Thoughtful, detailed coverage of the Mac, iPhone, and iPad, plus the best-selling Take Control ebooks.

 

 

Pick an apple! 
Become a TidBITS member!
 

 

TidBITS Watchlist
 
Extract Directly from Time Machine

Normally you use Time Machine to restore lost data in a file like this: within the Time Machine interface, you go back to the time the file was not yet messed up, and you restore it to replace the file you have now.

You can also elect to keep both, but the restored file takes the name and place of the current one. So, if you have made changes since the backup took place that you would like to keep, they are lost, or you have to mess around a bit to merge changes, rename files, and trash the unwanted one.

As an alternative, you can browse the Time Machine backup volume directly in the Finder like any normal disk, navigate through the chronological backup hierarchy, and find the file which contains the lost content.

Once you've found it, you can open it and the current version of the file side-by-side, and copy information from Time Machine's version of the file into the current one, without losing any content you put in it since the backup was made.


Link to this tip

Submitted by
Eolake Stobblehouse

Share your own tip! | Search TipBITS

 

 

Related Articles

 

 

Published in TidBITS 742.
Subscribe to our weekly email edition.

 

 
16 Aug 2004 | Print Printer-Friendly Version of This Article

DealBITS Drawing: BeLight's Mail Factory

by Adam C. Engst Send Email to Author

Send Article to a Friend

I hate mailing packages. Along with the extra trip to the post office and the fuss of finding proper packaging materials, there's the label. I've always liked the idea of printing labels rather than writing them out by hand (since my handwriting is lousy, and copying an address from an email message just feels silly). But it seems like too much effort to fire up Now Contact and create a new record (often for someone I know I'll never send anything to again) just to print a single label.

Enter BeLight Software's Mail Factory. You'll remember BeLight as the small Ukrainian company responsible for Business Card Composer, the elegant little application for creating business cards, and Mail Factory definitely follows in the same vein. It lets you create and print labels quickly, either entering data manually or connecting to Apple's Address Book, Microsoft Entourage, Eudora, or Now Contact for the source data. It knows about numerous different pre-defined label formats matching label stock, works with both normal printers and Dymo label printers, and lets you print on partially used sheets of labels. You can even design your own labels using the included clip art. Mail Factory also lets you design and print envelopes, can insert POSTNET bar codes to expedite delivery, and formats addresses according to the postal requirements of over 50 countries (I've always wondered if using the U.S. style caused delivery problems when mailing overseas addresses).

<http://www.belightsoft.com/mailfactory/>

In this week's DealBITS drawing, you can enter to win one of five electronic copies of Mail Factory, worth $29.95. Entrants who aren't among our lucky winners will receive a discount on Mail Factory, so if you're interested in the program, be sure to enter at the DealBITS page linked below. All information gathered is covered by our comprehensive privacy policy. Be careful with your spam filters, since you must be able to receive email from my address to learn if you've won.

<http://www.tidbits.com/dealbits/belight2.html>
<http://www.tidbits.com/about/privacy.html>

 

Make friends and influence people by sponsoring TidBITS!
Put your company and products in front of tens of thousands of
savvy, committed Apple users who actually buy stuff.
More information: <http://tidbits.com/advertising.html>