A Tour Of macOS Big Sur's New Features

In this special live episode I'll look at some of Big Sur's new features while answering questions from the chat stream.
Video transcript available soon.

Comments: 13 Responses to “A Tour Of macOS Big Sur's New Features”

    Richard Fuhr
    3 years ago

    In the Print dialog there is an option to Save [a PDF file] to Web Receipts. In earlier versions of macOS it was possible to make ~/Documents/Web Receipts be a link to ~/Dropbox/Web Receipts. I have been using this capability as part of my workflow for several years. However, with Big Sur this functionality is not working. No error message is given, but it is not possible now to do this. I have posted this issue on discussions.apple.com and have also filed a feedback report to Apple.

    Darren
    3 years ago

    Gary, You show how to change the desktop imagine. Is it possible to change the imagine that is displayed during startup /bootup? If so how? Thank you!

    3 years ago

    Darren: Under Catalina, no, so I assume not under Big Sur either. The problem is that while it is booting, no one is logged in. So no one has logged in. So there is no access to anything except the System. So you'd need to change the image at the System level, and macOS is locked down for security. So technically you can remove very important system security and change the background image in the System. But I do not recommend that anyone do that just because they dislike the login screen.

    Russ Winkler
    3 years ago

    In the middle of installing Big Sur on 2014 MacBook Pro, my screen is now blank. It rebooted a few and the screen is dark blue. I waited a few hours-still dark! What should I do now? I tried to reboot into recovery. command R no good.

    3 years ago

    Russ: If Command+R isn't working, it sounds like a hardware failure -- drive or memory or something. Try recovery mode a few times, but if that doesn't work you'll need to take it to an expert for a firsthand look.

    Russ Winkler
    3 years ago

    Thanks, Gary, I rebooted a few more times and the Big Sur install screen was there finishing installing. How knows what is was the issue--but I'm ok now and Big Sur is installed.

    Jimmy Marchini
    3 years ago

    Is there a way on Messages to delete a group of messages now rather than individually?

    3 years ago

    Jimmy: Messages? You can do that by selecting several and pressing delete. Or, do you mean conversations? They can only be done one at a time, I assume to make it harder to accidentally delete them.

    Ian Rogers
    3 years ago

    Disappointments to date:
    Safari is no faster at loading pages than before, so, unfortunately, back to Google.
    The new Mail layout, moving the action buttons to the top right, is a frustrating change which I’ll have to get used to, but notifications cove up the bar;
    I was hoping the Big Slur would solve the duplicate application issue, but alas no the non-functional, un-deletable apps remain.
    Apart from that and the way I use my laptop, not much has changed.

    John Carter
    3 years ago

    Jimmy & Gary: Multiple messages in a conversation can be selected for deletion at one time, but is done on the iPhone or iPad. Tap and hold on any one message to be deleted. A menu pops up. Click on More. You will see that message has a button activated on the left (in blue) and the other buttons are empty. Tap on all the buttons for the messages that you want to delete, then tap the trash can at the bottom. Caution: When scrolling through the messages, avoid deselecting what you have selected.

    Eric
    3 years ago

    FAO: Richard Fuhr: The print dialog window has changed but the Save to Web Receipts option is still there in the PDF drop-down list.

    Eric
    3 years ago

    Gary, I think I noticed on one of your earlier video about Big Sur that you had the option to Snooze Notifications for different durations (as was the case in Catalina). Big Sur is not offering this facility on my machine! Is there a way to make it available again? TIA

    3 years ago

    Eric: It depends on the app. The app sending the notification determines what options the notification gives.

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