◦ Adding Your Signature
◦ Making Transparent Images
◦ Applescript Support On top of all that, this weeks show also contains a special ScreenCastsOnline discount code to save 20% off the usual price of PDFPen - The code is SCOPDFPEN LESS

[Trailer] Thought I'd break myself back in gently by putting together Part 2 of the mini series - Setting up your Mac. In this weeks show, I make a couple of slight alterations from Part 1 as suggested by pman and wastern from the ScreenCastsOnline Forum, then it's straight into a section on configuring your new shiny aluminium keyboard to get the most out of it. Then onto a list of some of the top freeware and donationware applications to install on your brand new Mac (or existing Mac if needs be!) A few suggestions on commercial software I can't live without, topped off with an announcement on the new ScreenCastsOnline 2007 DVD now available (members only - sorry!). Finished off with news of a groovy prize draw for all those people who buy a DVD before the end of February. You know what, I didn't break myself in gently at all! LESS

No proper show this week due to my attendance at Macworld in San Francisco. I thought I'd post a short sights and sounds video of Macworld to give you a flavour of just what it's like attending the show. Normal service will be resumed next week. LESS

[Trailer] It's been a good few months since I did a Rapidweaver related show so I thought I'd do one on a tool I get a lot of requests about. We all know that Rapidweaver is one of the simplest, yet most powerful web creation tools available for the Mac but one of its strengths is also one of its weaknesses. It's a template based package and uses themes to give your Web site its look and feel. Now unless the theme developer gives you lots and lots of options, your creativity might be a bit stifled by sticking to a particular theme...."If only I could just insert my logo just there in that header!" Well with RWMultiTool, the underlying graphics of virtually every theme are made available to you to alter or even replace if you want to! Insert your own images or overlay extra graphics on your Rapidweaver theme headers or anywhere else in your theme really easily and quickly. No coding is required, just drag your images on to the existing theme elements, one click and your new graphic is instantly part of the theme. You can even see the changes instantly to your Web site in Rapidweavers Preview mode. The best part is that RWMultiTool is available in both free and Pro versions and the show will give you a brief comparison between both versions. RWMultiTool Site
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[Full Free Show] For the first show of the new year, I thought I'd offer a helping hand to all those new Mac owners fortunate enough to get a new Mac for Christmas. The theme of this show was suggested by a viewer and I enlisted the help of the guys and gals over at the ScreenCastsOnline forum to assemble a list of best practices and essential software for the new Mac user. The resultant list is just too much for a single show so I'll make it into an occasional mini series of shows for the new Mac user. This first show looks at several different aspects of setting up a brand new mac from the view point of a new Mac user. I look at: Basic Dock Customisation
Converting to a Standard Account
Using Parental Controls
Switching on the FireWall
Setting a Screensaver Password
Pointers to Using Time Machine In addition to these common tasks, I also recommend six free software packages to get you up and running as quickly as possible (inlcuding running through the different installation routines for all of them) The software icludes: Firefox - Web Browser (although I do recommend at least trying Safari for a short while)
TextWrangler - A Fully Featured Text Editor
Paintbrush - A simple bitmap graphics tool based on MS Paint
Perian - Some essential video codecs to allow you play many different types of video
Flip4Mac - Windows Media Playback
The Unarchiver - Free unarchive utility for many formats These are just the start and we'll look at many more useful utilities and applications in the following episodes. LESS

[Trailer] Last show of the year so I thought I'd go out with something special! A couple of weeks ago, I stumbled upon a software package called Remote Buddy which allows you to use your Apple Remote to do all sorts of clever things with your Intel Mac. Included in the package is a very clever piece of software which is basically a fully featured Ajax web server that allows you full control over iTunes from a browser. Add in an Airport Express to allow you to transmit your music from your Mac to a remote set of powered speakers or a HiFi over Wifi and you have an incredible system for creating multi room audio throughout the house. But it gets even better when you add in an iPhone or iPod Touch which allows you to access the Remote Buddy Ajax Web server and control your audio system via WiFi. Not just control the playback, but control the volume, search your iTunes library, select your Airport Express and even view the album art of the currently selected track on your iPhone. This weeks full show covers all these elements in 20 minute including: Installing and Configuring the Airport Express
Configuring iTunes
Installing and Configuring Remote Buddy
Using the Remote Buddy Ajax Web Server
Controlling iTunes via your iPhone/iPod Touch LESS

Time for a product update this week. It's been over 12 months since I covered 1Passwd, the brilliant password manager and web form filler from Agile Web Solutions. This is one of the must have applications for the Mac and makes managing and using passwords and web identities a breeze. Since the last screencast ( SCO0078 ) , the product has been re-launched as 1Password and has had a significant re-write with lots of new features and is now even better! In addition to the new features built in to 1Password, the guys have come up with a unique feature to enable to securely copy all your 1Password information in encrypted form to your iPhone or iPod touch. So now you can have all your data with you on the go! This weeks show covers: 1Password Basics
Using 1Password for Authentication
New 1Password GUI
New 1Password Identities
New 1Password Wallet Items
Sync to iPhone and iPod Touch For a limited time, you can get 17% off the usual price of 1Password by accessing this special ScreenCastsOnline offer page at the 1Password store - 17% Discount for ScreenCastsOnline viewers - This offer has been extended up to 31st January 2008. LESS

[Trailer] Another Members show this week and it's part 2 of the iCal tutorial. In this weeks episode, I look at some of the more advanced capabilities of iCal that make it such a powerful planning and sharing tool. In addition, I also take a look at some third party tools that enable you to extend the capabilities of iCal and also integrate and syncronise with Google Calendar. The show covers: Time Zone Support
Sharing Calendars incl.
Exporting
Publishing
Subscribing
Syncronising Calendars incl.
.Mac Sync
iPhone Sync
Third Party Integration
BusySync
Spanning Sync Don't forget that the members version of the show has embedded chapters so you can go straight to the section that you want or easily skip sections. LESS