Have you ever had problems locating your Library folder on your Mac? If so, let me help you locate it. There are two complicating factors. First, there are typically three Library folders on the Mac so locating the correct one can be tough. Second, Apple made one of these three Library folders invisible starting with OS X Lion … Read more
You should consider using Apple’s easy-to-use Image Capture. Image Capture can both copy photos off of digital cameras and control a scanner to scan paper documents. Today’s tech tip focuses only on scanning. Image Capture can control hundreds of scanners made by Brother, Canon, Epson, HP and other manufacturers. Image Capture is one of many free applications that … Read more
If you have a relatively new Mac running OS X Yosemite (OS X version 10.10) and an iPhone running iOS 8 you may have noticed that your Mac rings when you receive a call on your iPhone and the two devices are close to each other. This feature is part of Continuity, which is a … Read more
Do you miss how Labels used to work? Do you miss having colorful shortcuts in your Sidebar? If so, then consider using XtraFinder. Starting with OS X Mavericks (OS X 10.9) Apple changed how Labels work. In fact, they renamed the feature from Labels to Tags. Labels used to add a background color to a … Read more
Are you retiring an older Mac that has a mechanical, spinning hard drive and its running macOS version 10.7 or higher? If so, here are instructions on how you can securely erase the Mac’s hard drive before you donate your Mac or sell it.
Read moreBelow are instructions on how to change your OS X user account picture. When you took your new Mac out of the box and turned it on initially, you were lead through creating a user account and either had one of the built-in photos randomly assigned to your User Account or you were offered the choice of … Read more
A few weeks ago Apple released an update which addresses the bash security vulnerability found in OS X during the last week of September 2014. The security vulnerability was nicknamed shellshock or the bash bug and reportedly affects all versions of OS X as well as many versions of Linux and Unix released over the past … Read more
Did your new Mac come without a built-in CD/DVD drive? If you have an older Mac you can use a feature called Remote Disk to share the older Mac’s CD/DVD drive with your newer Mac. Here are instructions on how to set up that feature:
Read moreI’m able to provide remote support for my clients. In order to remotely connect to a Mac, it needs to be on and awake. Here are instructions on how to configure your Mac to never sleep. The instructions vary based on the processor in your Mac. To determine the processor, follow steps 1 and 2 below.
Read moreDoes your Mac get stuck during the startup process? If so, then you might want to try Safe Boot to see if you can get your Mac to startup successfully. Safe Boot is the process of making your Mac start up with a bare minimum of system software. It also forces an inspection of the hard drive.
Read moreMost of us tend to simultaneously keep many applications open. Consequently, we sometimes get lost or overwhelmed by having too many windows open. Would you like to quickly hide all windows so you can see your Desktop? Here are two ways to accomplish this:
Read moreDo you type the same information into email messages or Word documents? If so, you would benefit from using a text expander. Text expanders let you create abbreviations then whenever the abbreviation is typed it inserts a word, phrase, sentence or paragraph that you designated. For example, you could create the abbreviation ‘addr. When you type ‘addr … Read more
Would you like to know more about the strength of your Mac’s wireless (Wi-Fi) connection? If so, hold down the Option key and click on the Wi-Fi menu located near the clock in the upper right corner of your Mac’s screen. You’ll notice that additional details about your currently selected wireless network are displayed. I should … Read more
When Apple releases a major update to the Mac operating system, called macOS, or the operating system used on iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches, called iOS, clients often ask me when or if they should install these updates.
Read moreThere are many ways to rename a file in Mac OS X. It seems that the easiest way is not necessarily well known, since I regularly find myself sharing the following information. Simply click on a file or folder icon in the Finder, then press the Return key. The file or folder’s name will be … Read more
You can dictate emails and other documents if you have OS X Mountain Lion or newer installed on your Macintosh. Many people have learned that they can use Siri on an iPhone or iPad to dictate text messages, email messages and for other purposes. Fewer people seem to have noticed that Apple added some of … Read more
Starting with OS X 10.7 (Lion) Apple changed some fundamental ways that scrolling works. Specifically, the scrollbars are hidden until one moves the cursor on top of the scrollbar area, then the scrollbars appear. Additionally, the scrollbars no longer have arrows at the ends to let you slowly scroll up and down. Here are some … Read more
Do you store your contact information in Apple’s Contacts application? If so, you can easily create a contact list by dragging contacts into Apple’s spreadsheet application, Numbers. Numbers is not as commonly used as Excel, but the more I use Numbers the more I like it. I recently discovered this incredible feature. Contacts is the … Read more
Do you use your iPhone’s Notes application? Would you like to view those notes on your Mac? If your Mac is running OS X Mountain Lion, you can view them easily. In Mountain Lion Apple added a new Notes application. You can sync your iPhone notes to the Mac Notes application using your iCloud account. … Read more
Here’s an overview of how to retrieve a custom iPhone voicemail greeting. A client recently changed her data plan with AT&T. Somehow, as a consequence of this change, her custom outgoing voicemail greeting was lost. Typically, this greeting is stored on AT&T’s system, so it can be played to a caller even if one’s iPhone … Read more