MacMost: Archives

Preview is a great tool for viewing PDF documents. But you can do much more than just viewing. You can fill in forms, even PDFs that don't have preset fillable fields. You can password-protect them, export them as images, merge documents, rearrange and delete pages and more.

Preview is a great tool for viewing image files. But you can do much more than just viewing. In addition to the annotation tools you may already be familiar with, you can also use Preview to export images into a different format, crop, resize and adjust colors. You can even import images from cameras or scanners.

We include email signatures with every message we send, but often don't put much thought into the signature itself. You can make yours stand out with some simple techniques like using colors, including emoji or clever combinations of characters, images and more.

If you need to repeat a specific set of keyboard commands or movements often, you can reduce the sequence to a single action. One method is to use Automator Watch Me Do actions, which record key presses and allow you to repeat them. You can also write a script in Automator to press keys. A third method involves using the Mac Accessibility Keyboard to record and play back the sequence.

You don't need special software to create beautiful organizational charts on your Mac. You can use the shapes in Pages and Keynote along with techniques like groups, images in shapes, and connection lines. Learn the skills you need to build any diagram design.

The Mac Color Picker will appear when you want to choose a color in most Mac apps. You'll see it when you want to set the color of text, shapes, adjust images, draw, and many more places. There are several ways to choose colors and some of them are highly customizable.

Early personal computers made it easy to get into programming. Today's computers come ready-to-use and most people will never write a single line of code. Learn the basic concepts of coding with 6 lessons in less then 20 minutes. Use Script Editor on your Mac to write simple programs and take your first steps in learning how software works.

Sending large files as email attachments can be probematic when you have server limits and bandwidth issues on either end. There are better ways to send files. You can use photo or video-specific sharing sites. For other files you can use free file sharing services, cloud services or get your own professional server.

Status Menus, also called Menu Bar Icons, are the small menus that appear on the right side of your Mac's menu bar. Learn how to arrange, remove and add them. Find out how access hidden features and functions. Get more from third-party apps. See how you can access them with your keyboard and other tricks.

Many people decide to skip using a backup like Time Machine to protect the files on their Mac, in favor of simply using iCloud Drive and iCloud Photos. While cloud services are a great way to sync and access your files across devices, they fall short when compared to backing up with something like Time Machine. Learn why you should use Time Machine in addition to iCloud to keep your files and photos safe.

iMovie offers limited setting for exporting videos. You can use Apple's Compressor app to take high-quality iMovie videos and compress them however you like. You can also create stand-alone droplet apps to make repeated conversions quick and easy. You can do the same with audio files creating in GarageBand and elsewhere.

Learn the basics of using Automator on your Mac to create workflows. Automator is a useful productivity tool but it can be intimidating for non-programmers. Learn how to use Actions to build Workflows to get things done. This is a basic introduction for those who have never used Automator before.

How can you type on your Mac if you keyboard isn't working or is missing? How can you control the cursor to click on things if your mouse or trackpad is not working? There are methods to type and point that you can use in an emergency or until you get a replacement. You can bring up the Accessibility Keyboard to type using the cursor, and use Mouse Keys to move to cursor using only the keyboard. The trick is to know how to bring those up when things aren't working.

You can use the Maps app on your Mac for more than just finding locations and getting directions. You can create maps to be used in other apps as well. You can export a map into Preview and then annotate it to send in an email or message. You can copy and paste or export a map to use in Pages documents, Keynote presentations and iMovie video projects. You can also export satellite and 3D views.

Apple released the first beta of iOS 13.4 today and with it an important change to the Apple ecosystem. Starting with that version of iOS and probably the equivalent version of macOS, tvOS and watchOS, developers will be able to offer universal app purchases.

I often talk about shortcuts and other ways to be more productive on yoru Mac. Here are 10 shortcuts that I actually use in my work every day including how I prefer to resize windows, switch apps, avoid typing my long email address and more.

There are many commands and modifiers you can add to your Google searches to get better results. You can narrow searches to a single site, look for exact phrases, search using an image instead of text and much more. There are also special Google pages and sites that Google offers with tons of useful information.

If you have songs in the Music app that are missing information then the app may not group them by artist or album correctly. You can correct this information easily in the app. You can also modify songs so they appear on the proper albums and sorted in the right order. You can add album artwork too, and set the order of tracks in an album. This works the same way before Catalina in the iTunes app and will even work for songs obtained from Apple Music and sync with your other devices.

Numbers is a huge app with tons of features. If you use it a lot, you can benefit from learning some tips, tricks and techniques. Learn how to autofill cells, re-apply sorts, get quick calculation results, automatically format cells, hidden keyboard shortcuts and much more.

The Clips app from Apple can be used to create video slideshows from your photos. You can add images one-by-one with titles and captions, audio narration and filters. Then you can edit and export the result to share.