Posts By: Gary Rosenzweig

If you receive a Microsoft Word document from someone who seems to think that everyone has Word, it can be frustrating. But you have several options to view and even edit the Word document on your Mac without buying anything. You can use Quick Look or Preview to view the file. TextEdit can be used to get access to simple text documents. Pages can open Word documents and most formatting is retained. You can also edit and export back out in Word format. The ultimate solution is to spend the money to get Word from the App Store, though it requires a paid subscription.

You can create contacts, set up calendar events, and get intel on pieces of text in incoming email, web pages and other documents using Data Detectors and Look Up. This feature of macOS will figure out what information represents, such as a location or appointment time, or business name or person, and allow you to act on it.

With a new beta version of iOS 12.2, some users at MacRumors are saying they see “5GE” as their connection type on AT&T’s network. AT&T rolled out this branding on Android phones last month, but this is the first time it has been reported on iPhones. The 5GE brand has been criticized as highly deceptive.

What if you need to connect to your iCloud account, but your iPhone doesn't have an Internet connection? Then you won't get a prompt with the two-factor code, but you can still generate the code manually and use it even though your iPhone isn't connected. Two-factor codes don't need to rely on Internet connections for verification. You can also get a code from your Mac even if it isn't connected.

After updating to Mojave, many Mac users see a message saying that an app they are trying to use needs to be updated and won't work with future versions of macOS. By future versions, that means the next major update of macOS, probably coming in late 2019, not minor updates. Before then, you can update to a newer version of that app, or find an alternative app to use in its place.

A few features are floating to the top as possibilities for iOS 13, such as Dark Mode, a new iPad Home Screen, tabs inside more apps, and better file management. Long-rumored services like a Magazine subscription option are also mentioned in this Bloomberg article.

If you find you always use the left Shift key, or the right one, for that matter, and never the other Shift key, you use that large unused key as a Mission Control shortcut. Go to System Preferences, Mission Control. In any of the keyboard shortcuts you can change the option to the left or right Shift keys. You can also use any Option, Control or Command key too.

The photo editor in the Mac Photos app includes a lot of shortcuts that can help speed up editing, especially if you need to make adjustments to a range of photos. You can enter and exit editing mode quickly, move between photos without leaving the editor, jump to different editing modes, and compare the original to your adjustments easily. You can also fine-tune cropping and rotations.

Apple’s earnings for the quarter ending in December slightly exceeded predictions causing the stock to rise. Previously, Apple had warned of lower iPhone sales which contributed to a stock price drop over the last few months. The change came out almost exactly as Apple predicted, not any worse, which pleased investors. Despite this issue, the quarter was the second best for Apple of all time, after the same quarter last year.

The most powerful keyboard shortcut for your Mac is the Tab key. This single key helps you get around in windows, dialog boxes and even web pages. You can modify how it works in System Preferences and also in Safari's preferences. Once you master using the Tab key you can speed up your computer use by keeping your hands on your keyboard more and using your mouse or trackpad less.

This is something I actually did for a So you can send a message through the Terminal using a single-line AppleScript command. If you put that into a shell script file, you can then schedule it using the <strong>crontab</strong>. Unfortunately, you have to edit the crontab using the old <strong>vi</strong> editor, though I seem to remember there may be an easier way. Anyway, I used this to send a message at a schedule time recently. I don't think it is very reliable for important things. I'll bet your Mac has to be awake and it probably pays to test it a few times before using it for real as your permissions may be set differently than mine.

A widely-reported flaw in group FaceTime allows users to call an Apple user and implement a series of steps to get the receiving device to answer the call without the other users’ approval. There are no reports of this exploit being used for malicious purposes and Apple has already blocked it by temporarily disabling group FaceTime. One-on-one FaceTime calls continue to work normally.

You can create a very short Automator action to take text as input, manipulate it, and replace the original text. In this example, we'll create a Javascript JXA action that encloses the text in quotes. You can use this in conjunction with a keyboard shortcut to quickly apply quotes in Pages and other apps.

News site Cheddar is reporting that Apple may be adding games to its upcoming subscription service plans. This is probably just research and development from Apple at this stage, so it is too early to tell if this would be like Netflix for games or something else, or which Apple devices it would include.

Sometimes you need a series of shortcuts to accomplish a task, not just one. In this tutorial, you'll learn how to create three small shortcuts to save and recall text clippings. The first two allow you to save the clipboard or the selection to a file in a folder. The third shortcut lets you recall one of those clips so you can paste it into a document, email, note or just about anything.

A new version of iOS for beta testers has revealed two possible upcoming features. The first is a magazine subscription service, which has been long rumored. The second is the ability to use voice-activated “Hey Siri” with the wireless AirPods.

A common complaint from Mojave users is that when you copy and paste a file icon to create a custom icon for a file or folder, the result is blurry. It turns out that this only happens when the icon image is not square. Convert the image to a square one, or copy a square portion of the image, and the result is crisp and clear.

You can share the screen of another Mac pretty easily. But it seems like it is impossible to do the same with another account on the same Mac. However, if you use Terminal to set up an ssh tunnel, you can share the screen of a second account using an alternate port number. This allows you to stay logged in to one account, while you use another account in a screen sharing window.

AirPods have quietly built up a strong fanbase, myself among them. The wireless in-ear earphones fit, work and sound much better than anyone expected. Rumors of second generation AirPods pointed to a 2018 and now first-half 2019 release. But what new features will be included? AirPods fans are speculating online about what will really be in the second generation of the device.

Sometimes when you go to print out a mostly-text article from the web, you instead get a mess of browser navigation buttons, banners and ads. But if you switch to Reader View using View, Show Reader, and then print, you’ll just get what you see in the Reader View. Then you can save as a PDF, open in Preview to select and copy the text, or, of course, print it.