Have you ever kept track of how often you hit Command-S on an average day? However you use your Mac, whatever kind of apps you are using: chances are that hitting that comforting key combination every few minutes has become a subconscious habit for you. For me, it's so bad, I sometimes hit Command-S while filling out a web form, wondering where the heck that Save As… dialog box came from. The question is: Why? Why do we do this? Why isn't there a better way? Oh, wait, there is!

Apple has done a not-so-great job in documenting how to properly delete files from a Time Machine backup: Time Machine's online help doesn't explain how to do this, yet the solution is mentioned shortly on Time Machine's product page on the Apple website (it's under "Back up only what you need"). No wonder that, even though this topic has been addressed on several websites already, people keep asking how this works. Here's the answer to that question -- yet again.

Using templates is a major time-saver for those of us who need to create the same, or at least highly similar documents over and over again. But what do you do if a specific application does not support templates? As long as you're handling text files, there's a solution that works universally across your Mac.

Haven't been to Macworld Expo in January, or did not invest in a Conference pass? No problem: a wide selection of presentations from the Users Conference, MacIT Conference, and Specialty Programs tracks from this year's Macworld Expo San Francisco are now available online at Macworld Encore.

If you're using a non-Apple branded WLAN router and value your wireless freedom more than a non-transparent menubar and improved Stacks, installing the recent Mac OS X 10.5.2 update may not be such a good idea just yet.

As part of a redesign of their real estate Web site, German immobilienscout24.de have added interactive maps based on Microsoft's Virtual Earth technology. Unfortunately, though, Safari users don't seem to be welcome to navigate those maps just yet. Question is, why?

If you value your data, you must have a reliable backup strategy in place, because, sooner or later, you will lose data. It's "when," not "if." With Time Machine, Apple has included backup software with Mac OS X 10.5 that is both easy to use and reliable, so there is no more excuse for not backing up your data. How 'bout sharing some best practices for personal backups, then.

With more than 450 exhibitors at this year's Macworld Expo, it's impossible to "see it all." Which is a shame especially because of all those countless small and medium sized companies whose product announcements are often drowned out by the major news from the big players like Apple or Microsoft. Hence, let me point out five products I stumbled over at the 2008 Expo which, in my humblest of opinions, deserve a bit more attention than they have received so far.

Chances are that, by the time you are reading this, Steve Jobs has already finished his keynote at MWSF2008, announcing shiny new Apple products. As a little counterweight to the springflood of news messages this will most definitely cause, I thought you might enjoy a little walk down memory lane to rediscover how it all began, and which milestones it took Apple and the Macintosh to get to where they are today.

Aahhhh, it's that special time of year again: the weather's getting colder, the lights are on even during the day, and there is that festive atmosphere all around. People wearing a gentle smile on their face and a twinkle in their eyes, eagerly awaiting the celebration of the year, their cheeks glowing with joyful anticipation. Yes, Macworld Expo San Francisco is drawing near!