MacMost: MacMost Now

In Preview you can open multiple images at the same time and export them all at once in a new format. You can also resize all of the open images at once, forcing them images to scale to a specific percentage or fit into a specific size. You can also do some other things in batches, such as rotations.

The Reminders app is handy for keeping track of to-do lists, creating alerts, and building idea lists. As a cloud service it syncs with your iPhone and iPad. You can easily add items to Reminders by just typing, or you can use Siri to add items.

The clock that appears on the right side of your menubar can be customized to suit your needs. You can choose what to display and even switch to a compact analog clock. In System Preferences, you can set the time to be spoken aloud at regular intervals. There are many third-party apps in the App Store that offer even more options.

If you have a folder you need to access all the time, you can give yourself easy access to it in a number of ways. You can use the Dock, the Finder sidebar, the Finder Toolbar and an alias on the Desktop. You can also create an Automator task to open the folder and then a keyboard shortcut for that. Mission Control is another way to keep that folder easily available.

Many people make the mistake of splitting Numbers data across multiple spreadsheets when it should be kept in one long table. You can use formulas and filters to keep your data in a single table and still easily show only a subset of the data, such as a monthly expense report.

Smart Folders allow you to view collections of files that share something in common, even if they are not all stored in the same folder. You create a Smart Folder just as you would perform a Finder search. But the Smart Folder will live on as a saved search in any location you specify, or nearly the Finder sidebar. Smart Folders update automatically to include new files that meet the same criteria.

The desktop background is the large image that appears behind everything you do on your Mac. You can change it in System Preferences. You can select from many provided images, choose a solid color, or use any of your own photos as a desktop background. You can also have the desktop background automatically change from a selection of images on a regular basis.

Apple's Workflow app allows you to create a variety of automations on your iPhone or iPad. An example is a workflow that takes a video from your library and creates an animated GIF from it. You can store this in your Photos app even though Photos doesn't display the animation. You can then share it online instead of the video.

If you use Column view in the Finder, it can be useful to understand how you can right-size columns so they are exactly the width the need to be to fit the longest file name. You can also change the default size of all columns in all Finder windows.

Learn about new ways to use the Calculator app on your Mac. You can generate random numbers, copy and paste numbers and results, convert time durations, backspace to correct numbers, have the app speak results to you, and more.

If you use USB flash memory drives, also known as thumb drives or jump drives, you can encrypt them to make sure no one else can access your data if they get a hold of your drive. This is a system function in macOS Sierra that can be accessed in the context menu for that drive. Since these drives are easy to lose, it can be a good idea to encrypt them as standard practice.

System Preferences is a small app that you can easily access where you can change some basic settings on your Mac. System Preferences is broken into categories, and then each category can be further broken down into subcategories with the names at the top. In macOS, unlike Settings in iOS, System Preferences is where you can find system settings, but not app preferences. Those are found in each individual app.

If you are having trouble accessing websites, or web access is slow, you may want to try switching to Google's DNS servers. DNS is the system used to translate domain names to numerical server addresses in order to access Internet content. If your ISP's DNS servers are not working or are slow, then switching to use Google's DNS servers can fix the problem, temporarily or permanently.

If you find that some songs you have purchased in iTunes long ago are no longer in your library, you can easily re-download these songs if you know where to look. You can also re-download purchased movies, apps and other items. It is also easy to re-download music on your iPhone and iPad.

You can merge together adjacent cells to create one cell in a table. This is typically used for formatting, to provide a larger space to center a title over a group of cells. It typically isn't needed in Numbers, since sheets can contain multiple tables. So each group of data can be in its own table. However, to create spreadsheets that are compatible with Excel and other apps, using merged cells can be useful.

Hidden in iTunes is a powerful music visualizer that will display amazing graphics that react to the music that is playing. You can use the visualizer to complement your iTunes music as it plays and you have nothing else going on with your screen, like while your Mac is playing music at a party. There are keyboard command that you can use to adjust what you see in the visualizer.

LaunchPad is an app launcher that resides in the Dock. From LaunchPad you can view all of your installed applications. You can search for an app and use the keyboard to launch it. You can also organize your apps by re-arranging them and placing them into folders to group them. LaunchPad is also an uninstaller, allowing you to remove apps that were installed by the Mac App Store.

The Undo command, also known as Command+Z, allows you to take back the last action in many cases. You can use it to erase mistakes while editing a document. But you can also use it in many other apps and situations. The Finder allows you to use Undo on deletions, moves and renames. You can often use Undo multiple times to take back multiple steps. You can also use Redo to step forward after an Undo. However, you cannot usually Undo after you have closed a document and reopened it.

When using a computer, you usually don't have a multiplication or division symbol on your keyboard. To do basic mathematical functions, you use the asterisk and slash keys instead. Some apps, like Numbers, will even convert these to multiply and divide symbols. At other times you will still see those characters in your math equations.

You can get sticker packs from the App Store on your iPhone or iPad and then send those stickers in your iMessage conversations. You can also attach stickers to previously-sent messages to decorate the conversation. While Stickers are only available in iOS, you can receive them in Messages on the Mac.