Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Tip 141
Recover Crashes and Lock-Ups
I've owned Macs since 2003, and I've only ever had one crash that's rendered
the computer completely unresponsive. All I did was press and hold the
power button for five seconds. This forces the computer to switch off. As an
alternative, however, some people report that holding down
SHIFT
+
OPTION
+
COMMAND
for a few seconds would also cause the computer to power down.
If an application has become unresponsive—that is, the spinning mouse
cursor (aka the beach ball of death) has appeared, indicating the computer
is busy—but the rest of the system seems to be working fine, many users
report that simply starting Activity Monitor somehow fixes things. To start
Activity Monitor, open Finder, click Applications, and then double-click
Activity Monitor within the
UTILITIES
folder. Some users with troublesome systems
keep Activity Monitor as an icon on the Dock for just such contingencies!
Tip 142
Share Your Contacts with Others
Macs use vCard files to store contact details, although end users aren't aware
of this because the files are invisibly handled by the Contacts application.
The vCard system records all the details about a particular contact in a single
file, and it's an open file format that's understood by many operating systems,
including Windows (and Microsoft Outlook).
Exporting a Single Contact
To export a contact in order to send it to somebody, open the Contacts app
(open Finder, select Applications, and then double-click Contacts in the list),
and locate your contact in the list. Then simply click and drag the contact
from the main list into a new email window, or click and drag to the desktop
if you want to turn it into a file to send manually.
Usually, all recipients need to do is double-click the vCard (
.VCF
) file to import
the data, but they might have to use a special import function of their email
or chat client. They should check their documentation for instructions.
