MacMost: Video Podcast

In my new course, I try to help you get the most from iCloud. Here is an excerpt from the first lesson which explains how cloud services work. The course then goes on to show you how to set up iCloud on Mac and iOS. Further videos explain each feature of iCloud such as iCloud Drive, Photos, data syncing, backups, email, sharing and more. You can learn about this and more in the new Guide to iCloud course at https://macmost.com/icloud

Most iPhone and iPad users rely on iCloud Backup to keep their data safe, even if they don't realize they are using it. You can customize which apps backup to iCloud if you look in the right place in the Settings app. If you want to stick with iCloud's free storage plan you may need to do this to remain under the limit. You can learn about this and more in the new Guide to iCloud course at https://macmost.com/icloud

The Favorties Bar in Safari can be a hard-to-read line of small text. But you can always add any Emoji character, just like you can with folder and file names. Finding the perfect emoji for a bookmark is sometimes easy and at other times challenging. The result is a colorful and easier-to-read Favorites Bar and Bookmarks menu.

It is easy to put an image in a shape and mask the image using Keynote. But you cannot do the same with video. However, you can place a shape or image on top of a video. So by using the right shape, like the donut shape, editing it, and positioning it just right, you can put video in a circular mask.

When you click the red button at the top left corner of a window on a Mac, you close that window. But sometimes this also quits the app entirely. There is a logic behind this, based on how the app operates. Apps that allow multiple windows for multiple documents usually only use the red button to close a window. But apps that normally operate with a single window and have no other reason to stay open, will quit.

If you need to raise characters above or lower them below the baseline, you can do it one of four ways. This is typically used in mathematical equations and chemical formulas. You can use the baseline adjustments in many apps, special superscript and subscript characters, commonly-recognized symbols, and the equation editor in Pages.

By default your iPhone will be backed up wirelessly to iCloud using iCloud Backup. Most iPhone users probably don't even know they have this turned on, but it will save them if they lose their iPhone. You can see how much space your iPhone backups are using and customize your backup. You can remove data from apps that you don't really need to be backed up.

added significant functionality to how we can control what happens after we take screenshots. While the default keyboard shortcuts remain the same, we can now choose where a screenshot is saved, or if the screenshot should automatically go to an app instead of a file. This allows you to easily name screenshots, delete ones we don't want without ever saving them, and even mark them up before saving.

SVG images have been around for a while and are widely used on websites and in clipart collections. But you cannot import an SVG file into Pages or Keynote directly, without first converting it using professional software. But since Safari handles SVG images without a problem, and you can export as a PDF from Safari, you can use Safari to convert the image to a format that can then be used inside Pages and Keynote documents.

Instead of using a simple transition from one slide to the next, you can use Magic Move which will animate objects from one position to another between slides. These animations can be more directly controlled by adding slides in the middle of the animation. Items that are added or removed from slides will fade in and out gracefully. These animations can be used in presentations or videos.

It is common to hear a Mac user complain that the file search function in macOS Finder doesn't find files they know are present. The reason is often that the user has made one of these mistakes. When searching for a file, the search usually starts in the folder in which the user is currently looking. You need to change the scope of your search to look elsewhere as well. By default, searches look in the content of files as well as the file names, but you can narrow your search to only the file names. If you are looking for something other than a file's content or name, you need to start the search differently. Many users search for files using Spotlight, but if you know you want a file, then it is better to search with the Finder.

Did you know that that there are three different types of dashes: the hyphen, en dash and em dash? Most people use the hyphen for everything, but the en and em dashes should be used in many cases instead of a hyphen. Learn how to type them and when to use them.

If you receive a Microsoft Word document from someone who seems to think that everyone has Word, it can be frustrating. But you have several options to view and even edit the Word document on your Mac without buying anything. You can use Quick Look or Preview to view the file. TextEdit can be used to get access to simple text documents. Pages can open Word documents and most formatting is retained. You can also edit and export back out in Word format. The ultimate solution is to spend the money to get Word from the App Store, though it requires a paid subscription.

You can create contacts, set up calendar events, and get intel on pieces of text in incoming email, web pages and other documents using Data Detectors and Look Up. This feature of macOS will figure out what information represents, such as a location or appointment time, or business name or person, and allow you to act on it.

What if you need to connect to your iCloud account, but your iPhone doesn't have an Internet connection? Then you won't get a prompt with the two-factor code, but you can still generate the code manually and use it even though your iPhone isn't connected. Two-factor codes don't need to rely on Internet connections for verification. You can also get a code from your Mac even if it isn't connected.

After updating to Mojave, many Mac users see a message saying that an app they are trying to use needs to be updated and won't work with future versions of macOS. By future versions, that means the next major update of macOS, probably coming in late 2019, not minor updates. Before then, you can update to a newer version of that app, or find an alternative app to use in its place.

The photo editor in the Mac Photos app includes a lot of shortcuts that can help speed up editing, especially if you need to make adjustments to a range of photos. You can enter and exit editing mode quickly, move between photos without leaving the editor, jump to different editing modes, and compare the original to your adjustments easily. You can also fine-tune cropping and rotations.

The most powerful keyboard shortcut for your Mac is the Tab key. This single key helps you get around in windows, dialog boxes and even web pages. You can modify how it works in System Preferences and also in Safari's preferences. Once you master using the Tab key you can speed up your computer use by keeping your hands on your keyboard more and using your mouse or trackpad less.

You can create a very short Automator action to take text as input, manipulate it, and replace the original text. In this example, we'll create a Javascript JXA action that encloses the text in quotes. You can use this in conjunction with a keyboard shortcut to quickly apply quotes in Pages and other apps.

Sometimes you need a series of shortcuts to accomplish a task, not just one. In this tutorial, you'll learn how to create three small shortcuts to save and recall text clippings. The first two allow you to save the clipboard or the selection to a file in a folder. The third shortcut lets you recall one of those clips so you can paste it into a document, email, note or just about anything.