Posts By: Gary Rosenzweig

When dealing with image files on your Mac, it is useful to know the difference between JPEG and GIF files, what HEIC or HEIF files are, what RAW means, and when to use a PNG file.

Setting up email signatures in Mac Mail can be confusing as signatures you create may not seem to be available after you create them. Learn how to create and manage your signatures, set default signatures, and choose alternatives.

The Files app on your iPhone or iPad is like the Finder on a Mac. You can use it to find, open, and organize your files. You can also preview documents and perform other functions. If you are looking to get work done on your iPhone or iPad, it is important that you know your way around the Files app.

Cloud-based games are the future. And You can play on a Mac just as easily as you can play on a PC. Basically, you are just streaming gameplay like you stream Netflix. I tried out Nvidia's service and played some games. Works great, as you can see. There will be a lot more gaming in my future.

There are many ways to move and resize windows on a Mac without requiring third-party apps. Learn how to set up your windows like you want them, and even a method for saving windows positions.

Navigating around on your Mac while you get things done can be tricky. But you have a wide variety of tools to help you, like Mission Control, the App Switcher, the Dock and App Expose. You can control some of these with the pointer, and others with the keyboard.

I worked on something to help me with a daily task, and I thought I would share it. I know regular expressions are pretty technical, but I hope some of you find this interesting anyway. Here's the JavaScript for the Shortcut, and the website is: <a href="https://regex101.com" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://regex101.com</a>  <blockquote><strong>function run(input, parameters) {</strong></blockquote><blockquote><strong> var str = String(input[0]);</strong></blockquote><blockquote><strong> str = str.replace( /(.*) ((dd)s)/gm , `00:$2 $1`);</strong></blockquote><blockquote><strong> str = str.replace( /(.*) ((d)m (dd)s)/gm , `0$2:$3 $1`);</strong></blockquote><blockquote><strong> str = str.replace( /(.*) ((d)m (d)s)/gm , `0$2:0$3 $1`);</strong></blockquote><blockquote><strong> return "00:00 Intron"+str;</strong></blockquote><blockquote><strong>}</strong></blockquote>

You can use QuickTime Player to select a portion of a long video and save only that portion to a smaller file. This comes in handy when you want to only use a small section of a video in iMovie or Final Cut Pro.

The Color Picker tool appears in many Apple Mac apps and third-party apps. You can save a color you want to use again with the color chip slots at the bottom. You can use them in any app where you can bring up the color picker.

You can build a simple Shortcut to access the things you use your iPhone for the most. Then you can use back tap, a Home screen icon or Siri to activate it and choose the function. Great for productivity or for helping someone who needs easier access to some things.

There are many different types of desktop backgrounds, also called wallpapers, you can use on your Mac. Dynamic backgrounds change throughout the day, Light and Dark backgrounds switch between two versions, you can also choose a solid color, Apple's pictures, your own, or a whole set of pictures and rotate between them.

When you save a file, the dialog that appears allows you to choose the name and location of the new file. There's a lot of hidden functionality in the File Save dialog that youc an use to improve your productivity.

I recently needed to generate some random time values in Numbers that included both a random date, and a random time of day. It isn't immediately obvious how to do this, so I thought I'd share what I came up with. Here's the function: =DATE(RANDBETWEEN(2000,2021),RANDBETWEEN(1,12),RANDBETWEEN(1,28))+DURATION(0,0,RANDBETWEEN(8,20),RANDBETWEEN(0,59),0,0)

When replying to an email message, don't just quote the entire message and write a response at the top or the bottom. Instead quote the previous message thoughtfully, pay attention to details, and create a better result.

The story of a lost (stolen?) iPhone and how the AppleCare+ Theft &amp; Loss protection works. Also, about some weird things that happened after the iPhone disappeared.

Learn the basics of using formulas to perform calculations in the Numbers spreadsheet app. You can perform basic arithmetic, copy and paste formulas to multiple rows, and use functions to get the sum of a column.

You can track things like cryptocurrencies, metals, commodities, market funds and other things in the macOS Stocks app and in Numbers. The trick is to realize that the values come from Yahoo Finance and to use the same symbols.

Perhaps the most creative tool in the Photos app is the ability to use Markup tools directly on photos. You can add text, shapes and draw. Here ate 10 creative ways to use Markup on your photos.

So here's a long rambling video on the subject. I want to find a way to present this material better (and in under 10 minutes). But the basics are: <ul> <li>Apple cables seem better than cheap cables, but that's only worth it some of the time.</li> <li>Apple adapters also seem better, but it is rarely worth it to spend the extra money.</li> <li>Apple power adapters are good, but too expensive and you should get cheaper third-party ones that are also smaller and have more features.</li> <li>Apple Keyboards and Mice are more expensive by far, but worth it.</li> <li>Trackpad is better than a mouse and nothing compares to Apple's Trackpad.</li></ul>What do you think? Let me know if you disagree and why.