Help! Whats going on with my beloved ibook?

I just bought my ibook in october and I love it, it made me hate PCs (needless to say, i guess, lol)
Anyways, this is a really good computer, I just love it however, lately its been taking a long time to start up! I have No clue why and Im not sure how to fix either, Im not a mac expert yet.
WHen I start it, the wallpaper comes up and then it takes a few minutes before my desktop appears, the entire time it loads, the mouse is that waiting symbol, that circly thing that spins.. you know!

Anyways, one of my friends told me that because I downloaded a bunch of fonts not to long ago and installed them into the fontbook, it makes the computer start slower, so I should make a seperate file for them, though this seems kind of ridiculous to me!
Anyways, help me fix my baby

I had the exact same problem (thanx Macman) and I had about 600 in fontbook and 5000 elsewhere. Anyways I disabled Fontbook and unactivate all the fonts and I stopped using it completely. It's proprietary and not that great. Suitcase has been wonderful to me IMHO

deus_ex_machina said:

I had the exact same problem (thanx Macman) and I had about 600 in fontbook and 5000 elsewhere. Anyways I disabled Fontbook and unactivate all the fonts and I stopped using it completely. It's proprietary and not that great. Suitcase has been wonderful to me IMHO

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So it is the fonts?
So what do I have to do exactly?
ew that sux...

Also if you wanted to continue w/Fontbook i wouldn't activate more than 200... You can always have a set of fonts you use (design fonts?) and add from a folder elsewhere when you need it

Rena Bella said:

So it is the fonts?
So what do I have to do exactly?
ew that sux...

Click to expand...

Usually not the fonts (some can be corrupt though... ) but the number of fonts activated. The system takes every single one into account on startup, causing it take several minutes. Go into Fontbook and select your added fonts and deactivate and take out of Fontbook. This can take a while too and for good measure check to see if Fontbook is one of your startup apps. Uncheck if it is.

deus_ex_machina said:

Usually not the fonts (some can be corrupt though... ) but the number of fonts activated. The system takes every single one into account on startup, causing it take several minutes. Go into Fontbook and select your added fonts and deactivate and take out of Fontbook. This can take a while too and for good measure check to see if Fontbook is one of your startup apps. Uncheck if it is.

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Im sorry, i know i should like a total dumbass but how do I check my startup applications?
I really dont know all the big stuff with macs yet, and if it isnt one of the selected programs does that mean that deactived fonts wont show up in my programs?

In System Preferences go into Accounts and your Startup Items should be there along with Password, Picture, and Security. If its not thats fine. What you'll be doing (if still using Fontbook) is reinstalling your previously added fonts back into FB and limiting what's active. When I had those 600+ fonts active on mine it showed them even in Safari settings and I got unbelievable lag. Like before you can pick like a choice 100 or so fonts to have active in a set apart from System and User and activate when you need it. That way your comp won't try and load them for EVERY program and slow everything down.

deus_ex_machina said:

Suitcase has been wonderful to me IMHO

Click to expand...

Does Suitcase help the problem, how does it help you? I want to start downloading fonts for my Adobe apps, but I also don't want a slow startup time.

iWhat said:

Does Suitcase help the problem, how does it help you? I want to start downloading fonts for my Adobe apps, but I also don't want a slow startup time.

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What exactly is suitcase?

deus_ex_machina said:

In System Preferences go into Accounts and your Startup Items should be there along with Password, Picture, and Security. If its not thats fine. What you'll be doing (if still using Fontbook) is reinstalling your previously added fonts back into FB and limiting what's active. When I had those 600+ fonts active on mine it showed them even in Safari settings and I got unbelievable lag. Like before you can pick like a choice 100 or so fonts to have active in a set apart from System and User and activate when you need it. That way your comp won't try and load them for EVERY program and slow everything down.

Click to expand...

Okay, I went into my fontbook, but how do i just reinstall everything?
I try disabling some fonts, but I dont think that helps.

Is there anyelse thats possibly making my ocmputer start slower?

I scrapped Fontbook entirely and use Extensis Suitcase X1. Its a font management program like Fontbook but more professional and reliable. Its been integrated for a while with Adobe and used it when ATM gave me too many problems. You can define sets of graphic fonts that can be activated at will and application fonts that only activate when that program is run, say Illustrator or Indesign.
http://www.extensis.com/en/products/product_family.jsp?id=1054
has 30 day trial

iWhat said:

Does Suitcase help the problem, how does it help you? I want to start downloading fonts for my Adobe apps, but I also don't want a slow startup time.

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Its a replacement program for Fontbook. Right now I have a set of 138 fonts and about 5000+ elsewhere on my comp. I just add fonts to my set as I go and it has never crashed and the activated font appears in the Character tab as soon as I return to whatever Adobe program I using. I rarely restart the computer but has never lagged as a startup item.

deus_ex_machina said:

Its a replacement program for Fontbook. Right now I have a set of 138 fonts and about 5000+ elsewhere on my comp. I just add fonts to my set as I go and it has never crashed and the activated font appears in the Character tab as soon as I return to whatever Adobe program I using. I rarely restart the computer but has never lagged as a startup item.

Click to expand...

Cool! I'm going to check it out soon.