Here are the winners (and their hints) for the MacOSXHints contest in February. Sorry about the delay in announcing; we had a couple of logistical issues to work out.

Rob Johnson, for 10.6: Enable AutoAnswer in FaceTime for the Mac.

Greg Walker, for Numbers: edit existing data without using the mouse.

Joseph Tchen, for iPhoto Gestures.

Seth Ahnert, for Collect movies with a Smart Album in iPhoto '11.

Congratulations, and thanks to all of you for your contributions.

Just a reminder, the featured topic for the March contest is web browsers, and there are still a few more days to tell us about them, including Firefox 4. Send in your discoveries and ideas!

Just a reminder -- the featured hint category for March is web browsers. Please submit new ideas and uses for Safari, Firefox, Chrome, OmniWeb, iCab, Opera or whatever other browsers you have tricks for. I hope there will be many of them.

Please refer to the original post about the MacOSXHints Monthly Hint contest for further details.

Thanks!

I'm still looking for hints about iLife '11 for this month's contest. iDVD and iWeb are both parts of that package as far as I'm concerned, even if they didn't get major updates. Also I will consider iMovie for iOS hints as well.

One other note: next Monday, Feb. 21st, is a U.S. Holiday, so I won't be publishing that day.

Craig A.

Here are the winners (and their hints) for the MacOSXHints contest in January:

Brent Thompson, for 10.6: Automate Internet Sharing revisited.

Aaron Wyatt, for 10.6: Another way to lock your screen.

Andrew J. Freyer, for Select Tabs of Unresponsive Ribbon in Office 2011.

The fourth winner is Office 2011 Search change. This hint was submitted anonymously, but the author specifically requested that their prize be donated to the ACLU if they won, so we are honoring that request.

Congratulations, and thanks to all of you for your contributions.

Just a reminder, the featured topic for the February contest is iLife 11. I haven't seen many of those so it's a wide open area. Send in your discoveries and ideas!

The featured category for February is iLife 11.

Please refer to the original post about the MacOSXHints Monthly Hint contest for further details.

We'll be judging the January submissions during the coming week and will notify the winning hint authors as soon as we vote.

The original posting was a bit long and was interfering with some folks' ability to easily get to the hints, so here is a shorter version. Please refer to the original for further details.

Just a reminder, the featured category for January is MS Office for Mac.

We're on holiday for Martin Luther King Day in the U.S. today. Publishing will resume tomorrow.

Thanks to all the contributors so far this month; there are still a number of good things in the queue. Keep them coming.

I'd like to announce the launch of the 2011 MacOSXHints contest: The Mac OS X Hints Monthly Best Hint Contest. This is a little contest designed to reward our hint contributors throughout the year. Here are the basics of the Best Hints Contest:

Starting in the month of January 2011 (retroactive to January 1st) the Macworld editorial staff will be choosing the best hints that were published in each month, both overall and in a monthly Featured Category.

The Featured Category for January is Microsoft Office for Mac.

Each month, the winners will receive:

• Best Overall Hint, First Prize: $250.00
• Best Overall Hint, Second Prize: $250.00
• Featured Category, First Prize: $250.00
• Featured Category, Second Prize: $250.00

These are all in U.S. dollars. Unfortunately, this is currently open only to submitters in the U.S. I am sorry about that, and if there is a way to open this up Internationally I will let you know about it right away.

As you might expect, there are rules that go with running a contest such as this one, and we want to make sure everyone reads the Official Rules prior to submitting a hint. In particular, I wanted to point out that you must include an email address to be eligible (if you're submitting a hint as an anonymous user). If you're a registered user, make sure you've provided a valid email address in your profile, as that's the only way we'll be able to get in touch with you.

It's also important to note that entries must be submitted via the standard MacOSXHints submissions page, not via an email to me (or any other method).

So if you've got a hint in mind, and you've just been waiting for a good excuse to type it up, now you have one! Finally, I'd like to thank Macworld for making this giveaway possible; the opportunity to do things such as this as a way to thank the members of the community.

If you have any questions, please feel free to post them here and I'll do my best to post replies.

Hint away!

Craig A.

I hope you all have a fun entrance to the New Year. I'm getting the final touches for the Hints contest ready, and the rules and announcement should be up by Monday.

I'll be celebrating with a movie marathon on my new Apple TV. :)

I'm going to be off with family over the holiday weekend; so there will be no hints published on Friday or next Monday. I'll be back publishing hints on Tuesday.

Also next week there will be an announcement of a new monthly hints contest to begin in January. So if you get new goodies for your Mac or iOS device, start thinking of novel ways to use them and prepare to share with the rest of us in the New Year.

Thanks to everybody for all the contributions, and have a great holiday and a safe weekend.

Craig A.