Tip of the Week - Searching your Computer with Spotlight

Did you know that you can search your Mac computer for files just like how you would search Google for websites?

In the very top right corner of the Menu bar on Mac computers, there is a "Spotlight" icon:

You can also press Command + Spacebar on the keyboard to open the spotlight search window

After clicking on this icon you should see a Spotlight search bar. Search this bar for quick access to open applications, specific files, folders, email messages, dictionary definitions and more. 

Just click on the results to launch an application or open an a file. If you don't see what you want, click on "Show All" to open a Finder window of results.

For more great tips on how to use Spotlight to search your computer, check out Whitson Gordon's article on Lifehacker: All the Awesome Spotlight Shortcuts You Didn’t Know Existed

One of the tips from this post:

Make Advanced Search Queries

• You can search for files of a specific type by using the kind operator, e.g. invoice kind:pdf.
• You can search for files from a specific date range using operators like created or modified, e.g. invoice modified:yesterday for something modified yesterday, or invoice created:1/1/2012-4/10/2012 to find something created in between January 1st and April 10th.

Formatting and Word - Best Practices for Comments

When entering comments into PowerSchool, it is important not to simply cut and paste from Word. Instead, you can "strip" the formatting from your comments, by saving as a text file.

To save a Word Document as a Text File:

1. In Word, go to File>Save As
2. In the popup box, enter your document name, and choose your location as normal.
3. In the Format dropdown box, change from Word Document (.docx) to Plain Text (.txt)

You will be able to paste this text as you normally would into PowerSchool, with Command-V or Edit>Paste.

Saving Files to the Network with the CCPCS Macbooks

Students must save all their files to their personal drives on the network. Any documents saved to the hard drives will be hard to retrieve, if they are not lost altogether.

Saving student (and teacher) work to the server is different for Mac and Windows computers.

Accessing the Network on the Macbooks

On a school-owned Mac, the server should mount the correct server automatically upon login.

To navigate to the server, open a Finder window and noticed that under "Shared" in the left-hand navigation bar, "abbott.ccpcs.org" (for the Lower School) or "costello.ccpcs.org" (for the Upper School) is listed.

If the server does not mount automatically, follow the instructions at the end of this post.

Saving to the Network on the Macbooks

In Word or similar applications, go to Files > Save As when you want to save to the network. The following pop-up box should appear:

Students MUST NOT click save at this screen. Instead follow these directions:

1. Click on the drop-down arrow next to the Save as box.
2. In the dropdown, choose the Costello Server under Shared, then navigate to Students > Student Username.

Manually Connecting to Servers

If you do not see "Abbott" or "Costello" under shared in your Finder window, you will have to manually connect to the server using these steps.

1. In a Finder window, selecting "Connect to Server" under the top menu item "Go"
2. Input:  smb://costello (at the Upper School) and smb://abbott (at the Lower School)
3. You will be prompted to log in and then select a share.  
4. After this, "costello" or "abbott." should show up in the Finder window under Shared.