Innehållsförteckning för Issue 8 från MacBook & macOS The Complete Manual

Whether you have an iMac, Mac mini or a MacBook, This series is for you. It’s packed with tips, tutorials and guides for your Apple notebook, its operating system, macOS 26 Tahoe and its amazing Apple Intelligence features. Apple has synchronised the names of all its operating systems, to reflect the year in which they’re current rather than their version numbers. That’s why Tahoe is macOS 26. The user interface has been synced across all Apple devices too, with a new Liquid Glass look and feel. In this book, we take an in-depth look at this new operating system, and the features it brings such as coloured folders, icon tinting and a completely revised Spotlight. We also look at the amazing apps that come bundled with macOS 26 Tahoe, including…

1 To set up, go to System Settings > Touch ID & Password. If it’s not there, your Mac doesn’t have Touch ID. Click on the Plus icon to add your first fingerprint to Touch ID. 2 Type your admin password when asked, and place your finger on the Touch ID sensor, on the top-right of the keyboard. Follow the on-screen instructions to register your fingerprint. 3 Touch ID now needs to cover the edges of your finger. Continue lifting and placing your finger, but concentrate on having the edges of that fingerprint on the Touch ID sensor. 4 When finished, click the Done button in the bottom-right corner. You can add further fingers by clicking the Plus icon as you did in Step 1, and registering another fingerprint. 5 There’s a list of…

Screen Saver 1 Go to System Settings > Wallpaper and click Screen Saver. Scroll the window showing thumbnails to see what’s on offer. A Play icon shows a screen saver is animated, and a light/dark icon shows it has Light and Dark Mode versions. 2 Click a screen saver to see its preview at the top of the window. Savers with a down-pointing arrow icon are then downloaded to your notebook. Adjust the settings under the preview to set it up how you want it. Click Done. Wallpaper 1 On Settings > Wallpaper, you can choose a picture for your desktop, or a solid colour, from those on offer. Click the Add Photo icon to choose a file or a picture from your Photos app to use as a desktop wallpaper. 2 After…

Dark Mode 1 From the Apple menu, open System Settings. In the left-hand column, click on the Appearance option. At the top of the right-hand section are the Light, Dark, and Auto buttons. Dark and Light buttons switch to those modes, and Auto sets it according to your Night Shift schedule. 2 With Dark Mode on, the colours are subdued or reversed in Finder, windows, the Mac’s built-in apps and more. Third-party apps can be built to take advantage of Dark Mode too. If you find it more comfortable to work on a darker screen, this is excellent news. Night Shift Mode 1 From the Apple menu, open System Settings. Click on Displays in the left sidebar and then on the Night Shift button. From here you can schedule Night Shift Mode to…

The Apple Menu 1 The Apple menu is always found in the top-left corner of Tahoe’s desktop. To open it, click on the Apple icon once, then choose an option. This menu is always there, whatever it is that you’re doing on your Mac. 2 Choose About This Mac for a window showing you technical information about your computer. Clicking More Info… lets you delve further, looking at its Display, Storage and more; and you can get a full System Report by clicking the System Report button too. 3 The System Settings option opens the Mac’s System Settings, which we discuss later in this book. 4 This option opens the App Store. If updates are available for your Mac or any of its apps. 5 Hover your pointer over the Recent Items option to see…

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, the News app displays notifications based on what news channels you’ve decided can send alerts to you. If you click on a notification in the group, the rest expand so you can see all the available notifications of that group. And clicking on a notification, whether it’s from Messages, News and so…

From The App Store 1 Downloading new apps from the Mac App Store is the easiest way to get new software for your Mac. First open the App Store app; you can use the Apple menu to open this particular app, or the Dock, Launchpad or Apps folder. 2 You can use the Search field to look for an app by its name, what it does and more, or simply navigate the App Store using the categories in the left-hand sidebar. Note the filters, opened by clicking the chevron in the top right too. 3 Scroll up and down for more apps. If button to the right displays a price, that’s how much it costs. If it says ‘Get’, it’s free, but might offer in-app purchases. A cloud symbol means you already bought…

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 Click this lined icon to toggle between showing all emails and only unread emails. 4 The three-dots icon allows several options, like viewing contact pictures and showing Mail categories. 5 When you want to write a new email from scratch, click on this button to open a…

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, there’s an option to open the story in Safari. This takes you to the web page from which the story was drawn. 3 The Sports section brings you all your sporting news, results and fixtures. Click the Plus sign under My Sports to choose sports, teams and competitors that especially interest you to customise your incoming sports news. 4 In the sidebar section titled ‘Suggested’, you see…

1 First 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. 2 You see a 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). 3 Next select your Mac’s language and input source. The default ones for your chosen territory are offered, but if you want to change them,…

Using Spotlight 1 Open the Spotlight’s app launcher by clicking the magnifying glass in the menu bar or typing CMD-Space, then click the applications icon. Or swipe inwards with four fingers on your trackpad. 2 Filter the apps by clicking the genres at the top, or by starting to type the name of the app. When you see it in the window (which you can scroll up and down), click it to launch. Using the Finder In a Finder window, click on Applications in the sidebar. All of your Mac’s apps are shown. Scroll to find the one you want to use and then double click on the icon to launch. Using the Dock You can launch an app from the Dock. If your Dock is hidden, move your pointer to the…

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…

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, according to their type. For example, images are stacked together, as are documents. To turn this off again go to View and click Use Stacks. 3 To open a stack on your desktop, click on it. The items contained in that stack are revealed, allowing you to access and open individual files. To close a stack again, click on the down-pointing triangle icon that…

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 in the Finder window; whether as icons, a list, in columns or as a cover flow which gives you a much larger visual preview. 4 Item Arrangement List: Click on the button shown here to order the contents of the window; according to date, alphabetically and more. 5 Perform Tasks: The Perform Tasks icon enables you to perform certain tasks within the folder or highlighted file, such as create a…

Spotlight and its New Features 1 To summon the Spotlight search field, click the magnifying glass in the menu bar, or press CMD-Space on your keyboard, along with its four sub-categories. You can drag this search field and place it anywhere on your desktop. 2 Use Spotlight like you would any search field. It searches on your Mac, the web, and integrates searches with Siri and ChatGPT. You can also use it for calculations, conversions, local business searches, dictionary look-ups and more. 3 Click the App bubble – or type CMD-1 – to open the app picker. Scroll up the list to find the app you want to launch. You can filter the apps list with the categories under the search field, or start to type its name and choose it from the…

System Requirements To use the Phone app on your Mac, you need an Apple Silicon Mac running macOS 26 or later, and an iPhone running iOS 26 or later. They must be signed into the same Apple account and Wi-Fi network, and have Handoff switched on. Dial Out To make a phone call through your iPhone (which must be no more than 30 feet away), click on the top-bar icon to the left of the Search field. A Numeric keypad appears. Enter the number you wish to call, then click the green button. Using Favourites 1 Your favourite callers are grouped in the top-left quarter of the screen. You can call one of those on the three large panels just by clicking on it. If you want one of your other…

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 After adding some devices using your iOS device, you can access them through Home on the Mac. Right-click a device’s window and click the cog (bottom-right) for the Settings, and you can change the room they’re assigned to. 3 Click Automation in the sidebar and you can set timers, actions and more. What they do depends on what kit you’ve incorporated into your Home app. Click the + icon to add automations or groups of automations (scenes). 4 For example, you can use the Home app to control and configure speakers that…

1 The dates when currently visible pictures were taken and where possible, the locations. 2 The +/-icons increase and decrease the size of your preview images. 3 Use these two buttons here to view your photos arranged according to the years or months 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, filling the application window. 5 Use this button to toggle between regular thumbnails of your photos, as seen here, and square-shaped images that leave little border. 6 Click here for a menu that lets you filter your photos, showing only favourites, edited pics, photos, videos and more. 7 Click here to show or hide screenshots and/or photos that have been shared with you. 8 Select or open…

1 Open System Settings from the Apple menu, the Dock or Spotlight (it doesn’t matter which), and click on General > Software Update. It checks for an update, and if there is one, tells you what it is. Click Upgrade Now. 2 If you want to read about the new operating system before installing it, click the ‘i’ icon next to the Upgrade Now button, and this window appears. Click the chevrons to move through the display, then click Done or Upgrade Now. 3 There next follows a licence agreement for macOS Tahoe, the terms of which you must accept if you’re to proceed with the update. Read it all if you wish, but it’s not very interesting. 4 Click Agree to accept the terms and conditions, you’re asked for your administrator’s password. It’s…

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 windows come in all…

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 You can edit a…

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 Click the Other Networks chevron and see a list of Wi-Fi networks available in your area. A lock to the right shows a password is required. Click on the network you wish to join, whether it’s your own router or a public Wi-Fi in a cafe or bar. 3 If a password is required (it probably is), a window appears. Enter the password here. If you’re setting up at home, the password is probably supplied with your router. Your Mac then joins the…

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 Spotlight Apps. 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 Dock and click on its icon. Notice that the app icon slightly bounces as the application opens before the main app opens. Move an Application To move an item to a new location in the Dock, click and drag to the required position. As you move the item the adjacent applications will move aside to allow you to drop…

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 application from the Dock and then under the Mail drop-down menu found in the left of the menu bar, click on the Add Account… link. From the pop-up menu that appears, select the iCloud link and then click on the Continue button to go to the next step. 3 Now enter the Apple ID for the iCloud email account you want to add to your Mail app, and then the password. When you…

1 Here you see how many tabs you currently have open in Safari. A chevron to the right shows and hides all those tabs in a list here in the sidebar. 2 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. 3 This icon opens and closes the sidebar on the left. Close the sidebar to see the Profiles button, which lets you switch between browsing profiles you’ve set up. 4 These two chevrons are your navigation controls, which let you move forward and backward through your browsing history. 5 These icons are for Safari Extensions you’ve added. To add extensions, in the top bar’s Safari menu, select Safari Extensions.…

Subscribers to the Apple Music streaming service can listen to their sounds from the Music app. Those that don’t subscribe can still use the app to listen to their CDs, ripped to their hard drives. 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 This is the Home page, your gateway to the Apple Music streaming service. 4 If you have an Apple Music account, Home is the main page, offering suggestions of music you might like and showing what you played recently. New is great for finding…

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