All you need is a Mac that has an iSight camera built in, or one with just a regular webcam.

One of the most amazing things about this is that is uses the built-in app called Preview. Thats right, you don’t need to download anything or even print it off, sign it, then scan it back to your Mac. None of that nonsense!

Edit PDF Form

For this tutorial, I’m going to use a random PDF form downloaded from the this site. Feel free to test it out for yourself here: PDF Form

As you can see above, I was able to simply and easily edit the PDF document. Nothing special there, in most cases you just need to click on the spot where you’re supposed to type in your requested info. If you’ve ever dealt with a PDF file on a Mac before, you probably already knew about this.

Sign PDF Document

Here’s where it gets interesting. In the toolbar you want to click the icon that looks like a pen (1). Doing so will slide into view another toolbar. Then click the little down arrow beside “Sig” (2).

After clicking on the little down arrow, click on “Create Signature from FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in). It may say something a little different if you are using a different webcam.

On a white blank piece of paper simply write your signature:

Now all you have to do is hold it up in front of your iSight (webcam) camera and Preview will take care of the rest.

Once you’re happy with how it looks on screen, just click the “Accept” button and Preview will save your signature so it can be used at any time.

Now to apply your saved signature, click on the “Sig” arrow again, and simply select your desired signature then click it to location as show here:

After you add signature to PDF you can drag it around and even make it bigger or smaller with the control dots located around your signature (as you can see above).

Now just save the PDF document and send it off by email. Quick and easy, no printer or scanner required.

The post How to Edit and Sign PDF files on Mac in Preview appeared first on AppDucate.

Changing the day your week starts on your iPhone, iPad and iPod as well as your Mac is really easy,here’s how.

Change Day Week Starts On

Changing the first day of the week on your iPad, iPhone or iPod is really easy:

1. Open Settings
2. Tap “Mail, Contacts, Calendars”
3. Scroll down to Calendars and tap “Start Week On”
4. Select any day of the week.
5. Open the Calendar app and check to see if it was applied.

On a Mac it’s just as easy:

1. Open Calendar
2. From the Menu bar select Calendar -> Preferences
3. Make sure the General Tab is selected
4. Change “Start week on” to your desired day.

The post How to Change the First Day of the Week on your Calendar appeared first on AppDucate.

It gets even worse though when you go over your cellular usage limit. That’s when they really start to gouge you. All of a sudden you’re paying very heavily for a small amount of data.

Within iOS on your iPhone or iPad you’re able to track your data usage, and manually reset the statistics for monthly cycles. The drawback with this is it doesn’t always prevent overusing data since it doesn’t actually notify you when it’s going over the limit. Another hindrance is that you need to manually reset it at your monthly billing cycle, and it’s easier to forget to do that than it is to remember to do it.

Lets go through a list of your options.

1. Use the built-in data usage tracker located in Settings.
2. Use a slightly more accurate data usage monitoring app provided by your cellular network provider, and inquire if they are able to send alerts to you when you are reaching your data limit.
3. Purchase a data usage monitoring app from the App Store.
4. Jailbreak your device and use one of the available jailbroken apps.

1. Built-in Data Usage Tracker

Built-In Monitor

This method is the easiest method, as it comes built into your iPhone and iPad. Nothing to download, nothing to install or setup. To get to it, open Settings -> Cellular -> CELLULAR DATA USAGE.

From here it shows the current usage and below that, it shows how much cell data has been used by each app. If you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page you’ll see an option to “Reset Statistics”. Tapping this will reset the values that it has currently logged.

One of the most useful features here is that you can disable specific apps from using cellular data. So if you’re getting close to your limit and you still want to use your cellular data, you can just turn of the apps that are using to much.

The Good:

• Built-in to iPad and iPhone
• Easy to use
• Works in the background
• Tracks each apps data usage habits
• Ability to disable certain apps from using cellular data.

The Bad:

• You have to manually reset the statistics every month
• Does now warn you when you are reaching or over your allowed data limit

2. Rely on your Cellular Provider

Cell Provider

Your cellular provider most likely offers a few options on managing your data on your iPhone and iPad. For instance my provider (Rogers) offers a free app that allows me accurately track my usage. You should also contact your provider as they most likely also have a service in place that will send you alerts when you reach 75% to 100% of your data limit.

The Good:

• It is the most accurate as the data comes directly the cellular provider.
• Usually free
• Get notifications when reaching the limit.

The Bad:

• Maybe long wait times as you contact customer service to enable alerts (if you do have to contact them).

3. Purchase an App from the App Store

Data Usage App

There are also other apps that you can find in the App Store. Most of them cost money however. One that has gotten quite popular is Data Usage, and as I write this it is currently only $0.99 for iPhone. There are other apps out there as well so if you do plan on using an App Store app, be sure to browse around and find one that you like the most.

The app Data Usage does more than just set alerts and track cellular usage. You are able set notifications when you are reaching your limit. It can also track Wi-Fi usage and lets you set data usage limits by day, week and month.

And on top of that it displays handy graphs and charts that show how you’ve been using your data and even gives you predictive forecasts on whether you’ll have enough available bandwidth (data) for the entire billing cycle.

The Good:

• When your billing period ends it can automatically reset the current cellular tracking data.
• Sends notifications when you reach set percentages of limits.
• Sets limits not only monthly, but daily and weekly
• Predictive forcasts
• Graphs and Charts

The Bad:

• Required to be opened and running in the background to track data
• Usually costs money

4. Jailbroken Apps

WeeTrackData App (image source)

This method requires that you have jailbroken your iPhone or iPad. Guide on how to jailbreak here:

• Jailbreak iOS 7
• Jailbreak iOS 6

With a jailbroken device you will be required to download and install an app that tracks your data usage. And again most of them cost money just like the App Store. Using a jailbroken app over one from the App Store has a few benefits however. An app from the App Store has a lot of restrictions that a jailbroken app doesn’t (this may change with the upcoming release of iOS 8).

For instance, the first and best (in my opinion) is WeeTrackData. It not only automatically runs in the background, it runs in the Notification Center, which is incredibly convenient. If you are planning on going with a Jailbroken application to track your data usage, you definitely want to check out this Notification Center widget.

Another option available to you is CCMeters. It gives your live data usage and live system status monitors that you can place in either your Notification Center or Control Center. In order to run it in Control Center however, you need to install additional software called CCLoader.

The Good:

• Can be conveniently placed in the Notification Center or Mission Control
• Runs automatically in the background
• Notifications

The Bad:

• Requires a Jailbroken iPhone or iPad
• Usually costs money
• May require additional software depending on which app your choose

I personally just use the data usage tracking app from my cellular provider, checking it once in a while at work is simple enough and works well enough for me. How do you track your data usage, or do you even bother to?

The post Track & Set Alarms for Cellular Data Over Usage on iPhone appeared first on AppDucate.

If you have been following AppDucate on the listed social networks then you’ve probably already seen me post a few of these. I’m creating a separate article about them as well, as I know that some of you just check in to the site every now and then or just subscribe by email and I didn’t want to leave you guys/gals out.

Below are some of my favorite keyboard shortcuts for Mac. I’m always looking for new and interesting keyboard shortcuts, if you have one that you constantly use but don’t see listed here be sure to let us know about it in the comments below.

Add Selected Files to a New Folder

Select Files then Command + Control + N

This keyboard shortcut is one of my favorites that I constantly use. It automatically creates a new folder and moves any highlighted files into that new folder.

After completing an article like this one that you’re currently reading, I’ll probably have around 20-30 files and screenshots cluttering my desktop. I like to keep any files that I create during the process of writing these articles in a separate folder. All that’s required is to add all these files together into a folder that I can safely store, is to highlight them and press the keyboard shortcut;  Command + Control + N.

One thing to note about this convenient shortcut is that you’ll only notice the above animation while using this keyboard shortcut on your desktop. If you do this while in a folder, you won’t see an animation, the files will just instantly be moved to the new folder that will be created automatically.

Increase/Decrease Volume & Brightness Quarterly

Hold down Option + Shift while changing Volume or Brightness

This is another keyboard shortcut that I wouldn’t to live without. If you’re the picky kind of person the needs the volume or brightness to be perfect, you’ll want to memorize this one. I know I can’t be the only person out there that needs to find that sweet spot in the volume to enjoy my music. Normally you would be stuck between too loud or too quiet.

Not anymore, hold down the Shift + Option key while changing the volume on your keyboard to increase or decrease it in tiny quarterly segments as shown above. The exact same can be applied to changing the screen brightness, just hold down the Option + Shift key while changing the brightness on your keyboard.

Easily Scroll Horizontally

Hold Shift while using the Mouse Scroll Wheel

I was watching a video on YouTube, where the user was using a Mac to do some graphic design. He wasn’t using a Magic Mouse or a Trackpad, he was using a regular mouse with a scroll wheel. I watched him scroll vertically with the mouse, but whenever he wanted to scroll horizontally, he would slowly and delicately position the cursor on the scroll bar and click to drag.

Needless to say I just wanted to shout this tip at him through the screen. Hold down the Shift key to scroll horizontally while using a mouse that has a scroll wheel. It’s a lot faster than positioning the pointer over the scroll bar!

Get Word Suggestions

While typing press the F5 key

While typing a word on your Mac, press the F5 key to get quick recommendations to complete the word. It’s a great way to finish a word that you’re unsure of how to spell, along with just being incredibly useful and handy. Unfortunatly this keyboard shortcut does not work everywhere. For instance, it does not work in Safari. It does work in applications such as Mail, Notes, Pages and some other word processing applications.

Quickly Close Open Apps

Command + Tab then Q

Ever wanted to just quickly close down a bunch of open applications? Look no further than the simple Command + Tab + Q keyboard shortcut. It’s not difficult to have so many applications open that the desktop isn’t even partially visible. You’ve probably already used this keyboard shortcut in the past to switch between apps. Here’s something you may not have known about though. While you have an application highlighted as shown above, simply press the “Q” key on your keyboard to close it.

Your Favorite Keyboard Shortcuts

There are a ton of keyboard shortcuts out there, but a lot of them aren’t even worth memorizing. I’m always looking for new ways to manage and improve my workflow, and keyboard shortcuts play a big roll in it. If you have one that you think we should know about, let us know about it below.

The post Top 5 Useful Underused and Unknown Mac Keyboard Shortcuts appeared first on AppDucate.

Change Icons Method #1 – Get Info

The first method in changing the icons I’m going to show you is through the “Get Info” window. To do this, right-click on a folder or application and select “Get Info”. Doing so, will open up a small window which shows relevent information.

At the top left corner of the window, you’ll see a small icon displaying the icon that is currently being used. Click once on the icon image and you’ll notice that the image becomes highlighted in a light shade of blue. Now all you have to do to change the icon is simply paste a new image on it. After the icon is selected paste your image by using the keyboard shortcut for paste which is Command + V.

Important: You must open the image first, then copy and paste the image. If you just copy the image file then paste it on the icon it won’t display the actual image as an icon, it’ll just display the image file icon as the icon. To elaborate, double-click the image, which by default would open in the Preview app. From the Preview app, copy it using either Command + C or from the menubar, Edit -> Copy.

While this method is incredibly simple and easy to use, it does have it’s limitations. For instance, this method only allows changing one folder icon at a time. Also this method doesn’t working for customizing certain icons such as the trash icon, to change the trash icon you’d need an application like LiteIcon.

Change Icons Method #2 – LiteIcon

LiteIcon is a free application (donationware), which makes customizing your Mac icons incredibly easy and intuitive. It was also recently updated to work with Mavericks.

The best thing about LiteIcon is how it gives easy access as well as organizes all the icons on your Mac. From the sidebar you can choose to customize the Folder, Dock, Devices, Other, Applications and Volumes icons. Selecting one of these will display all the relevant icons that are available for customization.

Now comes the really easy part, just drag an image on top on the icon that you want to change. Once you are happy with your customizations, simply click the “Apply Changes”. You may be asked to log out and then log back in to complete the changes.

One thing to take notice of is the special “Generic” icon in the Folders list. Changing this will change all the generic folders on your Mac.

Icon Resources

This wouldn’t be a very good article if I didn’t show you some awesome icons and other good resources to find more. So without further ado here are some of my favorite icon packs, followed by a few websites to find more.

Download AutobotsIcon Icons

Download Scenery Icons
While you’re here be sure to check out the rest of Arrioch’s profile for more impressive icons.

Download Wooden Drives / Download Wooden Folders

Download Gaia10 Icons

Now go find your own favorites

Be sure to check out these awesome icon resources:

• DeviantART – Warning: you may end up loosing hours browsing here.
• InterfaceLIFT

Additional Tips:

• To revert an icon to its default, highlight the icon in the Get Info window -> press Delete on your keyboard.
• To revert all icons to their default in LiteIcon, from the menubar -> Tools -> Restore All System Icons.

The post How to Change Mac Folder, File, Application and Dock Icons appeared first on AppDucate.

Setting up Home Sharing is different from simply using AirPlay. Instead of streaming your entire Mac screen to the Apple TV, it just streams the video or music. Also, there is no need to enable Airplay on your Mac and send the signal to your Apple TV. You can peruse the contents of your media collection from within the Apple TV, making finding that perfect Friday night movie easy to find from your couch.

#1 – Setup Home Sharing in iTunes

Home Sharing

First things first, if not already done you need to authorize your Apple ID in iTunes. To do this, open up iTunes -> from the menu bar, select Store -> Authorize this Computer. Enter your Apple ID and password.

Next, open iTunes Preferences (menu bar -> iTunes -> Preferences). Select the Sharing tab, then enable “Share my Library on my local network”. Additionally if you want your play counts in iTunes to update when playing videos or music on your Apple TV, enable “Home Sharing computers and devices update play counts”.

Setting up Home Sharing simply shares your iTunes library on your local network. You won’t be able to access any of it while not connected to the same Wi-Fi network that your iTunes library is connected to.

Setup Home Sharing on your Apple TV

Now that we have iTunes properly setup to stream content, we need to setup out Apple TV to accept the connection.

On your Apple TV, go to Settings -> Computers -> Turn on Home Sharing -> Login with the same Apple ID as the one you used in iTunes.

Now go back out the main screen of on your Apple TV and select the Computers button.

Please excuse my poor picture taking skills…

A few more things you need to know

The Mac or PC which stores your iTunes library has to be turn on in order to stream content to your Apple TV. This doesn’t mean that it can’t be in sleep mode. If you try to stream from the iTunes library while your computer is sleeping it will automatically wake up the computers hard drive so that it can stream your media content. This only works if you have the iTunesHelper application running however.

The iTunesHelper application is by default set to always be active from the time your turn on your computer until your turn it off. You can check to make sure it is active by going to System Preferences -> Users & Groups -> Login Items. If under the, “These items will open automatically when you log in:” you can see “iTunesHelper” then it’s already set up properly.

Home Sharing doesn’t just work for you Apple TV, it also works when streaming to other computer whether it be a PC or Mac and it even streams to your iPad, iPhone and iPod… as long as they are all connected to the same Wi-Fi network.

The post How to Setup iTunes Library Home Sharing for Apple TV appeared first on AppDucate.

But how do you go about finding the best Windows alternative application when every company says theirs is the best?

What Not to Do

In many cases if you go to Google and type in a search for something like, “convert videos mac” you’ll end up at a products homepage. Once you land on a page like that, you’ll read that this app is the best in the world and nothing else even comes close to comparing to it. Read a little further down and you’ll see a free trial and an option to buy said product. This is the wrong way to search for Windows alternative apps.

Every company that sells software is going to tell you that their software is the best. I mean they wouldn’t make much money if they advertised as being the 5th best product available for purchase. You’d just leave that page and instead go elsewhere.

What You Should be Doing

The best way to discover superior alternatives is to go by what other like-minded people recommend. A company may say they are the best, however 100 people recommending a different app is a superior way to find the best application for your needs.

http://alternativeto.net is an amazing resource that helps you do just that. Before I buy an application I always check here first, just incase there is something better available.

AlternativeTo is a new approach to finding good software. Tell us what application you want to replace and we give you great alternatives, based on user recommendations.

The above is a quote from their website. This is exactly the kind of thing people who are switching to Mac should be using to find alternative software options.

Lets say you used a video converter on Windows, however that same application does not have a Mac alternative. Just type that into the search field and AlternativeTo will get to work on showing you the best user recommended alternatives for your Mac.

Of course this isn’t the only way of finding good alternative applications. If you trust a website, friend or author and they recommend an application there is nothing wrong with following their recommendation over AlternativeTo.

For instance, if you search for the best video converter on Alternative you will probably see that Handbrake is the top dog, and truthfully it’s a great application. However, I still recommend iFlicks 2 over it, simply because it’s what I prefer for my needs and it’s what I use myself.

Basically to sum up what I’m trying to say, it never hurts to spend a minute or two searching for the best and doing a little research before just diving in an downloading any old application to your Mac. AlternativeTo is just a really useful and quick way to do just that.

Do you have any other useful methods that you use to find great applications for you Mac? Let use know in the comments below.

The post New to Mac? How to Find the Best Windows Alternative Software appeared first on AppDucate.