MacMost: Archives

The opening and closing slides of a presentation are often on the screen for a while, so why not make them more interesting than just some text? You can easily add a video as a background to a keynote slide. With iMovie you can create a few different backgrounds that you can reuse.

Most Mac users know how to use Command+Tab to use the app switcher. But did you know you can also hide and quit apps with the app switcher? You can also use the cursor to select an app and even drag and drop documents onto apps. By using other keys, you can navigate to a specific window or even a recently-opened document.

Sites are reporting that we may finally see the division of the iTunes app into multiple programs. This has already happened on iOS and tvOS, where separate TV, Music and Podcasts apps exist. So it wouldn’t be a surprising move.

A new feature of Keynote 9 is the ability to export as an animated GIF file. These are useful to upload to social media or send via text message. The exported GIF includes all transitions, animations and special effects.

A new feature of Pages 8.0 is the Table Of Contents View. This is an alternative to the thumbnails view that you can use to quickly navigate while writing and editing a large document. The Table Of Contents View is a separate feature from the Table Of Contents element that you can insert in your documents, though they have some similarities.

Yet another rumor suggests that Apple will put out a new iPhone late this year with five cameras. Several sites have mocked up iPhone backs showing three cameras, which would total five after you include the two front-facing cameras. Current iPhone models already include a regular and telephoto lens on the back. The new camera would be a wide-angle.

The Keyboard Panel Accessibility feature on your Mac lets you create sequences of keypresses that you can repeat by pressing a button. This could make some unusual tasks easier to perform. In this example we'll use a panel button to repeat an unusual search and style function in Pages.

You can combine two or more shapes from Apple's huge shape library to create your own unique shapes. You have four methods for combining shapes to add, subtract, exclude or find the union of the shapes. You can then save the shapes for later use.

If you are having trouble accessing a website, it could be because of a problem with your DNS cache. To reset your DNS cache on your Mac, you need to enter a command using the Terminal. In most cases, this will work, especially if you are using macOS Sierra, High Sierra, or Mojave. Earlier versions of OS X may need some additional commands as well.

Beats announced their AirPod-like Powerbeats Pro earphones which include two independent wireless in-ear pieces and a charging case. Unlike AirPods, the Powerbeats include a hook that goes around the ear and four different sizes for the tips.

If you need to print the list of files in a folder, you can do it using TextEdit, the Terminal or by using a special trick involving your printer. Using TextEdit is a simple drag-and-drop, but you must be working with a plain text document. By using the ls command in the Terminal, you can customize which information is included with the listing. You can also simply drag and drop a folder to an alias to your printer, but you must create that alias first.

When you download a file in Safari, the file is saved in the default location, usually the Downloads folder. You can select any location as the default in Safari Preferences. You can also have Safari ask you each time you download a file and then you can select the location and even change the filename. You can also bring up the context menu in most cases and decide whether to use the default location or a specific location each time.

The old Stationery function is gone in macOS Mojave, but you can still create email templates you can easily access. The trick is to build draft email messages and then move them to a custom mailbox. Then you can grab one of those messages and send it, customizing it as you see fit. In addition, you can use Pages instead of Mail to compose your templates as some features like tables are only available this way.

In an announcement that surprised many news and rumor watchers, Apple issued a statement saying that it will not pursue producing a wireless charging mat. “After much effort, we’ve concluded AirPower will not achieve our high standards and we have cancelled the project,’ said Dan Riccio, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering.

Apple issued updates to its three office apps today, bringing some small new features to the applications. Pages now has a table of contents view to help navigate through a document and you can now use alignment guides on master pages. Keynote can now be used to create animated GIF images. Numbers has some smart categories enhancements.

Since the iPhone X-series models have no Home button, new users sometimes struggle with how to exit apps and get back to the Home screen. The Home indicator line at the bottom of the screen is the key to doing this. However, it is important to realize that this line is at the bottom of the screen in any orientation. So it won't appear on the right when you are playing a game in horizontal mode, but at the bottom of the screen under the game or sometimes over the graphics at the bottom of the game.

The 5.2 update makes the ECG app available outside the United States for the first time as it will be available in 19 countries in Europe and also Hong Kong. The ECG feature is part of the Apple Watch Series 4 and will check for abnormal heart rhythms and detect some heart conditions.

It is important to check and adjust your recording level before recording audio for a voice memo, audio file, video, presentation narration or anything that uses your microphone. Your Mac has an overall system setting for recording level, but some apps also have their own recording level adjustments.

Need to convert a jpg image to a jpeg? Or an mov video to a mp4? Chances are you don't need to convert anything at all. You just need to change the filename. File extensions on a Mac are somewhat optional and often interchangeable. A jpg is the same as a jpeg file. Video files extensions aren't as important as the contents of the file as video file are really just containers.

One reason to use Final Cut Pro or a similar pro-level video editing app is to have access to a wide variety of interesting and useful filters. I'll show you how to apply a basic filter and how to make adjustments. We'll look at how to make your video look like an animation, apply a style and use effects like old film and rain.