LocationManager
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Ask TUAW: Making contact sheets, adjusting multiple files' properties, using network locations, and more
Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly Mac troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we've got questions about making photo contact sheets, adjusting properties for multiple files at the same time in the Finder, automatically managing settings based on location, changing the spell check language in iWork and more. As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. 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 (we'll assume you're running Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions.
Home Zone
A while back we mentioned MarcoPolo, a location manager for the Mac that can change certain system settings based on the particular wireless network or devices you're connected to. Home Zone offers a similar capability allowing you to set up a variety of actions (e.g. changing the default printer, starting/stopping the screen saver, starting iSync, etc.) that are triggered either by changing your Airport network or by bringing Bluetooth phone close to your Mac.Home Zone is presently in beta and a free download from Jonas Witt.Update: MarcoPolo also does Bluetooth.
MarcoPolo: automatic location manager
We've previously mentioned locations managers like Location X ($20) and NetworkLocation ($15). These are tools that can change a variety of settings depending on your location (e.g. SMTP server, default printer, etc.). This is very convenient for mobile users moving between work and home, etc. MarcoPolo is a new entry in this category and adds a number of cool features that we haven't seen before, including "fuzzy logic" rules for setting the location based on matching a variety of different criteria (wifi network, IP address, etc.) and USB and Bluetooth support (as criteria). The USB detection is a great feature if, for instance, you have one model of mouse and/or keyboard at work, but use a different set a home.Best of all, MarcoPolo, unlike most of the other utilities, is open source and a free download.
