Innehållsförteckning för Issue 1 från Mac & macOS The Complete Manual

BDM’s Complete Manual Series Mac & macOS macOS Monterey has some awesome new features, and we’re here to tell you all about them. Over the next 192 pages, we bring you tip-top tutorials and plain-English guides to Apple’s latest Mac operating system, its bundled apps and its advanced features. For beginners, we show you how to set up your Mac out of the box, and get to grips with its key functions such as Finder, trackpad gestures and the Dock. Our guides to Monterey’s key apps cover both the basics and their advanced features. Look out for guides to the Safari web browser, Mail email client and FaceTime for audio and video chats. We cover Monterey’s brand new features too, like Universal Control, Live Text, Focus, Quick Notes, iCloud+ and…

First Steps with macOS Monterey Set Up Your Mac Set Up Your Mac For the First Time If you have a new Mac but have not yet set it up, follow this guide. It’s nothing to be afraid of; follow the guide and the on-screen instructions, and step by step, you get to set your Mac’s language, take it onto the Internet with your local Wi-Fi network, sign in with your all-important Apple ID and more. 1 Your first step is to 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. 2…

Dark Mode & Desktop Stacks Desktop Stacks For Organisation If your Mac’s desktop regularly gets cluttered with folders, file icons and other such material that you’re currently working on, there’s a solution at hand in macOS. With a click of your mouse or trackpad, you can organise them into stacks, grouped according to their file type. Heres’ how to do it. 1 Your Mac’s desktop often fills with files and folders you know you need regularly but that can mean a very cluttered workspace. To use Desktop Stacks, first click on the desktop to make sure Finder is active, then click on the View menu in the top bar. 2 From the View menu, select the Use Stacks option. Your files are stacked on the right-hand side of your desktop,…

First Steps with macOS Monterey Monterey’s Menus Monterey’s Menus A Key Mac Feature Whether it’s a pull-down menu accessed by clicking on the top bar of your desktop or a contextual menu found by right-clicking or ctrl-clicking on a file or folder, you need to know how to use your menus if you are to get the most out of your Mac and Monterey. Here’s a guide to your Mac’s menus. The Apple Menu 1 The Apple menu is found in the top left corner of the desktop. To open it, click on the Apple icon once, then choose an option. It’s always there, whatever it is that you’re doing on your Mac. 2 About This Mac shows you technical information about your computer. Tabs at the top of this…

First Steps with macOS Monterey The Spotlight Feature The Spotlight Feature Search Your Mac Spotlight Search is Apple’s unique and ultra-powerful search system that can find almost anything on your Mac. There’s a whole raft of great features, making it a really powerful and useful tool that’s integrated into the apps that you use every day. Here’s how to get the most from the Spotlight feature. Using Spotlight’s Features 1 To start using Spotlight, press cmd and the space bar or click the magnifying glass in the top menu and the Spotlight Search window appears. In Big Sur, as with macOS Catalina, you can drag this window to wherever you want on the screen; it’s not fixed in position. 2 Start typing your search query into Spotlight and immediately answers…

First Steps with macOS Monterey Third-party Apps Third-party Apps On Your Mac Installing from developers’ websites does carry some baggage. For one, you’re not going to get updates from the Mac App Store, which may lead to an unresponsive app as the core macOS system is updated. Secondly, there’s a potential security risk, as you’ve no way of knowing if the app you’re installing has any form of malware hidden deep within it. And thirdly, it’s not often quite as simple as a single click. 1 Begin by locating the app you want to install – as previously mentioned, look for a reputable site. Ensure that it actually has a macOS version available, as Windows or Linux developed apps won’t work on a Mac (unless you do some clever work…

Mail and Home App Home For the Smart Home Apple’s HomeKit gave developers the means to control compatible household gadgets from devices such as the Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Your connected home gear can be controlled under one application. You can set up automations too, so multiple devices can be activated with a single instruction. 1 Before you can make use of the Home app, you have to add HomeKit compatible devices. You can only do this from an iOS device, you can’t use your Mac. There’s a list of HomeKit compatible devices online at www.apple.co/2MFjhb3. 2 When you’ve added one or more devices using your iOS device, you can access them through Home on the Mac. Right-click on a device’s window and select Settings and you can…

macOS Monterey’s Key Apps Contacts Contacts Your Address Book Contacts is your digital address book, in which you can store contact details for friends, family, workmates, professional associates and more. You can add addresses, telephone numbers, social media accounts and other such information, and store your contacts in user-defined categories. Managing and Maintaining Contacts 1 This guide shows you to how to add new contacts to your Contacts address book, edit existing ones and share a completed contact card with other people. To create a new contact card, click on the plus button in the bottom left of the current card. Select New Contact from the window that pops up and you’re given a blank card to fill in. 2 To add details, click on the field and then type in…

macOS Monterey’s Key Apps Messages Messages For On-screen Chats Messages is one of the most popular apps in macOS. With it, you can exchange short text messages with friends, family and colleagues, attach photos, web links and more and brighten up your messages with emoticons and emojis. If you’re sending to another Apple device, they’re free too. Setting Up Messages 1 When you first open Messages, you might need to sign in with your Apple ID. If you’re not asked to do so, you’re already signed in. Open Messages and select Preferences from the Messages menu in the top bar, or press cmd-comma on your keyboard. The Preferences window appears. 2 Click the iMessage tab and ensure the email address associated with your Apple ID is enabled. Set more than…

macOS Monterey’s Key Apps FaceTime FaceTime Video & Audio Calls Video chat has grown in popularity during the global pandemic, and Apple’s own FaceTime video chat app has grown with Monterey. It’s now even more powerful and feature-packed, and you can even take (but not initiate), FaceTime calls on Android and Windows devices. Let’s take a look at it. Using FaceTime 1 Click on the FaceTime app to launch the program. It should start straight away, and you’ll see your own face on the screen, as well as a panel inviting you to log in with your Apple ID. Type in your Apple ID password and click OK. 2 Next you’ll need to log on with your Apple ID. People can use your Apple ID email to call you through the…

macOS Monterey’s Key Apps App Store App Store Buy More Software The App Store is the best place to download applications for your Mac. It’s quick and secure, and has an easy-to-use interface so you can find all those obscure apps and utilities you’ve been wondering about. There’s some great software out there to discover, purchase and download in the App Store. 1 If you know the name of the application you’re looking for, type it in the Search Bar to go straight to it. Suggestions are offered as you type, so click on one to select it. You can search for developers here too. 2 Click on Discover for the App Store’s main page, where you can see Apple’s picks of the best and most essential apps for your…

macOS Monterey’s Key Apps Numbers Numbers Spreadsheet App Numbers is Apple’s free spreadsheet application, which you can download from the Mac App Store. Use it to create attractive, powerful spreadsheets using over 30 templates to get you started, or you can start from scratch with a blank document. Numbers at a Glance 1 These are the Numbers pull-down menus, located at the top of the screen in the Menu Bar. Click on one of the words here for a pull-down menu. Take a look at each in turn. They offer controls such as opening new or existing documents, adding elements to a Numbers doc and more. The keyboard commands on the right of each menu are shortcuts you can use. 2 Click the View button for options regarding how the…

macOS Monterey’s Key Apps Keynote Top Tips for Keynote Mastering the Keynote app isn’t as tricky as you think. Follow these tips as you practice making your presentations and you’ll soon have an impressive show. Keynote Live Keynote Live lets you broadcast your presentations over the Internet, so it can be watched by up to 500 viewers online or 35 on your local Wi-Fi. Make sure your presentation is in iCloud Drive. The Keynote app used to have a Keynote Live button in the toolbar, but in the latest version you find this option in the Share menu. Click Keynote Live in the Share menu, and a Keynote Live link is created for your presentation, and you’re invited to add viewers. You can do so, or copy the link under…

Going Further with macOS Monterey Split View Screens Split View Screens macOS Multitasking Split View Screens is a feature of macOS that allows you to view two applications in full-screen mode on a single display. It enables efficient workflow and is superb for researching something in Safari, while using the Notes app or reading about a venue and looking it up via Maps. Here’s how it works. 1 To use Split View mode, first open an app you want to use as a split-screen app. Here we’ve chosen Safari but any app that’s compatible will do. Just open the app window; there’s no need to open it as a full screen. 2 Click on the window’s top bar and drag it upwards, onto the menu bar. A strip appears, offering…

Going Further with macOS Monterey Sidecar: With Your iPad If your Mac and iPad are recent enough, you can use your iPad as a second screen for your Mac; expanding your desktop space. This is especially good news if you also use an Apple Pencil. You can draw on your iPad, using it as a high-resolution input device for your Mac. Just the thing for budding artists. 1 To use Sidecar on your Mac and iPad, first of all, open System Preferences on your Mac then click on the Displays preference pane. In the pull-down in the lower left, select your iPad. If it isn’t there, your Mac’s too old to use Sidecar. 2 Make sure your iPad is switched on and placed where you want it. You can drag…

Continuity Camera & App Switcher The App Switcher Speed Your Workflow With App Switcher you can toggle between apps that are currently open and running on your Mac without taking your hands off the keyboard. It’s a really great feature that significantly speeds your workflow if you use it on a regular basis. If you don’t use the App Switcher already, you should give it a try. 1 The App Switcher is easy to use. Hold the cmd key and press Tab. A window showing the icons of all your open apps is displayed in a floating panel in the centre of your desktop. If you release the keys, they disappear again. 2 You can toggle through these apps by repeatedly pressing the Tab key and releasing cmd when you’ve…

iCloud Desktop & Siri The Siri Feature Your Digital PA Apple’s digital personal assistant lets you communicate with your computer by speaking, just like you do with the iPad and iPhone. Siri can organise your day, access your apps and even share a joke or two. Here’s a look at what the Siri digital assistant can do for you and your Mac, and how to make the most of it. Setting Up Siri 1 You might have activated Siri during the set up procedure. If not, under the Apple menu, select System Preferences. Click on Siri in the top row. If it isn’t already ticked, click on Enable Siri, on the left. If you want Siri in the menu bar, check that box too. 2 You can change the language…

Going Further with macOS Monterey iPad Apps On an M1 Mac The newest Macs and the top-of-the-range iPad Pro use the same processor, an ARM-based chip from Apple Silicon rather than Intel. Other iPads currently on sale also use Apple Silicon processors, such as the A13, A14 and A15. As a result, you can use iPad apps on your Apple Silicon Mac! 1 First of all, check you have an Apple Silicon Mac. Under the Apple menu in the top-left corner, select About this Mac. Look for the Chip listing. If it says ‘Apple M1’ or later, you can run iPad apps. 2 Open the App Store on your Mac. Click on your account in the bottom left corner of the App Store window to take you to a list…

Going Further with macOS Monterey Update macOS Update macOS To Monterey If your Mac is running an older version of the operating system, you’re probably keen to upgrade to the latest release of macOS Monterey. It’s completely free of charge, and as long as your Mac meets the minimum system requirements, it’s very easy to do. To update your Mac to macOS Monterey, you need an Internet connection, and it’s best to plug in your charger too. 1 When an update to your current version of macOS – or a new release entirely – is available, Software Update is badged in System Preferences. In the Apple menu, there’s an update listed in System Preferences too. 2 Open System Preferences from the Apple menu, the Dock or LaunchPad (it doesn’t matter…

First Steps with macOS Monterey The Monterey Desktop Welcome to the Monterey Desktop The desktop is at the heart of your Mac. Everything you do takes place on the desktop, including opening apps, interacting with files and folders and using the Dock. Here we show you how to use your desktop, app and folder windows, the top bar menu and other key features. 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 Preferences 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…

First Steps with macOS Monterey Gesture Controls Gesture Controls On Your Trackpad You can navigate your Mac using gesture controls, just like you do on your iPhone or iPad. These gesture controls can be performed on a Mac notebook’s trackpad or on the Apple Magic Trackpad, which is available for desktop Macs. You can even do a few of them on a Magic Mouse. 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…

First Steps with macOS Monterey Getting Online With Wi-Fi or Ethernet As is the case with any modern operating system, access to the Internet is a vital component for upgrading and getting hold of new apps that will help you get the most from your Mac. Getting online in Monterey is remarkably easy and here’s how to do it both wirelessly and with a cabled connection. Connecting with Wi-Fi 1 Make sure that your Mac is within range of your wireless router’s Wi-Fi signal, then click on the Wi-Fi icon in the top menu bar. You’ll see a list of Wi-Fi networks. If your Wi-Fi is off click the switch to turn it on. 2 You’ll see a list of Wi-Fi networks available in your area. A lock to the…

First Steps with macOS Monterey Using Finder Files, Folders & Apps Finder is the main app that underpins everything you do in macOS, so it’s worth taking the time to discover its features and functions. On these pages you’ll see how Finder works and how you can use the Finder window; including its navigation controls, viewing tabs and more, to get the most from it. 1 Window Control Options: Use the gumdrops to close or minimise the window or open it in full-screen mode. We’ll cover this on the next page. 2 Navigation Controls: The chevron buttons in the top left corner of the window take you forwards or backwards through your navigation history. 3 View Options: These four buttons let you set-up how you view the files and folders…

First Steps with macOS Monterey Monterey’s Dock For Most-used Apps The macOS Dock is a feature that greatly speeds your workflow. It’s perfect for gaining quick access to the most relevant and frequently used applications, documents and folders. It’s customisable too, which means you’ll come to personalise your Dock to best fit your own unique needs. Heres’ how it works. Accessing Your Applications from the Dock Add or Remove an Application To add an app, first click the icon filled with multicoloured boxes on the left-hand side of the Dock to bring up Launchpad. Then, click and drag the item you want onto the Dock. To remove it, just drag it out. Open an Application To open an application that’s in your Dock, simply move the mouse pointer onto the…

First Steps with macOS Monterey Working with Monterey’s Widgets Widgets are a useful way of getting quick and easy access to an app’s functionality, without having to open the app itself. You can, for example, see today’s calendar events or weather, or check the latest news stories from the Apple News app. You can edit your widgets to suit your needs too. First Steps with Widgets 1 To access your widgets, click on the clock and date in the top-right corner of the screen. The widgets are found underneath the notifications. You can scroll the notifications and widgets up and down with two fingers on a trackpad. 2 Click on a widget to open the app that created it, or in some cases, the website from where its information is…

First Steps with macOS Monterey Launching Apps Launching Apps And Quitting Them There are several ways of launching an app on your Mac. You can: use the Launchpad, which is found in the Dock; you can open a Finder window and navigate your way to the application you wish to use; or you can click on the Spotlight feature and simply type its name. Here’s how to do it. Using Launchpad 1 To open the Launchpad, go to the Dock and click on it, or place four fingers on your trackpad and bring them together. The screen darkens and your apps are shown as icons. To launch an app from this screen, click on it. To close Launchpad, press Esc or click on the desktop. 2 If you have more…

First Steps with macOS Monterey Installing New Apps On Your Mac Installing new apps on a Mac shouldn’t be a terrifying experience. Whether you’re downloading from the App Store or from a third-party developer’s website, you can download and install some great new software applications, or apps, on your Mac in macOS Monterey. 1 You can open the App Store app from the Apple menu, as well as from the Dock, the Applications window, the Launchpad and Spotlight. If updates are available for any of your apps, this is shown in the Apple menu, next to the App Store option. 2 Type the name of an app, a developer or a genre into the Search window to search the App Store for apps. Your search results are then shown in…

macOS Monterey’s Key Apps Safari Safari Your Web Browser Safari is your Mac’s built-in web browser. With it, you can explore the worldwide web, enjoy your social media accounts, buy and sell on eBay and more. With macOS Monterey, Safari gets an overhaul with a great new Group Tabs option. 1 This icon opens and closes the sidebar on the left. 2 Here you see how many tabs you currently have open in Safari. Click the four-squares icon to see those tabs as thumbnails in the main window. 3 This icon gives you a menu that lets you make a Tab Group of the tabs you currently have open, or start a new, empty Tab Group to which you can add tabs manually. 4 These two chevrons are your navigation…

macOS Monterey’s Key Apps Music Play Your Tunes The Music app is great for enjoying all your sounds on the Mac. If you subscribe to the Apple Music service, you can stream from over 70 million tracks and numerous online radio stations. You can rip your CDs and store them on your Mac, and you can also compile your own playlists. 1 When you’re using the Music app, the top bar gives you pull-down menus offering controls and options. It’s worthwhile familiarising yourself with them. 2 Completion suggestions are offered as you type, and results can be limited to Apple Music, or your on-Mac library, as you wish. Results include artists, songs, albums and more. 3 These are, in turn, Shuffle Tracks, Previous track, Play/Pause, Next track, Repeat Play. 4…

macOS Monterey’s Key Apps News Stories and Features The News app is great for getting the important headlines as they break, from news sources around the world. If you subscribe to Apple News+ you can read a huge range of magazines and news publications on your Mac, and the app is customisable too, so you’ll always be in the know with world events. 1 When you first open the News app, you see a sidebar and a main window. The sidebar’s Today option is selected, giving you a range of the day’s top stories. Click on a story to open it and read it in full. 2 When you open a news story, if it has a video it can be watched within the News app. In the File menu,…

macOS Monterey’s Key Apps Calendar Plan Your Events The Calendar app, as you’d expect, is there to help you organise your life. With it you can add events, set reminders and synchronise your calendars with your iPad or iPhone. Birthdays and anniversaries can be stored and you’re able to set annually reoccurring events, as well as scheduled alerts. Changing the View 1 There are several different ways to view your calendars. To move between Day, Week, Month and Year views, you can use the corresponding buttons that appear in the top bar of the Calendar application. 2 The Year view shows you a complete year in a single window. Clicking on the title bar for any month takes you to its Month view. Double-click a specific day in either Year,…

macOS Monterey’s Key Apps TV App Watch on Your Mac The TV app has long been a popular means of buying and watching television shows and movies on iOS, and now it’s come to the Mac. If you’ve already bought video media on the iTunes Store, in macOS Monterey, you’ll find it in the TV app. How does it work? Let’s tune in and find out. 1 Open the TV app, and click on the Account menu in the top bar. If you’re not signed into your Apple account, select Sign In and enter your Apple ID and Password in the fields provided, then click the Sign In button below them. 2 Look at the tabs at the top of the window. Watch Now is the TV app’s front page,…

macOS Monterey’s Key Apps Quick Note Quick Note Speedy Jottings When using your Mac, have you ever wanted to jot down a phone number, save a website or simply scribble down a thought as soon as it comes to you? That’s where Quick Note comes in. This new feature, introduced with macOS Monterey, is perfect for speedy jottings you can review later. Getting Started with Quick Note 1 You can open a Quick Note from anywhere on your Mac, and access it in the Notes app. There are three ways of opening a Quick Note. The easiest is to drag your pointer to the bottom-right corner and click the white box that appears. 2 In the Safari app, you can highlight a piece of text, right-click or ctrl-click on it…

macOS Monterey’s Key Apps Pages Pages Word Processor Apple’s own Pages is the Mac’s premiere word processor, and it’s free too. Download it from the App Store and you can write letters, design leaflets and flyers, import photos and pictures, and even produce an illustrated book, Pages is the app to get it done and published. Pages at a Glance 1 Every app on the Mac has its own pull-down menus, and Pages is no exception. When you see a reference to a pull-down menu in the tutorials, this is where you’ll find them. For example, you can open a new document in the File pull-down menu. To do this, click on the word ‘File’ in this top bar and select New from the menu that appears. 2 The View button,…

macOS Monterey’s Key Apps Numbers Top Tips for Numbers Numbers is a complicated app, and there’s always something to learn. These handy hints and terrific tips help you to get more from your speradsheets. New and Open. When you have the Numbers app open, you can click on the File menu and choose Open to open a document you’ve previously worked on, through the browser shown here, or New to open the Templates window. If the Open Document browser is already open, click the New Document button in the bottom-left to bring up the Templates window. Numbers Checklists From the Templates window, you can select a checklist template if you wish. This is slightly different from the usual table as it has a column of blank boxes you can check…

Going Further with macOS Monterey System Preferences macOS Monterey’s System Preferences When using a new Mac for the first time, it’s easy to begin using it for day-to-day tasks without configuring it properly or exploring the settings. It’s well worth spending a few minutes familiarising yourself with the System Preferences controls and the many options contained therein. So let’s take a look at what they can do. Accessing the System Preferences. As long as you read up on what you’re adjusting before making any changes, delving into System Preferences is not a scary experience, and it can make using your Mac a lot more enjoyable. There are several ways to open the System Preferences pane. You can click on the Apple icon in the top left corner of the screen…

Going Further with macOS Monterey Managing Your Desktop Managing Your Desktop The macOS desktop has evolved considerably over the last decade. With cutting-edge features such as Mission Control and Exposé, you’re able to make Monterey not just a personalised workspace but also one thast’ efficient and helps you get the job done. Here’s some tips on managing your desktop. 1 To activate Mission Control, swipe upwards with three fingers on a trackpad or tap the F3 key on your keyboard. This is unchanged from previous versions of the Mac’s operating system, unless you’ve modified the gesture settings yourself. 2 Unlike older versions of Mission Control, open windows are presented in a single layer instead of being stacked according to which application produced them. Click on a window to bring its…

Continuity Feature & Universal Clipboard Universal Clipboard Copy and Share Universal Clipboard is a great way to shuttle small sections of data between Mac and iOS devices; as long as the Macs are running at least macOS Sierra, and iOS devices are on iOS 10 or later (including iPadOS), and all your devices are signed into the same Apple account. Here’s a guide to copying on one device and pasting to another using Macs and iOS devices. 1 To use the Universal Clipboard feature, the devices in question must be logged into the same iCloud account. If they’re yours, they probably already are but if you have trouble using this tutorial, it might be worth checking. 2 Now you can copy and paste a piece of text from one device…

Going Further with macOS Monterey Using iCloud For Storage & Syncing With Apple’s iCloud service, you can store documents and data on a ‘cloud server’, that is, a storage facility accessed over the Internet. Files stored on iCloud can be worked on using any device with a browser anywhere in the world, and you can sync settings and information over iCloud too. Here’s how it works. Storing Your Documents in iCloud 1 Click on your desktop to open Finder, then open iCloud Drive from the Go menu. You may need to log into iCloud using your Apple ID. You’ll see a Finder window showing the contents of your iCloud drive folder, with folders for some apps that store output in iCloud. 2 To save files of any type into your…

Siri Siri Dictation Commands. Siri also understands dictation as well as words, so if you are dictating an email, for instance, this useful list of dictation commands that Siri recognises prove very useful. Just “speak the word” and the action or punctuation is added. “New line” Move to the next line “New paragraph” Start a new paragraph “All caps” Make the next word all uppercase “All caps on … all caps off” Make part of what you say uppercase “No caps” Make the next word lowercase “No caps on … no caps off” Make sure part of what you say is all lowercase “Space bar” Prevent a hyphen from appearing in a normally hyphenated word . “Period” , “Comma” ’ “Apostrophe” ! “Exclamation mark” ? “Question mark” & “Ampersand” *…

Going Further with macOS Monterey Live Text Live Text Pics to Words Live Text lets you take writing and numbers from photographs or using your Mac’s webcam, and convert it into editable text. You can, for example, photograph a phone number and paste it into your Contacts application. It’s a great new feature that’s new to the Mac with macOS Monterey. 1 First of all, open a photo containing the text you wish to copy. Here we’ve opened the photograph in the Preview app, but you can use Photos instead if you like. Click and drag to select the text you wish to copy and paste. 2 To copy the text from the photo, type cmd-C on the keyboard or in the Edit menu in whichever app you’re using, choose…

Going Further with macOS Monterey The Time Machine Back Up & Restore It’s always a good idea to back up your data to guard against disk failure and accidental deletion. macOS Monterey has a built-in backup system called Time Machine. With it, you can retrieve files that have been lost or corrupted, and even reinstall an entire system after a major drive problem. Here’s how to do it. Getting started 1 Connect an external hard drive, via USB, FireWire or Thunderbolt, to your Mac. It should be at least the size of your Mac’s hard drive. The larger the drive, the further back in time you will be able to store backups. Now open System Preferences and click on Time Machine in the bottom row. 2 Click the Select Disk……

Going Further with macOS Monterey Top Tips for macOS Monterey These Mac tips will help you get the most from your Monterey experience and improve your knowledge and efficiency for when you need to get the job done. Every Mac user needs to know these tips, so let’s get cracking. AirPlay to Mac You can use the AirPlay feature to play, present and share content from a mobile device to your Mac. You can enjoy your music using your Mac’s sound system as an AirPlay speaker, or watch your videos on its Retina screen. Immediate Deletion If you wanted to delete a file immediately, simply select a file, press alt and cmd together and then press Delete. You get a window inviting you to delete the file. Do so and…

Going Further with macOS Monterey Maintenance and Troubleshooting Macs are well known for their stability and reliability, but even so, things can and do occasionally go wrong. Don’t panic though, we’ve put together a guide to solving some of the most common issues you might have on your desktop or notebook Mac. So if you’re having trouble, take a look at these tips and guides. They might solve your problem and save you a trip to the Apple Store. Modern computers like the Mac are amongst the most complicated machines ever designed. It’s an amazing testament to the quality of both the Mac hardware and software that they’re usually so stable and reliable. However, no machine can ever be 100 percent perfect. If your Mac stops working, the screen freezes…

First Steps with macOS Monterey Using Touch ID On the Latest Macs Touch ID has long been a stalwart on the iPhone and iPad, but it recently came to the Mac, with the latest notebook and iMac releases; look for a Touch ID sensor on the keyboard. You can use Touch ID to unlock your Mac, input passwords and make purchases, all by using your fingerprint. Setting Up Touch ID 1 First of all, open the System Preferences window. Click on Touch ID. If this option isn’t there, your Mac doesn’t have Touch ID as it’s a feature on newer Macs. 2 If your Mac does have Touch ID, to get started, click on the + icon captioned ‘Add Fingerprint’. You can add more than one print; here, this is…

First Steps with macOS Monterey Customising the Monterey Desktop Although macOS Monterey’s default desktop image is very attractive, if you’d prefer something different, you can personalise your experience by customising the appearance of your Monterey Desktop. You can choose a new wallpaper for the desktop image, and even set up a slideshow of your favourite pictures. Choose New Wallpaper 1 To open the Desktop preferences window, click the Apple menu, select System Preferences and select the Desktop & Screen Saver option. Select the genre of picture required from the left column. 2 Click on the image you’d like to use for your wallpaper. If there’s a cloud in the corner, click on it first to download the image. The desktop is updated immediately. Keep it or choose another one. Use…

First Steps with macOS Monterey Dark Mode And Night Shift If your screen’s too bright, there’s a couple of great desktop features that help. Dark Mode inverts the Mac’s colour scheme, making it much darker, and Night Shift Mode changes the colour hue, reducing blue light that can keep you awake if you use your Mac before going to bed. Dark Mode 1 From the Apple menu, open System Preferences. Click on the General pane in the top left corner of the window. At the top, under ‘Appearance’, are the Light, Dark, and Auto buttons. Dark and Light buttons switch to those modes, and Auto lets you schedule the changes. 2 With Dark Mode on, the colours are subdued in Finder, windows, the Mac’s built-in apps and more. Third-party apps…

First Steps with macOS Monterey Notifications See What’s Going On Apps and functions on your Mac can send you notifications, which let you know what’s going on. When you receive a message or an email, for example, you can get a notification telling you that its’ arrived. You can customise them too. Moving notifications to the Date and Time and combining them with widgets is a clever move on the part of Apple. All you need to do to view your notifications is to click on the Date and Time in the top-right of the desktop. If there are any, they appear at the top of the slide-in area that appears from the right-side of the screen. Notifications are grouped together depending on the app they’re coming from. For example,…

First Steps with macOS Monterey Setting Up Email For the Mail App With email, you can send mails and attachments anywhere in the world, at the push of a button. It’s there instantly too. Here we take a look at what email is, how you can get yourself an email address and how you can use your email accounts on your Mac, with Apple’s bundled email client, the Mail app. Setting Up Your iCloud Email 1 If you set up your Apple ID during your Mac’s initial setup, or if you signed in with an existing Apple ID, your iCloud email account is already in place. But if not, or if you want to add another iCloud email account to your Mail client, follow these instructions. 2 Open the Mail…

macOS Monterey’s Key Apps Mail Mail Send & Receive Email Monterey has a great bundled email application, so sending and receiving emails is as easy as typing a message and clicking a button. Here’s how to get the most from the Mail app. 1 This is the sidebar, which lets you select mailboxes, see emails from VIP senders or those which you’ve flagged, and more. You can resize and even close this sidebar by clicking and dragging the divider between this and your emails list. 2 The list of emails contained in the currently selected mailbox, in this case, All Mailboxes. The number of emails in the box, and the number of unread emails, are shown. You can resize this column by clicking and dragging its left or right edge. 3…

macOS Monterey’s Key Apps Photos Photos Manage Your Images Monterey sees minor updates to the Photos app. Memories has a new look, and you can use Apple Music for background tunes. The information panel is more comprehensive, and facial recognition is improved. The interface has been tweaked too. 1 Use this button to toggle between regular thumbnails of your photos, as seen here, and square-shaped images that leave little border. 2 This slider increases and decreases the size of your preview images. 3 Use these buttons to view your photos arranged according to the year, month, or day in which they were taken. 4 Click here to see all your photographs in the Photos app, arranged as thumbnails. Double-click on a thumbnail to open a photo. 5 Select or open…

macOS Monterey’s Key Apps Reminders Reminders Never Forget Again If you want to make a shopping list, set up a regular reminder or schedule an alert, you need the Reminders app. It syncs across your Apple devices using iCloud, so you can add a reminder on your Mac and get an alert when you’re out and about with your iPhone, and it’s straightforward to use too. 1 This is your search field. Use it to search your reminders, regardless of which list they’re organised in. 2 This is the Reminders app’s front page, showing smart lists as well as the lists you’ve created yourself. A ‘list’ is a group of reminders you’ve set up and can be titled anything you like. 3 Click the plus sign to add a reminder…

macOS Monterey’s Key Apps Books Buy & Read eBooks The Books app offers much more than simply being a portal to viewing your collection of electronic literature. You’re can browse a huge library of titles, buy new eBooks, sample content and organise your ever-growing collection, and even add PDFs to your Books app; all of which syncs between your Apple gear. First Steps with Books 1 The Books app’s sidebar is divided into three sections; Apple Books shows what you’re reading now and offers two shop options; Library lets you view your book collection; In My Collections, you can organise them into categories. 2 If you’re already a Books user on your iPad or iPhone, you can access your books by clicking the All Books option under Library. Here you…

macOS Monterey’s Key Apps Maps Maps Plan Your Routes macOS Monterey brings some new features to the Maps app. Major cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and London enjoy greater detail; showing roads, trees and buildings. Its 3D capabilities have been enhanced, public transport now shows nearby stations and transit times and more. Finding Places with Maps 1 To focus the view on your current location, click the arrow icon in the toolbar. The map zooms to your current whereabouts. To search for a specific location, type the address, postcode/zip code or road name into the search field. Possible matches are shown as you type. 2 You can search for a business by entering the business name or type, for example ‘Fast Food’, into the search field.…

macOS Monterey’s Key Apps Notes Notes Store Your Jottings The Notes app is a remarkably powerful, yet simple, virtual notepad. With it you can jot down your thoughts and ideas or create complex notes that are easily edited and fully searchable; and you can also sync your notes to your iCloud account. There’s more to Notes than first meets the eye. Creating, Editing and Searching Notes 1 To create a new note, first of all, click on the pen-and-paper symbol found in the toolbar at the top of the Notes window. A new blank note appears. Start typing your note. The first line of a new note is used as its title in the notes list, so bear this in mind. 2 Your notes are listed in the left-hand pane.…

macOS Monterey’s Key Apps Find My Find My Find Your Gear With Find My, you can keep track of your friends’ whereabouts, and they can keep an eye on yours. You can also track down a missing Mac, iPad, iPhone or Apple Watch, find your missing AirPods and keep track of your AirTags. It’s great if you’re arranging a meeting, or finding lost or stolenA pple gear. The People Tab 1 Click the People tab. Click on your own picture in the left-hand sidebar, and click on the ‘i’ in the window that pops up on the map. In the next window, you can change the device through which your location is represented, switch off sharing, Notifications and more. 2 To start sharing your location with someone else, click Share…

macOS Monterey’s Key Apps Pages Top Tips for Pages There’s so much to learn about Pages. Here’s a round-up of some tips and tricks to help you get even more from the word processor. Headers and Footers Hover over the top or bottom of a Pages document and a row of three rectangular boxes are shown. This is for headers and footers. Whatever you type in these boxes appears on every page in the document. Click a blank box and an optional button for inserting page numbers appears. With this you can add automatically-applied page numbers in various formats. Show One or Two Pages When reviewing a multi-page document, you can view a single page at a time, or two pages side by side as if they were laid out…

macOS Monterey’s Key Apps Keynote Keynote For Presentations Keynote was originally created by Apple for the company’s own presentations, and then it was released to the public. It’s free, and it’s great for putting on displays. Create slideshows, add transition effects, include text, images and videos and more. There are themes too. Keynote at a Glance 1 As you’d expect, Keynote has a series of pull-down menus in the Desktop’s top bar. Click on one for the menu, and drag your pointer down this list to select an option. Some tools have a keyboard shortcut too, displayed on the right of the menu bars. 2 Keynote’s View button lets you change the way the slide is shown in the window. You can hide the sidebars, show the slides as thumbnails,…

Going Further with macOS Monterey Multi-use Touch Bar Multi-use Touch Bar On a MacBook Pro The Touch Bar is an OLED touchscreen that replaces the function keys on the newer models of MacBook Pro. What it does depends on what you’re currently doing on your Mac; if you’re using Messages, for example, it might offer emoticons to tap and use. If you’re using Music, it offers audio controls. The Touch Bar Explained 1 App-specific: What the Touch Bar shows depends on the app you’re currently using. Here it’s used with a video app but it can be configured for other software too. 2 The Touch Bar: The Touch Bar runs along the top of the keyboard, where the function keys used to be. What it displays depends on what app…

Going Further with macOS Monterey Continuity Feature Continuity Feature On Apple Devices With a Mac running OS X 10.10 or later, and a mobile device with iPadOS or iOS 8 or later installed, your Apple gear works together seamlessly. You can make and receive calls on your Mac, send and receive text messages on any of your devices, and share files between your Mac, iPad, and iOS device swith AirDrop. Wi-Fi Instant Hotspot 1 Instant Hotspot’s system requirements are stringent. A Mac must be mid-2012 or newer and running Yosemite or later. To find out when your Mac was made, click on the Apple icon in the top left and select About This Mac. An iOS device must be an iPhone 5 or later, iPad (4th gen) or later, an…

Going Further with macOS Monterey Universal Control Universal Control On Macs and iPads Universal Control is a new Continuity feature that lets you use a Mac and an iPad side by side; using your Mac’s keyboard and mouse/trackpad. You can control up to three computers and tablets with one set of input devices. Universal Control is available with compatible Macs and iPads running macOS Monterey and iPadOS 15 respectively. They have to be signed into the same iCloud account, and both must have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth switched on. When using Universal Control, you can drag your Mac’s pointer off the Mac’s screen and onto the iPad’s screen, and then operate the iPad with the keyboard and mouse/trackpad from your Mac. Unlike Sidecar, Apple’s earlier Continuity feature that let you use…

Going Further with macOS Monterey Continuity Camera Use That Photo Continuity Camera lets you take a photograph using your iPhone or iPad and have it appear instantly on your Mac. It works with Finder, Mail, Messages, Notes, Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. It’s a great way of adding a photo to your designs, emails, presentations and more, and it’s easy to set up and use too. 1 On your Mac, open the document you wish to import a photo into, or start a new one. Right-click where you want it to appear, select Import from iPhone or iPad, then Take Photo on whichever device you’re using. Devices only appear here if they’re on the same Apple ID as your Mac. 2 Switch to the device you chose to take the photo…

Going Further with macOS Monterey iCloud Desktop Documents & Folders With macOS and iOS, you can not only store your documents on your iCloud but also files and folders that are found on your desktop. It’s done automatically, so a file on your Mac’s desktop is accessible from your iOS device and other Macs. Here’s how to use the iCloud Desktop. 1 To switch on iCloud Desktop Documents and Folders, open System Preferences and click on Apple ID > iCloud. Click on the Options button next to iCloud Drive, then check Desktop & Documents Folders. It may take time to set up. 2 On an iPhone or an iPad, first of all open the Files app. Go to the left-hand sidebar, under Locations (tap the chevron to its right to…

Going Further with macOS Monterey Shortcuts On Your Mac Shortcuts was first released on the iPhone and iPad, but with the release of macOS Monterey, it has come to the Mac as well. Shortcuts group instructions on your Mac, meaning you can execute a series of functions with a single command. You can use pre-built shortcuts, or design your own. Getting Started with Shortcuts 1 The Shortcuts app comes preinstalled with macOS Monterey. It’s can be found in Applications > Other. You can open it through a Finder window, by using the Launchpad or simply by typing ‘Shortcuts’ into the spotlight search. 2 The Shortcuts app is compatible with, and syncs with, Shortcuts on your iPhone or iPad, so if you’ve already created Shortcuts on those devices, they’re seen here,…

Going Further with macOS Monterey Focus Focus Reduce Distractions Focus takes Do Not Disturb to the next level, with customisable categories that let you concentrate on what’s important at the time. For example, a Work focus can block social media and leisure apps, but let through things that might be relevant to your job. You can set up multiple categories, or ‘focuses’, and choose to have them activate automatically if you wish. 1 Go to System Preferences > Notifications & Focus and click the Focus tab. Some categories are already offered, namely Do Not Disturb, Driving and Personal. Turn on Share Across Devices to sync your settings across your Apple gear. 2 Tap the + icon in the bottom-left to choose a new focus. You can choose one for when…

Going Further with macOS Monterey The Keyboard Customised Shortcuts While Apple’s classic pointer-driven interface is great for pretty much everything, you can make using your Mac even more quick and efficient by memorising a few simple keyboard shortcuts. The macOS has dozens of pre-configured keyboard shortcuts. Here are some of the most useful and most used shortcuts on your Mac. Finder Shortcuts These shortcuts are available when you’re using Mojave’s Finder features, like windows and folders. Command + [...........Go to the previous folder Command + ] ...........Go to the next folder Command + ↑ ..........Navigate up one level Command + ↓ ..........Navigate down one level Option + Double click ...... Open the selected folder in a new window and close the current window Command + Double click ... Open selected…