Posts By: Gary Rosenzweig

Text can wrap easily around rectangular images or well-defined image objects. But if you want to control the text wrapping with precision or to create unusual wraps, you can use shapes.

Learn what makes an image transparent and how image pixels work. If you need to make the background or some portion of an image transparent to use it in a document, presentation or as a video overlay, here's how to do it in Pixelmator Pro or Affinity Photo.

Many people confuse backing up with archiving. These are two very different things that both involve external drives and your files. But it is important to understand the difference and have both a backup and an archive for your Mac.

Here's a simple method for creating random passwords using Numbers. I have a video coming up on how to generate random passwords outside of Safari or a password manager. This method didn't make the cut as it is kinda, well, silly? But maybe not. After all, if you live in Numbers all day it would make sense to do this in Numbers instead of another tool, maybe. I'll attach the document too.

Beyond the menu bar keyboard shortcuts and the ones you can add in System Preferences, there are a set of keyboard shortcuts called KeyBindings that you can use when writing. These customizable keyboard commands can be used to move around in text, manipuate selections and even insert frequently-used words and phrases.

The Preview app can be used to view both image files and PDFs. You can also do quite a bit of editing on image files, such as color adjustments, cropping, copy and pasting selections, resizing, markup and exporting into another format.

The Calendar app lets you use as many calendars as you like, dividing up your events and appointments into groups that make sense to you. With multiple calendars, you can turn them on or off to more easily see what you have coming up and share only the events that you need to share.

After updating macOS you may find a folder on your Desktop named "Relocated Items." Learn what it is, why it is there, and whether you can delete it. Short answer: yes, delete it.

Check out the rest of the videos in this special course: The Practical Guide To Mac Security.

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If you are going to sell, give away, recycle or pass on your Mac to someone else, you want to make sure you sign out of all of your accounts and completely erase the drive on the Mac.

Link to video in case you don't see it above: <a href="https://vimeo.com/588895323" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://vimeo.com/588895323</a>  Here's another location in case that doesn't work: <a href="https://archive.org/download/the-super-secret-mac-keyboard-shortcuts-almost-no-one-knows-about-macmost-2511/2511KeyBindings.mp4" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://archive.org/download/the-super-secret-mac-keyboard-shortcuts-almost-no-one-knows-about-macmost-2511/2511KeyBindings.mp4</a>  I'm very excited about this video I just finished for next week. It describes a way to create text entry keyboard shortcuts, "macros" and text insertions that I don't think many other people have ever even talked about. These are called Key Bindings and you can use them to do all sorts of interesting stuff. I thought I'd post it here early and we can discuss it. I'll attach the file I create for reference. Here are some of the links I mention at the end of the video: <a href="https://ss64.com/osx/syntax-keybindings.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://ss64.com/osx/syntax-keybindings.html</a>  <a href="https://github.com/ttscoff/KeyBindings" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://github.com/ttscoff/KeyBindings</a>  <a href="https://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/site/cocoa-text.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/site/cocoa-text.html</a>  <a href="http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/Site/selectors.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/Site/selectors.html</a> <a href="https://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/Site/system-bindings.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/Site/system-bindings.html</a> 

Check out the rest of the videos in this special course: The Practical Guide To Mac Security.

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Touch ID makes it more convenient to log on to your Mac and perform other tasks. By making it easier it encourages more people to use stronger account passwords.

Check out the rest of the videos in this special course: The Practical Guide To Mac Security.

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While private browser windows are a good privacy feature, they don't protect you from malware, account break-ins, or other security issues.

Since so many enjoyed how I built a custom green screen, here's how I made a custom mounting system for my camera and the lights. Very low budget, but not on purpose. They simply don't make anything like this. A tripod would take up too much space. I said a foot or so in the video, but the legs would have stuck out way more than that actually. Here are some links to some of the items I bought: WALI Single LCD Monitor Desk Mount <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018MT6ZEK" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018MT6ZEK</a>  WALI Dual Fully Adjustable Arm <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BHY3CNM" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BHY3CNM</a>  Pergear Q02S DSLR Camera Tripod Ball Head <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07T5RBQLD" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07T5RBQLD</a>  Diffusion Film Filter Sheet 6 Packs Kit <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08PTCGTX9" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08PTCGTX9</a>  SMALLRIG Left Side Cold Shoe Adapter Relocation Plate <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RWC8Y6J" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RWC8Y6J</a>  2 Pack Set Magnetic Flexible Gooseneck Metal with Alligator Clips <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07XNSYK6F" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07XNSYK6F</a> 

Check out the rest of the videos in this special course: The Practical Guide To Mac Security.

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Find My Mac will allow you to locate your Mac if it is lost or stolen, and also to lock it or erase it if you can't get it back.

Check out the rest of the videos in this special course: The Practical Guide To Mac Security.

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Use an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) to prevent problems during power outages when using an iMac, Mac mini or Mac Pro.

Check out the rest of the videos in this special course: The Practical Guide To Mac Security.

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FileVault encrypts your drive in a way that is seamless to you, but would make it impossible for someone else to access the data on your drive without your password.

When you copy large files, or lots of files, with the Finder, you can cancel but not pause. However, if you use the Terminal you can pause in the middle of a large copy, move or anything. This works best using rsync so you can see the progress. Basically you use Control+Z to pause the Terminal command. Then you use fg to continue.

Check out the rest of the videos in this special course: The Practical Guide To Mac Security.

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Using iCloud Drive can make your Mac more secure by providing an easy way to get your files back if your Mac is lost or damaged.

Check out the rest of the videos in this special course: The Practical Guide To Mac Security.

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In addition to a Time Machine backup, you may want to consider a second backup that is also Time Machine, or a clone of your drive, or an online backup.

Check out the rest of the videos in this special course: The Practical Guide To Mac Security.

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Every computer user should back up their data. Time Machine is the Mac's built-in backup software and can be used by just getting a simple external drive.