Designers Guide to Mac OS X Tiger

2017-07-07 02:10:07

Imagine for a moment that a client calls and wants you to make one last change in his 60-page annual report before sending it off to the printer, but the file is nowhere to be found. Turns out you accidentally deleted it, and you don't have any other copies of it. Now you have only two hours to re-create three weeks' worth of work.

If this designer's nightmare hasn't happened to you, odds are you know someone who has fallen victim to lost files. Happily for us all, these break-out-in-a-cold-sweat moments are easy to avoid, simply by backing up your projects to CDs or DVDs on a regular basis.

The old excuse of "It's too hard to figure out how to burn a CD" won't fly anymore, thanks to Tiger's built-in disc-burning features. We'll take a look at a few ways to save your data to CDs and DVDs here, and in Chapter 9, "System Maintenance," we'll tackle creating a data-backup schedule.

Burning CDs and DVDs

Assuming you have an optical drive that can read and write discs, Mac OS X can create data CDs and DVDs right in the Finder. Here's how it works:

1.	Place a blank CD or DVD into your Mac.
2.	Give your disc a name in the naming dialog, and then click OK.
3.	Find the files you want to burn to the disc and drag them onto the CD or DVD icon on your Desktop.
4.	Drag the CD or DVD icon to the Trash to burn it.

Unless you are using a CD-RW or DVD-RW/DVD+RW (rewritable), burning a CD or DVD is a one-shot deal. You can't go back and add more data to the disc later. Considering how cheap blank CDs and DVDs are, this isn't that big of a deal. The nice thing about burning CDs and DVDs in the Finder is that it's quick and easy. You don't have to worry about any special settingsjust pop a blank disc in your Mac, drag some files to it, and then eject.

A note about the Trash icon: Normally, the Trash icon changes to an Eject icon when you drag a removable disk, network disk, or flash drive onto it. When you drag a burnable CD or DVD to the Trash, the icon changes to a radiation symbol (Figure 1.18). This lets you know that you are about to burn your disc.

Figure 1.18. Drag a CD that you are ready to burn toward the Dock, and the Trash icon changes to the Burn icon. Drop your CD on the Burn icon to create your CD. When finished, your Mac automatically ejects the disc.

Tip

Determining the type of drive you have works for external drives that are connected via USB or FireWire too. Depending on how your drive is connected, select FireWire or USB, and your drive will show up in the right side of the window. The information is listed just the same as if the drive were inside your Mac. Just look for the telltale CD-RW/DVD-ROM and CD-RW/DVD-R.

Determining your drive type

Not all optical drives are created equal. Apple uses two types of drives, depending on what model Mac you buy. The Combo drive can read CDs and DVDs, and burn CDs. The SuperDrive can read and burn CDs and DVDs. Even though most people associate DVDs with movies, consider upgrading to a SuperDrive if your model of Macintosh doesn't come with one. A DVD makes for great storage because it can hold about seven times more than a CD.

If you aren't sure whether you have a Combo drive or SuperDrive, it's easy to check.

1.	Choose About This Mac from the Apple menu.
2.	Click the More Info button at the bottom of the About This Mac window.

3.	After the System Profiler window opens, click Disc Burning in the list on the left side of the window (Figure 1.19). Figure 1.19. System Profiler also has a Disc Burning option that shows just your optical drives. Drives that include -R in their description can burn discs; -RW means they can burn rewritable discs.

If you have a relatively new Mac, Reads DVD will display Yes, meaning you have at least a Combo drive capable of reading from and writing to CDs, as well as reading DVDs. CD-Write shows what types of CDs the drive can handle. -R indicates discs that can be burned to only once, and -RW indicates discs that can be written to, then erased and written to multiple times. A -R next to DVD-Write means you have a SuperDrive that can burn data and movie DVDs in addition to CDs.

Changing the Drive's Behavior

Not everyone will want to use the Finder to burn CDs because they might want to do things like create video CDs. If you want to change what happens when you put a blank disc in your Mac, use the pop-up menus in the CDs & DVDs pane in System Preferences (Figure 1.20).

Figure 1.20. The CDs & DVDs preference pane lets you set what happens when you insert blank discs into your Mac. If you use Toast to burn CDs, change "When you insert a blank CD" from "Ask what to do" to "Open other application." Then choose Toast as your default application, and it will launch every time you pop a blank disc in your Mac.

The default option is "Ask what to do." If you prefer to use another program, like Roxio's Toast, for creating CDs and DVDs, choose "Open other application," and then select the application you want from the Open dialog.

Erasing a CD-RW or DVD-RW

Erasing a disc is one function that Apple could make a little more user friendly. Here's how to erase a CD-RW or DVD-RW:

1.	Launch Disk Utility by choosing Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.
2.	Select the CD or DVD you want to erase in the column on the left.
3.	Click the Erase tab. The Quick Erase box is checked by default. Using Quick Erase to prepare the disc for reuse takes less time.
4.	Click the Erase button to erase the disc (Figure 1.21). Figure 1.21. Use Apple's Disk Utility application to erase CD-RWs and DVD-RWs before using them again. Unchecking the Quick Erase box means your erase will take longer, but it also helps prevent the unwanted recovery of deleted files.

Burn Folder

Tiger has a great feature called a Burn Folder (Figure 1.22). You can use it to hold collections of files you want to burn to a CD or DVD without having to move files to different locations, potentially saving you from misplacing files. When you drag a file or folder into a Burn Folder, the original item stays where it was, and an alias is created inside the Burn Folder. When you are ready to burn a disc, the folder collects all of the files and creates the disc for you.

Figure 1.22. You can store files in a Burn Folder until you are ready to burn a disc. You need to put a blank disc in your Mac only when you are ready to burn the files to CD or DVD.

So, why use a Burn Folder instead of putting a blank disc in your Mac and dragging files to it? Because you may want to slowly collect files to burn to a disc over a period of days or weeks, and you don't want to keep a blank disc in your Mac while you build your collection. Burn Folders are also useful for organizing documents you plan on backing up or archiving. Make a series of Burn Folders for each backup you want to make, and burn your backups when you have time.

Tip

Burn Folders make easy work of archiving client projects. Drag all the page-layout files, graphics, fonts, and other digital assets for the project to a new Burn Folder. When the project is finished and ready to archive, use the Burn Folder to copy everything to a blank CD or DVD. It's an easy way to archive projects without having to worry about misplacing files while they are being copied.

Setting up and using a Burn Folder is easy to do:

1.	In the Finder, choose File > New Burn Folder. A new folder with a radiation symbol appears on the Desktop (Figure 1.22).
2.	The default folder name is Burn Folder, so rename it to something more descriptive.
3.	Drag the items you want to burn to CD or DVD into your Burn Folder.
4.	When you are ready to burn your disc, double-click the Burn Folder to open it, and then click the Burn button. It's embedded in the glossy black bar, right below the toolbar at the top right corner of the window.
5.	When prompted for a blank disc, place one in your Mac. The default name for your disc is the same as the Burn Folder's name. If you want your disc to have a different name, change it now.
6.	Click the Burn button.

Archiving Files

Sometimes you need to fit more files on a disk than you have space for, or you want to email several documents at the same time without worrying about the email-attachment-size caps that some Internet services impose. Creating an archive, or compressed version, of the files lets you save disk spaceor, in the case of email, hopefully keep under attachment-size limits.

Tip

The Finder's archive function is useful when you need to compress a project before it goes off to a service bureau, printer, or another designer but you have no way of finding out what operating system they are using. Windows and Mac users can both decompress a Zip file, and the tools are already built into Tiger.

File compression

File compression is the mystical art of converting a file to a smaller version of itself that can be converted back to its original, bigger form without losing any data. Mac OS X can create compressed files, or archives, for you. No extra tools needed. Just Control-click or right-click the file or folder of files you want to compress, and choose "Create Archive of" from the contextual menu (Figure 1.23). The compression format used is called Zip (files have the .zip extension), and it is cross-platform, meaning you can give archives to Windows users and open the archives they send you.

Figure 1.23. To compress a file or folder into an archive, Control-click the item's icon, and then choose "Create Archive of" from the contextual menu. Your file or folder is compressed into a Zip file, suitable for giving to Mac or Windows users.

What About .sit?

Most longtime Mac users are familiar with StuffIt (.sit) or StuffIt X (.sitx) files (the new version for Mac OS X). If you want to make or open an industry-standard StuffIt archive, or .sitx file, you will have to download and install the tools. Apple stopped including StuffIt Expander with the introduction of Tiger. That's a big pain for designers, since so many of the files we work with end up compressed as .sitx files at some point. Luckily, it's easy to add the free StuffIt Expander to your Mac. Just pay a visit to the StuffIt Web site (www.stuffit.com).

If you want to make Stuffit archives too, you will need the paid version of StuffIt. I prefer StuffIt Deluxe to StuffIt Standard because it includes tools for automating the process of compressing and emailing files, and it adds a nice contextual menu that lets you compress files in several different formats. You can even look inside an archive without expanding it. Stuffit Standard and Deluxe let you password-protect archives, and they can open older BinHex (.hqx) files from Mac OS 9 and earlier. The archives that StuffIt makes are Mac and Windows compatible.

Choosing the Right Tools: Finder Archives vs. StuffIt Deluxe

Max OS X includes a tool built into the Finder for creating Zip (.zip) archives of files and folders. It's easy to use: Just Control-click or right-click the file or folder you want to compress, and choose "Create Archive of" from the contextual menu. Zip archives are nice because both Mac and Windows users can open them.

Allume Systems' StuffIt Deluxe lets you compress and decompress archives in almost any format. The StuffIt X (.sitx) format gives you smaller archive sizes than .zip, and its .zip archives open just fine on Windows machines. StuffIt's native format, .sitx, is cross-platform, and there are versions of StuffIt available for Windows users as well as Mac users.

StuffIt Deluxe adds a contextual menu to the Finder for its compression tools, so you can use it alongside Apple's built-in archive tool. Allume even has free archive-expander tools available for Mac and Windows users.

The verdict: The Finder's built-in Zip archiving tools work just fine, but StuffIt Deluxe is the better option if you work with other Mac and Windows users, and need to open or compress more than just .zip archives.

To decompress a Zip-formatted archive, just double-click its icon (Figure 1.24). If you aren't sure what kind of archive you have, look for the extension at the end of the file's name.

Figure 1.24. A file that's been compressed with the Zip format looks like a document with a zipper. Files compressed using StuffIt get their own little box icon.

Common File-Compression Formats

Since so many of the people you work with and receive documents from won't be able to tell you what they used to compress the file, it's going to be up to you to sort everything out. Since everyone likes working with the designer who knows all the answers, here's a list of common file-compression formats you are likely to come across:

Name	Extension	Description
StuffIt	.sit	Common in Mac OS 9 and earlier.
Stuffit X	.sitx	Updated version of .sit for Mac OS X; creates smaller archives.
Zip	.zip	Cross-platform file compression most commonly used on Windows. Tiger makes .zip files through its Create Archive of function.
BinHex	.hqx	Common in Mac OS 9 and earlier; adds a "protective wrapper" around a compressed file to prevent file corruption when sending the file through the Internet.
Tar Gzip	.tgz	Common in Unix.
RAR	.rar	Although relatively new to Mac users, this format is gaining popularity on the Internet.