MobileMe from Apple

Go to www.me.com/gallery and sign into your MobileMe account. The MobileMe Web Gallery pane will open.

To create a new Web Gallery, first click the Action Menu button (cogwheel) on the Toolbar and select New Album from the drop-down menu. A settings pane will open.

Type a name for your album and decide on the options you want. You can permit any visitor to your website to download your photos, upload new photos to your website or add photos to the website by emailing them to a special Web Gallery email address. Since you cannot password protect a Web Gallery album created with the MobileMe online application, it is not advisable to check the uploading options under Allow.

If you don't want your photo album to appear on the index page for your Web Gallery albums, check the box to "Hide album on my Gallery page." Checking this option will make your album more difficult for unwanted/uninvited visitors to find.

When you have finished selecting settings for your album, click the Create button. Another pane will open and you can select photos from your hard drive to add to the album. After you select the photos to add, a progress pane will open.

When you have finished adding photos to your new album, the URL address for the website will appear on the MobileMe Toolbar and you can visit the site by clicking on the address.

Launch the Backup application. A pane will open, letting you select the type of files you want to back up. For this tutorial, we'll select "Personal Data & Settings." Your other initial choices are Home Folder, iLife, and iTunes Library. Once you've created one backup set, you'll have an additional "Custom" setting that you can use. For now, put a check in the box for "Personal Data & Settings" and click the Continue button.

Click the plus symbol under the top section of the pane that opens (the section that says "Backup Items"). Select the Files & Folders tab on the next pane and navigate to the files or folders you want to back up. For this example, I've selected the folder that contains my Safari browser settings. Click the button that says "Include this folder" and then click the Done button.

You'll be taken back to the main pane and this time you'll click the plus symbol under the bottom section of the pane (the one that says "Destination and Schedule"). The next pane will let you select the Destination volume (your iDisk, a hard drive or a CD or DVD). You'll also be able to set a time schedule for the backup to occur automatically. In my example, I've set the schedule for Every Day at 9:30 P.M. After setting a schedule for the backup, click the OK button.

You can now manually start the backup by clicking the Backup Now button on the main pane or you can wait for Backup to do its work automatically, according to the time you entered on the scheduling pane. Once Backup starts working, you'll have a pane with a progress bar so you can monitor the backup if you want.

That's all there is to creating a scheduled backup with Apple's Backup application that is part of the MobileMe package.

Chatting with friends recently about MobileMe made me realize that many people do not use the MobileMe iDisk features to their full extent. Of course, Apple hasn't been advertising some of the features as particularly valuable for MobileMe users. However, in the past, some of these features were the reasons many people chose .Mac over other online services. These valuable features are:

1. Keeping your iDisk mounted on your Desktop
2. Using the free Backup application that is included with MobileMe
3. Hosting websites from your iDisk
4. Storing documents, images, music, and video on your iDisk

[learn more about using your iDisk]

Did you know that you can easily upload files to your iDisk with the MobileMe online application? Your iDisk has 20 GB of storage space that you can use for offsite data storage and, with the online MobileMe application, you can easily copy files to your iDisk for safe keeping. Read this tip to learn how to upload files to your iDisk.

Learn how to upload files to your iDisk with MobileMe

If you have a MobileMe account, there might be times when you need help with some aspect of MobileMe. For example, last week I had problems syncing my iDisk. Fortunately, Apple has excellent services available to help you with troubleshooting and solving MobileMe problems.

Apple has an online chat option to help you with MobileMe. Just go to www.apple.com/support/mobileme/ and select one of the MobileMe topics on the left side of the page. If chat is available, you'll see a Chat Now button. When you click that button, you'll be connected to a MobileMe support person who will try and work through your problem with you.

If the chat service is not available, Apple provides some other options. First, there are FAQ pages you can go to from the main MobileMe support page that often will have answers to your problems. Apple also has a significant number of discussion boards for MobileMe. Many of the people who read and respond to questions on the boards are experienced Mac and MobileMe users and they often can provide help for problems you might experience with your MobileMe account.