Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Sending Group Emails via iPhone Mail App - MailShot is the Answer

Have you ever wanted to email a group of people from your Contact Address Book to send a message via your iPhone?    There doesn't seem to be a way to actually do this using the Mail app on the iPhone.

Normally these contact groups are created in the Mail application on your Mac computer.  If you try to select this group in the Mail app, it merely brings up the list of all the members in that Group and you have to select them one at a time in order to add them to the To: field.   This is not efficient, if you have a large group of contacts that are contained in that Group.

Today I found an app MailShot by Soluble Apps, that has a easy-to-use interface that allows the user to create Groups that will be added to your Contact Address Book in effect as a new contact which contains the emails needed to send all at once when using the Mail app. 

It was easy for me to create a Family Group using MailShot using the following steps: (1) Created a new Group (2) Selected contacts for that Group (3) Updated to my Address Book automatically.    It showed up in my regular iPhone Contact Address Book list and I could email all the members of the family without having to select them individually.


When I was ready to send an email to this new group, I opened my Mail app on iPhone and selected "Family Group" and was able to send an email to all the members of that group at once.  You can also place the selected Group into a forward, cc or bc fields.   You can send photos, documents and other attachments with this group email.   You also have the ability to deselect/select to manage the groups using the MailShot app.


The MailShot FREE app on iTunes allows you to create 3 groups with 5 persons per group; while the updated paid version allows creation of 50 groups with 50 persons per group.  There is also an iPad version.

This app is worth checking out for large email management.  So if you have a large group of contacts like 250 members that you need to email from your iPhone, you could create 5 groups of 50 each and then select each group1, group2, group3, group4 and group5 and send the email in a very efficient manner.

Tuesday, May 03, 2011

Bluetooth Keyboard Shortcuts That Work with iPad/iPhone Devices

If you use an iPad for any type of writing or journaling, you probably use Apple's wireless bluetooth keyboard.  I decided to post a list of some of the keyboard shortcuts that work with the keyboard bluetoothed with an iPad or iPad 2 or even your iPhone.

To pair your keyboard with your device, select General>Bluetooth in the Settings options.  Turn bluetooth ON and also turn on your bluetooth keyboard by pushing in the button on the keyboard that is located on the upper right-hand side of the physical keyboard.  Your mobile device will try to discover the bluetooth keyboard and once that it finds the keyboard, a dialog box requesting you to enter a PIN number on your keyboard will appear on the screen.  Once the PIN has been entered, be sure to hit the return or enter key.  You should then be connected and can start typing away.

Keyboard Shortcuts for Controlling Device Settings:
F1 - decreases the brightness on the device screen
F2 - increases the brightness on the device screen
Space Bar -  when your screen has gone to sleep will wake it up.

If you want to play some iPod app music in the background while you type
F8 - play or pause media
F9 - navigate forwards for media playing, next song
F7 - navigate backwards for media playing, previous song
F10 - mutes the media
F11 - decrease the volume for the media playing
F12 - increase the volume for the media playing
Option (or Cmd or Shift or Cntrl) + F9 - skips to the next album
Option (or Cmd or Shift or Cntrl)+ F7 - returns to the previous album

Keyboard Shortcuts for Selecting Text or Moving within text paragraph or document:
Cmd A - Select All
Cmd C - Copy Text
Cmd X - Cut
Cmd V - Paste
Option + Delete - delete entire words one at a time to the left of the cursor
Cmd Z - Undo
Shift + Cmd + Z - redo

Shift + Right Arrow - selects/deselects letter by letter moving to the right
Shift + Left Arrow - selects/deselects letter by letter moving to the left
Shift + Up Arrow - selects/deselects text when moving up
Shift + Down Arrow - selects/deselects text when moving down

Option + Shift + Right Arrow - allows you to select/deselect text word by word when moving right
Option + Shift + Left Arrow - allows you to select/deselect text word by word when moving left
Option + Shift + Up Arrow - allows you to select/deselect text line by line when moving up
Option + Shift + Down Arrow - allows you to select/deselect text line by line when moving down

Cmd + Up Arrow -  move the cursor to the beginning of document
Cmd + Down Arrow - move the cursor to the end of document (also works with Cntrl)
Cmd + Right Arrow - move the cursor to the end of the line  (also works with Cntrl)
Cmd + Left Arrow - move to the beginning of the line

Tab  - indents the text
Right, Left, Up and Down Arrows - will move the cursor in the body of the text
Eject Button (top row right-hand side of keyboard) - disconnects bluetooth keyboard to allow accessing the virtual keyboard on the device
Cmd + Spacebar - select a different (International) keyboard if one has been added to the list of available keyboards in the General Settings for the device.

Keyboard Shortcuts to Yield Special Symbols - Using option key and letters/numbers yields special symbols, and using option shift and a letter/numbers produces some additional symbols.  Option w - yields the symbol ∑
Option r - yields the registered trademark symbol ®
Option d - yields the symbol sigma ∂
Option p -  yields the symbol for pi  π
Option g - yields the symbol for copyright ©
Option 2 - yields the symbol for trademark ™
Option x - yields the symbol for approximately equal to ≈
Option v - yields the square root symbol √
Option k - yields the degree symbol ˚
Option 4 - yields the cent symbol ¢
Option j - yields the delta symbol ∆
Option , - yields the lesson than and equal to symbol ≤
Option . - yields the greater than and equal to symbol ≥
Option / - yields the division symbol ÷
Option n + (then release option key) followed by letter n - yields the ñ
Option e = (then release option key) followed by letter e - yields é
Option ` = (then release option key) followed by a or e or i- yields à and è and ì
Option 5 - yields the infinity sign ∞
Option 8 - yields the bolded bullet •
Option ; - yields the ellipse symbol (3 dots in a row) …
Option b - yields the integral symbol ∫
Option 1 - yields the upside down exclamation point ¡

There are also a number of symbols that can be typed when using the shift key along with the option key and a letter/number
Option + Shift + k - yields the apple symbol 
Option + Shift + 3 - yields the less than symbol ‹
Option + Shift + 4 - yields the greater than symbol ›
Option + Shift + letter o - yields the null symbol Ø
Option + Shift + 2 - yields the Euro symbol €
Option + Shift + equals symbol = - yields the ± symbol
Option + Shift + left bracket [ - yields the right double quotes ”
Option + left bracket [- yields the left double quotes “
Option + Shift + right bracket ]- yields the right single quote ’
Option + right bracket ] - yields the left single quote ‘
Option + Shift + front slash / symbol - yields the upside down question mark used in Spanish ¿

Presently, not all keyboard shortcuts work with the iPad and iPhone, such as some important ones for bold, italics and other text formatting within apps.  Not all apps will allow using the keyboard shortcuts.  The trick of hitting the space bar twice to add a period and start a new sentence  does not work. 





Sunday, May 01, 2011

MacBlend's 101 Keyboard Shortcuts App for iPhone/iPad

It is always handy to have a list of keyboard shortcuts to use while using a Mac computer.  One of my Twitter friends and Seattle's Mac guru, MacBlend has a great app that supplies you with 101 Keyboard Shortcuts and a quiz to test you on what you learn.  



Matt at MacBlend, also provides training sessions in person or via video chat training using innovative means to learn all about your Mac computers.   He has a great site which has lots of useful information.   You might want to check out his clever videos under the MacBlend TV tab and his FREE eBook entitled "20 Ways to Save Time on Your Mac".   I highly recommend following his blogs and check out his site to schedule a coffee session for some useful tips and guidance in making the best of your Mac computer.

I look forward to the future MacBlend apps and updates. I am hoping that he will add in some search capabilities to help find a specific shortcut within the 101 Keyboard Shortcuts for Mac, or possibly a reference list by Mac App or type of keyboard grouping.  For example, it would be nice to have a section of just those screen capture keyboard strokes together on one screen or to pull them up if I searched by tag "screen capture".