You have probably seen Apple’s commerical touting the fact that although there were 114,000 known viruses for PC’s last year, there were none for the Mac. If you know someone who is still using a PC, odds are that you know someone who has been exposed to a virus.

The simple fact is that PC’s are susceptible to having its operating system modified by a virus, often without the operator even knowing it is happening. On the other hand, Macs require you to type in your password before it allows any significant changes to be made.

PC users are compelled to purchase virus protection software to minimize the risk of attack. Even worse, this software is expensive, and it must be constantly updated. Many Mac users (myself included) have no separate virus protection software. I have never had any virus issues with my Mac.

I understand the need for security, but I believe that OS X’s security features are more than sufficient for my needs. Macs allow you to save money and have peace of mind. To find out more about Macs and viruses, read “114,000 viruses? Not on a Mac” at Apple’s website.

Mac OS X (Tiger) contains many useful PDF functions as a core component of its operating system. On the print menu in every program is a PDF drop down menu that gives you options to save, fax, and/or email any document in PDF format. This option is available with word processing documents, photos, and web pages (full or partial). Here is a screenshot which shows the PDF drop down menu and the various options it offers:

I use the “Mail PDF” function all the time, as it makes it extremely easy to email a copy of any documents to my clients. One nice feature is that when you select that option, Mail automatically opens with the PDF inserted, saving time and energy. Also, the PDF that is created is sort of a “temporary” type file, in that it can be emailed and used by the recipient, but you do not have to save it anywhere. Clients love being able to receive updated information so frequently, and I love being able to do so so quickly.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a lengthy section of text automatically summarize itself for you? Mac OS X (Tiger) has this capacity built right in, called “Summary Service” — although for some reason, it receives little fanfare.

This function is found under the “Services” menu, and it is therefore available in most programs. Summary Service allows you to automatically summarize any selected text in most software programs. It works in all Apple products (Pages, Keynote, Safari), most web browsers, but not Word.

Better yet, you have the ability to adjust the length of the summary on the fly to make it as long or short as you want. You also have the option of displaying the summaries in either paragraph or sentence mode, which can be particularly useful with longer summaries.

I have found this feature to be particularly helpful for summarizing affidavits, online appellate decisions, and even medical research. While not perfect, it does a surprisingly good job of including the most important content in its summarization.