Having problems emptying Trash?

Even though I look up a million things a day, I kept forgetting to look up a very simple phrase that would have saved me so much time!!!

I am posting the information here in case it helps others.

I was getting a strange error code any time I tried to empty Trash. I looked up that error code and there was nothing available to help me.

Today I finally looked up “fix trash on mac” and found this:

Have you encountered the occasional OS X problem and the inability to empty your Mac’s Trash? There are numerous tricks for forcing the Mac to empty the Trash, but if all fails there is one last method.

Probably the simplest way to fix a problem with Trash is simply to do a reboot, however many times that won’t solve the problem, so you’ll have to try opening Trash in Finder and hold down the Option key while clicking the Empty button.

This is what finally worked for me and now my Trash is finally empty and the space is restored on my drive.

Typing accents

This link to tips of typing accents is very helpful for translators.

Home key on MacBook keyboard

MemoQ users have been looking for a keyboard combination for CTRL+Home. Today they discovered that pressing CTRL + Fn + righ arrow returns the cursor to the first segment in the project.

This keyboard shortcut works on MacBook keyboards, as well as the Apple bluetooth wireless keyboards.

Bottom row of keyboard

Blog posts at new address

Anytime I post something new on the MacSwitch blog, you will see a post on my Facebook profile.

Note that I have moved the blog to WordPress. Just click on this post to visit the new blog.

Mailing list for Mac switchers (MacSwitch)

I had started a mailing list for translators who switched over to the Mac environment several months ago.

If you would like to join because you need help or would like to help others, please come on over — whether you use your Mac with or without Windows or if you are considering making the switch (no matter how unsure you are), you are welcome here.

Click to join MacSwitch

Problems with printing accents from the Windows side

I had a problem with printing accents (French, but this should be the same with other languages) from the Windows side while using Parallels 4. This problem existing with Leopard, but also after I upgraded to Snow Leopard. Whatever I printed from the Windows side messed up the accents.

The accents always displayed correctly in Word, Acrobat, Quickbooks, whatever, but they didn’t print correctly.

My Windows language settings were correct and I could find anything in Parallels that would account for this.

I don’t know what caused the problem, but I did find a solution. My settings were to use the default printer attached to my Mac on the Mac side. I changed this to specify a printer connected to the Windows side and the problem disappeared.

Printscreen keyboard shortcuts

Shift+Command+3 shortcut creates a screenshot of your current screen and copies it to your desktop.

Shift+Command+4 creates a screenshot of the selected area.

More keyboard shortcuts

To move to the top or bottom of a document:

Cmd up or down arrow (on the MacBook)
Alt up or down arrow (on my MacPro with an MS keyboard) would be Cmd on a Mac keyboard

If you are using the mini Mac keyboard (wireless or iMac):

Fn + down arrow = page down
Fn + up arrow = page up

Logitech mouse drivers

Click the picture that matches your mouse here, click Downloads and choose your OS.

Microsoft mouse drivers

Available here