MacMost: Video Podcast

Learn how to put transitions between your video clips in iMovie. You can specify exactly where each transition starts and ends with the precision editor. You can also quickly apply transitions with a keyboard shortcut or have them automatically fill in as you add more clips. Special iMovie themes have custom transitions that work in special ways.

You can use GarageBand as a way to record your voice or anything with your Mac's microphone. You can record bits and pieces and rearrange and edit them. You can also overlay tracks. Each track can be altered with editable filters. You can then export your audio as a standard file to share or use in other software.

Magic Move allows you to create custom animated transitions between slides. Elements will smoothly move from their positions on one slide to their positions on the next. You can use this to emphasize objects or create a flow between slides instead of jumping between completely different screens. You can animate images and other objects, and also create special effects between the words or characters in text boxes.

Learn how to use simple formulas in Numbers to calculate results. You can use basic math operations or complex functions from a library. You can feed these functions single cells or ranges of cells. You can also copy and paste formulas to perform the same calculations on other rows or columns.

Learn many different ways you can launch apps on your Mac. You can use LaunchPad or access the apps right from the Applications folder. You can use the Dock, and create custom Stacks of apps in the Dock for access to even more apps. You can also use the Spotlight Menu or open documents to run apps. Some more obscure ways to launch apps include the Terminal window and using Speakable Items.

Explore iMovie's video effects. You can make color and quality adjustments on each video clip. You can also apply a variety of special effects, like aged film, to each clip. Controls let you speed up, slow down or freeze frame.

After you import an image into Pages, there are many ways to adjust it. You can play with the image settings to get it to look just right. You can crop and mask it. You can also choose how you want text to wrap around the image.

Use transitions to make moving from one slide to another more interesting. Use builds to add animation to objects as they appear and are removed from the slides. There are a variety of transition and build options, and each can be customized.

Finder tabs allow you to have more than one file view in a single Finder window. Each tab can contain the view of a different folder or location. Each tab can also use a different view mode. You can drag and drop files between tabs. You can also move tabs between windows and combine windows full of tabs. Full screen mode for Finder windows allows you to focus on your files in a single screen.

iPhoto has a set of photo adjustment tools that allow you to correct problems in your photos as well as add enhancements and fun filters. You can edit a photo, layering several effects on top of each other, and still revert to the original even after you are done editing.

Learn how to use conditional highlighting to make cells in your tables stand out. Your can search for a number of different criteria and then change the color or styling of cells depending on the match. You can even have multiple conditions and give them priority. You can also use other cells and formulas as input for the conditions.

iMovie includes a variety of useful titles that you can use in between clips or on top of them. Some of the titles allow you to change the font style and other elements. Sometimes the creative use of spacing, extra lines and justification can let you customize them further. You can also use your own images for completely customized titles.

You can use Preview to easily merge two PDF files, or bring pages from one into the other. You can also create new documents from pages selected from another PDF. You can even bring images into PDFs as new pages.

When you create a basic table in Numbers, it is important to use Headers and Footers properly. Headers allow you to define the contents of rows and columns, and you will see these labels appear in formulas and charts. Footer rows allow you to perform functions like SUM and AVERAGE on an entire column, with the formula adjusting to the content in between the header and the footer.

Learn how to use Keynote to create a simple presentation that includes text and images. You can choose from a variety of templates, and then add slides from that template. You can populate the slides with your own information and then play back the presentation.

When you have a video or photo that does not fit into your iMovie video project exactly, you most crop it one way or another. You can decide to cut off portions of the image so it fills the frame, or you can show more of the image, but have black bars in the space not covered. You can adjust the cropping to best fit your needs.

You can use paragraph and character styles to manage the attributes of your text in a Pages document. You can use the built-in styles, or create your own. When you change some text, you can create a new style and then use it throughout your document. You can then update the text that uses that style in one place.

You can use Finder tags to help you organize your files. You can create as many tags as you need, and then assign multiple tags to the same file. You can use them on local files as well as iCloud files. Searches for tags will reveal files across all locations and iCloud apps.

Learn the basics of iMovie. See how to import video clips and then combine them into a larger video. Find out how to export that video to a file, or put it in iTunes Theater.

Check out the new features of Mac OS X Mavericks. There are two major new apps that come with the operating system, plus overhauls to Calendar, Notes and Contacts. You also get new features in Safari and better support for multiple screens.