Posts By: Gary Rosenzweig

Thought it would be fun to create a Quick Action in Automator to make text upside down. Or, to put it another way: ˙uʍop ǝpᴉsdn ʇxǝʇ ǝʞɐɯ oʇ ɹoʇɐɯoʇn∀ uᴉ uoᴉʇɔ∀ ʞɔᴉnტ ɐ ǝʇɐǝɹɔ oʇ unɟ ǝq plnoʍ ʇᴉ ʇɥɓnoɥ┴

You can easily add sound effects to your iMovie projects with the built-in effects that come with iMovie. You can also drop in any other sound, including ones you record on your own. By modifying sounds effects with iMovie's tools, you can make generic sound effects work in almost any situation.

If you've ever wanted to group apps together on the Dock, adding a few small spaces between app icons is possible. Watch the video for a demo, and here's the code:

defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add '{"tile-type"="spacer-tile";}'

killall Dock

When you export photos from the Photos app the date of the file doesn't match the date the photo was taken. This is correct as the file is new and the photo in it does retain the metadata with the original date. But if you want to force the file date to match the photo date, you can do it in the Terminal or with an Automator app.

Your Mac automatically launches apps when you startup and when you log into your user account. Here's where to look to see what your Mac launches automatically. You can add your own items in one of these place, and use all of them to see what things are running in the background.

Safe Mode is a way to reboot your Mac that can help you diagnose problems, and sometimes even fix them without doing anything more. Learn how to boot into Safe Mode and steps you can take to fix your Mac.

This macOS Monterey feature is being overshadowed by another feature. But I think it is just as useful. You can turn a Mac into an AirPlay display in Monterey. That means you can use that Mac as an addition display for a first Mac. It even works if the first Mac is using Big Sur!

You can type special characters on your Mac using one of four different techniques. For accent marks and character variations you can hold down keys on the keyboard or use Option and Shift to access some keys. You can also bring up the Emoji & Symbols chooser for thousands of special characters. Watch for more options and tips.

iMovie 10.2.4 intriduces some new backgrounds that are comprised of two colors and can be customized to use any two colors you like. You can use these as standard backgrounds, but also as overlays mixed with a variety of iMovie tricks to create special effects.

A new feature coming to iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 lets you play white noise and such constantly. You can use with headphones or just the speakers. I don't need this, but I can see using it anyway in some situations.

If you are using an older version of macOS and are ready to update to a newer version, the first step is figuring out which versions of macOS your Mac can use. Apple provides compatibility information for each version, and you can find them all at https://macmost.com/j-system as well. If you are looking to downgrade or to upgrade to a version not supported by your Mac, I have some general advice.

The new Shortcuts app coming to macOS Monterey will let you create automations to control your Mac in various ways. It will co-exist with Automator and works in a similar way. Look at some examples of Mac Shortcuts that you'll be able to create.

Instead of sending large email attachments, using iCloud Drive file sharing to share a file with other people so they can receive the file when they are ready. Create a shared folder to make it easy to send files back and forth between people you regularly share files with.

Turns out you can import PDFs into ... iMovie? Also, there is a way to grab pages of a PDF from Preview and bring those into Keynote and Pages. Could be useful.

Often you want to display formula results only if the value isn't zero. The best way to do that is with a Custom Format. You can also use functions like IFERROR to display something other than an error message in some situations.

iPadOS 15 will bring many new features to the iPad this fall. You'll be able to add widgets where you like, set Focus modes, access multitasking without gestures, use Quick Notes and much more.

This little detail in macOS Monterey really adds nothing anyone needs. But I like it anyway!

You can put your Mac to sleep many different ways including keyboard shortcuts, special gestures and interactions, an automatic timeout, and even Terminal or Automator scripts.

macOS Monterey changes how Safari tabs look. The address field is now integrated into the tab and Tab Groups allow you to use lots of tabs without cluttering the top of your browser window.

iPadOS 15 will finally fix the problem where multitasking is too hard to initiate. Instead of getting the gestures just right, there is now a little button at the top that you can use to start Split View or Slide Over. It is so much better! Something to look forward to when iPadOS 15 launches in the fall.