Posts By: Gary Rosenzweig

Most Mac users are browsing the web using either the built-in Safari browser or they have installed Google's Chrome browser. Both browsers have their advantages. Each works well within their own Apple or Google ecosystem. Safari has some clear advantages when it comes to MacBook battery life and privacy. Chrome works better for Google Apps users and those that also have Android or Windows devices.

You can turn any video into an animated GIF using the latest version of Apple's free Keynote presentation software. A new feature of Keynote is the ability to export as a GIF. To convert a video, you can create single-slide presentations using the video and export. You can also easily crop and trim the video, as well as add text or even combine several videos into one GIF.

I use stock images for MacMost, my other sites, and my game apps too. I've used a few different source over the years, and never use images just from random image searches because of copyright. Here are the places I've used, the main site I use now, and some good places for free images too. What sources do you use?

If you want to make it as easy as possible to call people you can set up a single-action icon that you can tap on your iPhone or click on your Mac to make the call. On the iPhone you can use the Shortcuts app to build a shortcut and place it on your Home screen. On your Mac you can use Automator with a shell script and some JavaScript to place an app in your Dock to make the call with a single click.

A seemingly simple thing to do is GarageBand is have your track or song fade in or out. But finding the method for doing this can be difficult. A fade is an automation. To fade, you need to show automations and then edit the automation line to change the volume over time. You can do this on a single track, or on the master track to fade the entire song.

Is your MacBook battery draining at night? This is probably due to a piece of software on your Mac that is misbehaving and waking it while it should be sleeping. There are several ways to figure out which could be the culprit. You can use various tools to compile a list of suspects and then quit those before putting your MacBook to sleep to test them. You can also try things like reseting parts of the system and trying safe mode. You may be able to figure out the problem on your own, or you may need to take it to an expert.

If you need to focus on part of an image during a presentation, you can use a magnifying glass to zoom in on the area in a fun way. You can build this effect using and shape and three transitions. This also creates a nice element to use in iMovie or other video projects.

Hot Corners are shortcuts that you can set so an action is performed when you move the cursor to one of the four corners of your screen. You can set these up in System Preferences if you know where to look. You can use them to instantly put your Mac to sleep, trigger Mission Control and other actions. You can also set them to work only with modifier keys. There is a trick to knowing which corners work in a multi-screen setup.

In school and at work, the Notes app on the iPad has gained status as being even better than third-party notes apps. In addition to syncing over iCloud, you can type, write, draw, take pictures, record video, and scan paper. Text can include styles, lists, tables, and checklists. If you write out notes by hand with an Apple Pencil, you can even search for text in your writing.

You don't need to use complex graphics or video motion tools to create backgrounds for YouTube end screens. Instead, you can simply use Keynote and build a single-slide presentation with animation. It is fairly easy to get elements lined up with placeholders and then to play around with various animations to make your end screen look great. Then you can export as a movie and add it to the end of your YouTube videos as you finish editing them.

With minimalism getting a lot of attention today, how would you customize your Mac to make it minimalist? You can stop using the Desktop as a storage location and use a simple background. You can virtually get rid of the Dock and menu bar. You can practice minimalism when storing, archiving and backing up your files too. Safari and Spotlight also have options that should appeal to minimalists. Choosing the perfect minimalist Mac is tough, as they all are appealing.

Most Mac users avoid Launchpad and instead use Spotlight, the Dock or some other method to launch apps. However, with a change and some tips, Launchpad can be a decent app launcher. First, you'll want to assign a keyboard shortcut. Then, you'll want to organize your Launchpad screens so you can find apps easily. You can also use the keyboard to easily search for apps and get more refined results than in Spotlight.

So as I'm working to improve the MacMost tutorials, I finding a lot of good YouTube channels use background music. I'm wondering if I should as well. Now I know a lot of you are going to say: "Doesn't matter to me, I'm watching for the info!" But think for a minute about someone watching a MacMost video for the first time. Perhaps a little background music may make it seem more professional? I definitely want to raise the profile of MacMost (the site, podcast and YouTube channel) so I'm thinking that music may be one thing I need to do. What I'm talking about is very subtle and quiet. It is barely noticeable, in fact. You may have already watched some online video tutorials with background music and not even noticed. Check out this sample. It is the beginning of an upcoming video, first without music, and then with music. It comes in right after the opening titles. So you can watch the start, and then jump to 1:30 to hear it with music. I really value everyone's opinion on this, so I'm looking forward to hearing what you think. Thanks!

There are many ways to customize how files and folders appear on your desktop. You can manually arrange them, or have them sorted automatically. You can change the size of the icons, the text, and the grid spacing. A new feature in macOS Mojave is to have similar files organized into stacks. You can also select what other icons, such as hard drives, appear on the Desktop.