MacMost: Video Podcast

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.

The new shapes included with updates to Pages, Numbers and Keynote can be customized by altering the points, lines and curves in the shape. You can also combine multiple shapes into one. You can save your new shape so it appears in all three apps for future use. If you break apart some shapes, you can apply different colors to different parts.

The Trash is a temporary storage location for files you wish to delete. You can put files into the Trash in a variety of ways, and take them back out again. To delete the files, you must empty the trash. You can also set items to automatically delete after 30 days. You should never put something in the Trash unless you are absolutely sure you want to delete it forever.

You can search for text on the current web page using your iPhone or iPad just as you can with a desktop computer. The trick is knowing how to start a search. You start by using the address field, which feels like you are about to leave the page. But if you look at the search suggestions, you'll find a On This Page item at the very bottom that allows you to find the text on the current page instead. You can then use a new search field at the bottom and arrows to find more matches.

You may come across instructions from time-to-time that ask you to access your Library folder on your Mac. But there are two such folders. One is in your Home folder, and the other is at the top level of your drive. These are used for different things. Most of the time, the Library folder you want is the one in your Home folder. Find out how to reveal it, even though it is hidden, and how to get to it quickly with a menu command.

The new version of Keynote allows for expanded use of the canvas workspace, the area outside of the visible slide. You can use this area to store items that you don't want people to see, but may want to add back to the slide later. You can also use the canvas to better orient and set up your animations that start or end outside of the slide.

In iTunes on your Mac you have a powerful equalizer that you can customize for music playback. You can choose from presets or create your own and save them. You can also set the equalizer for specific songs or groups of songs. You can use pre-defined equalizer presets on your iPhone or iPad.

Users who are new to Mac often don't know about Spotlight, or think it is just a way to search for files by name. You can use spotlight to search for files by name and content and preview the contents before you open the file. You can also go to the file instead of opening it. Spotlight will also find other items like dictionary definitions, email messages, images and more. You can use Spotlight to do mathematical calculations, unit and currency conversions. One thing that many people use Spotlight for is a quick and easy app launcher.

If you have a large table with some duplicate rows in a spreadsheet, you can find them by sorting and using a formula to identify duplicate rows. If you need to merge the data in duplicate rows, you can use a formula for that too. You can then sort and delete those rows easily, saving hours of manual work.

If you are using iCloud Drive Documents & Desktop, then all of the files you put in those folders are uploaded to iCloud. If you have projects that you would like to only be stored locally, you can create your own folders in your Home folder for these projects. It is a good idea to create one Local Documents folder and arrange those files in there. This can come in handy for those that use large files where uploading to iCloud for those files is an issue.