MacMost: Archives

It is common to see Apple names misstated online. But being clear when asking for information or help is important. How many of these incorrect Apple product names have you used?

The symbols that you get when you hold Shift and type a number all have special uses in addition to their use in text. Many are math or logic functions, some are used in Internet communication or social media. New features in macOS Monterey will bring official uses for some of them on macOS for the first time.

When you first use the News app, it will show you a variety of news topics from a variety of sources. But you can customize the News app either by teaaching it what you like to read, or specifically choosing publications and sources you want to see.

Smart Albums are a handy tool in Mac Photos that can be used to view photos in your library that match certain criteria. Unlike regular albums, you don't add photos to the album manually and they automatically update as you add new photos.

There are many small ways to customize the Mac Finder that may get rid of small annoyances for some users. Check out these settings and techniques.

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 tehcniques 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.