Posts By: Gary Rosenzweig

Parents may want to set time limits for their kids to limit computer use, or force them to stop using their Mac when it gets too late. You can set time limits for managed user accounts in Parental Controls. You can set a limit on the total amount of time per day, or have access shut off at a specific time. There are separate settings for weekdays and weekends.

Video filters adjust the coloring and add special effects to your video clips. You can choose from a variety of filters to make your video look more cinematic or like old film. You can apply the filters to the entire video, or just a section of it. You can also create custom color filters.

You can save some money when you buy your next Mac by buying a refurbished model. Apple lists refurbished Macs on their website. These Macs are tested and come with the same warranty as new Macs. You can also buy other Apple products like iPads in this same section of the Apple store.

If you select multiple files in the Finder, using either the Shift or Command key as you click the files, you can get a special Multiple Item Info box to appear. After you have them selected, Go to File, Get Info but before you select it hold down the Control key. The menu item changes to Get Summary Info and the result is a single info box that combines data, like the total file size. The keyboard shortcut is Control+Command+I. If the files use the same extension, you can also see and change the Open With information for all of them at once.

A new effect in Keynote lets you animate a line being drawn on a slide. You can use this to add flourish to your presentations, or to illustrate something like a route on a map.

Select an image file in the Finder and press the spacebar to open the Quick Look window. If the image is large you can zoom in by simply pressing the Option key on your keyboard. You can now click and drag the image to view other parts of it. Press Option again to zoom back out.

Mail in El Capitan allows you to easily work with multiple messages in full screen mode. You can minimize the composition window and return to it. You can also put multiple messages into the composition window and select them using the titles of the messages at the top.

You can place handy little app widgets in the Notification Center sidebar on your Mac. Included with El Capitan are widgets like stocks, weather and a calculator. You can also purchase new widgets from the App Store.

Sick of seeing a warning when you rename a file with a new extension? You can switch that off in Finder, Preferences, under Advanced. Uncheck the “Show warning before changing an extension” option.

With the Maps app in El Capitan you can now search for transit directions. If this is available in your city, you'll be able to see how to get from one point to another using public transportation. You can specify the start time or arrival time and often can choose between many options. You can share these directions with your mobile device or print them. You can also simply view transit lines without setting start and end points.

A new feature of Mail in El Capitan is the ability to swipe across a message using your Mac's trackpad to access some common functions. This is similar to how Mail in iOS works. You can mark a message as Read or Unread, or delete it. You can also change the delete option to archive. This even works for messages not currently selected.

Spotlight does so much now in El Capitan that it can sometimes be hard to get simple results like a dictionary definition. You can use the keyboard shortcut Command+L to jump right to a definition when that is all you need. So typing Command+Space, the word, Command+L will bring up Spotlight and go to the definition.

Safari in El Capitan allows you to see which tabs are currently playing sound. You can click to mute or unmet individual tabs. You can also Control+click to see a list of tabs with sound. This is handy when a tab you are not viewing starts playing sound and you need to find it to turn the sound off.

The Photos app lets you easily identify faces in your photos. You can assign a name and Photos will help you find that person in other pictures. Once you have assigned some faces, you can search for them and view photos that contain those people.

If you like your screen as clean and empty of distractions as possible, then check out the “Automatically hide and show the menu bar” setting in System Preferences, General. This is new for El Capitan. When turned on, the menu bar at the top of your screen will only appear if you move the cursor up there.

Alignment guides in Pages, Numbers and Keynote make it easy to align objects to their centers or edges. With alignment guides you can quickly build groups of shapes or photos that lock together with perfect spacing and sizes.

With the Photos app in El Capitan, you can adjust the time and location data for your photos. If you have photos taken with a regular camera, it may not include any location data, and the time can easily be off if you haven't set your camera's time or are traveling in a different time zone. The Photos app makes it easy to go back later and make changes to time and location.

On your Mac in El Capitan you probably already know that you can read articles with fewer distractions using the Safari Reader function. Just tap the little Reader button next to the address field or choose View, Show Reader. Once you do that, you’ll get another button that looks like “AA” on the right side of the address field. Click that to change the font, and also to select a different background shade. Select the darker shades to invert the text and read white text on a dark background. Handy for reading at night.

With new updates to Pages, Number and Keynote you have new ways to select colors in those apps. This includes an eyedropper tool on the iPad that allows you to select a color from anywhere on the screen and use that to color text, shapes and other objects. This eyedropper tool also exists on the iPhone, but in a different location.

A useful new tool in Pages is the ability to create sections that can be rearranged easily. This will make it easier for those writing stories or scripts, compiling reports, or creating study notes. You can put multiple pages in a section and drag and drop the entire section to reorder your document.