Ejecting a disc that’s stuck in your Mac

If a CD or DVD refuses to eject, and it’s definitely not in use by any programs, try restarting the Mac whilst holding down the left mouse button. This should force the opening of all optical drives and eject your troublesome disc. You could also open Terminal and type drutil tray open, then hit [Enter]. If other devices like USB or FireWire hard drives, memory sticks or iPods refuse to eject, the safest course of action is to shut down the Mac, disconnect the device and then restart. Often, a device will then behave normally.

via Quick fixes for 10 common Mac problems | News | TechRadar UK.

Mail features you aren’t using: The Photo Browser

Want to attach an image to an e-mail message? Use Mail’s Photo Browser to grab a photo from your iPhoto library without launching iPhoto.I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to mail someone a photo, and my first impulse was to launch iPhoto and then drag an image into Mail or use iPhoto’s Share -> Email command. But there’s a quicker and easier way. In Mail, just choose Window -> Photo Browser. A floating window appears instantly, showing the complete contents of your iPhoto library. Locate the picture you want, drag it into a message window, and you’re done.

via The seven most underused Mail features | Business Center | Working Mac | Macworld.

Mail features you aren’t using: Plain Text

This may be a bit of a personal bias, but I like to receive e-mail in plain text (so that I get to decide what font, size, style, and color messages use). I also like to extend that courtesy to others. Mail uses Rich Text by default for outgoing messages, but you can change this by choosing Mail -> Preferences, clicking on the Composing icon on the toolbar, and choosing Plain Text from the Message Format menu. (To change the format for an individual message, choose Format -> Make Rich Text or Format -> Make Plain Text.) To force incoming mail to display in plain text by default (which isn’t possible for all messages), you need to quit Mail, open Terminal (in /Applications/Utilities) and enter the following command: defaults write com.apple.mail PreferPlainText -bool TRUE. To switch to styled text (if available) when viewing a plain-text message, choose View -> Message -> Best Alternative.

via The seven most underused Mail features | Business Center | Working Mac | Macworld.

Mail features you aren’t using: Multiple From addresses

If an e-mail account has more than one valid From address (for example, if you use jk@example.com as an alias to joekissell@example.com), you can configure Mail to let you use any of those addresses when sending a given message from that account. First, choose Mail -> Preferences, click on the Accounts icon on the toolbar, select your account, and click on Account Information. Then, in the E-mail Address field, enter all the addresses you might use with that account, separated by commas. Close the Preferences window and click on Save. Now, when you compose a new message, you can choose any of those addresses from the From pop-up menu below the Subject field.

via The seven most underused Mail features | Business Center | Working Mac | Macworld.

Mail features you aren’t using: Activity window

Does Mail seem to take an awfully long time to check or send messages? If you’re curious to know what it’s up to behind the scenes, choose Window -> Activity (Command-0) to display a floating window showing each operation Mail is currently performing. You can stop any given activity by clicking on its Stop icon.

via The seven most underused Mail features | Business Center | Working Mac | Macworld.