Google has taken this concept event further and now allows users to hide those morning and evening hours that take up precious, unused calendar space.

The new setting can be found by following the instructions below to activate the new feature.

Enable Hide Morning/Night

In the steps below we will enable the new labs feature in Google Calendar.

1. Click the gear icon (Options) and then click Labs from the drop-down that appears.

2. Click the Enable radio button for the Hide morning and night labs feature.

3. Click Save to enable the feature. Return to the calendar.

Hide Morning & Nights in Google Calendar

In this section I will show you how to use the new hide morning and nights feature to make your calendar leaner.

After you return to the calendar you will notice that the upper and lower ranges of the time scale will appear with grey shading.

When you place your cursor on the edge of the shading between morning and daytime hours a slider will appear.

1. Move the slider to adjust the time range to hide. The selected range will hide.

2. To view the hidden range just click on it (specifically where it says “time-time” shaded in grey).

Once clicked the range will expand. To hide it again simply click on the hidden range again and it will collapse.

Note: If you have appointments in the hidden  areas they will still appear in a condensed view, so don’t worry about appointments disappearing. They will all be there.

Software/Hardware: Google Chrome running on Mac OS X.

When I opened the print dialog box I was amazed at the number of options available to print a calendar in iCal.

So I decided to write this guide to help others navigate all of the calendar printing options available for iCal in Mac OS X Lion.

How to Print iCal Calendars in Mac OS X

1. With iCal as the active application, click File from the Menu Bar and then click Print from the menu that appears.

When the Print dialog box opens you will find that you have a slew of options to help customize the calendar you are printing.

In this section we will review all of the options available.

A. The first two options determine which type of calendar you wish to print and the type of paper you are printing on.

The options are as follows:

• View: Day, Week, Month, List, Selected Events.
• Paper: US Letter and other standard formats.

B. Time Range allows you to specify the range of time you wish to include in the calendar you are printing. The range is set by choosing a start month and an end month.

C. You also have the option of specifying which calendars to include in the print. This is great if your life revolves around multiple calendars.

D. Options for the Calendar:

• All-day events: Allows you to include all-day events in the calendar.
• Timed events: Allows you to include timed events in the calendar.
• Mini Calendar: Will print a small calendar on the top-right portion of the calendar page. The mini calendar will include previous, current and next month.
• Calendar keys:  Think of it as your calendar’s legend. It will list the calendars you are displaying on the calendar you are printing.
• Black and white: Prints your calendar in black and white.
• Text size: Determines the text size used for the calendar.

2. When you are ready to print the calendar click Continue.

The print prompt will appear. Select the printer you wish to use and click Print.

Once you have successfully printed the calendar, experiment with other options to see how the calendar options influence the look of the calendar.

Remember that you can preview any changes you make real-time.

Software/Hardware used: iCal running on Mac OS X Lion.

Rather than perform a search in Mac OS to locate these files each time you want to access them, you have the option of creating a Smart Folder to simplify this task.

Smart Folders are like virtual folders that contain files and or folders that match a search criteria you provide when the folder is created.

For example, if I wanted to create a Smart Folder that pulled all the PDFs on my Mac I can do that. The same applies for files and folders with a particular name, size or any other criteria you can come up with.

Check out the guide below to learn how to create Smart Folders in Mac OS X.

How to Create a Smart Folder in Mac OS

1. Open Finder and click File in the Menu Bar and then click New Smart Folder from the menu.

A new Finder (New Smart Folder) window will open.

A. Determine the scope of the search (This Mac, All My Files, or Shared).

2. Once you’ve determined the scope of the search, enter the search query in the Finder window search box and select where you want to look for that query (Filename or document type if you are entering a file extension as a query).

Search results will automatically appear.

Include Additional Search Criteria

You also have the option of including additional search criteria like dates modified, file type and more. If you don’t require additional search criteria proceed to Step 4 below.

3. To enter additional search criteria, click the (+) button to add another bar with search criteria options.

Note: The screenshot displays three periods (sic) due to bug in my screenshot application, but the button should be a (+) symbol.

B. Set the criteria by selecting the options from the drop-down menus and the fields provided.

If you wish to remove search criteria from the Smart Folder, click the (-) symbol to remove the portion of the query you wish to eliminate.

4. When you are ready to save the changes you’ve made to the Smart Folder click Save.

Note: You have two options when saving Smart Folders, first, you can select the location of the new Smart Folder, so if you wanted to save the folder to the Desktop you can do so by navigating to the correct location.

You can also have the option of adding the Smart Folder to Finder’s sidebar by adding a checkmark to the Add To Sidebar option.

5. Enter the name you wish to apply to the Smart Folder and click Save.

If you selected the option to add the Smart Folder to the Sidebar it will appear in the Finder Sidebar wherever you are.

Now that you know how to create Smart Folders in Mac OS X, see what else you can find to save you time with Smart Folders.

Software/Hardware used: Mac OS X Lion.

Unless you know what to look for you may be running an outdated version of Chrome that could expose your computer to newly patched threats.

In this guide I will show you how to determine when an update is available for Chrome and how to update the browser manually.

How to Update Google Chrome

As soon as Chrome is on the Internet it will automatically check update servers to ensure that the latest version is currently installed.

When an update is available you will notice that the small wrench icon (tool icon) will have a small update icon (green box with white arrow) which indicates that an update is available for Chrome.

You can always restart the browser to apply the update or follow the instructions below which will reopen the tabs you were working on.

1. Click the Tool icon and then click Update Google Chrome.

2. Chrome will prompt you to Relaunch the browser. Since we want this update now, click the Relaunch button to close, update and launch the browser.

When the browser relaunches it should be updated to the latest version of Chrome available. To verify you can always check the About section to verify the version number and that the latest version is running.

The nice thing about following these steps is that when Chrome relaunches, all the tabs you had open will reopen to the pages you were viewing.

Software/Hardware Used: Chrome 14 Beta running on Mac OS X Lion.

If you find yourself in this predicament and would like to share your iTunes library with others on your network follow the instructions below as this option is disabled by default.

How to Share Your iTunes Library

1. Click iTunes from the Menu Bar and then click Preferences form the menu that appears.

2. When the Preferences window opens click the Sharing icon to view the Sharing Preferences.

When the page loads, check Share my library on my local network.

A. You will notice that you have two options that allows you to control what you share on the network:

• Share entire library – Sharing the entire library will allow others to have access to all of the content in your iTunes library.
• Share selected playlists – This option allows you to select which playlists and content you want to share. Check the items you wish to share from the list.

B. You can set a password to require users to authenticate before they can access the content on your library. This is a great feature if you plan on sharing your library in a public network.

When you enabled this feature you will be prompted to enter a password.

3. Click OK to save the settings.

4. iTunes will remind you that sharing music is for personal use only. Click OK to proceed.

You should be able to access your iTunes library from another computer running iTunes on your network.

Note: If you set up authentication, make sure to save the password because you will need it to access your iTunes library from another computer.

Software/Hardware used: iTunes 10.4 running on Mac OS X Lion.

If this is the case chances are that you have duplicates in your iTunes library. This can happen if your ripped a CD twice or if you merge one library with another, most times you will end up with duplicates that eat up hard drive space and disrupt your listening experience.

To combat duplicates in iTunes, Apple made it real easy to locate them. In this guide I will show you how to use this feature to locate and eradicate those duplicates hogging up previous hard drive space.

How to Find and Delete Duplicate Songs in iTunes

1. With iTunes open, click File on the Menu Bar and then click Display Duplicates from the menu that appears.

You will notice that the list of music only shows duplicate files (see below).

To delete the duplicate make sure that it is in fact a duplicate and that the copy you are keeping is a good copy.

2. When you are ready right-click the duplicate you wish to delete and then click Delete from the menu that appears.

A. While viewing duplicates you will notice that the status bar displays the number of items and the amount of space. You can easily divide the two values to arrive at the savings you will achieve once you clear out all the duplicates.

In my case I would save about 4GB of hard drive space or about 1,660 duplicate songs from my playlist.

3. When you are done deleting duplicates click Display All to return to the music list.

Not only is your iTunes library a little leaner so is your hard drive.

Software/Hardware used: iTunes 10.4 running on Mac OS X Lion.

Storage Space is Limited

Whether your Mac runs on an SSD or a regular hard drive, storage space is always a limited resource.

As such, I will show you how to remove these unused language files from your Mac with Monolingual (a free app) so that you can regain some of the precious space.

How to Remove Language Files from Your Mac

Once you download and install Monolingual on your Mac, follow the instructions below.

1. Launch Monolingual from the Applications folder.

2. Check the languages you wish to remove (make sure to leave the languages you may use).

Note: Unfortunately there is no way of checking multiple languages at once…so click away.

3. When you are ready click Remove.

WARNING: You will not be able to recover these language files unless you reinstall Mac OS X.

4. Click Continue to proceed.

Note: Removing the language files may take a couple of minutes depending on the number of files you selected and the number of applications with language files.

Software/Hardware Used: Monolingual 1.4.5 running on Mac OS X Lion.

Download Monolingual free from SourceForge.net.

With iCal on your Mac you have the ability to publish/share your calendars with whomever you want online.

In this guide I will show you how to share your iCal calendars running on MobileMe and how to publish locally stored calendars using MobileMe.

How to Share Your MobileMe Calendar with Others

Note: The following applies to MobileMe Calendars in iCal.

1. Click Calendars and choose the calendar you wish to share from the pop-over.

Note: If you have more than one calendar you will need to share them one by one in order for all to be shared.

2. Click Calendar from the Menu Bar and then click Share Calendar from the menu that appears.

Enter a name for the calendar you are sharing. This is the name that will appear for other users who access your calendar online.

3. Select who you want to share the calendar with. The options are as follows:

• Everyone - Publish read-only calendars, accessible to everyone.
• Only the people you invite – Share an editable calendar with friends and family.

A. When you select Only the people you invite, click the + or - button to add/remove people that have access to your calendar.

Note:When you add individuals to the list you can click the Privilege drop-down to select the permissions they have while viewing your calendar.

Take note of the email address being used for the individuals you select. This will be address used to send them a link to your calendar.

If you selected Everyone you will be provided with a web address to your MobileMe calendar that you can share (see step 5 below).

When you are ready to share the calendar, click Share.

How to Publish Local iCal Calendars Online

Note: The following steps will show you how to publish a local iCal calendar to MobileMe or to a personal server.

1. Click Calendars and then click the local calendar (under ON MY MAC) you wish to publish from the pop-over that appears.

2. Click Calendar from the Menu Bar and then click Publish from the menu that appears.

Enter a name for the calendar you are sharing. This is the name that will appear for other users who access your calendar online.

3. Select the service you wish to publish your calendar on. The options are MobileMe and a personal server. In this guide we are using MobileMe.

A. Customize what’s included in the calendar you are publishing. Options are as follows:

• Publish changes automatically
• Publish titles and notes
• Publish to do items
• Publish alerts
• Publish attachments.

These options help control how much information you share from your calendar.

4. When you are ready to publish the calendar click Publish.

You will see a prompt alerting you to the web address where you can find the published calendar. You will also see two buttons.

• Visit Page – This option will automatically open Safari so that you can view the published calendar online.
• Send Mail - This option will create a new email message containing the link to the published calendar so that you may email it to others.

5. Click OK when you are done.

Share/Published calendars will have a small broadcast-looking symbol next to the calendar’s name indicating that the calendar is published or shared online.

Software/Hardware Used: iCal running on Mac OS X Lion.

If you have found yourself in this predicament there is a very simple solution. In this guide I will show you how to automatically shade alternating rows in Excel 2011.

The simplest way to automatically shade alternating rows in a spreadsheet is to make them a table.

When you use tables in Excel you will be able to take advantage of not only analytical tools, but also formatting tools that make customizing tables a breeze.

Shade Alternating Rows in Excel

When you use the Table Styles below, the table will automatically include sort fields for each of the columns in the table.

1. Select the range of cells you wish to format using alternating shades for the rows.

Note: Cells can be empty or contain data. Also if you include a heading row, Excel will automatically detect and set it as the heading row.

2. Click the Tables tab on the Office Ribbon.

You will find a slew of tools and options to help you customize your table.

3. For this guide we are interested in Table Styles. Click on one of the available styles to format the range of cells you selected.

You can quickly switch from one style to another to see which you like best.

If you wish to keep the alternating row shading, but not the sort and filter arrows on the column headings follow the additional instructions below.

Remove Table Features

4. Select the table you just created (the range you selected in Step #1).

5. Click Convert to Range in the Tools Group under the Tables tab.

The shading should remain and the other table features should be gone. You have successfully shaded a range of cells with alternating row shades.

Software/Hardware used: Excel 2011 running on Mac OS X Lion.

In Mission Control you have the ability to create multiple desktops that allow you to group applications into different desktops.

So, if you are working on a graphic design project you can have a desktop that contains photoshop, an art sample in Finder and a color picker app.

Then you can setup another desktop for internet browsing and iTunes. And another desktop to contain Mail and iCal.

The great thing about this feature is that you can only see the apps you are working with, which helps reduce clutter on your desktop.

In this guide I will show you how to create and close desktops in Mac OS X Lion.

How to Create a New Desktop in Mac OS X Lion

1. Press the Mission Control button on your keyboard or swipe up with three fingers using your trackpad.

This action will bring up the Mac OS Mission Control.

In Mission Control you will find the desktop on the upper section of the screen along with the windows for open applications.

2. To create a new desktop, place your cursor on the top-right edge of the screen and you will notice that a new desktop will appear with a plus + sign.

Click on the semi-hidden desktop to create a new desktop.

You will notice that the new desktop will appear as thumbnail next to other desktops on the top row.

A. If you wish to close a desktop you are no longer using click the (X) on the top-left corner of the thumbnail.

Note: If you can’t see the (X), place your cursor over the thumbnail.

When you are ready to use a particular desktop, click on the desktop you wish to use from the row of desktops in Mission Control.