MacMost: Archives

If you want to maximize the time your hands are on your keyboard and minimize the time you use your mouse or trackpad, here are 10 techniques you need to master.

While there is no Weather app that comes with your Mac, there are several built-in ways to see weather. In addition, you can access weather in a few other places, like on the Web, in email and even using the Calendar.

The Recents item in the Finder isn't that useful. But you can create your own Smart Folders to replace it that fit your needs and show you the files you really want to see. You can also use Spotlight or Siri to find recent files.

Keynote presentations don't have to be linear. You can use links to jump to any slide. With these links you can turn a Keynote presentation into a simple interactive quiz. This can be used in classroom or marketing situations.

You can use a special type of chart in Numbers to plot points on a graph. To make it look like graph paper you can adjust the chart in several ways.

If you have multiple displays, it is handy to be able to quickly move the current window to the other display. There is already a Menu Bar command for this. But with a little work, you can add a keyboard shortcut as well.

Here are the four techniques that you need to master to use your Mac effectively. You need to learn the ins-and-outs of the Menu Bar, Drag and Drop, the Context Menu, and Copy and Paste. Each one is a basic skill, but also goes deeper. Learn to use these four techniques well and you can do much more with your Mac.

There are many ways to blur the background of a photo. Here are two methods that use the third-party apps Pixelmator Pro and Affinity Photo, and then two methods using built-in Mac apps Preview and Keynote.

Often the solution to a problem in Numbers isn't to use a formula, but to use custom cell formatting. See some practical examples such as adding units, abbreviating large numbers, replacing 0 values with blanks, showing hexadecimal numbers and much more.

Sometimes just having one default app to open a file type isn't enough. With documents like images and text files, you often open files in different apps in different situations. Instead of using the context menu to open the document, you can assign keyboard shortcuts to open the document in a specific app.

Hidden on your Mac is a set of image filters that you can use on your image files. You can access them in an Automator action, which means you can easily build a simple app that will allow you to apply them to an image quickly. Access filters like blur, comic book, pixelate, neon, and so many more. You can even use this to quickly resize images.

Scrolling on a Mac is a basic skill, but works differently than on Windows so it can trip up new users. There are also many shortcuts and settings. Learn some new tricks even if you are an experienced Mac user.

In most apps there is a way to zoom content, making text or images larger. How you do this often varies by app, and some apps don't like you zoom in at all.

While there is no Clock app on a Mac yet, you can use the Calendar to set an alarm for any time on any day. By adding an Automator script, you can have that alarm play a sound at full volume or speak some text.

You can easily add sound effects to your iMovie projects with the built-in effects that come with iMovie. You can also drop in any other sound, including ones you record on your own. By modifying sounds effects with iMovie's tools, you can make generic sound effects work in almost any situation.

When you export photos from the Photos app the date of the file doesn't match the date the photo was taken. This is correct as the file is new and the photo in it does retain the metadata with the original date. But if you want to force the file date to match the photo date, you can do it in the Terminal or with an Automator app.

Your Mac automatically launches apps when you startup and when you log into your user account. Here's where to look to see what your Mac launches automatically. You can add your own items in one of these place, and use all of them to see what things are running in the background.

Safe Mode is a way to reboot your Mac that can help you diagnose problems, and sometimes even fix them without doing anything more. Learn how to boot into Safe Mode and steps you can take to fix your Mac.

You can type special characters on your Mac using one of four different techniques. For accent marks and character variations you can hold down keys on the keyboard or use Option and Shift to access some keys. You can also bring up the Emoji & Symbols chooser for thousands of special characters. Watch for more options and tips.

iMovie 10.2.4 intriduces some new backgrounds that are comprised of two colors and can be customized to use any two colors you like. You can use these as standard backgrounds, but also as overlays mixed with a variety of iMovie tricks to create special effects.