Moving Paragraphs in Word, on a Mac

More to the story below, but to get to the feature quickly. In OSX, under system preferences ->keyboard -> shortcuts…uncheck the boxes for Mission control and Application windows. Then you’ll be able to move paragraphs within Microsoft Word by holding down the ‘control’ and ‘shift’ keys while pressing the up and down arrows.

Now the back story….

One of the more undersold, but surprisingly convenient features of Microsoft Word, is the ability to move paragraphs of text around by holding the ‘alt’ and ‘shift’ keys down and pressing the up or down arrow while on a block of text.

This is a very convenient way to sort and reorganize thoughts or lists on a page. Whole paragraphs can be moved this way, as well as bullet points, word lists, or sentences, as long as they are separated by a line break.

This method only works in Windows, and the feature is relatively obscure, to the point that I went for years without it, but missing it being unable to find a way to do it on OSX on a Mac.

Well searching for a solution again recently, I’ve finally run across a solution. Thanks to Helen Bradley’s MS Office Tips, Tricks and Tutorials, I’ve finally found how to get this done on a Mac.

Did Siri’s Voice Change With Your IOS 7 Update?

If you’re like me you use the text to speech feature of IOS quite often to read you articles, emails, and other things. One thing I noticed quickly after updating to IOS 7 this morning was that, at least when it comes to text to speech, Siri’s voice was muffled, somewhat unclear.

It turns out Apple is not shipping the entire voice library necessary to have the clearer sound we’re used to. To fix this go to Settings-general-accessibility-speak selection-voices-English and turn on the enhanced quality option. This will download an update that will make everything sound much clearer and as you’re used to.

High Definition Audio Driver for Macbook Under Bootcamp

After upgrading to Windows 8 on my 2011 MacBook Air running Boot Camp, I lost the ability to send audio over the DisplayPort connection. This was frustrating because I was used to leveraging my iMac in display mode and would prefer the speakers and mic of the iMac over the MacBook Air.

If you’re having this problem you’ll notice if you take a look at your device manager that there  is a “High Definition Audio” device that is not starting.

Thanks to this post I learned that I had to download  and install  latest display drivers from Intel. They include a display audio driver. Windows update will not help here.

This is the latest driver that worked for me. I’m now hearing audio over the DisplayPort, apparently this fixes the issue that arises from trying to send audio over HDMI as well.

I’m not sure why Apple hasn’t updated their BootCamp drivers accordingly but they should.

Off-Screen Apps In OSX Lion

This happens often and it’s aggravating. You attempt to switch to an application say by clicking on it in the dock, or attempting to open it, only to realize it’s already open, but you can’t see it.

I think this may happen when you switch from target display mode.

Anyways one fix I’ve found, at least for some apps is to select the app icon in the dock and then click “window” from the menu bar and select “zoom.” That should bring the app back on screen.

If you find another way around or if this doesn’t work for you app then please leave a comment.

Airdrop has Declined Your Request

If you’re having trouble using Airdrop in OSX Lion then try disconnecting your Apple ID and reconnecting it to each computer.

Go to system preferences-Users& Groups and click change next to your Apple ID. When it says enter your current password it’s the password for your Mac it wants. Enter your password, hit minus on your Apple ID, and then hit plus to add it again.

That’s how I got it to work for me.

17 levels of brightness for a back-lit keyboard?

Image by Matthew McVickar via Flickr

I really appreciate the apple back-lit keyboard on my 13″ Macbook Pro.  But I really have to question why there are 17 levels of brightness and two buttons dedicated to controlling it.

There should only be on or off, a person only needs minimal back-lighting here. It’s only in the dark that you’d need this feature and it’s only a minimal amount of brightness that would be required.

Let’s take that other button and use it for “red mode.” Turn the screen and keyboard lighting to red.  This is better on for night vision, preventing problems with light sensitive equipment and making it easier to sleep after using the computer at night.

For now check out F.Lux. Flux makes the color of your computer’s display adapt to the time of day, warm at night and like sunlight during the day. It works on Windows, OSX and Linux.

***Update 1/15/2012***

I’ve since learned that the whole color of light, night-vision and sleep thoughts were likely incorrect.

Dear Yahoo, Delicious.com sucks. It coul…

Dear Yahoo, Delicious.com sucks. It could be so much more.

Access Opera Mini Configuration Screen

Opera Mini is currently one of the most downloaded apps in the Apple Appstore. It’s not perfect but it is speedy.

Some configuration settings are available by typing

“opera:config”

in the url field.

I’m not sure how useful this is to anyone but I do wonder if that means there are more hidden elements in there.

“opera:cache”
Also works, and seems like it could be handy.

Your Next eReader Display

Your Next Gen eReader

Notebookcheck.com reports that Qualcom is in talks to produce it’s Mirasol displays for Tablets and eReaders as early as this year.

I don’t get it Dell.

This is one of Dell’s lineups to help you choose a machine.  I don’t get it.  I suppose the X means check since their touting no Trialware, or maybe Trialware is good?  But there’s no key.