Have you ever wanted to make a video recording of either yourself or your Mac’s screen? Have you ever needed to make a quick audio recording of your voice using your Mac? You can do this easily using Apple’s QuickTime Player. QuickTime Player is a free application and it comes bundled with the Mac operating system (macOS). … Read more
Did you know that there are thousands of invisible files on your Mac? Have you ever needed to locate or delete one of these invisible files? Here are a couple of ways to be able to access the invisible files and folders on your Mac. A cautionary note, Apple makes these files invisible for a … Read more
Have you ever wanted to rename a group of files? For example, maybe you wanted to select a group of images and give them names like Grand Canyon 1, Grand Canyon 2, etc. Here are a three ways to accomplish this task.
Read moreHave you recently started to see an alert indicating that one of your applications is not optimized for your Mac? This is a new alert that Apple added in macOS High Sierra version 10.13.4. This alert appears for older applications, what are called 32-bit applications. It’s important to understand that these older applications will continue … Read more
When you reset or change your email account password, you have to enter the new password in two places in your email account configurations in Mail. The first place is in the incoming mail settings. The second place is in the outgoing (SMTP) mail settings. In previous versions of Apple Mail it was tough to locate … Read more
Did you know that you can easily look up any word’s definition that you’re reading in an email or web page on your Mac, iPhone or iPad? All of your Apple devices have built-in dictionaries which are used to display definitions. Here are instructions for performing a look up on your Mac. Instructions for your … Read more
A kernel panic refers to a very specific type of computer freeze. A variety of things can cause kernel panics. Below is a description of how your Mac behaves when it experiences a kernel panic so you can recognize it if this happens to you.
Read moreDo you want to completely erase a Mac and reinstall its operating system? Perhaps you are about to give away this Mac. Or, perhaps your Mac is acting up and you want to start with a clean slate. Here are instructions on how you can erase the hard drive and reinstall OS X, recently renamed … Read more
Do you take digital photos and would you like to quickly create a file with thumbnail size versions of photos from a trip or family event? This file is called a contact sheet. Professional photographers commonly want to create contact sheets of all photos from a wedding or other photo shoot. Here are a couple of … Read more
When you buy a new Mac you likely want to transfer all of your data and applications from your current Mac to a new Mac. Here are instructions on how to accomplish this migration using a current Time Machine backup of your current Mac. I’m going to provide instructions for two different scenarios. If you’re … Read more
Is your AppleID tied to an email address that you no longer have access to or no longer use? If so, Apple offers step-by-step instructions on how to change your AppleID to use a new email address. Before we jump to the instructions, let’s start by reviewing some important background information and talk about some … Read more
Do you want to put emoji into your email messages, notes, Word document or any other document that you type on your Mac? If so, I recently learned of a fast way to bring up the emoji keyboard on your Mac. Press the following three keys simultaneously: Command, Control and space bar.
Read moreDid you know that you can use your iPad as a second screen for your Mac? That’s right. You can buy DuetDisplay, currently $11, and use it to connect your iPad to your Mac so you can use it as an second display. In a sense, this is a way to control your Mac using a touch-interface, if you would like to … Read more
Does your Mac fail to find files that you know exist when you search for them? Or, does Apple Mail or Outlook fail to find email messages when you search for them? If so, this problem could be caused by a corrupt Spotlight index. Spotlight is the name of Apple’s search capabilities built into the Mac … Read more
Would you like to add frequently used applications or documents to your Dock? Would you like to remove rarely used items from the Dock? If so, below are instructions on how to do this. The Dock is the row of icons that’s typically located across the bottom of the screen, though it can be moved. Apple … Read more
Would you like your Mac’s Trash to automatically delete files after they’ve been in the Trash for 30 days? If so, Apple recently added this feature to macOS Sierra (aka OS X 10.12).
Read moreDo you want to either sell or retire a Mac that has a solid state hard drive (aka flash storage)? If so, it is prudent to securely erase the hard drive beforehand. Here are instructions on how to do this. This procedure will make all of your personal data inaccessible. There are two stages of this process. In phase … Read more
Are you missing your email folders in Apple Mail? Did these folders disappear after you upgraded your Mac’s operating system or after you migrated your data to a new Mac? If so, there’s likely an easy fix. Apple added a Show/Hide button to Apple Mail. I believe they added it to Mail starting with OS X … Read more
Here’s a list of common ways to eject a disk from a Mac. This disk could be a CD, a DVD, a USB flash drive or an external hard drive. Some Apple keyboards have an eject key. It is commonly located in the upper right corner of the keyboard. Press the eject key to eject … Read more
Here’s an overview of how to install a major upgrade to OS X. For example, if you would like to upgrade from OS X Yosemite (aka OS X 10.10) to OS X El Capitan (aka OS X 10.11) then you could follow the instructions below. (These instructions assume you have at least OS X 10.6.8 or … Read more