This week we’re delving deeper into the “must-have” .Mac stable of tools.

First up – HomePage. Don’t know diddly about HTML, but want to make a web site to display pictures from a family event? Maybe you do know HTML, or have web design software, and need a place for your web site to live. HomePage makes it easy. Select from dozens of templates, or create your site and upload it to your iDisk. You can also share files with others via a web page, and password-protect them. If you use one of the many templates, HomePage painlessly uploads all your site materials onto your iDisk. Once your masterpiece is complete, HomePage can send an email to everyone in your Address Book, telling them to go take a look.

Want to send something more than email to a special friend? Send an iCard. Select from many professionally designed photo cards, or select one of your own photos stored on your iDisk. Personalize with a greeting and message.

Need to publish a calendar for upcoming family, club, or church events? Create the calendar in iCal, select Publish from the Calendar menu, then email the URL to others. They can view the calendar from any computer with a web browser and internet connection, in either day, week or month view. Other iCal users can subscribe to your calendar, and view it within their iCal window.

.Mac also has many tools to help you manage your own stuff. Use iSync to upload your Safari bookmarks onto your iDisk and view them from any web browser on any internet-connected computer, or synchronize them across all your Macs. iSync can also sync data from your Address Book and iCal calendars across all your Macs, as well as with iPods, PDAs running the Palm OS, and certain cell phones.

Although Macs are very reliable, it’s always a good idea to backup important data. With .Mac’s Backup application, you can back up your data to your iDisk, CD or DVD, external hard drives, iPods, and other network servers. Choose your own files, or select from a provided list of “Quick Picks”, which know where your files are located even if you don’t. Plus, you can set a schedule to back up your files to your iDisk.

Next time we’ll finish up on .Mac, and cover any announcements from Apple Expo in Paris.

© 2003 Peter F. Zimowski