Ask TUAW: Reinstalling, auto-saving, license keeping and more

This time in Ask TUAW we'll be looking at several different questions about reinstalling (OS X, Office for Mac, and printer drivers), as well as how to auto-save in iWork, store software licenses and more.

As always, your suggestions are most welcome, and questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X, as certain answers will vary between different Macs and Tiger vs. Leopard, etc. (we'll assume you're running Leopard if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions!

David asks

I was wondering if I can somehow get back the unneeded printer drivers if I need them again in the future. Is this possible?

Yes, the printer drivers are located on the original install discs. However, if you get a new major brand printer you will almost certainly be able to download drivers from that company's website.

Brian asks

I have been getting many crashes from leopard so is there a way to format just my OS X partition and not my Boot Camp so I can reinstall from time machine?

Absolutely. When you boot your machine from the install disc (reboot the computer while holding 'c' key) you'll be offered a choice as to where to install. Just choose your existing OS X partition and it will leave your Boot Camp partition alone.

Sigbhu asks

I want to make small windows like Fonts, Colours, etc in apps like Mail or Journaler HUD. How do I do it?

I'm not entirely sure what you're asking about. Are you asking just how to reveal these palettes? They're available in the Format menu. There are also system-wide keyboard shortcuts in the applications that support them: ⌘+T for fonts and shift + ⌘+C for colors. Or are you asking how to make these programmatically? In that case I can only point you to Apple's Developer Reference Library.

aaron asks

Is there any way to set up auto-save in the iwork apps (and textedit)? I've had a couple kernel panics that have wiped out a lot of work already.

Unfortunately, an auto-save feature is not built into the iWork apps. However, several folks out there have cooked up work-arounds based on Applescript. Have a look at this thread over at Apple Discussions. I havent' used them myself but Yvan Koenig has placed some auto-saving Applescripts on his iDisk (look in the For_iWork folder).

Jesse asks

I have office 2008, and I deleted some of the programs that I don't use to free up some disk space, now it won't let me install updates. Is there a way to do a restore of office, or what do I need to do?

You can just re-install Office from the original discs. Just run the installer on the original discs and it should take care of it for you. You will, however, have to apply all the updates again.

ant asks

Is there a piece of software that lets me manage all my shareware disk images and license keys? I'm forever losing the license keys and re-downloading disk images

There are a number of different applications that will keep track of licenses. License Keeper ($19.95) will do more or less everything you ask, including storing disk images (as attachments). RapidoSerial will give you a free way to store the licenses, but it lacks some of the amenities of License Keeper. Of course, you can just use a general purpose snippet keeper like Yojimbo ($39) to do this kind of thing, but if you really want a dedicated application, License Keeper is probably your best bet.