For 33 years we have been using Claris FileMaker Pro client and server to manage and control workflows for creative, sales and engineering companies and staff to ease their daily repetitive tasks and empower companies with organisation and knowledge retention.
• Graphics (Artistic, Engaging, Colour logical, Layouts)
• Data Storage (Text, Images, Files…)
• Simple Programming (Excel-like maths)
• Scripting (Saving workflows for buttons, Find, Sort, Summarise)
And made all this look beautiful, clear and obvious.
That started in 1991! Who knew a database could be so empowering? liberating!
Now, it has kept pace with our world of integrations—connecting with computer directories, other apps, devices, SQL, the web, [API]…
CLARIS FileMaker Developer
FileMaker makes sense of BIG Data.
Every solution starts with a sketch, a workflow, and a vision of how people, data, and output look and interact. This leads to a prototype to test viability, using sample files, locations, and importantly, hardware—computers, internet, portables, printers, communications… It can all be automated.
CLARIS FileMaker Developer
Today, the possibilities are endless, transparent, editable, and fun!
So, what’s your dream goal for automation, organisation, app design, and repeatable success?
“You have more problems to solve and users to serve than ever before,“ so…
Empowering Success through Structured IT, Responsive Support, and Creative Empowerment
Introduction
In today’s dynamic business landscape, small businesses in Leeds and the North of England strive not only for operational excellence but also for creative innovation and data-driven decision-making.
JRP Supports Hardware and Software solutions for Servers, Desktops, Mobile and Online Systems.
By adopting and Mastering Apple Mac System Administration for Small Businesses strategy, businesses can harness the power of structured IT to foster teamwork, productivity, and unleash their creative potential.
In this exciting article, we will explore the steps involved in setting up and managing an Apple Mac network for small businesses in Leeds and the wider Yorkshire area, emphasising the value of collaboration, responsive support, and the creative opportunities that await.
Let’s embark on this transformative journey towards unlocking your business’s true potential!
Assessing Your Team’s Needs and Goals for Creative Empowerment
Start by evaluating your team’s unique creative needs and goals. Identify the software tools and resources necessary to unleash their artistic abilities and drive innovation in Leeds, Yorkshire, and the North of England. By aligning your IT strategy with your team’s creative objectives, you pave the way for a successful and collaborative environment that sparks imaginative brilliance.
Creative Empowerment for Teams
Procuring Mac Hardware that Ignites Design Excellence
Invest in Mac hardware that fuels design excellence and empowers your creative team in Leeds and the surrounding areas. Choose devices that boast powerful processors, stunning displays, and superior graphics capabilities. By providing your team with the tools they need to bring their artistic visions to life, you foster a culture of innovation and aesthetic brilliance.
Design Excellence
Building a Secure Network Infrastructure for Data-driven Insights
Establish a robust network infrastructure that safeguards your sales data and enables seamless communication and collaboration in Leeds, Yorkshire, and the North of England. Implement firewalls, encrypted Wi-Fi networks, and virtual private networks (VPNs) to protect valuable customer information. A secure network not only instills trust but also enables you to harness the power of data for strategic decision-making and sales optimisation.
Mac Support Leeds Yorkshire UK Computer Networking Security
Configuring User Accounts and Access Permissions for Creative Collaboration
Promote creative collaboration by configuring user accounts and access permissions tailored to the needs of your artistic team. Provide designers and content creators with access to design software, digital asset libraries, and project management tools. By facilitating seamless collaboration and resource sharing, you empower your team to create captivating visuals and compelling content that captivate your audience.
APPLE MAC AND WINDOWS SYSTEMS SUPPORT – Creative Collaboration between User Accounts
Regular System Updates and Maintenance for Uninterrupted Creativity
Keep your Mac devices up to date with the latest system updates and patches to ensure optimal performance and security in your creative endeavours. This proactive approach not only enhances stability but also ensures your team benefits from the latest design software features and improvements. By maintaining a reliable IT infrastructure, you provide the foundation for uninterrupted creativity and innovation.
Systems Updates Maintenance
Leveraging Cloud Services for Collaborative Design and Sales Data CMS
Harness the power of cloud services to enable seamless collaboration and streamline your sales data management. Utilise platforms like Adobe Creative Cloud and cloud-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems to empower your creative team and sales force. By centralising design assets and sales data in the cloud, you facilitate efficient collaboration, data-driven insights, and real-time decision-making.
Filemaker Pro CRM Systems for Business
FileMaker Development
Responsive Support and Troubleshooting for Uninterrupted Creativity and Sales Performance
Ensure your creative team and sales force receive prompt and reliable support whenever technical issues arise. Utilise tools like Apple Remote Desktop or screen-sharing applications to offer immediate assistance, even when you’re not physically present. Swift resolutions to IT challenges foster a sense of reliability and support, empowering your team to maintain their creative flow and drive sales success.
Responsive Support for Mac Computer Support LEEDS West Yorkshire UK
Monitoring and Optimisation for Continuous Creative and Sales Excellence
Implement a centralised management solution to monitor and optimise your Mac devices, design workflows, and sales data analytics in Leeds, Yorkshire, and the wider North of England. Leverage tools like JAMF or MUNKI for streamlined software deployments, device management, and performance monitoring. Continuously evaluate your IT infrastructure to identify opportunities for enhancing creative processes and sales performance, maximising your business’s impact.
Monitoring and Optimisation
Conclusion: Mastering Apple Mac System Administration for Small Businesses
By embracing Apple Mac system administration, small businesses in Leeds and the North of England can unlock a world of creative empowerment and data-driven sales excellence. From assessing creative needs to leveraging responsive support and optimising your IT infrastructure, each step outlined in this exhilarating article contributes to the success and innovation of your business. Emphasise collaboration, structured IT, and the limitless creative possibilities that await to propel your business to new heights in Leeds, Yorkshire, and beyond!
For more information on Apple Mac system administration and support services, visit [jrpsupport.co.uk] We are a Managed Services Provider for Apple Mac systems.
To learn from external peer reports and case studies about successful Apple Mac system administration, refer to the official pages provided by Apple at [apple.com].
With the pending demise of DROPBOX allowing access to external hard drives it was time to look for a new solution for our Clients and we chose Synology.
Synology DiskStation® DS723+
The Synology DiskStation® DS723+ was our choice. The vast range of Cloud services syncing options, the fantastic software interface to manage and maintain the device, it’s data protection and the notifications, together with access from almost any device and network protocol (SMB for Mac) has all been a pleasure to work with.
For 30 years we have been creating systems using FileMaker.
Our FileMaker Clients are businesses requiring the recording and tracking of their Sales, Accounts, marketing and Service departments.
FileMaker CRM for Mac, Windows and Mobile
We develop bespoke CRM systems that present data and interface specifically to what the client needs thereby focusing on a UI and UX that an off-the-self product with training does not.
Recently we have been helping Microsoft Windows users move to FileMaker on Mac and Windows PC from their ageing Microsoft Access database.
We program Single User and Multi-Users solutions, running on Desktop, Shared or from a Mac or PC Server running FileMaker Server.
The annual licensing from FileMaker makes it even easier to get started.
After the initial Development we continue to Modify and Adapt our clients systems to match their companies growth, to onboard and train new staff and to meet the ongoing business plan.
So, you’re finding that Adobe Illustrator and OSX 10.4.7 or .8 on an INTEL Mac just don’t live well together. Here are a few things to help that difficult situation:
NOTE:Always have a complete backup before you do any of this!
1/ Turn off Appearance in the Window Menu.
2/ Delete your Illustrator Preferences by:
The first step in troubleshooting most any problem is deleting your Illustrator Preferences file.
The Preferences file is created or updated every time you use Illustrator, and it can often become a hidden source of problems. To delete this file and force Illustrator to create a new one, follow these steps:
Make sure you have the serial numbers for any third party plugins for Illustrator – the numbers will need to be re-entered after deleting prefs
Quit Illustrator
Find the Illustrator Preferences file using the following steps:
i) If you are running Mac OS X, you should delete your preferences folder from your particular user account. You can find the Illustrator preferences in this folder, using the “Go to Folder…” command in the Finder: ~/xxxxx/Library/Preferences/Adobe Illustrator CS2 Settings
ii) Delete the Illustrator Preferences file for the version of Illustrator that is causing problems.
Launch Illustrator, entering any necessary plug-in serial numbers.
iii) Immediately quit Illustrator without opening any documents. Documents can often times be the culprits for corrupting the preferences, especially since Illustrator does not write out new preferences until quit.
iv)Restart Illustrator.
3/ Close the Paths Window, permanently.
You can work around the crashing by not ever opening the appearance palette, or at least by always closing it before you quit, so it won’t be open on the next launch.
WINDOW MENU APPEARANCE or Shift F6
4/ Use Font Fingler and clean all your font Caches:
5/ Close any fonts not required for each job, using your font management application; Extensis Suitcase, FontDoctor, Font Manager or LinoType FontExplorerX:
6/ Also ensure you DO NOT have the following ticked in the Illustrator Preferences for:
File handling & Clipboard:
Untick – Enable Version Cue
Untick – Copy as PDF
Quit Illustrator and Restart
7/ Repair permissions on your Mac using the Disk Utility application the Restart you Mac again.
/Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility
8/ On iMacs, Mac Pro and MacBooks we have found that many of the problems seem to be with Ram access. Though most of this hardware has a maximum memory of 2 Gig, even this amount of Ram makes no difference as the memory does not appear to ‘purge’ correctly for some Adobe applications. Only a full restart seems to clear the memory buffers. Perhaps this is a Rosetta problem at the moment?
9/ Clean out your System Caches. Here some a good utility apps to do that:
Finally, if you have upgraded to 10.4.8, like we did (and many others), you will get less crashing if you downgrade to 10.4.7 by doing a complete Archive and Install.
It will not stop the crashing but it will lessen the amount of times Illustrator crashes, if that’s any help. You will of course have to do all the OS X Software Updates to 10.4.7 and update your Applications again if needed.
WebDAV can be great, not just for shared OS X iCAL Calendars, but (with OS X) as a virtual directory that users can use all over the world. Like having an AppleShare volume on your Desktop that you can drag and drop, delete and rename files and Mac OS X Server can help.
My investigations started when a client asked “how can we share a folder between multiple offices?”.
My first thought was FTP, but this was going to involve too much additional software and the upload /download practice was not what they (or their skill base) wanted. They wanted, essentially, an AppleShare volume on their desk when they were out of the office, anywhere in the world.
Ultimately a VPN over a DSL line would be great! But we have a budget to deal with here and leased lines, VPN routers and the Admin is not available in this clients request.
My second thought as a solution was a single .Mac account where users could login to the same .Mac account. But so far this does not seem possible, .Mac is for a single user (I believe, correct me if you found otherwise).
Not that you could easily find an answer! The OS X Server manual, Helper app or Forum did not have the answer for novices. Apple has some Tech notes here:https://www.apple.com/support/macosxserver/webtechnologies/ But this was not really in ‘novice speak’.
So, finally, WebDAV seemed to be the solution, and here’s how we did it with OS X Servers easy to use interface as detailed by Apple.
01/ Launch the Server Admin application.
02/ Select Web Service.
03/ Click Settings.
04/ Click Sites.
05/ Double-click the website definition you want to edit.
06/ Click Options.
07/ Be sure the checkbox for “Enable WebDAV” is selected.
08/ Click Realms.
09/ Create a new Realm by clicking on the plus (+) button.
10/ Add users to the new Realm.
11/ Be sure the “Can Author” checkbox is selected.
12/ Save the changes.
13/ Restart Web Service. Note: Check the permissions on the document root for your web site or on the folder(s) in question. The user “www” must have read and write permissions for Owner and Group for the WebDAV connection to work properly. Update the permissions if necessary.
Some of the logic that we learned along the way…
1/ WebDAV serves ‘documents’ over port 80 on your web site, so, you need to have your web site setup and working first (I’ll cover that in another blogg) and ensure that WebDAV is turned on.
2/ Each folder that you WebDAV share on your web site will be a Realm. You can simply accept that ‘Realm’ means ‘Folder’. So make a Realm in your web site and give it a folder to protect.
3/ You need to set users or groups who can access this ‘Realm’ or ‘Folder’.
4/ It’s really an OS X version of .htaccess meets FTP.
