Mac Video Tutorials and Tips for Apple Users

iPhone passcodes that are only 4- or 6-digits long can be easily broken by the same equipment law enforcement agencies use. While it is unlikely to be an issue for typical users, you can opt to use longer passcodes or even an alphanumeric password for your iPhone to make it nearly impossible to break.

If you need to encrypt your documents for security or legal reasons, you can do this easily in Pages, Numbers and Keynotes with the Set Password option. It is important to remember your password or you will lose access to the document. You can also just opt to use File Vault to encrypt all of the data on your Mac.

The Reminders app is a simple way to store to-do items, reminders and lists. You can get more out of it by knowing how to use some features like priorities, location alerts, sorting, and multiple windows. Check out these tips to become a pro at using Mac Reminders.

You can use folders to organize your files inside the Documents folder on your Mac. It is easy to create new folders. You can put folders inside of folders and use as many as you need to group your files however you want them. You can also easily move, rename and delete folders.

You can instruct your Mac to cache software updates, app downloads and iCloud content so the other devices on your home network can access these quickly. This works best if you have plenty of hard drive space to spare and many Apple devices in your home.

Most Mac Terminal commands posted online are actually simple commands that just change a preference for an app or part of macOS. When you use a command like "defaults write" all it is doing is editing a small preference file in your user Library folder. Take a look at what actually is changed.

If you wish to increase your level of browser privacy you may want to consider the DuckDuckGo extension for Safari. This will give each website you visit a privacy grade and also block tracking on websites.

Learn how to crop your pictures in the Mac Photos app. You can drag the edges to redefine the cropping area and then reposition the picture inside the new area. You can also rotate or auto-rotate the image and the crop will adjust automatically to not leave any blank space in the corners. Cropping is non-destructive, so you can always revert to the original photo or export it.

The scroll bars on the Mac can be hard to understand for new users since they only appear when you need them. You typically use your Mouse or Trackpad to scroll, and most users can avoid the scroll bars altogether. However, if you need them, you will see them when scrolling and can click and drag them when they appear. You can also customize how they work and when they appear in System Preferences.

A new feature in Keynote, Pages, and Numbers, is the ability to reduce the size of your file by compressing images, video and trimming the unused parts of videos. These reductions can significantly reduce the file size of image and video-heavy files. You can also save a draft copy that will be even smaller if you need it.

A new feature in Pages is the ability to use single page temples called Master Pages. You can use these while in Page Layout mode to create templates for newsletters, certificates, fliers and other documents.

A new feature of Numbers, Pages and Keynote is the ability to use Donut charts instead of Pie charts to represent a single row of data. Donut charts are popular right now, and some say they are better ways to visualize data than Pie charts.

A new feature in Pages, Keynote and also Numbers is the ability to add on-page slideshows called Image Galleries. You an place many images in the same location and have a caption for each. Readers can flip through them using Pages or in iBooks using the ePub format. You can also use them in Keynote to embed image slideshows on a single slide.

The new version of Numbers for Mac allows you to make adjustments after importing a table of data from a text file. You can import comma-separated, tab-separated or spaced text data, or use custom separators as well. This feature allows you to remove excess header rows, move spacing, deal with quotes and other options.

The new version of Safari allows you to sorts bookmarks inside of folders alphabetically. While a small feature, this is something many people ask about on a regular basis. You can sort by name or address.