macOS Sonoma The Complete Manual

1 First, you might see this window, inviting you to choose the language you use to set up your Mac. The most popular languages are at the top of the list, but if you want to use an alternative one, scroll up until you find it, click on it and then click the arrow (bottom right). 2 Now you must choose your territory, that is, where you live and will be using your Mac. You can scroll the list of countries up and down to find your own, or start to type it to get there quicker. Click your country to highlight your choice, then click Continue. 3 Now select your Mac’s language and input source. The default ones for your chosen territory are offered, but if you want to…

Setting Up Touch ID 1 First of all, open the System Settings window. Click on Touch ID & Password. If this option isn’t there, your Mac doesn’t have the Touch ID feature. 2 To get started, click on the + icon captioned ‘Add Fingerprint’. You can add more than one print to Touch ID if you wish, but here, this is our first. 3 Type your admin password when asked, the one you use to unlock your Mac. As instructed, you must now place the finger you intend to register on the Touch ID sensor, on the top-right of the keyboard. 4 Keep raising and lifting your finger. As you can see, the grey fingerprint in the window gradually turns red, as Touch ID reads, analyses and records your fingerprint.…

1 From the Apple menu you can log out, shut down, restart or put the computer into sleep mode, get comprehensive information on the computer’s hardware and software, access the System Settings and open items you’ve recently closed. 2 The menu bar running along the top of the desktop gives access to functions and controls for the app you currently have open at the time. The app currently in use is shown to the right of the Apple icon. In this case it’s Finder. Open or click on an app and its name is shown here instead; and its menus are listed in the menu bar. 3 The Control Centre is where you can access Bluetooth, Wi-Fi settings, display brightness, volume, Stage Manager, Screen Mirroring and much more. 4 Application…

Customising the Sonoma Desktop Choosing a Screen Saver 1 Open System Settings from the Apple menu in the top-left of the screen. In the left-hand sidebar, click on Screen Saver. A range of savers is on offer, including current and past macOS savers, aerial photos and various graphics. 2 There’s some great slow-mo aerial shots on offer, divided into categories; Landscape, Cityscape, Underwater, Earth. The Shuffle Aerials option lets you use a screen saver chosen at random from one of these categories. 3 Scroll left and right along a row to see more screen savers, or click Show All for all the options in a category. When choosing an aerial screen saver, it has to download; see the progress circle in the top-right corner of the window. 4 When it’s…

One of the things that makes the Mac such a pleasure to use is its large and responsive MacBook multi-touch trackpad or the desktop Mac’s Magic Trackpad. You can use the trackpad in much the same way as you would use the touchscreen of an iPhone or iPad: to quickly and easily access menus, sort through stacks of pictures or documents, scroll through documents and to zoom in and out of displayed images. Once you get used to it, you’ll find that it’s a very easy and intuitive way of controlling your Mac and that it can do far more than just scrolling. Secondary Clicking. Some people like to use a two-button mouse with their Mac, and this can be handy for quick access to shortcut menus by secondary clicking…

Widgets on the Desktop 1 Right-click on your Mac’s desktop for a contextual menu. From this menu, choose the Edit Widgets option. A Widgets picker appears. In the sidebar is a list of apps that offer Widgets, with the Widgets themselves on the right. 2 Scroll up and down the right-hand section on the picker to explore available Widgets. Click on an app in the left to see what Widgets it has to offer. Sometimes, Widgets of different sizes are available. Scroll to see them all. 3 Drag Widgets out of the picker and onto your Desktop. You can place them wherever you like. To delete a Widget, either click the minus sign in its top-left corner on the picker screen, or right-click on it and select Remove Widget. 4…