Posts By: Gary Rosenzweig

You can do a lot more than just simple addition and multiplication in Spotlight. You can use parenthesis to set the order of operations. You can use functions and symbols to do trigonometry and logarithms. You can use powers and roots, and even scientific notation. You can even do factorials, percentages and trig functions using degrees instead of radians.

You can create professional-looking video end credits with Keynote using only a single simple animation on a single slide. You can incorporate a long list of names, and add shapes, photos or other elements into a group. The result is easily modified and exported as a video to bring into iMovie, Final Cut or any other video editing app.

While private browsing windows do not really give you privacy, they are useful for a variety of things. You can use them to log into the same site as multiple users, or to view your own site or accounts as someone who is not logged in at all. You can search and shop without building up a history that can haunt you later on. It is also useful for giving presentations and getting around soft paywalls.

You can create a photo collage using any number of apps and techniques on your Mac. But the quickest, but still very versatile, method is to use Keynote. You can easily drag and drop images from Photos onto a slide and arrange them with lines, borders, text and other elements. You can then export as an image.

You can animate charts in Keynote, with 2D and 3D charts having different types of animations. With 3D charts, you can rotate the chart, watch it grow, and even have it come in from in front of the screen. You can choose whether to have the entire chart come in at once, or build piece by piece. Once you are done, you can use the animation to punch up your presentation, or export to a video file to use in iMovie or Final Cut.

Here's an improvement to a one-line script I talked about a while back. This new script will prompt you to choose one of the running apps, and then one of the windows of that app. Then it will resize and position that window. I use this to resize windows perfectly before doing tutorials. You could do the same, or maybe you have another reason to want to tame your windows. I suppose you could expand the script more with variations on the position and size that you could choose from a list. Here is the code: var app = Application.currentApplication(); app.includeStandardAdditions = true; var system = Application("System Events"); var appList = Application("System Events").applicationProcesses.whose({ visible: true}).name(); var whichAppName = app.chooseFromList(appList, {withPrompt: "Select App:", defaultItems: ["Safari"]}); var whichApp = Application(whichAppName[0]); var windowList = whichApp.windows.name(); var whichWindowName = app.chooseFromList(windowList, {withPrompt: "Select Window:", defaultItems: windowList[0]}); if (whichWindowName != false) {     whichApp.windows[whichWindowName[0]].bounds = {"x":0, "y":0, "width":1280, "height":697}; }

You can work with other people on a Pages document in real-time or at separate times. All you need to do is to share the document with them using the Collaborate feature inside Pages. This relies on iCloud, though the other person can use the Web-based version of Pages if they don't have Pages or even a Mac.

Dark Mode in macOS Mojave is a great new feature, but Apple didn't give us a way to quickly switch between light and dark modes. The little donation-ware app NightOwl gives you that control in your menu bar. You can also set a keyboard shortcut, select apps to stay in light mode, and set specific times to switch between modes.

While your apps like News and Stocks have moved from iOS to the Mac, there is no default Weather app for the Mac. But you can get weather information quickly and easily using Spotlight, Safari, the Dashboard, Notifications Center and Siri. You can also bookmark or create a shortcut to your favorite weather source or get a third-party app.

Storing your passwords in Safari is a good idea as it allows you to use strong unique passwords for each site you visit. But if you still have some old passwords that are used at more than one site, you need to change that. Safari will show you if you are using a password at more than one site. You can use these warnings to fix these before they become a problem.

I was looking for a new text editor to use to write code. I found the CodeRunner app, which not only lets you write code, but you can also run code. I feel like I'm on an Apple II again, where you could just write BASIC code and run it without compiling or uploading to a server. This is a great way to learn a programming language, test code, or get some work done with coding.

If you are running out of storage space on your iPhone, you may think that removing some photos is a good way to free up space. But using iCloud Photo Library means that deleting a photo will delete it from all of your devices. The solution is not to try to delete a photo at all. You simply need to turn on Optimize iPhone Storage in your Photos settings. This will allow your iPhone to manage your photos so that only small thumbnails are stored for most photos. The original high-resolution photos will always be in iCloud, and can also be stored on your Mac. Optimizing allows you to get a lot of storage space back, while still having all of your photos available to you. You can do the same for your Mac or second Mac to save space.

Secure Code Autofill is a new feature in macOS Mojave and iOS 12 that will take those little codes you receive via text message and allow you to easily insert them into the fields on web pages and apps when they are asked for. This allows you to use two-factor authentication and similar security measures without needing to switch apps and copy and paste. Making this easier will hopefully encourage more people to use this important security measure.

Using an iPhone X model with one hand can be tough as the top of the screen is too far away to reach the top of the screen. However, with a simple gesture you can bring the top of the screen down halfway. This works on any iPhone X model and also works with any iPhone Plus model, but using the Home button instead of a gesture.

A new feature of Amazon Echo devices is that they now support Apple Music. Previously, you could use a number of music streaming services with Echo devices, but Apple Music was left out. With Echo dots being so inexpensive, this allows Apple Music users to hear their music in many places without needing a Bluetooth speaker or Apple HomePod. You can now ask Alexa to play your Apple Music songs, albums, and playlists. You can even make Apple Music your default service.