Monitor Recommendations

Posted on by Tim Hannon in Hardware, Miscellaneous
Monitor with laptop

Would you like some guidance on selecting a new monitor? Clients often ask me to recommend a good monitor or tell them which monitor they should buy. These requests are actually surprisingly difficult for two reasons. First, there are numerous monitor manufacturers and each company makes a range of models so it’s tough to track the entire market. Second, people’s individual needs vary. Consequently, rather than recommend one or two particular monitors, I often start by outlining the range of monitor features to help people select an appropriate monitor for their needs.

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Select Non-Contiguous Text in Pages, Keynote, and Numbers 14

Posted on by Tim Hannon in Macintosh, Word Processing
Window of a Pages document with lorum ipsom text. Every other paragraph is selected.

The latest versions of the Mac and iPad apps in Apple’s iWork suite—Pages 14, Keynote 14, and Numbers 14—have gained a helpful feature: non-contiguous text selection. By holding down the Command key, you can select chunks of text that aren’t next to each other. For example, imagine you want to make the first part of each item in a bullet list bold. Instead of bolding each one separately, hold down Command as you work to select all of them and then apply bold to the entire selection with a single command. Non-contiguous selection is particularly helpful when applying formatting, but you can also copy non-contiguously selected text or work with it in nearly any way you would interact with a contiguous text selection. (Note that while holding down Command, you can double-click to select words or triple-click to select paragraphs, just as you can normally without holding down Command.)

(Featured image by Adam Engst)

Social Media: A new feature in Pages, Keynote, and Numbers lets you select bits of text that aren’t next to each other so that you can, for example, format them or copy them all at once.

Display an Album of Photos on Your iPhone or iPad Lock Screen

Posted on by Tim Hannon in Computer Basics
screenshots of three iPhones side by side. All show the time 11:57. The first background is above a canyon with trees below. The second is of a hot air balloon shown behind some trees. The third is of footprints on a sandy beach.

A popular feature of iOS 16 was the Photo Shuffle option for customizing the iPhone Lock Screen. It used machine learning to select photos in four categories—People, Pets, Nature, and Cities—and rotated through them when you tapped, on lock, hourly, or daily. If you didn’t like the automatic selection, you could pick photos manually, but it was clumsy. In iOS 17 (and iPadOS 17, which also added customizable Lock Screens), you can now point the Lock Screen’s Photo Shuffle wallpaper at an album. Touch and hold the Lock Screen, tap Customize, tap the blue ⨁ button to create a new wallpaper, select Photo Shuffle, select Album, choose the desired album from the pop-up menu, set a frequency, tap Use Album, and tap the Add button at the top. Then tap Set as Wallpaper Pair or Customize Home Screen to choose a different image for the Home Screen wallpaper. Read More from “Display an Album of Photos on Your iPhone or iPad Lock Screen”

Where Can You Control Automatic Smart Quotes and Dashes in macOS?

Posted on by Tim Hannon in Macintosh
girl making air quotes. she has straight chin-length dark brown hair and is wearing a light blue shirt with a rounded collar

Most people like smart quotes and dashes, at least most of the time. Your Mac is probably set up to turn the single (‘) and double (“) hash marks and double hyphens (–) that you type into the apostrophes (’) and single smart quotes (‘’), double smart quotes (“”), and em dashes (—) used in professional publications. However, in some situations, like programming, smart quotes and dashes are problematic. Read More from “Where Can You Control Automatic Smart Quotes and Dashes in macOS?”

How to Display the Battery Percentage in Your Mac’s Menu Bar

Posted on by Tim Hannon in Macintosh
Picture of the top right corner of a Mac computer screen with several icons in the menubar, including the battery indicator with a percentage.

By default, the battery icon in your Mac laptop’s menu bar shows how full your battery is. Clicking it reveals the exact percentage, but you can also set macOS to display the battery percentage next to the icon. The setting isn’t where you might expect in System Settings > Battery. Instead, you’ll find it in System Settings > Control Center, where you need to turn on both “Show in Menu Bar” and “Show Percentage.” Read More from “How to Display the Battery Percentage in Your Mac’s Menu Bar”

Apple’s iCloud Keychain Password Management Is All Many People Need

Posted on by Tim Hannon in Macintosh, Security/Privacy
A hand holding up a keyring with two small keys on it set against a cloudy sky background

Apple’s iCloud Keychain Password Management Is All Many People Need

We constantly recommend using a password manager like 1Password, BitWarden, or Dashlane. But many people resist committing to yet another app or paying for yet another service. Isn’t Apple’s built-in iCloud Keychain password management good enough? Read More from “Apple’s iCloud Keychain Password Management Is All Many People Need”

Did You Know Most Mac Apps Keep Versions of Your Documents as You Work?

Posted on by Tim Hannon in Macintosh
Screenshot of a document on the left and a stacked series of the same document from previous saved versions on the right

We all make mistakes, which is why Undo exists. Immediately choose Edit > Undo or press Command-Z to undo your last change. Most Mac apps support multiple levels of Undo, so you can keep pressing Command-Z to revert change after change. However, suppose you delete a table in your Pages document, but 30 minutes and many changes later, you decide you want it back. Undo won’t help because you want to keep all the other interim changes, and Time Machine backups may not help because a backup may not have occurred at the right time. Read More from “Did You Know Most Mac Apps Keep Versions of Your Documents as You Work?”

Apple Introduces New iPad Air, iPad Pro, Apple Pencil Pro, and Magic Keyboard

Posted on by Tim Hannon in Hardware
person leaned over an iPad using an Apple Pencil to draw.

After no new iPads throughout 2023, Apple has unveiled new 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Air and iPad Pro models, plus a more capable Apple Pencil Pro and a redesigned Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro. The company also refined the iPad lineup by dropping the ninth-generation iPad and reducing the price of the tenth-generation iPad to $349. Read More from “Apple Introduces New iPad Air, iPad Pro, Apple Pencil Pro, and Magic Keyboard”

Audit Your Trusted Device Lists for Greater Security

Posted on by Tim Hannon in Security/Privacy
MANAGE YOUR RISK written in foreground with yellow highlighter behind it. Behind that is a blurred image of a person in a black suit, white shirt, and black tie with hand outstretched holding the highlighter.

One of the ways companies protect critical account information is by remembering the devices you use to log in as “trusted devices” or “authorized devices.” Those logins will usually have been protected by two-factor authentication or another mechanism that guarantees the device is being used by you, its owner. Subsequent logins from those devices may be more convenient for you due to requiring only a username and password, and trusted devices may automatically receive two-factor authentication codes. That’s how Apple ensures you are who you say you are when you log in to your Apple ID on a previously unseen device. Read More from “Audit Your Trusted Device Lists for Greater Security”

Want an Event List in Apple’s Calendar App? Try This Trick

Posted on by Tim Hannon in Calendar Syncing and Sharing, Macintosh
Transparent holographic image of a digital calendar. Shows a 31 day month in the left side bar. Checklist is below with checked items for gather requirements and identify risks. Calendar shows Monday through Thursday with dates of 8-11 across the top. Calendar is in military time from 8:00 to 18:00. A few events shaded in with hard to read titles. Behind the holograph is the hands of a person typing on an open laptop with one hand and using some kind of electronic pencil in the other. Laptop is on a dark woodgrain desk.

Along with day, week, month, and year views, most calendar apps offer the option of a simple chronological list of events, which can be a handy way to see what’s coming up. Apple’s Calendar app on the Mac is unfortunately not among those apps. However, there is a trick you can use to get it to show all your upcoming events in a scrolling list. Read More from “Want an Event List in Apple’s Calendar App? Try This Trick”

Looking for Apple Manuals? Check the New Documentation Site

Posted on by Tim Hannon in Apple Watch, Hardware, Macintosh
Small white sign that says "FOLLOW THESE STEPS." Follow these is black. Steps is red and larger. Sign is being held by a man's hands. In the background is a blurry image of the mouth, chin, and upper chest of a man dressed in a suit.

Apple publishes a multitude of manuals and tons of technical documentation for its products on its support site, but until recently, it could be challenging to find something specific because the search engine on Apple’s site is poor. For a better path into Apple’s online support materials, check out the company’s new Documentation site, which brings together manuals, specs, and some downloads for nearly all its products. The operating system User Guides are particularly helpful, and they even provide a Version pop-up menu that lets you make sure you’re getting information for the version you’re using. Read More from “Looking for Apple Manuals? Check the New Documentation Site”

How to Sync Your Text Messages across All Your Apple Devices

Posted on by Tim Hannon in Macintosh
Side view of a man's torso and forearms. Man is holding and using an iPhone over an open laptop on a counter facing a bright wall of windows.

Although many of us think of Messages as an iPhone app, Apple’s platform integration lets you read and reply to conversations in Messages on other Apple devices, including the Mac and iPad. All your devices must have the correct settings to make this work reliably. We regularly hear from users who don’t see all their messages on all their devices. If that’s you, check these settings Read More from “How to Sync Your Text Messages across All Your Apple Devices”

Six Reasons Why You Should Restart Your Mac Periodically

Posted on by Tim Hannon in Macintosh, Security/Privacy
Mac laptop open with a swirly rainbow background. Alert on screen says "Are you sure you want to restart your computer now? If you do nothing, the computer will restart automatically in 52 seconds." There is an unchecked checkbox to "reopen windows after logging back in." There is a blue Restart button and a white Cancel button. Laptop is on a woodgrain desktop against a brick wall. White Apple mouse to the left of the laptop on the desk.

Long ago, before macOS was as stable as it is today, Mac users restarted their Macs regularly. Back then, Macs couldn’t sleep, either, so it was common for users to shut down at the end of the day and start up the next morning, effectively restarting daily.

With modern Macs using the barest trickle of power in sleep and both apps and macOS almost never crashing, many Mac users have gone to the opposite extreme, letting their Macs run for months between restarts. However, such an approach brings with it new problems, and as with so many things, there’s a happy medium. Read More from “Six Reasons Why You Should Restart Your Mac Periodically”

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC: What They Are and Why You Need Them

Posted on by Tim Hannon in Email, Security/Privacy
Blurred image of a city at night. In the foreground, drawings of the back of envelopes, one main one white, the others are white outlines of the envelopes with the background of the image showing through. On each envelope is the text ✔️SPF ✔️DKIM ✔️DMARC

The ease of sending and receiving email makes it an attractive way to run scams like phishing attacks. One telltale mark of a phishing attack is the sender’s address not matching their purported domain; attacks that appear to come from legitimate email addresses are much more likely to fool the victim.

You can protect your organization’s email accounts from being compromised and used in phishing attacks by training your users to identify forged emails and use password managers Read More from “SPF, DKIM, and DMARC: What They Are and Why You Need Them”

Take Advantage of the Reference Library in Your Mac

Posted on by Tim Hannon in Macintosh
Side view of an open laptop with a book open over top of it. Stacked books to each side and blurred library shelves in the background.

You may be used to Mac apps using red underlines to mark misspelled words, but did you know that macOS has also long included a fully featured Dictionary app? It provides quick access to definitions and synonyms in the New Oxford American Dictionary and the Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus, along with definitions of Apple-specific words like AirDrop and Apple ProRes RAW. But that’s far from all it can do. Read More from “Take Advantage of the Reference Library in Your Mac”

Loose Lips Sink Chips: Beware What You Say to AI Chatbots

Posted on by Tim Hannon in Security/Privacy
all blue image, digitally created. side profile of a face coming out of the screen of a laptop.

Generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Bing/CoPilot, and Google’s Gemini are the vanguard of a significant advance in computing. Among much else, they can be compelling tools for finding just the right word, drafting simple legal documents, starting awkward emails, and coding in unfamiliar languages. Much has been written about how AI chatbots “hallucinate,” making up plausible details that are completely wrong. That’s a real concern, but worries about privacy and confidentiality have gotten less attention. Read More from “Loose Lips Sink Chips: Beware What You Say to AI Chatbots”

Use 1Password to Enter Your Mac Login Password

Posted on by Tim Hannon in Macintosh, Passwords
blurred image of a hand using a laptop trackpad in the background. in the foreground, an icon for 1Password that looks like a lock waiting for a key and a dialog box asking for the computer's password.

We think of 1Password as being helpful for entering passwords on websites and in iPhone and iPad apps. But its Universal Autofill feature has a hidden capability that lets 1Password enter your Mac login password when you have to provide it to change certain system settings, install apps, format drives in Disk Utility, and more. Read More from “Use 1Password to Enter Your Mac Login Password”