the-ultimate-mac-user-book

Ultimate

Mac User

Book

The Ultimate Mac User Book

Unveil useful tips, instructions, and apps for a better Mac life.

From basic shortcuts to hidden gems.

Setapp

Table of Contents

So you got a new Mac. Now what?

Switching from Windows

The Mac lifestyle

Creativity (all on your Mac’s screen)

Coding on Mac

Create your productivity flow

Writing and blogging on Mac

Using a Mac for study

Bonus chapter: The ultimate list of Mac hacks and timesavers

Author and Editor: Tetiana Hanchar

Illustrator: Andrii Hakman

Contributing writers: Misha Berveno and Jane Palash

How to use this book

Welcome to the crowd of Mac enthusiasts! Not The IT Crowd — this book is less fun, we must admit it. But we’ve made every effort to make it useful for you. Whether you have a history with Windows computers and want to make a quick transition to Mac, or you’re looking for tips to upgrade your current workflow, it’s all here.

Here’s how to use The Ultimate Mac User Book to make the most out of it:

Make sure you read Chapter 1 if you’re new to Mac and have never used a Windows OS before.

If you’re switching from Windows — feel free to start with Chapter 2 and then move to Chapter 1 for a deep dive into macOS functionality.

Depending on your interests or profession, navigate through chapters 3-8 to unveil app bundles and tips for specific jobs. In the book, you’ll find ready-to-use workflows for writers, designers, developers, students, as well as people of any profession who want to hit new productivity milestones on Mac.

Chapter 9 covers 20 hacks every seasoned Mac user should be using (but only a few actually do).

If you’re here to solve a specific Mac problem, you can jump right into it.

Every chapter has a detailed table of contents for easy navigation.

The book covers all operating systems developed and released by the time of publishing, the latest being macOS 10.15 Catalina.

Introduction

Once you go Mac, you never go back. This is true for many people — from creative folks to organization managers, from students to seniors. And we hope this is going to be very true for you once you read this book.

Reliable and intuitive, Macs still require a certain level of tech fluency. The family of Apple’s Macintosh operating systems is very versatile, with tons of features and enhancements built on top of each other. Navigating through all of them can be complicated. Especially if you’re a new user. Especially if you have no time to figure out how things work — you just want them to work. We’ve made a bold attempt to figure it all out and give you the distilled knowledge of macOS.

Hope you learn new Mac secrets and have fun experimenting with the tools mentioned in this guide.

Сhapter 1

So you got a new Mac

In this chapter:

Set up your Mac step by step The anatomy of Mac’s interfaceThe basics of apps and files managementSync, remove, and recover dataScreen and video recording

Contents

How to delete and recover data on Mac

How to recover deleted files after emptying the Trash

Screen and video recording

Introduction to iTunes and its alternatives

How to manage cloud drives on Mac

Organize files and folders on Mac

Delete duplicates

How to work with archives on Mac

Conclusion

Setting up your new Mac

Vocab:

Migration Assistant – Apple’s utility for transferring data, user accounts, and settings, native.

iCloud – Apple’s cloud storage for storing photos, music, and any other personal content.

Apple ID – Account Mac users use to access Apple services.FileVault – Disk encryption feature native to macOS.

Siri – Virtual assistant that works with all Apple devices, native.

Apple made it a breeze to set up your new Mac and fall in love with it in the process. Although on-screen instructions are pretty clear, there are lots of small details you might miss at the setup stage. We cover all of them in a comprehensive guide below.

First steps to a seamless experience

So your new, shiny Macintosh is ready to drive. Are you?

Follow the instructions and you’ll be able to use your new Mac in minutes:

Press the Power button to turn on your Mac.
Choose a preferred language that will be used system-wide.
Select a keyboard layout from the ones suggested.
Choose your Wi-Fi network and enter the password. If you use Ethernet to connect, choose Other Network Options > Ethernet.
You’ll be given the option to transfer data to your new Mac from PC or another Mac with Migration Assistant. To skip this step, “Don’t transfer any

information now.” More about data migration in a moment.

To be able to use Siri, Spotlight, Maps, and other location-related services, tick Enable Location Services on this Mac.
Use your existing Apple ID to sign in – you should have it if you’ve used Apple devices before. In case you didn’t, you’ll be able to create Apple ID when you access iCloud or iTunes for the first time. We’ll guide you through the process of iCloud setup in a few minutes.
Agree to Terms and Conditions.
Set up your administrator user account. While creating a password, we recommend to add password hint, so that you could securely recover your account in case of password loss.
Based on your current location, set the time zone. You can enable data and time to change automatically when your location changes.
Enable FileVault to allow encrypt the contents of your hard drive.
If you’re signed in, you can choose to save files from Desktop and Documents in iCloud. Obviously, consider whether you’ll have enough storage.
Lastly, you can enable Siri, Apple’s native virtual assistant.

Migrate your data to a new MacIf you have personal data on an old device, you can transfer it to a new Mac with Migration Assistant. The program gives you three options – transfer from PC, another Mac, backup or startup disk.

If you transfer from another machine, make sure the two are connected via the same Wi-Fi network or Ethernet cable. Alternatively, connect your new Mac to a Time Machine backup.

On the new Mac, access Migration Assistant in Applications > Utilities. Do the same on your old computer. Note that you’ll have to download Migration Assistant for Windows if you’re transferring from PC. On both machines, choose the way to migrate data. If you see a security code, it should match on both computers.

For transferring from backup, it’s almost the same: Once you connect, you’ll see the list of available backups. Pick the one you want to use and migrate your data.

Depending on how much content you’re transferring, the whole process might take up to a few hours.

Set up iCloud

At the setup, you can activate Find My Mac – a useful feature that allows to track your Mac’s location or lock the device remotely.

While Find My Mac is a part of iCloud, make sure you have it set up. It’s easy to do with your Apple ID:

Open System Preferences > iCloud.
Enter your Apple ID to sign in.
Optionally, tick the apps you want to use with iCloud – like Photos or Notes.

Once you sign in with Apple ID, your iCloud will be turned on, which means you can activate Find My Mac.

Backing up your data

Vocab:

Time Machine – Apple’s default backup program, native.

Disk Utility – system utility for managing hard disks and storage devices, native.

Next thing, create a backup plan for your new machine.

While macOS is more stable than ever and Macs hardly ever crash, it only needs one piece of software behaving badly to wipe out lots of precious data. And even if the worst never happens, many of us trash files only to discover later that we need them again. A backup of your Mac makes it easy to retrieve that file.

There are several different ways to backup a Mac, and for absolute safety, you should use all of them.

Incremental macOS backup

This type of backup makes a copy of all your data the first time you run it, then, at regular intervals, scans your Mac, identifies files that have been added or changed, and copies those to a backup file. This means that each run of the backup is quick and uses few resources, because it's only backing up new or changed files.

There are some things to remember when creating a backup strategy:

Incremental backups only work if they run regularly so make sure you're always connected to the drive on which the backup will be stored, so the routine can run automatically when it needs to.
Make at least two backups and keep one off site. That could be on an external hard drive you take home from work every day, or, more likely, on a

remote server or cloud storage service.

Check your backups regularly. You should, say every month, make sure your backup routine is running properly and that you can restore from the latest backup without a problem.

Full Mac HD clone backup

The other prevalent type of backup is a complete clone of your startup drive, usually a bootable version. This gives you a complete copy of your main drive and allows you to get back up and running again quickly, should a disaster strike. It's useful when you install a beta version of a new macOS or when you're doing anything on your Mac that might cause a problem for the OS. You can use Disk Utility or a third-party tool to create a clone.

How to clone Mac drive using Restore option of Disk Utility

Disk Utility is a default tool that comes pre-installed on your Mac. To use it to clone your drive, follow these simple steps:

Open Disk Utility on your Mac from Utilities or Applications.
Click Erase at the top of the Disk Utility interface.
Choose a media on left panel to mark your backup drive.
In the drop-down list with Format options, choose macOS Extended (Journaled). Hit Erase again and wait for the drive to remount on Mac.
Click Restore.
Select the target drive which has to be cloned. Drag and drop it at the Source field.
Drag and drop the destination Disk/Drive and leave it at the Destination field.

Hit Restore. The contents of the drive will be copied and saved on the destination drive.

See also:

Clones created with Disk Utility aren’t bootable backups. So if you want to create a bootable disk clone, you’ll need to use Get Backup Pro for the job.

How to create a backup with Time Machine

Time Machine is backup software built into every Mac and is the common way to create incremental backups.

You can backup to an external hard drive connected by USB, Firewire or Thunderbolt, or to a supported network drive such as Apple's own Time Capsule. Network-attached storage devices are good places to store Time Machine backups. After you set up Time Machine, it makes backups automatically hourly

for the past 24 hours, daily for the past month, and weekly for all previous months.

Go to System Preferences and click on the Time Machine pane. Click the padlock and type in your user password, then check the box 'Back Up Automatically.'
Click 'Select Disk' and navigate to the disk where you want backups to be stored. Select the disk.
Click Options in the Time Machine window and if there are any folders you want to exclude from the backup, click the '+' navigate to the folder then click Exclude.
Click Save when you're done to return to the main Time Machine window. Before you quit System Preferences, check the box labelled Show Time Machine in the menu bar. That way you'll be able to monitor when Time Machine is running, be alerted to problems, and quickly recover files when you need to.

Using Time Machine on two hard drives

You can use Time Machine to backup to two different hard drives, or more if you like. Time Machine will rotate the schedule among the drives so that it backs up to each disk in turn and will backup everything that's changed since the last backup was stored on that disk. You can switch disks before entering Time Machine - hold down the Option key, then choose Browse Other Backup Disks from the Time Machine menu. If you work in different locations, you can keep different disks at each location, giving you additional security.

How to backup a Mac to an external hard drive

There are good reasons for backing up a Mac to an external hard drive. It's more reliable than wirelessly connecting to a Time Capsule or NAS and more secure than using a cloud service.

You should make sure your external hard drive is at least the same capacity as the disk you want to back up. And use the fastest connection available on your Mac. On newer Macs that's USB-C or USB 3. On older models, Thunderbolt or FireWire.If you use a Mac laptop, you'll want a portable drive. If not, a desktop external hard drive is perfect. Make sure you erase the drive and format it using APFS if you're running High Sierra or macOS Extended if you're running an older OS version.Then follow any of the procedures above, either using Time Machine, or third-party software, and select the external hard drive as the target for your backup.How to move photos library to an external HD

Quit Photos.
Navigate to your Pictures folder and drag the Photos library file to your external disk.
Launch Photos while holding down the Alt (option) key and select Other Library. Navigate to the Photos library on your external HD.
If you see a message warning you about incomplete items, click Delete Incomplete Items.
In Photos, go to the Preferences menu and in the General tab, click Use as System Photo Library.
If you want to use iCloud Photo Library, go to System Preferences, click on iCloud then "options" next to Photos and check the box next to iCloud Photo Library, if it's not already checked.

How to connect multiple external hard drives

There are three ways to connect multiple external hard drives to your Mac:

Use separate ports for each drive, if you have enough of them. Just plug the

drives in and you should see them mount in the Finder. If not, run Disk Utility and mount them. You may have to erase and reformat the drives.

Buy a USB hub or Thunderbolt dock. Hubs and docks have several ports, allowing you to plug in multiple hard drives. If they have their own power supply, they can also provide power for portable drives.
Daisychain the drives. If your Mac has a FireWire port, you can connect one drive to another in a chain. It's not an ideal solution as all the drives will be using the same bandwidth, but it works.

User accounts

Vocab:

Users & Groups – System Preferences pane for access control on Mac.

To access programs and change settings on a Mac, you need a user account. By default, as the owner of the machine, you have administrative rights – the highest power. If you want to share your new Mac with family or colleagues, you’ll have to create additional accounts with specific user roles and capabilities.

Administrator account

This is the first user account you create on Mac. Without an administrator account, you won’t be able to create and delete any other accounts. Neither will you make changes to the current settings or install new apps. In other words, an administrator has the full control over the computer’s life.

Tip:To check who resides on your Mac, access System Preferences > Users & Groups. The account marked as current is your administrator account. We recommend changing password for this account every few months for security reasons.

Create a new account on Mac

Here’s a quick way to create a new account for one of your family members or coworkers:

Access Mac menu > System Preferences > Users & Groups.
Click on the padlock in the bottom left corner and type your administrator password to unlock.
Click the plus button to create an account.
Choose the type of account, enter full name, account name, password + verified password, and password hint (so that you could recover password in case you lose it).

Accounts with limited access

When creating a new account, you’ll be asked to specify its type. Pick the one that matches the role capabilities:Standard account. In contrast to administrator, the owner of a standard user account can’t access system files, nor create and manage other accounts.

Managed with parental controls. You can activate parental controls built into apps on your Mac. If you choose this option, you’ll be asked to specify the age of a child: 4+, 9+, 12+, or 17+. To manually limit what your kids can access, click on the newly created account, check “Enable parental controls” > Open parental controls.

Sharing only. Provide access to specific files and folders on your Mac via sharing only account. Once you create the account, access System preferences > Sharing, and choose folders that you want to open for shared access.

Guest. Click on Guest User on the left of Users & Groups screen to enable temporary access to your Mac. Guest users can’t view or manage files stored on your computer. Neither can they change any settings. After a guest user logs out, all of his files and browsing history is wiped out automatically.

How to delete a user account

An administrator can easily remove any of the created accounts if you select it from the list in Users & Accounts, and then click on the minus button to delete. This will also remove all the files that the user stored in his home folders.

The Menu Bar

Vocab:

Menu Bar – Apple’s graphical control element with menus for an easy access.

Bartender – a third-party app for customizing the menu bar.

A set of icons and menus you see at the top of the screen is called the menu bar (or the top bar) – a place from where you can access app menus, check statuses, and run programs.

Without a doubt, the menu bar is one of Mac’s great features. It’s condensed, easy to tap into on the fly, and displays much-needed information in real time.

But, with every new icon app added, things become a little more cluttered and usability takes another hit. Fortunately, it’s possible to edit the menu bar to rearrange and remove icons so that it’s able to suit your needs at any given moment. Even if your brand-new, clean menu bar is not disturbing you just yet, ensure you’ll keep it under control in future.

Tip:Analyze what apps you use within one working day and keep only those you’ve used at least once. If the default programs don’t cover your needs, check out the annual collection of trending menu bar apps from Product Hunt, explore on Mac App Store or Setap.

Read on for the best ways to make the menu bar on Mac truly yours:

Rearranging menu items in macOS Sierra or later

To move an icon in the menu bar, hold Command (cmd), then click and hold the icon to drag it across the bar. Simple.

There are no restrictions here — feel free to move icons anywhere you see fit. Don’t like the clock all the way over there on the right-hand side? Drag it to somewhere more suitable.

The only icon that cannot be tampered with is the Notification Center. Apple has decided this must remain in the far right corner of the menu, which is fair enough — it looks good there.

Rearranging menu items in older versions of macOS

Movement of icons in older versions of macOS is reserved for selected apps only: Bluetooth, audio, Time Machine, WiFi, battery, clock, and user switching. Spotlight and Notification Center must stay put, as must all third-party apps.

To move icons around within the designated area, once again hold Command, then click and hold the icon to drag it.

How to remove icons from the menu bar on Mac

If there are items in the menu bar that you feel don’t belong there, hold Command, click on the icon, and drag it outside of the menu bar.

Note: this only works for first-party icons.

It is possible to remove third-party icons from the top bar on Mac by clicking on them and selecting “Quit” or “Close,” but this will stop the app from working until you reopen it.

Some apps give the option to remove icons from the top bar on Mac in their settings: [chosen app] > Preferences. However, a lot of apps won’t. To fully customize which icons appear in the menu bar, you should use third-party software.

If you’ve removed the first-party app and you’d like it back on the menu, it can be re-enabled in System Preferences.

How to add icons to the menu bar on MacIf you’re missing a specific system icon in the Mac’s menu bar, you can add it through System Preferences. For instance, to enable the Language icon, select Language & Region in the preference pane, click Input Sources, and check the box next to “Show Input menu in menu bar.”

Add menu bar extras

Because the menu options like Clock and Ink can’t be found in System Preferences, you might need to use the System folder as well:

Open Finder.
Select Go > Go to Folder from the menu bar.
Type a path: /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras.
Double-click an item and it will instantly appear in your menu bar.

You can easily remove any of the icons by holding Command and dragging it outside of the menu bar as described above.

How to customize and tidy Mac menu bar

It’s possible to change the look of the default menu bar items in System Preferences and third-party apps’ ones in their respective preferences. Most of the time, you’ll be able to at least switch the color to black and white.

If you want more control over how the menu bar looks and what it does, you should consider using the Bartender app. It lets you hide icons without quitting and rearrange icons in a way that better suits how you use the menu bar — something particularly useful if you’re running an older version of macOS.

App icons can be displayed when updating, shown in the Bartender Bar only, or hidden completely and accessed easily using a built-in search function.

Change how the date and time are displayed in the menu bar

In the right corner of your menu bar, click on date and time to Open Date & Time Preferences. Go to the Clock tab and unlock the preferences by entering your administrator password, so that you can make changes. To customize the look of the clock, choose between two different time display options: Digital or Analog. You can also tick the boxes for “Show date” and “Show the day of the week.”To instantly toggle between different display options, click on date and time in the menu bar and choose “View as Analog” or “View as Digital.”How to replace menu bar app iconsIf you want to have custom icons in your Mac’s menu bar, there’s a way to replace the default ones. To change the icon of a third-party app, find it in Applications, right-click to open a context menu, and choose “Show Package Contents.” Go to Resources folder to find the defaults – these can be used as templates for the

new icons. Once you have a custom icon ready, simply copy it into the same Resources folder.The same works for system icons, except you won’t find all of them in Applications. Here’s the path for you to take: Hard Disk > System > Library > CoreServices > Menu Extras. Once you’ve found the item you need, click on “Show Package Contents” and navigate to the icon via [MENUITEM.menu] > Contents > Resources.In both cases, it’s a good idea to create backups of the default icons before replacing them – just in case you’ll need them later.

Hide menu bar items

One low-key feature on Mac is the ability to auto-hide menu bar. To do this, open System Preferences > General. Check the option to “Automatically hide and show the menu bar” and the menu bar will immediately disappear.

To get the menu bar to show up again, simply move the cursor to the top of the screen and hold it there for a second.

Mac keyboard shortcuts

Vocab:

Keyboard shortcuts – combinations of keys that enable the activation of multiple processes on a Mac.

Using keyboard shortcuts instead of reaching for your mouse or trackpad and hunting through menus is a great way to save time and get work done efficiently.

Even though for complex task you could use a keyboard assistant (which will semantically understand any operation you need to perform), for complex tasks, knowing essential shortcuts will speed up every repetitive action related to the basic Mac functionality.

Learning shortcuts takes time and practice; it’s only by using them repeatedly that you develop a habit. But then you start really saving time and boosting productivity to the point where you won’t know how you’ve lived without them.

Top time-saving Mac keyboard shortcuts

To help you, we’ve collected the best keyboard shortcuts for the Mac — those that will save you the most time every day. Remember: learn them and practice them.

Before we start with a list, let’s take a look at all the modifier keys:

Cmd = Command key (the one either side of the spacebar and looks like this: ⌘)

Ctrl = Control key, usually labelled “ctrl”

Alt = old-time Mac users would call this “option” and looks like this: ⌥

Shift = ⇧

Tab = ⇥

Now, let’s dive right in.

Basics

The obvious shortcuts you’ve probably heard about even if you’ve never used a computer before:

Cmd-X: Cut and copy to clipboard

Cmd-C: Copy to clipboard

Cmd-V: Paste the contents of clipboard.

Navigate quickly to a folder in Finder

When you’re in Finder, there are a number of shortcuts you can use to go directly to a folder.

Cmd-Shift-D goes to Desktop Cmd-Shift-H to your user folder

Cmd-Shift-A to Applications Cmd-Shift-I to iCloud Drive

Cmd-Shift-U to Utilities

Change the Finder view

In a Finder window, use the following shortcuts to change the view for all the items in a folder:

Cmd-1 to display Icons Cmd-2 for List

Cmd-3 for Columns Cmd-4 for Cover Flow

Navigate folders in the Finder

Going through folders in the Finder is especially easy with:

Cmd-[ to move left Cmd-] to move right

Add a selected item to a Finder window sidebar.

Select the item you’d like to add and press Cmd-Option-S.

View a Quick Look slideshow of selected files

First Shift- or Cmd-click the files you want to preview and then press Cmd-Option-Y to see the slideshow.

26

Find anything

Use Cmd-F to search for something. In most applications, including word processors and web browsers, it’s used to search for bits of text on the page you’re on. Cmd-F in Finder opens a new Finder search window, with the cursor already in the search box.

Invoke Spotlight from anywhere

Press Cmd-Space from anywhere to pull up the Spotlight search bar.

Quickly open Accessibility options

Your Mac has a number of features, such as the ability to invert colors on the screen, to help those who have additional needs when it comes to using a computer. To access them quickly, press Cmd-Option-F5.

27

Switch applications quickly

Press Cmd-Tab and keep holding Cmd to pull up the macOS application switcher. Press Tab again to highlight the next app and let go when you reach the app you want to switch to. Pressing Cmd-Tab and letting go of both immediately switches to the next app without further interaction.

Open any application’s Preferences

Press Cmd-comma to open any application’s Preferences window.

Open the Get Info window

Get Info is available for every file and folder on your Mac and provides information such as the size of the file and the application that will be used by default. To open this window, click on the file or folder and press Cmd-I.

28

Show or hide the Dock

Press Cmd-Alt-D to show or hide the Dock in any application.

Note: this doesn’t work when applications are in full-screen mode.

Add a Finder item to the Dock

Select the item and press Ctrl-Shift-Cmd-T.

Invoke AirDrop

AirDrop is a great tool for transferring files quickly between Macs or between a Mac and an iOS device. To get to it right away, press Cmd-Shift-R in the Finder.

Undo

This one is a huge timesaver and can get you out of trouble, depending on the app you use it in. Press Cmd-Z to undo your most recent action. In apps that allow multiple undos, press it again to move back another step and so on. To redo something you’ve undone, it’s either Cmd-Shift-Z or Cmd-Y, depending on the app.

Navigate text

Press Alt-Right Arrow to jump a word or Cmd-Right Arrow to jump to the end of a line.

Alt-Left Arrow and Cmd-Left Arrow jump backwards a word and a line, respectively. To select text as you jump, hold down the Shift key.

Find misspelled words in a document

Press Cmd-semicolon to have misspelled words highlighted.

Select all

To select everything in a document or folder, press Cmd-A.

Paste in the correct style

While Cmd-V will paste whatever is in the clipboard, it does so in the style of the document you copied from. To paste text in the style of the document you’re pasting into, press Cmd-Option-Shift-V.

Take a screenshot

Press Cmd-Shift-3 to screenshot the whole screen. To grab a selection, press Cmd-Shift-4 and drag over the part of the screen you want to grab. To take a shot of a single window, press Cmd-Shift-4 then press Space and place the camera icon over the window you want to grab and click on it.

!"# $%& %'(" $")* %&+ )%(,- % ($.--&(/", 0& "&- 1"2-3 45 *"# %++ ,/- 6,.' 7-* ," ,/- (/".,$#,( %8"2-9 0, :0'' )%(,- ,/- ($.--&(/", ," ,/- $'0)8"%.+.%,/-. ,/%& (%20&; 0,3 <". -=%1)'-9 6,.'>61+>?/05,>@ :0'' ,%7- % ($.--&(/", "5 ,/- :/"'- ($.--& %&+ )%(,- 0, ," ,/- $'0)8"%.+3 A" )%(,- 0, 0&," *"#. +"$#1-&,9 B#(, ).-(( 61+>C3

Open a new tab in Safari (or any other web browser)

Press Cmd-T to open a new tab. If you close a tab by accident, Cmd-Shift-T will re-open it.

Zoom into a web page

In Safari, Firefox, or Chrome, you can make the contents of a web page larger or smaller using Cmd and either the + or - keys, depending on whether you want to zoom in or out. This also works in some other apps.

Zoom in anywhere

To make the universal zoom work, you’ll need to go to System Preferences, then click the Accessibility pane and choose the Zoom option, checking all the boxes. After that, you can press Cmd-Option-Plus to zoom in anywhere. Cmd-Option-

Minus will zoom out in stages. To return to 100%, press Cmd-Option-8.

Open Display Preferences

Press Option-F2 to show the Display Preferences window.

Open Sound Preferences

Press Option-F12 to show Sound Preferences.

34Adjust the volume in small incrementsPress Option-Shift-Volume Key to move the volume of your Mac’s audio up or down by smaller increments than just using the volume key alone.

Put your Mac to sleep

Hit Option-Cmd-Power (or Ctrl-Option-Cmd-Eject) and your Mac will go to sleep, gently and effortlessly.

Shut down your MacTo quit open programs and shut down your Mac without needing to hit a confirmation button, press Ctrl-Option-Cmd-Power (or Ctrl-Option-Cmd-Eject). This will simply shut down your Mac, safely and securely.

Restart your MacIf you want to restart your Mac, hit Ctrl-Cmd-Power (or Ctrl-Cmd/Eject). This will reboot your Mac.

Keep on learning

Presented above are introductory shortcuts, just one level above the ones everyone is used to. Once you learn them and use them daily, you’ll notice how your workflow suddenly starts to speed up. Soon enough, it would be time to step up you game with a collection of intermediate time-savers. But more on this later.

The Trackpad

Vocab:

Trackpad or touchpad – a pointing input device that has a flat surface capable of detecting finger motions and translate them into commands. BetterTouchTool – a tool for customizing input devices, third-party.

No matter what you think of the keyboards on Apple's laptops, their huge, luxurious, Multi-Touch, Force Touch trackpads can't be beat. And macOS includes tons of handy trackpad gestures that you might not be using already. You can left-click, tap to click, select text, sweep every window out of the way to reveal your Desktop files, and so much more.

Common trackpad gestures on macOS

If you've got a Mac laptop, go to System Preferences and open the Trackpad pane. It's simply packed with gestures you might not be using that can really speed up some tasks on your Mac.

There's no mystery to these options, either. As you mouse over or select each gesture, a video preview on the right shows exactly what will happen. It's definitely worth a few minutes to watch all the previews and decide which gestures could work for you.

Some gestures even have options you can select in a drop-down menu. For example, in the Point & Click section, you can enable the Secondary Click gesture by checking its box, and then the drop-down lets you choose if that secondary click will be a two-finger tap or a click in a specific corner of the trackpad.

Here are some useful built-in gestures you might not be using. You can enable and customize them in System Preferences > Trackpad.

Look up & data detectors. This lets you select a word and then Force-click (or click with three fingers) to look it up in your Mac's dictionary and thesaurus. Find it in the Point & Click tab.

Tap to click. Check this box and you can click with just a tap of your finger, instead of needing to press down hard enough to hear the sound and feel the haptic feedback.

Scroll direction: Natural. Uncheck this box in the Scroll & Zoom tab if you want scrolling on your trackpad to work the same as it does with a mouse: Swipe up to scroll up, swipe down to scroll down. If this box is checked (and it is by default), scrolling works like it does on your iPhone and iPad: Swipe up to scroll down, and swipe down to scroll up. I uncheck this box within about 2 seconds of getting a new Mac, but it's really a personal preference.

Rotate: When you're editing a photo that needs to be rotated, this gesture in

the Scroll & Zoom tab lets you just turn the photo by rotating two fingers on the trackpad. It snaps into alignment at 90, 180, and 270 degrees, but you can stop anywhere you like.Notification Center. In More Gestures, this gesture lets you open the Notification Center with a quick swipe of two fingers from the right edge of your trackpad, like you're pulling in Notification Center from off the side of the screen.

Mission Control and App Exposé. If you tend to keep too many apps or just too many windows open, you need these two options in More Gestures. Mission Control lets you swipe up with four fingers to see every window you have open, across all apps. Swipe down with four fingers, and App Exposé displays the windows you have open in the current app.

More trackpad options in Accessibility

You can also access lots of useful trackpad options in Accessibility. One of such is the ability to select text by dragging three fingers over it, instead of trying to hold down trackpad with your thumb while dragging your index finger across the text, which tends to make your hand cramp up after a while.

This is found in System Preferences > Accessibility > Mouse and Trackpad. First, you can adjust the double-click speed and specify a delay before folders spring-load when you hold a file over them. But the real magic is found when you click Trackpad Options.

Inside that menu is a checkbox to "Enable dragging" and a drop-down that lets you select "three-finger drag."

It takes a little practice before it's second nature. But that gesture lets you rearrange windows by dragging their title bar with three fingers, plus select text by dragging it with three fingers. Once you have the text selected, you can even drag it to a new place with another three-finger drag gesture.

Control your Mac apps with custom gestures

While System Preferences controls trackpad gestures that work across macOS, you can also create gestures to control features in the apps you use the most.To do that, you’ll need to install BetterTouchTool. The app even lets you add app-specific features as Touch Bar buttons, so they're always right at your fingertips. The Touch Bar is contextual, so once you get it set up for each app you use, the buttons on it will change as you move from app to app.

BetterTouchTool lives in your Mac's menu bar, where it can let you set up new trackpad gestures, customize other input devices, and have your windows snap to specific areas of the screen.

Tip:Buy BTT remote control app for $1.99 on the App Store and use it with BetterTouchTool to control gestures on Mac from your mobile devices.

The Dock

Vocab:

Dock – one of the core features of Mac’s graphical user interface that’s used for launching and switching between apps.

At the bottom of your Mac’s screen, you’ll see a colorful line with app icons – the Dock. It’s basically a home to apps you use a lot as well as those that are running at the moment.

Adapting to your needs, the Dock changes as you want it to. You can fully customize the Dock’s position and size, hide it completely, pick the apps you want to keep and remove the rest. It’s your workflow dictating the rules here.

Customize the Dock’s position

Apple’s native app launcher is located at the bottom of a Mac’s screen. But you can change it by moving the Dock to the left or right. This way, you win additional vertical space for your windows. To change the location:

Click on the Apple icon and open System Preferences.
Select Dock.
Choose the preferred option under Position on screen: Left, Right, or Bottom.

Hide the DockStill too distracting? You can set the Dock to hide automatically when you don’t use it. The app launcher will appear on the screen again if you hover the cursor over the spot where it’s normally located. To turn it into a ghost, access the Dock settings as described above. Tick the box next to “Automatically hide and show the Dock.” Enjoy the emptiness of your screen.

Add and remove items from the Dock

Maybe you don’t see the point to keep Photos in the Dock. Or you want to substitute it for that superstar app you’ve just downloaded. Here’s how to remove items from the Dock:

Drag the app, file, or folder from the Dock.
Let go of the item once you see the word “Remove” appearing above it.
See it disappear in the abyss of your new Mac.

To enrich your Dock with apps:

Launch Finder > Applications.
Choose the app you want to add, drag it to the dock, and let go.

To permanently keep the app that’s running in the Dock, right-click on the icon > Options > Keep in Dock.

In case you’re missing important functionality, do a little digging and get an alternative to the default program – like HyperDock with window previews or uBar for shrinking your Dock.

Search through your data

Vocab:

Spotlight – Apple’s search utility, in-built.

Finder – Default file manager on Mac, in-built.

Lacona – Search tool based on keyboard-driven commands for Mac, third-party.

Once you’re done with data transferring, it’s time to learn about data search.

Mac's search functionality is one of the best around. With the help of some apps and advanced search tips, you can actually find what you're looking for in no time.

There are three ways you can go about searching your hard drive for a file or folder: Spotlight, a Finder window, or Lacona. Let's take a look at all three.

Search with Spotlight

Everything is faster with Spotlight. This built-in tool helps you find apps, photos, documents, and other files with ease.

To perform a search with Spotlight, simply click on the Spotlight icon in the upper right-hand corner (the one that looks like a magnifying glass) or open it by pressing Command + Space and start typing whatever it is you want to find in the search bar. Spotlight will automatically start filtering results as you type.

Narrowing your searches in Spotlight

If you want to narrow the focus of your searches, Spotlight includes a few useful features.

First of all, you can add criteria to a basic search to locate a particular kind of file.

Here's how:

Open Spotlight and start a search.
Click on the plus button on the right side of the window.
In the pop-up menu on the left, choose your search criteria.
Add more search criteria options by clicking the plus button or remove them by clicking the minus button.

Only the items that match all of the search criteria will appear in the results. For instance, if you've selected Kind + Image + .PNG, only PNG images will be displayed.

To quickly access your search options again, click on Save below the search field.

This will save it to a Smart Folder.

The next option at your disposal is to search by the type of items using keywords. Do this by entering "kind:[search item]" after your search — e.g. "Joe Bloggs kind:email." This works for every kind of file or folder.

Finally, you can use metadata attributes contained within files to track down items with a specific name or items that were edited on a particular date.

Here are some examples of metadata attribute searches from Apple support:

trip kind:document searches for the word "trip" in documents only.author:tom searches for all items written by Tom.

meeting date:tomorrow searches for meetings you have planned for tomorrow.

kind:images created:5/16/16 searches for images created on a specific date.

kind:music by:"glenn miller" searches for music by Glenn Miller.

modified:<=6/29/16 searches for items modified on or before a specific date.

Spotlight keyboard shortcuts

To get even more out of the Spotlight feature, make a note of these keyboard shortcuts:

Command + Option + Space to open Spotlight in a Finder window.

Escape to clear the search box or close the Spotlight menu.

Command+Return to open the location of the first search item.

Command+I to get information on a search item.

Command + Option while hovering the cursor over the item to show path of a search result.

Command + Arrow Up or Command + Arrow Down to jump categories.

Hover the cursor over the item and press Command to show a preview of search results.

Search with Finder

Finder, like Spotlight, is a simple way to find files. The tool also lets you organize folders and files according to your preferences. You can open Finder by clicking on the Finder icon in the Dock.

When it comes to finding what you're looking for, Finder works in exactly the same way as Spotlight. All of the search narrowing tips that we talked about above can also be applied here.

By default, files are displayed in Finder as icons. If you'd prefer to list them alphabetically, select View > List from the menu bar or click on the List icon. Use the same method to display items in columns, or in Cover Flow.

To edit the sidebar so that it displays shortcuts to your preferred items, simply drag them in or out of the sidebar.

Search with Lacona

Mac's built-in search functionality gets the job done for basic searches, but if you're looking for a more robust, feature-filled alternative to the Spotlight and Siri, you can try Lacona. The app is incredibly intuitive and blisteringly quick. Developers call it "what Siri for Mac could have been," and the first time you use it, you'll see why.

Once installed, you can call up Lacona by pressing a key and type in whatever it is that you want to do. In the case of this article, we're suggesting you use it to easily find files, but you can also use it to open apps, play music, send texts, schedule events, translate phrases, and much more.

See also:

The more you use your Mac to store files, the easier it becomes to accidentally delete things that you want to keep. Here are tips on how to recover lost data on Mac.Search through PDFs

PDFs especially can be hard for your Mac’s standard search feature to handle. So you’ll need to install PDF Search for that.

This lightweight tool specializes in PDF formats, and is able to search the

contents of hundreds of files at once. Plus, unlike the competition, it’s able to search not just by exact keywords but keyword relevance. Backed up with a suite of annotation and saving features, it helps ensure that the relevant details for any project are only a few keystrokes away.

The app shows a new way to search PDF documents on your Mac. With innovative tools like page and power ranking, error recognition, and iOS sync, it brings an unseen level of control to your file management. Here’s how to use it best.

Index your folders to start search PDFs

To search PDF files, you’ll need to have the app index. You can index as many folders as you need. To start, click the PDF Scanner icon in the menu bar and go to the gear icon’s drop-down menu. Select Preferences and click over to the Search Folders tab.

Use the + and - buttons to choose which folders to index. When you’re ready, hit Apply.

Search for text inside multiple PDF files

Once you have your folders indexed, you can search them for individual words and phrases. How can you search for specific words in a PDF?

Click the menu bar icon and type your search terms into the text field, then hit Enter. You’ll instantly be shown where your term occurs, highlighted in yellow.
Use the arrows to cycle through each instance, or use the panel at left to jump to a particular page.

Mark up any PDF text

Once you’ve hunted down the information you need, the app can help ensure you don’t lose track of it. Highlight any text in a PDF document by using the Pen icon. Use the drop-down menu to change the highlight color or to underline or strikethrough text. Once you’ve made a change, the app will automatically prompt you to save your edits, so the next time you open the PDF you’ll be able to see your annotations.

How to use Finder on your Mac

Vocab:

Finder — a default utility that helps you see and organize files on Mac. macOS Mojave — the 15th version of Apple’s operating system released in September 2018.

The first thing you see when you launch a Mac is Finder—a smiling face in the Dock that gives you access to all files, tags, and locations on Mac. Click on the Finder icon and it will open a fully customizable window with the information about your files.

See also:

For more details on how to manage windows on Mac, check this section.

In this guide, we’ll tell you how Finder handles your files ecosystem in a smart way. So that you keep everything at hand.

Using Finder views on Mac

To simplify your Mac life, Finder has four custom views that allow you to look at files in different ways: icon, list, column, or cover flow. Some of them will seem

more convenient to use in your workflow than the others. But we recommend to try all of them for different use cases to make the most out of it.

Icon view

Basically, it’s your desktop. In the Icon view, you get a layout where each file and folder is displayed as an icon. The biggest advantage of the Icon view is that you can flexibly rearrange items across your Finder window.

It’s also visually appealing, with options for customizing background image, text, icon size, etc.

List view

If you need to see the most extensive information about your files in the Finder window, List view is the right fit. Apart from the icons and file names, it also shows the size, file type, and date added/date last opened. So it makes sense to choose the List view if you need to see the date for each file in Finder.

Column view

The best way to focus on file hierarchy is to use the Column view. It allows you to see subfolders for each folder, tracking the path of every separate item on your Mac. What’s more, the Column view is an easy way to change the order or remove files and folders without opening them.

Cover flow view

Last but an interesting one, Cover flow view is the novelty introduced in macOS Mojave. The view brings icon thumbnails into focus—flip through icons and see

detailed specifications for each of them on the right side of the window. It’s particularly helpful if you want to have a closer look at album or book covers and images.

Organize your desktop with StacksAnother Finder update that arrived with Mojave is Stacks functionality. Stacks automatically organize your desktop files by category, so that you keep it clean and easy to navigate.Here’s how you organize files with Stacks:

Activate Stacks in the menu bar of Finder: View > Use Stacks.
Alternatively, right-click on your desktop and select Use Stacks.
Click on the stack to view all files (the stack icon will appear as a folder with an arrow).
Option-click on any stack to break all stacks into separate files.
Select “Group Stacks by” option in the Finder menu bar and customize how your stacks should be sorted—by kind, date, or tags.

Preview and use Quick Actions (macOS Mojave and later)

The Preview pane accessible from the Finder menu allows to view detailed specifications to files as well as apply changes such as rotating or merging PDFs —without opening the files. Note that such Quick Actions are available only in macOS 10.14 and later.

To access the Preview pane, go to the Finder menu > View > Show Preview. For Quick Actions, select a file in Finder and click on the more icon > Customize. This will open a list of options.

See also:

Finder also has robust search functionality, which gives you a quick access to files on Mac. Here’s how you search through you data with Finder.

How to create a new text file in any folder

Vocab:

Automator — an app for creating workflows and scripting your actions, native.

Terminal — a command line interface for Mac.

TextEdit — Apple’s text editing program, native.

TextSoap — a text cleaner for Mac, third-party.

Declutter — file organization utility for Mac, third-party.

The option you’ve probably used a lot on Windows but can’t use on Mac is creating a new file by right-clicking on any part of the desktop. There are easy alternatives, though.

Automate file creation with Automator

Automator, a workflow creator for Mac, is one of the options for creating text files. The app puts a dedicated program on your computer that you can create based on AppleScript in a few clicks.

Here’s how you make an app for text file creation:

Open Automator and select Applications as a destination for your app.
Select “New document” to create a new application.
Choose “Application” as a type of document.

Once you open the app input, select “Run AppleScript” from the Actions pane and drag it to the right side of the window.
Type the script you see at the image below in the AppleScript box and save it (Automator menu > File > Save).

Ensure the destination and file format is set to “Application” when saving.
Open the Applications app with Finder and drag the app you just saved to the toolbar.
Go to a folder and create a new text file with a click.

See also:

For more custom workflows you can create with Automator, check outApple’s Automator User Guide.How to create new text files with TerminalUsing a simple command, you can also create text files via Terminal. Here’s how you set it up:

Open Finder and choose a folder where you want to save your text file in the left pane.
Go to Finder menu and select Services > New Terminal at Folder.

In Terminal, type the command “touch MyFile.txt” and press Enter.
The file named MyFile.txt will appear in your selected folder (you can customize the name in the command if you like).

How to create new files in text editors for Mac

If you want to kill two birds with one stone—not only create, but also edit, share, and markup in a text doc—you need dedicated software.

Without installing any third-party apps, you can create docs in TextEdit, Apple’s default program. Access the app via Applications, open a doc, and save it to a custom folder. You can choose between file formats such as Rich Text doc, Web Page, Word, etc.

If you are looking for editing perks, TextEdit’s functionality is too basic. The market is huge, though, so you won’t have a problem finding a substitute. For robust cleanup features and markdown, you can use TextSoap — it’s easy, flexible, and deals with a messy text in a few secs.

One you’re done with perfecting your content, choose Save from the top menu and select a destination folder—it’s nothing new.

Tip:So now when you know the easy ways to create text files on Mac, ensure you know how to organize them. Install a file organizer for Mac — like Declutter, an app that automatically puts your files into smart folders.

How to delete and recover data on Mac

Vocab:

iTunes — Apple’s audio playback program, available with macOS until 10.14, native.

iStat Menus — system monitoring tool for Mac, third-party.

CleanMyMac X — Mac utility for cleaning, optimizing, and protecting your computer, third-party.

Carbonite — backup software available by annual subscription, third-party.

Get Backup Pro — backup tool for Mac, available as a lifetime license or part of Setapp subscription, third-party.

AnyTrans — data syncing utility for macOS, iOS, and Android, third-party.

Disk Drill — data recovery solution for Mac, third-party.

If you know the rules, you won’t lose any precious data on Mac. Here’s a comprehensive guide on removing and recovering information—without endangering your privacy.

Uninstalling apps on Mac

To uninstall apps on Mac, you might need to do a bit more than just drag the icons to the Trash. While many apps leave leftovers behind, it’s important to find a way to remove every trace. Here’s an ultimate guide on how to uninstall apps on Mac – completely and irreversibly.

If you're anything like us, you install loads of apps on your Mac, always trying to find the best tool for the job and keen to try out new ones.

That, inevitably, means you have a hard drive or SSD full of applications you never use and which are sitting there taking up disk space.

Your Mac’s performance directly depends on how well you can run cleanups, freeing up valuable storage. In case you’ve recently switched from Windows, we recommend you forget every app removal strategy you’ve used before. With Mac, it’s all different. And lucky for you – much easier.

Uninstall apps on Mac vs Windows

To install and anchor a program in Windows, you have to use a native installation service. The same should be used to remove an app. If you simply remove the app folder, you’ll leave behind all the entries and files associated with the app in question. Because a user might not know where these files are stored, it’s impossible to remove apps without Windows Installer.

Uninstalling apps on Mac entails fewer security risks. Plus, you can choose your own way to completely delete apps.

When you install an app on Mac, the program itself will be stored separately from configurations – in /Applications. Therefore, you can easily access every app and associated system files, as well as delete the whole program folder from there. In case there are any leftovers, you can clean them away separately or use automated solutions.

How to delete an app on a Mac

The most popular misconception about removing apps on Mac is that it's enough to move the app icon into the Trash bin. For images, videos, and files that is enough but that is not the case with apps. Applications store lots of files in various places on your Mac, things like storing preferences and user data. To remove an app completely, you need to remove all of those files too.

There are three common ways to get rid of apps on Mac: manually, with Apple’s native uninstaller, or using third-party software.

How to delete applications from Launchpad

A native app launcher is the easiest shortcut to removing macOS applications.

Here’s how it works:

Open Launchpad (press F4 or click on the rocket icon in Dock).
Find the app by typing its name.
Press Option and confirm you want to delete the app.

How to delete applications from Launchpad

As an alternative, you can uninstall programs using Finder. Quick and stress-free:

Open Finder (click the first icon on the left in your Dock).
Select Applications.
Locate the program you want to remove and move it to the trash bin.
Empty the Trash or remove a specific app from the trash bin (locate > right-click on the app > Delete Immediately).

Whichever of these two methods you use, neither helps you get rid of logs and associated system files.

How to completely delete an app manually (the hard way)

We started this article by telling you it's not enough to drag the app to the Trash but it's how you begin. Here’s your guide to manually removing a program:

Drag the app icon or folder to the Trash bin.
Locate associated files and preferences: Open Finder and click on Go > Go To Folder > type '~/Library' > Go.
Go to Preferences and drag any files with the same name as your application to the Trash.

Access Application Support folder and do the same.
From your user Library, access the Go menu again and choose Computer.
Click on your startup drive in the window that opens and then select Library.
Repeat the steps above – search Preferences and Application support for files with the name of the app and delete them.

Here's a list of all places you should look for files:

Application support files are located in ~/Library/Application
Support Caches can be found in /Library/Caches/ and ~/Library/Caches
Plugins are located in ~/Library/Address Book Plug-Ins/
Library can be found in ~/Library/
App preferences are located in ~/Library/Preferences/
Crashes are found in ~/Library/Application Support/CrashReporter/
App saved states are located in ~/Library/Saved Application State/
Binary and dock icons are located in /Applications/

Repeat for every app you want to delete.

Once you've deleted one app like that, you can go through the same process again for every app you no longer want on your Mac.

The easy way to completely delete apps from your Mac (the automated method)

Manual cleanup is not a safe (or easy) procedure to perform, so you might want to opt for a ready app uninstaller.

Using an app that will do all the hard work for you, you can save lots of time and effort. For instance, CleanMyMac X will scan your Mac for all the files associated

with any app you choose and delete them all at the press of a button.

Here’s how you delete an app with CleanMyMac X:

Open Setapp and run CleanMyMac X.
Look on the side bar for the Application section and click Uninstaller – you'll see the window fill up with all the apps on your Mac.
Locate the app you want to remove and click on the box next to its name. You'll see all the files associated with the app listed in the window.
Click Uninstall at the bottom of the window to remove the whole program.

You can remove multiple apps at once, including corresponding files and preferences.

Now you know how it works, you can click on the checkbox next to every app you want to remove and when you're done, click Uninstall. They'll all be removed at once.

Dealing with heavy apps without deleting

There are quite a few apps that brutally abuse your drive space with cache files. Xcode, Sketch, Final Cut, Photoshop, modeling and architecture software, you name it. For instance, Xcode generates junk even when you don't use it. To see if one of your apps is being greedy space-wise, you can use CleanMyMac X System Junk module.

Open the app and run a System Junk scan. Then go to Review Results and you'll see apps with overgrown cache files ready for cleanup. Select them, click Clean and have one less problem on your Mac.

Reset a faulty app instead of uninstalling

There are a couple of reasons to reset apps rather than delete: The app is buggy and crashes but you still need it, or the app is a system utility.

System utilities are impossible to delete but it doesn't mean they can't cause trouble and misbehave. In this case, you can reset them.

There is a reset option in CleanMyMac X. Go to the Uninstaller tab, choose the app in question, tap the right-click and choose Application reset.

This will remove all the additional files associated with the app and just leave the main file in your Applications folder. That will reset the app back to the state it was in when you first downloaded it.

Tip:Application reset also helps with apps that have started to accumulate too many resources. You can check on that using iStat Menus app. But keep in mind that all app data gets purged in a reset so you'll lose preferences and usage history if it was stored on your Mac.How to recover deleted files after emptying the Trash

If you accidentally delete a file you didn't mean to trash, don't panic. It’s happened to us all. You spend all day working on a text document or a spreadsheet and you save it to the Desktop to make it easier to find later. Then, at the end of the day, in an attempt to tidy up, you drag it to the Trash and without thinking about it, click Empty Trash. With a crunch, your whole day’s work is gone.

If only you’d started running Time Machine yesterday rather than tomorrow. If only you’d made a back up earlier in the day. If only.

What should you do first if this happens?

Thankfully, all is not lost.

It is possible, even if you haven’t taken precautions such as using Time Machine to recover files, photos, audio, music, emails you’ve dragged to the Trash and emptied. The first thing to do is… nothing! That’s right, don’t do anything else on your Mac. You need the disk’s file structure to remain exactly as it was when you emptied the Trash.

You might not realize, but files you delete from your computer aren't actually *gone* until those bytes on the hard drive are written over with new data. So

between your Mac's built-in tools and handy utilities like Disk Drill and CleanMyMac X, there's almost always a way to get a mistakenly deleted file back.

How to recover accidentally deleted files

How to recover deleted files after emptying the Trash? Here's what to do when you experience the stomach-sinking feeling of deleting a file you didn't want to delete.

See if the file was really deleted

It's possible you just moved your file to the Trash, which is just a holding pen. Files aren't deleted all the way until they're emptied from the Trash. So check there by clicking the Trash icon in your Mac's Dock. If your file is there, just drag it out to your Desktop, or to another folder in the Finder.

It's also smart to run a quick Spotlight search for your file—maybe you just moved it to iCloud by accident. Press Command-space and type the name of the file to see what your Mac can find. If you see it in the results, click it to open it, or press Command while you click the file to show where it's located in the Finder.

You can also ask Siri on the Mac to show you files you worked on today, or this week, or all your Pages documents, or some other search query that could turn up your file. I ask Siri, "Show me files I worked on today" quite often, and it's very handy.

Recover deleted files with Time MachineEven files that were fully deleted from the Trash are still accessible in your Time Machine backup.Time Machine backs up all of your files and folders for safe keeping. You can store your folders, or a whole hard drive in a cloud-storage folder or an external hard drive. Enabling it is simple (connect the device first if you are using an external drive):

Go to System Preferences > Time Machine.
Click Select Backup Disk and choose which disk you’d like to use for your backups.
Check the Back Up Automatically box to enable automatic backups of your Mac to your chosen disk, cloud storage or external hard drive.

Now, if you’ve done the unthinkable and deleted something you really need in the trash, here is how you get it back from Time Machine (if the storage is another hard drive then that will need connecting to the Mac first):

Go to System Preferences > Time Machine.
Check the box next to Show Time Machine in the menu bar.
Click on the Time Machine icon, then click Enter Time Machine.
Find the file or folder you’d like to recover, then click Restore. Time Machine will copy the file or folder back to its original location.

Recover deleted files from a backup

It’s always better to avoid having to recover a file you’ve put into the Trash. The best way to do that is to back up your main disk regularly.

Time Machine is incredibly convenient, but maybe you back up your Mac another way. For instance, a bootable backup, which you can create with Get Backup Pro, has an extra advantage: If your Mac’s own hard drive dies, you can boot your system from the backup drive, and recover files individually, or copy the entire drive to a new drive or a new Mac. Depending on how you’ve deleted something, and whether it was backed-up first, some of the options above might be open to you. With Carbonite, another popular solution, you can set up automatic backups for your videos for a flat fee.

If you’re looking for a fast way to back up your iPhone, there’s a solution – an app called AnyTrans. Not only does it allow to run instant backups, according to your custom schedule, but also to back up specific files, and transfer data across devices.

Restore deleted photos on Mac with Photos app

How to recover deleted photos? When you delete a photo from the Photos app on your Mac, that photo isn't moved to the regular Trash. Instead, it stays in a little trash can inside the Photos app, called Recently Deleted. Photos hang around in the Recently Deleted folder for 30 days before they're deleted automatically.

So if you deleted a photo less than 30 days ago, it's probably still in Recently Deleted, which you'll find in the Photos app's sidebar, under Albums. Find it and select it there, and then click the Restore button to move it back to its original location in your Photos library.

Recover music in iTunes

When you delete a track from your iTunes library, you're asked if you want to simply remove it from your library, or move the song to the Trash. If you tell iTunes not to trash the file, the song is removed from your iTunes library but the actual file stays where it has always been. That means you can open a Finder window and navigate to ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media, where you'll find all your music and videos neatly organized.

Find the file you removed from iTunes, and just drag it onto the iTunes icon in your Dock to add it back to your library

If you told iTunes to move the file to the Trash, you can find it there and drag it back to your Desktop to recover it. Then, open iTunes > Preferences > Advanced, and make sure the box that says "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library" is checked. Then you can drag the recovered file from your Desktop back onto the iTunes icon in your Dock, and the file will be added to your iTunes library, and copied into its proper place in the iTunes Media folder too.If the original file has been deleted from the Trash (either by accident or automatically, after 30 days), open your iTunes Media file in Time Machine and navigate back in time to before you deleted it (as outlined here), or recover it from another backup.

Restore older versions of a document

Many Mac apps - such as Text Edit, Preview, iWork, and others - keep older versions of files you've been working on, using a versioning feature built into macOS. This trick doesn't work on a file you deleted, but rather to restore an earlier version of a file—as in, you changed something and saved the file again,

then decided you wanted undo all those changes.

Open the file, and then in the menubar, choose File > Revert To > Browse All Versions.
You'll see a Time Machine-like interface showing all the versions of that file, going back in time.
You can scroll back to the one you want and click Restore.

Tip:If you hold the Option key down, the Restore button changes to Restore a copy, and you'll wind up with both the older version and the new one.

How to recover a file from your Mac when you don’t have a backup

If you didn't back up your files, and you don't use Time Machine, you can still recover deleted files if they haven't been overwritten by new data just yet. You just need some recovery software.

There’s a utility called Disk Drill, which scans your Mac's hard drive for deleted files. If the file is on your boot drive—and let's face it, it probably is—Disk Drill will even walk you through three options to do this safely. You'll need to temporarily disable High Sierra's file system protection, create a recovery boot drive, or connect to another Mac, but everything's explained very clearly.

Once your drive has been scanned, it's easy to sort the results to find your file, preview it with Quick Look, and restore it back to its previous location. Disk Drill can even extract items from inside an iOS device backup.

When you realize you need a deleted file back, time is of the essence. After all, if you wait too long, new data could overwrite the deleted file on your hard drive.

You can recover files from any storage device on your Mac safely and effectively with just several clicks:

Step 1: Plug in an external storage deviceIt doesn’t matter whether it’s a flash drive, an external hard drive, or even an SD card. Anything will do, so long as it’s got enough free space to hold the file you want to recover. The key point is that you should never attempt to recover a file to the same disk you deleted it from.

Step 2: Launch recovery appWith the external storage disk plugged in, launch Disk Drill. Click on your Mac’s hard drive (not the disk you just plugged in) and click Recover. Wait. Depending on the size of your Mac’s startup disk and how often you use it and delete files from it, the scan could take a little while. The good news is that as your Mac’s disk isn’t corrupted, a Deep Scan shouldn’t be necessary.

Step 3: Review the results

When the scan is finished, you’ll see all the files Disk Drill has found listed in the window with information including the file name, type and modification date. There may be lots of files to look through, so use the filter at the top of the window. Click on the dropdown menu above the file path and select the type of file – JPEG, TXT, etc. – you’re looking for. That will narrow down the search. If you’re still having trouble, use the other two filters to set the file size and the time it was deleted.

Step 4: Preview the file to confirm

When you’ve found the file you accidentally put in the Trash, click the eye icon next to the file path to preview it. If the file is a text document or spreadsheet, check over it carefully to make sure it’s ok. If it’s a movie or music file, watch or listen to it all the way through to make sure the whole file is intact. If you’re happy that it’s ok, press the Recover button.

Step 5: Recover file from the Mac Trash

When you click Recover, you’ll be asked to choose where you want to save the recovered file. This is where the spare disk comes in. Navigate to that disk and choose it as the location. Follow the instructions onscreen to complete the recovery process. When it’s finished, your file will be saved on the external disk. You can now copy it back to your main hard drive and put it wherever you like (but not in the Trash!).

While Mac has capabilities for bringing your lost data back, it’s always better to have backups for the most valuable assets.

Screen and video recording

Vocab:

Snipping tool — a screenshot utility that allows to capture and record screen. Capto — a Mac app for capturing and editing screenshots, third-party. Dropshare — a Mac app with a storage for screenshots and recordings, third-party.

CleanShot — a snipping tools that allows to hide desktop icons, third-party. QuickTime Player — Apple’s media player with a feature of screen recording, native.

Have you ever guided your grandma, who called asking for help, through zipping a file and attaching it to an email? Like, with words? It's literally painful.

There's good reason why "show, not tell" is the rule of thumb for everything from UX design to tech support. So if you need to explain to someone how to do things on Mac, there's no better way than a snapshot, screencast, or animated GIF. In this post we'll show you how to do all three.

How to grab a screenshot on Mac

Everyone knows there's a keyboard shortcut for that, but clearly not everyone remembers what it is, judging by some 100,000 people googling "how to take a screenshot" every month. To capture your Mac’s screen, you can either rely on the macOS native snipping tool or get third-party software that’s good for the job.

Apple’s keyboard shortcuts to capture a screenshot

Here's a quick reminder for you with the combinations that capture screen on macOS:

+ Shift + 3 to take a screenshot of the whole screen
+ Shift + 4 to capture a selected area
+ Shift + 4 + press Space to take a quick screenshot of the active window. The resulting image will appear on your desktop as a .PNG file.

With transition to Mojave, the macOS snipping tool became even handier. The new shortcut has been added, and it’s powerful – covering all the controls you need to capture a screen:

+ Shift + 5 to launch the panel and see the options. They all are close at hand now.

Once you take a screenshot, it instantly appears at the right bottom of your screen as a floating thumbnail. Without digging around, you can edit, annotate, and share screen captures from there.

Why use a third-party screenshot utility

These five shortcuts will suffice if you need to quick screen capture for your

Mac's visible part of the screen. There is a number of limitations, though:

You can’t capture a scrolling Web page using native shortcuts.
In case you have a cluttered desktop, you should prepare it for screen capturing by clearing away the icons.
Apple’s snipping tool lacks easy-access perks and sharing options – all screenshots are automatically saved to desktop.

Luckily, there are some apps that do that, so you should have no trouble finding a good one. Our personal favorites are Capto, a multipurpose screen capture utility for macOS, CleanShot for clutter-free screen recording, and Dropshare to store and share your screenshots.

Is it possible to screenshot my Mac remotely?

If you’re away from your Mac but need to grab a screenshot of your home desktop, you can do this by enabling Screen Sharing.

Go to System Preferences and click Sharing.
Click the Screen Sharing checkbox (if Remote Management is selected you’ll need to deselect it for this to work).
Select the All users or Only these users (if your Mac has multiple users you can choose to give access to specific users or groups).

Now that Screen Sharing is set up, you can access your Mac from another computer. To take screenshot of a remote users desktop:

Open a Finder window. Put the pointer on Shared and click Show.
Click All to see the available computers and select your Mac from the list.
Click Share Screen.
Go to Screen Sharing > Preferences and set the Display to Scale to fit available space or Show full size depending on how large the screen of the computer you’re working on is.
Use the Snipping Tool method to capture a screenshot.

Use snipping tool to capture screenshots

There’s a set of tools that make your screen capturing journey easier.

Use Capto to grab screen on Mac and edit the resulting screenshot the way you like: add captions and arrows, highlight or underline important parts, and whatnot. When you're done, you can save the screenshot in the format and resolution you need or just share it via Mail, Messages, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.

To keep your captures and recordings in one spot, you should try Dropshare. If you use it with Setapp subscription, you should know that Setapp users get a complimentary plan from Dropshare – 10 GB of free storage. Should you take tons of screenshots for any specific task, your disk space won’t drain. What’s more, Dropshare ensures your content travels safe. You can share your screen recordings as password-protected links.

CleanShot – surprise, surprise – helps you take clean screenshots. With this small tool, you can forget about desktop clutter. In a few clicks, hide the icons

and set a custom wallpaper for your screen recordings. Less fuss – tidier screenshots.

Change where screenshots are saved by default

Screenshots are automatically saved to your Mac desktop as .png files and named “Screenshot date at time .png,” where “date” is the current date and “time” is the current time.

If you want to save screenshots to the clipboard instead, press and hold the Control key in addition to the screenshot command keys. So, to save a screenshot of the whole screen to the clipboard, press Control + ⌘ + Shift + 3.

There are, of course, third party utilities that can help you change where screenshots are saved too, but you can also do it using the Terminal. Don’t worry, it’s very easy. Here’s how to change your Mac’s screenshot location:

Create a folder call Screenshots and place it where you want screenshots to be saved.
Go to Applications > Utilities and launch Terminal.
Type: defaults write com.apple.screencapture location
Drag your new Screenshots folder onto the Terminal window after “location”

so that it displays the path of the new folder.

The command should now look something like this: defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/Pictures/Screenshots, where “~/ Pictures/Screenshots” is the path to the folder you created.
Type: killall SystemUIServer
Press the Return key.

Done! All screenshots you take from now on will be saved in that folder. You can open your screenshots with Preview, Safari, or other image editing tools such as Capto.

Change the default name of a screenshot on Mac

Mac screenshots are automatically given a default name of “Screen Shot” plus the date and time that the screenshot was taken. The format isn't very search friendly, especially if you take a lot of screenshots.

Fortunately, you can change the file name to something more suitable with a command line.

Launch the Terminal.
Enter the following command line: defaults write com.apple.screencapture name "Your Chosen Name" and press Enter.
Enter: killall SystemUIServer.

Now, whenever you take a screenshot, it will be saved under your chosen name. If you want to get rid of the date and time, swap out the command in step 2 for “defaults write com.apple.screencapture "include-date" 0.

How to record screen activity in a videoNow, when you create tutorials, tech reviews, or bug reports you want to be able to demonstrate everything that happens onscreen in motion. In such cases, a

simple snapshot won't do. Fortunately, there are a hundred and one apps for that purpose, including Apple's own built-in screen recorder QuickTime.

To make a screen capture video with QuickTime, do the following:

Launch the QuickTime app.
Click File in the menu and select New Screen Recording.
In the window that pops up, hit the white arrow to pick which microphone you want to use and whether or not you want to show mouse clicks.
Hit the red recording button.
Follow the instructions to record the whole screen or a selected area.
To wind up the recording, click the stop button in your menu bar.

After you record the video, you can use File and Edit menus in the menu bar to finalize some basic editing, rename the video, and choose where to save or share it.

QuickTime Player alternativesThere are pros and cons to using QuickTime Player for screen recording. Like most default apps, QuickTime is free and easy to use. You can also record audio through either your Mac’s microphone or an external one, and choose whether or not to show the mouse pointer on screen.

But as many default apps go, QuickTime Player is also somewhat limited in its functionality. The only choice for editing recordings once they’re complete is to trim the beginning and ending. There’s no option to add titles, additional images, or call-outs.

If you want to record your Mac’s system audio, you’ll need additional software to re-route it, so QuickTime thinks it’s coming from an external microphone. Finally, when you’re done recording, the only option is to save it as a movie file — you can’t share it directly to YouTube, for example.

To seriously edit the video you've recorded, you'll need to use another piece of software, so you might as well save yourself the trouble and use one app for both screen capture and post-production.

If you want to know how to record video on Mac easily, try the Capto app we mentioned earlier. Unlike QuickTime, it lets you record screen activity, webcam video, computer audio, and voiceover all at the same time, as well as choosing between recording a portion of your screen or the entire display.

Capto boasts much more editing power too: you can add captions, graphics, and other elements that come in handy in explanatory videos. On top, you can mute, fade in, or fade out both of the audio recording tracks to get professional sound without clicks and keyboard noise.

Here's how to record video from your screen with audio:

Open Capto.
Hit Record at the top of the window and select Screen or Area.
Check the corresponding boxes in the menu that appears to include computer audio, microphone, and camera video.
Hit the red round button to start recording.
Click on the blinking red icon in the menu bar to stop recording.

Now the video is saved in Capto and is ready for editing. You can play with controls on the left to tweak the sound, trim, add annotations, highlight specific areas, adjust the size and placement of the camera video, and so on.

How to capture screen in animated GIFs

While GIFs may be mostly familiar to you from your Twitter feed, they are a surprisingly good way to make animated screenshots for quick how-to's and issue reports. Oftentimes they work even better than video, because they are lightweight and will be automatically played in your email or Slack message. Plus, you can use them in tutorial articles like this one without adding too much weight to the page.

Apple hasn't embraced GIFs yet, although with emoji in the Touch Bar already being a thing, you might as well expect a GIF maker in the next macOS update.

For now, however, you're going to need a third-party tool for animated screen capture. There are free tools like GIF Brewery and GIPHY Capture—unfortunately, most of them have time limitations, though.

For more flexibility, you might try a paid alternative like Gifox. It lives in your menu bar, so when you need animated screenshots, just open it and record a GIF in a few clicks. Gifox gives you plenty of control over how fast your GIF plays, how many times it repeats, and how high the quality is. You can even add a fancy shadow to it.

All that makes creating a GIF screencast pretty easy. Here's how you do it:

Open Gifox from your menu bar.
Select Area or Window in the upper left corner.
Follow the instructions to start recording.
Click the Stop button in the menu bar when you're done.

The app will save your GIF to the folder you choose in Preferences, or to your Dropbox/Google Drive account if you connect it.

Introduction to iTunes and its alternatives

Vocab:

iTunes — a media player developed by Apple, available as a part of macOS (before Catalina).

Apple ID — a personal account you use to access Apple services such as Mac App Store and FaceTime.

Catalina — macOS 10.15 released in September 2019.

Boom 3D — a volume booster and equalizer for Mac, third-party.

iTunes media player has been available for many years now, and it has expanded a lot. Since 2003, the creators at Apple have continued to develop new ways of improving the listening experience. Now iTunes offers more than just tunes — it plays the role of being a central hub for entertainment.

iTunes allows you to manage and control music in an instant so that you’ve got the soundtrack to suit your mood. Whether you’ve just bought an Apple device or ready to put your media in one place, or want to expand your music library, it’s important to know how to use iTunes for Mac.

The life of iTunes on your Mac has its limits, though. According to the Apple’s announcement at WWDC 2019, the company decided to break up iTunes into three dedicated apps – Apple Music, Podcasts, and Apple TV.

Whatever your situation, the guide below will help you answer how does iTunes work, how to open an iTunes account, explain all the iTunes tutorials and iTunes troubleshooting tips as well as tell you how to deal with iTunes-less macOS.

How to use iTunes on macOS before Catalina

Once you login to iTunes, under the iTunes account menu you’ll find your media library where you can store all your favorite tracks and artists. Using iTunes allows you to organize your music library on Mac any way you want, then sync it with your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, or stream to Apple TV.

If you sign in to iTunes store, you can browse different media collections for movies, radio, charts, and playlists recommendations created by Apple’s own discovery algorithm. Downloading the content into your iTunes library from any device will make it available for you to enjoy at anytime.

But before you get straight to listening the music you love, you first need to open iTunes account by creating iTunes logins.

Get your iTunes logins in order

Even if you’re not starting from scratch, it’s good to ensure you have the latest version of iTunes so you can have complete access to new content. As iTunes is a part of macOS, simply click on Apple menu ➙ System Preferences ➙ Software Update to verify you’re running the latest version.Now, you’ll need to set up iTunes account, which involves creating an Apple ID — a unique identification number that you’ll use every time you sign in to iTunes account.To create a new Apple ID on Mac:

Open a browser window and go to the Apple ID account page.
Click Create Your Apple ID.
Enter your personal details, a password of your choice, and select your security questions.
Click Continue to confirm.

In most cases, the email address you provide will be your new Apple ID. And chances are that you already have an Apple ID because whenever you set up a Mac (or other Apple device) you're prompted to enter your Apple ID or to create one if you don't have it.

Use Apple ID for the iTunes music login

After you have set up your Apple ID and password, you can use it as a login to open iTunes account.

How to create iTunes store account using an Apple ID:

Open iTunes for Mac.
Choose Account ➙ Sign In from the menu bar at the top of your computer screen.

Enter the Apple ID and password. Hit Enter to sign in to iTunes.

From iTunes you can easily edit your account information, change your payment method, and see your purchase history.

Discover Apple Music in the iTunes store

If you want to feel the full benefits of Apple’s offerings, you’ll want to access the iTunes store, which is now powered by Apple Music.

Signing up for the Apple Music subscription service gives you access to over 50 millions songs. With a pricing model of $9.99 a month for premium users, $14.99 for families, and $5.99 for students, many people ask, “What is iTunes without Apple Music?”

How to sign up to Apple Music on Mac:

Sign in to iTunes store.
Browse ➙ Apple Music ➙ Try It Free, then choose your subscription plan.
Enter your Apple ID and password.
Confirm your details.
Choose genres and artists you like to start curating your collection.

Build your Music library manually

If you decide not to go for an Apple Music subscription, you can still handcraft your iTunes library by purchasing songs and albums one by one.

To purchase a song from the iTunes Store:

Sign in to iTunes store.
Search for a song you want to buy, select it, and then click the Buy Song button in the Price column.
Use the iTunes music library window to control your music, and enjoy.

If you have a collection of music in other places, it just takes a few simple steps to get it all synced up with iTunes.

To copy music from Mac to iTunes:

Use your Apple ID as a login to iTunes.
In the iTunes app on your Mac, open your music library.
From the menu bar at the top of your screen, choose File > Add to Library
Locate a file, or folder to mass upload, then click Open.

How to use iTunes alternatives on macOS Catalina

Once you upgrade to macOS 10.15, your Dock will expand. Apple TV, Apple Music, and Podcasts will appear in it instead of iTunes. The process of using each of the apps is pretty similar to iTunes, so your flow is barely changing. Plus, if you own an iPhone, you’re already used to organizing media collection across separate apps.

Here are a couple of things you need to know if you switch:

iTunes dies, iTunes Store survives. It will live in the sidebar in your Apple Music app and you can use it to buy new things, just as you did before.
You can still use iTunes gift cards with the new apps and the App Store.
Managing your personal account is no different. Click on the account button in the top bar of the Apple app you use and find all the setting there.

Tips and tricks for refining your media on Mac

iTunes or no iTunes, there are things you can do to make the management of your media files easier on Mac. From improving the music quality to moving favorite playlists across devices.

Supercharge your sound system

Now that you have procured your music library, these songs deserve to be listened to in the best quality you can give them. And the easiest way to enhance your listening experience is with 3D audio technology provided by Boom 3D.

Boom 3D is an app with a unique sound-staging algorithm that extracts audio components and adds incredible spatial effects. Normal stereo can feel less realistic than real life, and Boom 3D’s tech completely transforms the way you listen.

To experience real 3D surround sound on your Mac:

Play a song in iTunes.
Open Boom 3D app.
Select the 3D surround button icon.
Toggle the speakers on and off to get the effect of surround sound.

You can drag and drop any song onto Boom 3D’s interface which allows Boom 3D to create virtual sound sources to improve audio listening on headphones.

Turn your iTunes tracks into ringtones for iPhone

If you love custom ringtones, this hack is for you. Here’s an easy way to use iTunes to create a unique iPhone ringtone:

Enter your music library and choose the track you’d like to use as a ringtone.
Right-click the track > Get Info > Options.
Select the start and end time (30 seconds max) and click OK.
Open Preference > General > Import settings.
Set the Import to AAC encoder if it’s not set by default and save the changes.

Go back to the track, right-click, and select Create AAC Version.
You’ll see the file listed twice in iTunes—choose the new one and select Show in Finder.
Change the file name from M4A TO M4R for ringtone.
In iTunes, delete the file you created and replace it by M4R file—you can drag it from Finder.
Once you click to Ringtones, your track should be there—transfer it to iPhone next time you sync.

Back up and transfer music files in one go

Speaking of drag and drop—as it's not always necessary to use iTunes when you want to sync information between your Mac and iOS device—you can use a smart syncing app like AnyTrans, which makes not only file transferring a piece of cake but also work as a media downloader and backup manager.

AnyTrans will surely impress you by instantly creating backups and copies of your iPhone content on your Mac, as well as transferring data across iOS, iTunes, and iCloud.

How to import media from your iOS to Mac and iTunes:

Open the AnyTrans app and follow quick setup instructions.
Connect your iOS device to your computer via the USB cable.
Click the “Connect to iTunes” button.
Select file category you want to transfer. In this case, Music, Movie, or Playlists would be great.
Click the Transfer button that looks like a large arrow to zap them from one device to the other.

Once you’ve waited for the transferring process to complete, you can repeat it for many other file categories that AnyTrans supports.

There’s a world of music out there. iTunes store login and Apple Music are just one method to access it. So explore the ropes, but make sure you experiment to refine your workflow as well.

How to manage cloud drives on Mac

Vocab:

iCloud — a cloud service by Apple.

Google Drive — a file storage and synchronization tool by Google.

Dropbox — a file hosting service that offers cloud storage, synchronization, and personal cloud software.

CloudMounter — a tool that connects cloud storage accounts to Finder, third-party.

There’s a lot of data you’ll want to store on Mac if you use it right. To cleverly manage space, you should learn how to deal with cloud drives. Apple comes with iCloud which gives every Mac user 5GB of free storage. There are tons of possibilities to stretch it with external drives, space usage optimizers, and more.

Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox, Amazon S3 are the most common choices of a cloud drive. Many of us use a few of these cloud storage services to help us safely store important video files, documents, photos, and more in the cloud. Cloud storage allows us to do things like create backups of important information or share files between colleagues at work. The affordability and accessibility of cloud storage makes it a popular choice for sharing and collaborating with others.

In this section, we’ll cover how to set up, sync, and mount cloud drives. So that your Mac space knows no limits.

A quick guide to iCloud

Anyone can have a free 5GB of secure cloud-storage before they run out and either need to delete apps, images or other synced files, or upgrade - whereby you can get anything from 50GB to 2TB of extra storage, costing between $0.99 to $9.99 per month.

Apple iOS devices and Macs are usually set to default sync with iCloud, which means everything from backups - which make it easier to recover and restore a stolen or lost device - to photos, songs, documents and videos end up filling up your iCloud account. If you sync a lot of files and images (always do this over Wi-Fi, so you don’t use all your phones data) then sooner or later, you are going to get an “iCloud Storage is Almost Full” or another similar message, which means you’re quickly running out of space.

Cleverly manage iCloud Storage

When it comes to managing iCloud storage you’ve got a few options. Here are all the ways you can avoid running out of space:

#1: Turn off automatic syncs

Every time your iOS device or Mac is connected to Wi-Fi it updates iCloud with anything new; so whenever you’ve taken a picture, updated a document or downloaded a new song, this change is stored in iCloud. What this means is you’ve got a copy in the cloud, which could be useful if you need a duplicate of something important, such as a treasured picture or important document.

But what if these updates aren't as important? You don’t always need a duplicate of everything. This is what causes iCloud to run out of space, forcing you to delete things or upgrade. Take a proactive approach to managing iCloud, when you turn off automatic syncs on every device, so you can only upload something when you chose. These settings can be easily changed in iPhones, iPads and Macs.

At the same time, make sure iCloud only syncs when connected to Wi-Fi, so you avoid using all your phones data.

#2: If, however, you need a lot of extra storage—upgrade

Apple offers extra iCloud storage from 50GB to 2TB of extra storage, costing between $0.99 to $9.99 per month. However, before you click yes, it might be worth shopping around and seeing who else offers storage space and whether you can get a better deal.

Dropbox, Box and iCloud all provide free (from 2GB to 20GB of free storage) and premium price plans, depending on how much space you need and whether this is for personal or business use.

Dropshare is another alternative, giving you more security and control of your file storage, which can either work in sync with another cloud provider, or you can store and share files directly from and to any device using Dropshare Cloud.

#3: Free up Mac storage space

Macs can get awfully full, especially if you’re using them all the time and have a lot of pictures, music, videos, documents and other files. Students, creative professionals, digital nomads and knowledge economy workers love Macs but don't always like the space restrictions, which is why iCloud storage is often useful until you run out of space.

One way to solve this persistent problem is with CleanMyMac, a popular and easy-to-use app that millions of people are using to find extra space without needing to manually dig through folders and files.

How to use Dropbox on a Mac

A number one cloud-based storage system today, Dropbox essentially made storing data online mainstream. This app simplifies syncing files across different devices and offers an easy way to share photos, folders, or send large files (i.e. too large for emails) to others. Although Dropbox isn’t the only cloud-based storage and syncing service for Mac, it remains extremely popular.

Even though, as a Mac user, you do already have iCloud storage and syncing service right at your fingertips, integrated with your Mac and other iOS devices, there are still reasons for you to download Dropbox for Mac.

Dropbox makes it easy to share whatever it contains, by offering advanced features such as shared folders or the ability to copy a Dropbox link to allow someone to download a file from your folder. Besides, Dropbox is one of the more common cloud services used by third-party productivity apps that could offer you great additional features.

How To Sync Dropbox On Mac Easily

While you can always access your data from the Dropbox website, in the long run, it's easier to install the Dropbox desktop app. Using the Dropbox desktop app means you won't have to manually upload or download files in your Dropbox folder and any time you make a change to a file and are connected to the internet that change will sync everywhere you have Dropbox installed. Dropbox app for Mac works even when you're offline — just like an ordinary folder.

How to install the Dropbox app for Mac

To download Dropbox for Mac, look for the Dropbox installer on dropbox.com. Once the download of the Dropbox installer is complete, you should be able to find it (DropboxInstaller.dmg) in your Mac’s Downloads folder. Open the file to start your Dropbox download app:

Double-click on the Dropbox icon in the installer window.
A warning sign will appear cautioning that Dropbox is an application you downloaded from the internet ➙ click Open to start the installation process.
Once the basic installation is complete, Dropbox will ask you to sign in. If you don’t already have an existing Dropbox account, use the sign-up link near the bottom-right corner of the window and follow the online instructions to set up your Dropbox account.

If all is done right, after you sign in to your Dropbox on Mac, you’ll see a congratulations message for successfully completing the installation.

Now on to your Dropbox folder. To set it up:

Click Open My Dropbox Folder button in the final installer window.
Enter your Dropbox password ➙ then click OK.
Dropbox will add itself to your Finder’s sidebar and deposit a Dropbox for Mac tutorial into your Dropbox folder (a Get Started with Dropbox .pdf file). Take a few moments to read through the guide — it provides a good outline for working with Dropbox.

Tips for using Dropbox on MacUnderstanding how does Dropbox work is easy. Once you install the Dropbox desktop app and set up your Dropbox account, it’ll appear on your computer as a special Dropbox folder, which will become the heart of how Dropbox works. Anything you place inside that folder is automatically copied to the cloud and synced with your other devices that run Dropbox.Note that Dropbox might not automatically copy all the files on your computer

(e.g. when you don’t have enough space) — you might have to pick and choose which ones you want to save.

Transferring files to the Dropbox folder is a matter of seconds. First Dropbox will show a blue icon with circling arrows in the lower left — this means copying the file and uploading it to the cloud. Once it’s done, the icon will turn green and display a check mark. If you wish to transfer multiple files at once:

Hold ⌘ and click on each file you want to move.
Drag one of the files to move all selected ones into the Dropbox folder.

What you don’t have to worry about is how to sync Dropbox. Dropbox for Mac automatically saves all data placed inside the folder across all devices. As long as you can access your account, you can download any file stored in your Dropbox folder on your local machine. For example, you can move pictures you took on your phone to Dropbox and look at them on your Mac in seconds.

One of Dropbox’s strongest features you should definitely benefit from is sharing files with colleagues and family members. To designate files for sharing:

Right-click on the item you wish to share in your Dropbox.
Select the option that says “Share…” with a Dropbox icon next to it.
In the text field below the question “Who do you want to share with?”, type the email addresses of the people with whom you want to share the file.
Grant the permission you want, either view only or with the ability to edit the file.
Once done, you’ll be able to write a message for the recipient(s) if you want to do so. You can also create a link to send to people yourself if you don’t want Dropbox to send the link by email.

Using Dropbox on Mac as pure cloud storage is popular too, as it helps you keep backup copies of important files safe and ready to restore should need be.Dropbox is available in four pricing plans: the first three let you expand the amount of storage you have by referring others to the service. For example, the

100

basic free version of Dropbox will give you 500 MB per referral, expanding the initial 2 GB to a possible maximum of 18 GB of free storage. A Plus plan for $9.99 per month will give you 1 TB of storage space.

How to use Google Drive on a Mac

Google Drive is an online storage solution by Google. It allows you to store and sync data across your devices with its 15 GB of free storage space, while its integration with Google Docs for Mac gives your friends or coworkers access to the files or folders you designate for sharing.

There’s an official Google Drive app for Mac too — an upgraded 2017 version of which is called Backup & Sync and is sometimes referred to as the new Google Drive. Google Drive Backup and Sync download is free and you can expect to install it and have it running in no time and little effort.

How To Set Up And Use Google Drive For Mac

With Google Drive, you can create and edit documents online. But if you rely on Drive for files backup and sync, it’s much more convenient to use the app. To start using Google Drive on Mac, the first thing you need is a Google Drive account.

How to create a Google Drive account

If you have an account on any of Google services, like Gmail, YouTube, or Google Play, then you actually already have a Google Drive account.

Simply log in to a Google Drive website or app with your existing credentials. Or create a Google account for free by following these steps:

Go to google.com/drive and click on the blue Go to Google Drive button.
Click Create Account.
Follow the onscreen instructions to create a new Google account (this will also serve as your new Gmail email address).

101

How to install Google Drive for MacOnce you have a Google account, you can download Google Drive for Mac and use it. Here’s how you can do the Google Backup and Sync download:

Go to google.com/drive and click Download near the top of the page.
Click on the Download button under Backup and Sync.
Read and agree to the terms of service to start the download of Google Drive for Mac.
The Google Drive Installer will be downloaded to your Mac’s Downloads folder.

When the download is complete, double-click the installer (the file is called InstallBackupAndSync.dmg). Then click and drag the Backup and Sync From Google icon to the Applications folder.

How to sync Google Drive on Mac for the first time

The first time you open Google Drive on Mac, you have to go through a few steps to get it set up properly. After that accessing Google Drive will be effortless. But to get things up and running:

102

Launch Google Drive from the Applications folder by clicking on Backup and Sync From Google.
A warning sign will appear cautioning that Google Drive is an application you downloaded from the internet ➙ click Open.
On the welcome to Google Drive window that appears click Get Started.
Sign in to your Google account with your Gmail email address and password.
The Google Drive Installer will display a number of tips about using the app and then add a special Google Drive folder to your Home directory on Mac ➙ click Next.
You can designate items in your Google Drive folder to be shared with anyone ➙ click Next ➙ Done.

The installer will finish by adding a Google Drive menu bar icon and a Google Drive sidebar icon to the Finder. This sets up the two key elements for you to work with Google Drive for Mac: Google Drive folder and Google Drive menu bar icon.Most of the time you’ll use the Google Drive folder — to store items you want to save to the Google cloud as well as share with others. Google Drive menu bar icon is handy for quick access and configuring Google Drive settings.

103

How to use Google Drive menu bar iconThe menu bar Google Drive icon gives you quick access to the Google Drive folder on your Mac, opens Google Drive in your browser, displays recent documents that you have added or updated, and tells you if the Google Drive sync has completed. But more importantly, the menu bar icon contains additional Google Drive settings. To set up Google Drive to your liking:

Click on the Google Drive icon in the menu bar and a dropdown menu will appear.
Click on the vertical ellipsis in the top right corner ➙ choose Preferences from the menu.

The Google Drive Preferences menu lets you configure your Google Drive settings with a three-tab interface.My Mac tab allows you to decide whether you want to keep the default setting and have all the folders in your Google Drive folder synced automatically to the cloud or designate only specific folders for Google Drive sync.

Google Drive tab manages the connection between your Google Drive folder and the cloud. This is where you go in case of Google Drive not syncing. To sync Google Drive folder with the cloud, make sure you’re signed in to your Google account.

Settings tab gives you options to have Google Drive automatically launch when you log in to your Mac, show confirmation messages when shared items are removed from Google Drive, and upgrade your storage to another plan.

How to use Google Drive on Mac

Now that your Google Drive setup is complete, you have access to this additional storage for you to do as you wish. However, one of the best uses would be to link your Google Drive to multiple devices — for easy access from all of them.

104

Also remember that Google Drive lets you create and work with others on documents in Google’s own versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in real-time (called Docs, Sheets, and Slides respectively). To enable collaboration on a Google Docs file, simply tap on Share in the top right corner and enter the names or email addresses of the people you wish to engage.

How to mount cloud storages and web servers locally

Cloud storage services get even better when you can mount them as local drives and thus extend the storage on your computer. Having cloud storage is like having a remote disk for Mac. Since firing your web browser or specific storage service app every time you want to upload or download a stored file can be time-consuming, you can save yourself many hours and stay organized when accessing your cloud-stored files with a locally accessible cloud network drive.

To connect your cloud storage apps to your computer as a local drive, you’ll need an app that can mount cloud drives as disks on your Mac. The CloudMounter app is a good choice, which will allow you to work with files stored online in the same manner as the local files on your computer.

Although your remote drives can be mounted manually, CloudMounter makes it easier to do things like move files between the cloud storage apps without needing to manually copy the files to your computer first.

CloudMounter also keeps your files safe. Even if someone gains access to your account, your cloud files will stay secure with CloudMounter’s AES-256 encryption. Finally, CloudMounter also allows you to set up SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) to mount remote SFTP drives.

How to add Google Drive to Finder

You can add Google Drive to Finder by default by going into your Applications folder and launching Google Drive. You will need to enter your login details for

105

Drive account to your local drive with CloudMounter to have better access to your documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Once you link your account on your computer, you’ll be able to open or move files directly from Mac’s Finder as if they were a part of your local drive.

Open the CloudMounter app by clicking on New Drive.
Click on the Google Drive link in the Connections window.
Enter your Google Drive login details.
Click Mount.
You’ll see your Google Drive appear in your Finder along with your computer’s hard drive.
Click on the Google Drive folder to see all the files from your Google Drive.

To open a file from your Google Drive in your Finder, use the drop-down menu to click View on google.drive.com to have the file open on your browser.How to add Dropbox to FinderBy connecting your Dropbox account to Finder with CloudMounter, you’ll have

106

your Dropbox files within reach from your local computer drive in case you want to open, move, share, delete, or make any other file manipulations. Once you set up your Dropbox account with CloudMounter, you’ll be able to link multiple Dropbox accounts and you won’t need to have dropbox.app installed on your computer.

Open the CloudMounter app by clicking on New Drive.
Click on the Dropbox link in the pop up window.
Enter your Dropbox account log in details.
Click Mount.
You’ll see your Dropbox file appear in the Finder.
Click on the Dropbox folder to see all the files in your Dropbox account.
To share a file or directory from your Dropbox, click on Copy Dropbox Link.

How to add iCloud Drive to Finder

To find files that you’ve downloaded or uploaded using Apple’s cloud storage system, you can access your iCloud Drive from a browser window or directly on the Finder. You don’t need an external app to find your iCloud Drive on your Mac — it should already be built-in to your finder.

Open the Finder on your Mac.
Locate your iCloud Drive icon on the sidebar.

107

There are tools that allow you to access cloud-stored files directly in your local computer file finder without having to individually access each separate cloud storage service through a web browser. Mac storage managers such as the CloudMounter make it easy to bring all your external cloud storage services together from the cloud into your computer’s Finder.

108

AirPlay

Vocab:

AirPlay — a proprietary protocol stack used to transmit audio, video, and screens across Apple devices.

Apple TV — a microconsole and digital media player developed by Apple.

Airplay is the best way to quickly share any digital content to your Apple devices. Popular with Apple TV, it’s a common option for sharing video to your TV screen in real time.

Here are the ways you can benefit from AirPlay:

Use it with Apple TV 4K to enjoy movies and iCloud photos in a terrific quality.

Share presentations right from your Mac if your audience needs them on a big screen.

Get AirPlay-enabled Smart TV from popular providers like Sony or Samsung.

Integrate with HomePod for a better music streaming experience.

How to AirPlay on Mac

The AirPlay icon should appear in your menu bar automatically once a connected device is nearby. If it doesn’t happen, enable the option in System Preferences:

System Preferences > Displays.
Check “Show mirroring options.”
To connect from there, click on AirPlay Display and choose the device.

109

Make sure the device you want to use for AirPlay streaming and your Mac are connected to the same network.

Using AirPlay is not only a pleasure-for-the-sake-of-pleasure thing. Apart from an awesome cinematic experience, mirroring screen is a useful option if you want to share data without copying it. So you get to save lots of precious space on Mac.

110

Intro to macOS and its accessibility features

Vocab:

macOS — a series of graphical operating systems for Mac released by Apple starting 2001.

From interface to app features, macOS is a soul of a Mac, supporting every piece of its vital functionality. Every September, Apple releases a new version of macOS, upgrading the existing assets and adding the new ones.

The core elements of macOS are Finder, Dock, Spotlight, and Notifications — programs helping a user navigate between apps and features, conveniently.

Accessibility on macOS

macOS integrates Accessibility APIs for the built-in apps, which makes a Mac an easy-to-use machine for everyone. Here are the key accessibility assets of macOS:

VoiceOver: Basically, it’s when your Mac is speaking to you. Any action a user takes and anything that happens on Mac as a result of it is being voiced.

Zoom: A built-in Zoom for Mac allows you to do screen magnification, enlarging and focusing on any part of the display.

Switch Control: Set up easy switches to perform custom actions with a press. It works with tons of devices, from keyboard key to joystick.

Accessibility Keyboard: A fully customizable keyboard for Mac with toolbar support and auto-suggest features.

111

Speak selection: Enable your Mac to speak the words you’re reading. You can also set up automatic speaking by assigning a keyboard shortcut.

Accommodate display: Choose optimal color filters to adjust the view on your Mac screen — a great asset for users with vision issues.

Apple encourages app developers to support accessibility APIs and makes it easy to integrate such apps with macOS. So that every need is taken care of.

112

Organize files and folders on Mac

Vocab:

Spotless — an auto-cleanup utility for Mac, third-party.

Renamer — file renamer for Mac, third-party.

Workspaces — an app that helps organize items into dedicated workspaces, third-party.

Emulsion — an image organizer for Mac, third-party.

We so often throw everything into separate locations and pray they can find it when needed, taking a hit-and-hope approach. If only there were a way to arrange folders and find files faster. An efficient, proven system to avoid all the wasted time, stress and extra effort. We have an array of tips and tools for helping your bring things to order.

Let’s start with some simple rules for managing your files and folders:

Clutter control: don’t put files on the desktop. Your desktop is supposed to be clean and display that amazing HD wallpaper you’ve got going on.
Find files faster: name your files and folders strategically.
Keep shortcuts to your project resources in one place to access them quickly. It solves the annoying part of switching between projects.
Tagging. Instead of—or in addition to—folder structures, try tagging files. The benefit of tagging is the ability to add multiple tags to a file. Without a strong folder structure, tags are all that’s keeping your files from getting lost in chaos.

113

How to use tags to organize files on macOS

Let’s start in the end. Mac has its own tagging feature that lets you color code files and folders. You can use this to group your items so that you’re not scrolling through endless lists.

Tags work for files and folders stored on your Mac or iCloud account and are easy to add.

How to tag files and folders on macOS

To tag an open file, hold the pointer to the right of the title and click on the arrow, followed by the Tags field. Choose a tag from the list, or enter a new tag.

To tag a file in the Finder or on your Mac desktop, select the item that you want to tag, open the File menu and choose a color. If you want to choose a different tag or enter a new tag, click on Tags for additional options.

To tag a newly created file as you save it, click on File > Save and select the Tags field in the Save dialog. Enter a new tag or select one from the list.

114

Items can also be tagged from a Finder window by selecting a file or folder and clicking on the Tags button.

How to find tagged items on macOS

Once you’ve tagged your items you can easily find them by opening up a Finder window.

From the finder window, enter the tag name or color in the search field and locate your file from the list. Alternatively, you can ask Siri to find the file for you by asking it to, “Find files with a blue tag” or something similar.

To see every file with a particular tag, you can click on the tag color in the Finder sidebar. You can also choose which tags you want to see located in the sidebar by going to Finder > Preferences and choosing the appropriate tags.

115

To sort items by their tag, go to View > Show View Options and click the checkbox next to Tags. Click the Tags column in List view and the files will be arranged for simple viewing. Click on the column name again to revert the order back to how it was.

How to edit tags on macOS

To edit a tag that you’ve already created, go to Finder > Preferences > Tags.

From here you’ll be able to change the color by clicking on the color button and selecting a new option and change the name by clicking on the tag’s name.

To add a new tag, click on the + button.

116

How to remove a tag on macOS

If you want to remove a tag from an item, all you need to do is Control-click the item, click Tags, select the tags that you want to remove, and hit Delete.

Removing a tag from your Mac is equally straightforward. Go to Finder > Preferences > Tags, select the tags that you want to remove and click on the - button.

117

Clutter control: Clean up desktop

Gather all the files and folders you want to keep on the desktop and put them in a folder or two for temporary storage if you’re referring to it regularly. If you want to make sure to keep your desktop clear—easy to maintain with Spotless app.

With smart algorithms such as the Autotidy feature, users can input ‘tasks’ which specify where particular files belong with an easy-to-use drag and drop system. The app will store your instructions and automate the process by scheduling folders to be organized at regular intervals.

There’s no limit to the number of automated tasks you can create, making for a spotless Mac. Users can teach the app to organize their images, desktop or individual documents, using a range of different parameters, e.g. filename, extension, file size, modified date etc. This gives users full scope to organize and locate files efficiently, without having to do the dirty work.

Putting your important documents and folders in the hands of an AI robot may be daunting, but Spotless is heavily regulated to minimize possible risks. Before submitting a new task, users receive a full preview of changes to consolidate understanding and ensure no errors are made, as well as having comprehensive and configurable conflict resolution rules to safeguard your files. With a fully editable dashboard, users can search engagement history to track what actions Spotless has undertaken and have the power to restore files or undo any unwanted changes.

Find files fasterKeep in mind that you can search for files using folder names—the more specific, the more quickly you’ll find what you’re looking for. Think about saving an invoice. Do you think invoice1.pdf is a good name? Probably not. July invoice.pdf is not any better. So when you’re naming that invoice, think about how you might look for it. Probably:By date (I want the July 2018 invoice).

By company (I want the ABCom invoice).

118

By type of document (I want a invoice).

So a good name would allow you to look at the files in a folder and right away see what each file is without opening it. It would give you things you can use to search. So a good file name, in this case, could be 2017-07 ABCom invoice.pdf. The same concept applies to folders. Renamer app will be handy in batch renaming across files, including music and photo files.

Project shortcuts

The next step is to use workspaces to manage multitasking.

The nature of the macOS system doesn’t particularly lend itself to multitasking. Having to jump between the countless browser tabs open alongside your documents and any impending emails isn’t ideal, especially when you have a long to-do list.

If you want to create tailored workspaces where you could add any resources, along with handy widgets like a bookmark bar, there’s an app for it. Workspaces is a simple Mac organizer, facilitating and simplifying the art of multitasking. Through a designated ‘workspace’, you can access all relevant resources needed for the task in hand – web pages, emails, documents and more. By saving all the relevant documents to your workspace, you’ll eradicate all that wasted time

119

hunting for files and, with the inbuilt task list, you’ll be able to switch exercises with ease.

What about pics organizing?

We can all appreciate the perils involved in keeping your images organized. From those videos of unforgettable nights-out to the endless array of selfies, the camera roll can be a mighty mess. For so many of us, photo hoarders who love collecting and storing photos, keeping them arranged is a near enough impossible task. Or was.

Picture this, an app that helps you manage your entire gallery, accessible at your fingertips, without the need to delete any images. Using a powerful photo manager, Emulsion effortlessly arranges your images in a well-structured, consistent and beautiful way. The Live Folder feature allows images to remain in their primary location, while simultaneously storing them with automatic syncing.

120

Furthermore, the app utilizes macOS features seamlessly. By placing all images together in one easy-to-access panel, users can sort pictures by metadata, tags and notes, complete with full-screen options, quick look and gestures. Through tagging, Emulsion can sort images by people, locations, time and even colors, demonstrating the impressive AI behind the app.

121

Delete duplicates

Vocab:

Gemini — a handy tool for Mac that scans your files, detecting and removing duplicates or similar files.

When your Mac starts to run out of space, one of the most effective ways to clean it up is to find any duplicate files you can delete. Photos, videos, songs, email attachments, old documents—anything that’s easy to download and forget about.

Unsurprisingly, there are a few ways you can quickly find duplicate files and delete them, freeing up space you can use to create something new.

Best ways to find duplicates on your Mac

In just about a year, an average Mac collects 5 to 70 gigabytes of duplicate files. To find and sort through all of it manually could take up to 15 hours of your time, or just up to 2 hours if you automate the process with a few apps. Here, we’ll show you all the ways to get rid of duplicate junk.

Find duplicates manually

You can, of course, just go through every folder, hidden or not, and delete the files that you remember seeing somewhere else. But how long that would take you? Your files love to spread throughout multiple destinations, and some apps like iTunes or Photos keep their own libraries of your files, which are hard to get to. If you’re still going for the manual way, here’s our primer:

Check your Desktop and Downloads folders first.

122

To delete duplicate attachments in Mail, verify that you do have a copy somewhere online, then find the email in the app and go Message > Remove Attachments.

Open up Finder and put an asterisk in the search field, making sure you’re searching your whole Mac. The results will start appearing slowly. Choose to sort by Kind. Now the list will show you all the files with matching titles side by side. See which ones are actually the same and delete the copies.

Again, it is quite possible to scan your Mac for duplicates manually, but it requires a lot of time and patience. Luckily, there are better and more automatic ways to help you out.The automated way to find duplicates

Just as with most maintenance tasks, finding duplicates has been automated for quite some time now. Apps like Gemini and Disk Drill are able to scan your computer and clear out the excess completely in minutes.

Gemini is beyond easy to use. It’s able to swiftly inspect your Mac, sort all the results by type or date, and even find similar files beyond just duplicates.

When you launch the Gemini app, it will prompt you to add a folder to scan. This can be any folder on your Mac, including common folders like your Home folder, Pictures folder, and Music folder, where your iTunes library lives.

123

If you’re scanning your Pictures folder (or the Home folder, which contains it), Gemini has to launch the Photos app and keep it open to properly find duplicates inside your photo library.

After Gemini finishes the scan, it’ll show you how many duplicates it found and recommend which ones to automatically delete. The round graph on the left side of the window even breaks up your duplicate files into songs, videos, photos, documents, and other files.

You can click the Smart Cleanup button to delete the files that Gemini suggests or click Review Results to see all the duplicate files and make your own decisions.

The Review Results window contains everything you need to decide, too. For each duplicate file, you can see where each version lives on your hard drive, when it was last modified, how large the file is, and preview it. The sidebar also distinguishes exact duplicates from files that are just very similar. You can sort any list by size or file type, and then check the boxes for any files you are comfortable deleting.

To see everything you have selected for deletion so far (including the choices Gemini made on your behalf), just click the Selected section in the left-hand sidebar. And when you’re finished making selections, just click the Smart Cleanup button in the bottom-right and that’s it! Gemini deletes your duplicate files and you’re all done.

124

Get rid of useless mail clutter

While Gemini will scan files across iTunes, Photos, Dropbox, network drives, CleanMyMac X will help you tidy up mail.

If you work with your Mac’s native email client, it’s very likely that your computer still carries all the mail attachments since the beginning of time. The thing is, all of them are likely to be stored in your email inbox online, so you can really treat them like duplicates too. That’s where CleanMyMac X will come handy. All you need to do is select Mail Attachments and then Scan. CleanMyMac X will then detect files that remained unchanged and could be easily downloaded from your mail server. When you’re ready, click Clean and rid your Mac of gigabytes of clutter.

How to recover deleted files

Accidentally deleting files is a nightmare. It’s not that bad if you just put them in Trash, as you can go in and retrieve them with ease. But sometimes you automatically empty the trash, only to realize later what a big mistake that was. Worry not! There are a few ways you can save your files still.

If you’ve been cleaning up your duplicates with Gemini and got rid of a file you actually needed, you can quickly bring it back from the cleanup complete screen or go into Trash and restore it the traditional way.

In case you emptied your trash or permanently deleted a file, you would need to use the power of Disk Drill to bring it back. Here’s how:

Launch the Disk Drill app and give the app permission to scan your drive.
After the scan, select the drive you need to recover deleted files from and select Recover. Done!

All in all, deleting your files from the trash is not the end of the world. But if you realize you’ve just deleted the file you shouldn’t have, try to restore it immediately. The longer you wait the lower the chance of you recovering the file intact.

125

See also:

Check the full guide on how to delete and recover deleted files on Mac here.

126

How to work with archives on Mac

Vocab:

Archive Utility — Apple’s compression utility for Mac, native.

Archiver — a file opener for Mac, third-party.

BetterZip — one-stop unzipper for all tasks, third-party.

We all encounter and have to deal with zip files in our day-to-day work. There are, of course, several methods for creating archives, such as built-in utilities, Terminal, and third-party apps. Below, we are going to explore all the best zipping and unzipping options available to you.

A common way to compress or uncompress files

Before we talk about some special apps and tools, we need to mention your Mac’s simple Archive Utility, stored in the Applications > Utilities folder. Yes, basic file compression is built right into macOS. Its functionality range is limited, but it’s good enough for quick zipping and unzipping of files and folders when you need to look into files someone has sent you or upload an image folder to Dropbox.

Zipping single files and folders with the Archive Utility is easy:

If the files aren’t already in a folder, move them to one and give it a descriptive name.
Right-click on the folder and choose Compress. Done!

127

Compressing multiple items works just about the same. The only difference is the names of the items that appear in the pop-up menu and the name of the zip file that is created.

To zip multiple files:

Open the folder with files or folders you want to zip up.
Select the items you want to include in the zip file and right-click on any one of the items to select Compress from the pop-up menu (this time, the word Compress will be followed by the number of items you have selected, such as Compress 10 Items).

When the compression is finished, the compressed items will be stored in a file called Archive.zip, which will be located in the same folder as the original items.

128

Once again, a progress bar will display. When the compression is finished, the items will be stored in a file called Archive.zip, which will be located in the same folder as the original items.

It’s just as easy to reverse the process and unzip files from an archive:

Right-click on the zip archive.
Choose “Open with” and then select Archive Utility.
The archive will be unzipped and its folder available for use.

129

Sadly, compressing and decompressing files and folders is the only thing the default Archive Utility is capable of doing. If you want to preview the contents of an archive, merge or split archives, protect archives with passwords, or use an extended range of file types (e.g. RAR), you’d need some special tools. Fortunately, there are apps that can do all the above.

Сompression tips for macOS

It’s true that some lack of the Archive Utility’s functionality can be fixed by using Terminal, but it’s not exactly user-friendly or straightforward. A better way to go is using apps like BetterZip and Archiver, which are easy to use and give you all the features you could imagine.

BetterZip covers all the functionality of the Archive Utility but also packs lots of high-end features you’ll find very useful if you work with zip archives regularly. It allows you to add comments to archives, delete files from archives without unzipping them, and is fully AppleScriptable, so you can integrate it into your workflow. BetterZip will also suggest passwords for you to use to encrypt archives, and you can tell it to automatically trash archives once you’ve unzipped them.

Archiver is another great app for compressing and extracting files. If you find that you’re uncomfortable with BetterZip’s detail-heavy interface and would rather use a tool that has a simpler, more minimalist user interface, you should try Archiver.

130

It’s sort of midway between Archive Utility and BetterZip in terms of features, but has a more approachable design than the latter.

How to create an encrypted archive

Apple's Archive Utility doesn't provide ZIP archives' encryption with a password.

However, there is a way to do this if needed.

To place a file or folder into an encrypted ZIP file, you'll need to use the Terminal and perform the following actions:

Type the following command, followed by a single space: zip -e ~/Desktop/ Archive.zip
Drag the folder containing your desired files to the Terminal window, so the command looks like the following: zip -e ~/Desktop/Archive.zip /path-to-folder
Press Enter and supply the password to use for the archive. The encrypted file will appear on your desktop.

This method might seem a bit complicated and not very convenient. If you plan on encrypting files regularly, your best bet is to use one of the more approachable tools. For example, one of the best features of BetterZip is the ability to encrypt archives when you create them:

To set it up, open Preferences and click on the Presets tab.
With Clean and Zip (the option you’ll probably use most often) selected in the Q and T columns, go to the Encryption method menu and select ‘Strong.’
If you want to use the same password for every archive, type it in the box beneath. If you’d rather choose a password when you create an archive, leave the box blank.
Close Preferences.

131

Unlike BetterZip, in Archiver you don’t need to set up encryption before you start:

Drop a file or folder onto Archiver’s main window. Choose what type of archive you want to create, then give it a name.
Click Encrypt, if you want to encrypt it, and choose the level of encryption. Then press Archive.

132

Look inside the archive without extraction

You can preview and read the contents of a zipped file without extraction by clicking on it and then pressing the spacebar to invoke Quick Look via BetterZip app:

In the Finder, right-click on the archive you want to look into.
Select Quick Look from the drop-down menu. The app will take over and show you a list of the files in the archive, with details of their names, types, and sizes.
If you want to see more, choose Open with BetterZip. The archive will then open and you can preview the contents of each file, all without extracting it.

Add additional files to an archiveYou can easily add items into existing archive with BetterZip:

Click the Add button in the toolbar and navigate to the file or files you want to add.
When you’ve selected one or more files (Command-click for multiple files), click Add. The new files will be added to the existing files in the archive.
Click and hold on Save and choose Clean and Zip to create a new zipped

133

archive consisting of the existing files and the ones you just added.

How to split an archiveIsn’t it annoying when you need to send an email but the attachment is too big? An easy way out is to split your zipped archive into smaller zip files with the Archiver app.

Drop the zip folder you want to split onto the Archiver window.
Click Split.
Choose the appropriate chunk size and the type of extension.
Click Split again.

134

How to fix the spinning color wheel

Vocab:

Spinning wheel — a multi-color spinning wheel that a user sees when a computer has to “think,” pausing for a few seconds to consider the command.

Few things give Mac users that sinking feeling more than the sight of a spinning color wheel, rainbow wheel, spinning beach ball of death or SBBOD as it's also commonly known. It’s official name is the Spinning Wait Cursor, and it’s a system indicator signifying that macOS cannot handle all the tasks given to it at this moment.

Why does it happen? It's a sign that an application is trying to deal with more processes than it can handle at any given time. Sometimes it will last only a few seconds and disappear, when processing cycles are freed up and the application is able to process all the tasks it needs to. Other times, the application will become persistently unresponsive and 'hang'. When that happens, the only solution is to force quit the app.

Quick ways to get rid of a spinning ball

To fix an application stuck with a spinning cursor:

If you know which app is hanging, press Cmd-alt-escape and you'll see the Force Quit dialog box. The problematic app will be shown as 'not responding.'
Select the app and press Force Quit. The app should now quit and the rainbow wheel will disappear.

135

If the app refuses to force quit, or force quitting doesn't fix the problem, the next step is to restart your Mac.

How to stop the rainbow wheel issue

Getting rid of a spinning beachball is only part of the solution. As we said above, it's a symptom, not a cause of problems. Fortunately, there are a number of things you can do to prevent it. The first is to identify which applications are putting the greatest strain on your Mac.

iStat Menus, available in Setapp, is a powerful performance monitoring tool for your Mac. It sits in your Mac's Finder menu bar and allows you to easily check which apps are hogging processor cycles or RAM. And helps you see how well or badly your Mac is running. If you need more detailed information, or need to quit specific processes (rather than applications), you can launch Activity Monitor

from within iStat Menus.

Getting rid of a spinning beachball is only part of the solution. As we said above, it's a symptom, not a cause of problems. Fortunately, there are a number of things

136

you can do to prevent it. The first is to identify which applications are putting the greatest strain on your Mac.

from within iStat Menus.

See also:

Discover how iStat Menus and CleanMyMac X can help you remove apps from Mac.

137

How to set alarms and timers

Vocab:

Lungo — an app that keeps your Mac awake, third-party.

2Do — a comprehensive task manager, third-party.

WaitingList — a countdown timer for Mac, third-party.

On Mac, you can set alarms for tasks, events, meetings, and just about anything else that would require an alert. In this, we’ll show you how to set an alarm clock on Mac with the help of the Apple Calendar and some useful apps.

How to set an alarm on Mac with the Apple Calendar

The Apple Calendar is the place for all things schedule-related, including alarms.

To set a one-time alarm, you have to first create an event.

Click on the Launchpad, then click on the Calendar app.
Double-click the date that you want to set the alarm on.
Right-click your preferred time slot and select New Event.
Enter the name for your event, then click on the date and time section.
Enter the time that you want the alarm to go off, then click on None next to alert.
In the pop-up menu click Custom…, then Message. Click on Message with sound and choose an alarm chime.

138

Select how many minutes before the event you want the alarm to go off, then click OK.

Any alarm that you set in your Mac Calendar app will automatically sync with your iPhone or iPad, so if you’re away from your computer you will still receive the alert.

This is not an option if you are looking how to set an alarm on Mac to wake up: the alert will not go off if your Mac sleeps at the time. To keep your Mac awake, use an app like Lungo. It keeps the Mac awake and prevents it from going into sleep mode.

139

To sum it up, if you need an alarm clock that works in sleep mode, install Lungo, set an even for morning, turn on Message with sound.

Easy ways to set alarms and timers on Mac

Using the Calendar app is perfect for one-off events such as a dentist appointment or a meeting with friends but if you’re relying on alarms to complete tasks, hit deadlines, and attend events, you’re going to need help from a third-party app.

While there are dozens of alarm-based apps available for Mac, three stand out above the rest: 2Do, BeFocused, and Waiting List.

They’re all different in what they have to offer which is why we recommend giving all three a home on your desktop.

Set one-time alerts

If there’s a special occasion for which you need an alarm, set one-time alerts.

Here’s how you can do it with Apple’s Calendar:

Open Calendar from the Dock or Applications and double-click a specific date.
In the “New event,” type the name of your custom event.
Pick the date and time. In the “Alert” field, specify when the alarm should go off.
In the drop-down menu, select “Message with sound” – you can pick the sound from the list of suggested options or upload your own audio.

Alternatively, you can remind yourself about important one-time deals with 2Do, a task management app that adapts to your needs and lets you set alarms for anything and everything.

Setting an alarm in 2Do starts with creating a New Task. This can be done in seconds by clicking on the + button from the top menu bar. Once you’ve named

140

the event and edited the dates, click on the alarm icon and set the alarm to suit. It’s as easy as that! When the alarm is set it will alert you whether you have 2Do running or not.

There is no wrong way to use 2Do. It’s simple, intuitive, and a must-have for busy lifestyles.

Custom birthday and event alerts

Okay, so it’s unlikely you’re going to forget about the things that you’re really looking forward – like your best friend’s birthday – but you don’t want to take any chances. Plus, it’s nice to have an alarm to signal something fun every once in a while.

There’s a stand-alone Birthday Calendar in Apple’s native app. If it doesn’t appear in your Calendar by default, you can easily add it in Preferences > General > Show birthday calendar.

In the same menu, you can customize alert preferences for your big events. For instance, you can set a default alert for all newly created events.

To grow the excitement, you can also create countdowns for parties or birthday events in WaitingList. This is a beautiful countdown timer that sits on your

141

desktop and displays all of your upcoming events. The app's smart widgets start by counting down the days. Then, as the event approaches, the hours, minutes, and seconds.

WaitingList has a simple and clear interface that makes adding countdowns an easy task. Click on the + button to create your event and the pencil icon to edit it. In the settings you’ll be able to set up alarms to alert you as the event approaches so that a) don’t miss anything, and b) can send your excitement into overdrive.

Plus, you get to choose the appearance of the event and the app offers some pretty amazing themes. The event design is basically its main benefit. It’s pretty cool to wait for a concert that looks like fireworks every time you open the app.

Sleep and wake times for MacYou can set your computer to wake up and go to sleep at specific time of the day, or customize sleeping time for when your Mac in inactive:

Open System Preferences on Mac.

142

Click on the Energy Saver icon.
In the bottom right corner of the screen, select “Schedule.”
Tick the box next to “Start up or wake” to create a daily schedule for your Mac and choose the time. If needed, add sleeping time as well.
Click OK.

In the same menu, customize additional sleeping settings by toggling on Power Adopter: Set your hard disks to sleep when possible, prevent Mac from sleeping when the display is off, etc.

143

Conclusion

A new Mac is like a new universe. Whether you’re switching from Windows, or it’s your first computer, you have to get used to things. Start with mastering keyboard shortcuts and take our advice on file management, and you’re out of trouble. Well, at least, you won’t waste hours on finding the right folder.

Once you’ve mastered the basics, the next step is to make your Mac feel like home, or rather your office space—a cozy environment where you’re at the top of productivity.

In the next chapter, we’ll cover the vital tips for Windows switchers. So if you’re just starting your first journey with macOS, frantically searching for the Backspace key on the Mac’s keyboard, the following guide will save you. Spoiler: There’s no Backspace key on a Mac.

144

Сhapter 2

Switching from Windows

In this chapter:

Learn about the perks of macOS Your first steps to master a Mac Transferring data between Windows and Mac Your favorite Windows programs on Mac

Contents

146

Introduction: First steps with macOS

Switching from Windows to macOS can be a blessing and a curse. Making the leap will require a lot of faith and getting used to, but once you get a hold of it, you’re going to reap many benefits.

You’ve long heard about the stability of Mac operating systems, their elegance and undeniable security. Everybody tells you that you’ll intuitively learn how to use macOS and you’ll shortly be won over by its simple yet excellent design. With no worries about viruses and a lot of power under the hood, you start to wonder why it took so long for you to take the plunge.

Now you remember: You were afraid of the learning curve and the complicated procedure of starting over. However, the process of switching from PC to Mac doesn’t have to be complicated and you don’t have to struggle with getting accustomed to the new interface. If you’re worried about deciding on the best Mac, restoring your old data, or finding new apps to suit your needs, don’t be!

To get the most out of your PC to Mac migration, make sure you carefully go through this chapter to find exactly what to expect and discover the tools and tips that will make you feel like a true Mac user.

What can a Mac do that a PC can't?

Macs are universally praised for being intuitive, versatile, and adaptable to your specific needs. But there are also quite a few advantages they have over PCs when we look at them in detail.

Print any file as a PDF.

Select print in any application, or press Command+P, and select at the bottom of the print dialog box an option to print the document as a PDF. This works in almost any app for text documents, spreadsheets, images, and more.

147

Multi-touch.

The multi-touch gestures on a trackpad or Magic Mouse are a huge aid to productivity and, once you master them, they help you work much faster.

Time Machine.

Not only does Mac’s Time Machine allow you to carry out regular incremental backups and then recover your hard drive if a disaster strikes, it also allows you to roll back the clock and recover any individual file or folder you need.

Preview files.

Select any compatible file in the Finder, tap the spacebar and you can preview its contents without having to open the default app. This alone will save you dozens of hours over time.

Make music for free.

Garageband is a brilliant app from Apple for recording music and creating podcasts, and it’s a free download from the App Store.Choosing the best operating system

Apple doesn’t release a new operating system every year just for the fun of it. Each year they bring improvements that can boost hardware capabilities and offer you more power and usage benefits. That being said, you should always go for the latest version of an operating system for Mac.

But before you proceed, a word of caution: If you’re not a developer or have no intention in participating at the bug/issue hunt, stay away from Beta versions. Installing a macOS Beta version would spoil your first experience and you might end up believing the worst of macOS, when it would all be simply a big misunderstanding. Beta version for macOS is a trial version — tested by developers and the willing public in order to bring bug and issue fixes to the final release. So choose a full version and you’ll be fine.

148

Just like Windows, every macOS has some system requirements. And although we recommend you always go for the latest Mac operating system, that’s only to be decided after you purchase your Mac and know its hardware capabilities.

Here’s a nice infographic on the evolution of macOS over the years:

Cheetah OS X 10.0

March 24, 2001

“When you saw it, you wanted to lick it,” said Steve Jobs about Aqua – the brand new UI born with the release of Cheetah. Preview, Mail, QuickTime, and TextEdit make debut at this point.Puma OS X 10.1

September 25, 2001

No big functionality updates, the focus is shifted to performance instead. From improved file management to CD and DVD burning, Puma just makes it work better.Jaguar OS X 10.2

August 23, 2002

A large grey Apple logo appears for the first time, replacing Happy Mac at startup. Optimized search functionality of Finder and the first release of Accessibility API – Universal Access. App arrivals: iChat and Address Book.Panther OS X 10.3

October 24, 2003

Panther release introduces Exposé, a feature for seamless management of open applications. Safari officially becomes the default web browser.

149

Tiger OS X 10.4

April 29, 2005

A rich harvest for Mac, Tiger marks the launch of 200+ new features. Spotlight search and Dashboard are the top stars, with Apple TV, Automator, and VoiceOver joining the crowd.Leopard OS X 10.5

October 26, 2007

Long-awaited and Mac-changing. Leopard gives a spectacular leap, introducing Time Machine, Boot Camp, QuickLook, and full support for 64-bit software.SnowLeopard OS X 10.6

August 28, 2009

While Leopard did a great job, Snow Leopard arrives to refine it even more. Mainly, it comes with apps rewritten in 64 bit and OpenCL. The 2009 OS X release is also known for Mac App Store launch.Lion OS X 10.7

July 20, 2011

iCloud arrives. Apart from that, lots of iOS advancements find reflection in OS X Lion, covering Launchpad, multi-touch gestures, and more.

150

Mountain

Title

July 25, 2012

Mountain Lion adds new integrations and further iOS perks like Reminders, Notes, and Messages. It gets easier to track app updates via the Notification Center.Mavericks OS X 10.9

October 22, 2013

Maps, iBooks, and Tags debut in the first inanimate OS X – Mavericks. To enable secure password encryption and storage, iCloud Keychain in introduced.Yosemite OS X 10.10 October 16, 2014

A completely new sleek design is what Yosemite is remembered for. Continuity and Handoff integrated into the new OS strengthen bonds between iOS and OS X devices.El Capitan OS X 10.11 September 30, 2015

El Capitan features Split Views – dual-window functionality for arranging and managing app windows. Plus, OS X 10.11 comes with improved Safari, Mail, and Spotlight.

151

Sierra macOS 10.12

September 20, 2016

With Sierra, OS X dies and macOS is born. The renamed system introduces even more iOS perks like Siri and unlocking Mac with Apple Watch.High

Title

Major improvements go unnoticed for a user, but the overall performance skyrockets, due to embracing Apple File System and a new video standard, HEVC.Mojave macOS 10.14

September 24, 2018

Visual refinements introduced via Dark Mode and Dynamic Desktop take central stage in Mojave. The new apps migrating from iOS include Stocks, News, Home, and Voice Memos.

Title

The long-awaited Sidecar feature for connecting iPad’s screen to Mac. iTunes dies and resurrects as three separate apps. Catalina officially deems support for 32-bit app architecture.

152

Is macOS really more productive?

There’s no easy answer — productivity depends entirely on how you work and how you define “productive,” as well as which applications you use. For example, if you use Outlook or Excel, there’s no getting around the fact that those work better and run faster on Windows than they do on a Mac. That’s no surprise, given they're made by Microsoft.

However, the fact that Apple makes both the hardware and the system software for the Mac means there’s a tight integration between the two. It also means you’re less likely to run into problems with hardware drivers, for example. And there should be less chance of background processes hogging CPU cycles or RAM on a Mac than on a PC. And so using a Mac should be smoother, require fewer software updates, and allow you to get more work done. In that sense, macOS is more productive than Windows.

Then there’s Apple’s use of gestures and implementation of Mission Control and full-screen functionality. The ability to swipe between full-screen apps, for example, makes it very easy to work with several apps at once.

Tip:If not more productive, your Mac is definitely more intuitive. So here’s the hack for every switcher: Get used to uncomplicated actions. Windows users have to do lots of digging into the settings.If you want to master macOS faster, learn to look for a solution through Spotlight, Dock, or your menu bar first.

153

Right click on Mac

Apple products are synonymous with minimalist design: anything that’s superfluous has been deleted, anything that cramps its style gets left behind. So much so that many people who have made the jump from Windows to Mac will notice straight away that there’s no right click on Mac.

Instinct may tell you that to right click on a Mac means to click on the right side of the trackpad or the Apple Mouse. But no matter where you click, it’s still the left click.

So what’s the need to have a right click on Mac? Well, left click, your common everyday kind of click, takes the user forward, accepting the next logical step in the flow. However, right click allows the user to open more paths to take, it yields a host of alternative actions.

The need for these secondary actions and the physical loss of the Mac right click button has left many people hunting for the elusive Mac right click and turning to the internet to ask, “How do you right click on a Mac?”

How to left click on a Mac

Just so you know, there’s no need to be floored by the absenteeism of mouse buttons altogether, being able to left click requires little to no effort.

Simply apply pressure on the mouse or trackpad until it makes an audible click.

There you have it, how to left click on a Mac.

How to right click on a Mac using Control + click

If you ask Apple, “How do you right click on a Mac,” the recommended right-click solution is to press down the Control key while you click.

Holding the Control key switches your Apple mouse to the right-click mode. While

154

it might feel like a stretch, it’s worth trying out because keeping your hands close to the keyboard is often the most efficient way to get things done. Most keyboard warriors will prefer this handy trick as there are also thousands of other keyboard shortcuts that can be performed in a similar way.Whether you use a trackpad or an Apple Mouse, this solution will work every time. However, if you’re not used to using keyboard commands or prefer a more customized experience that feels right to you, below are more ways to get your Mac set up right from the start.Set up your System Preferences for Mouse or Trackpad

To right click using a trackpad, Apple Mouse, or a mouse from another manufacturer, the first place to familiarize yourself with is the System Preferences on your Apple device. System Preferences is an application on your Mac that allows you to configure and control the way you like your Mac to be set up.

Open System Preferences from the Dock:

Move your cursor to the bottom of the screen
Click on the cog icon to open System Preferences

Alternatively, you can open System Preferences from Finder:

Move the cursor to the Dock and click the face icon to open up a Finder window.
Make sure Applications is selected from the sidebar.
Click on the cog icon to open System Preferences (you may have to scroll down the list to find it).

155

Yet another way to open System Preferences is from Launchpad:

Click on the rocket icon in the Dock at the bottom of your screen to open Launchpad.
Select the cog to open System Preferences (you can type System Preferences into the search bar as well).

Now that you have System Preferences open, you can use the Mouse and Trackpad options to program your setup in a way that feels right for you.

156

How to right click on a Mac

A trackpad is the built-in mouse on Apple MacBooks. It’s the sunken rectangle where your finger can zoom like an ice skater over the surface, making the cursor loop-the-loop or zip from side to side drawing Zoro-like slashes across the screen.

There are a number of ways to choose from to right click on Mac: tap with two fingers, click in the bottom right corner, click in the bottom left corner.

How to right click on Mac trackpad:

Open Trackpad from System Preferences.
Ensure the Point & Click tab is highlighted at the top of the Trackpad window.
Check the box next to “Secondary click”.
Choose from the dropdown menu the command you would like to have as you right click.

157

How to right click with Apple Mouse

If you have a Magic Mouse, Apple’s own mouse, you’re in luck. Magic Mice are already equipped with a right button to click. You might just have to set it up in the System Preferences.

How to right click on a Mac with mouse:

Open Mouse from System Preferences.
Switch to the Point & Click tab at the top.
Check the box next to “Secondary click”.
Choose from the dropdown menu the command to become your Mac right click.

Even if you have a trackpad on your MacBook, don’t be afraid to invest in a Magic Mouse if you like a robust setup.Right click on Mac using a third-party mouseNot using a trackpad or Magic Mouse to do your clicking? A third-party mouse will often need to be configured before using it like a native one, as its drivers may overwrite those of your Mac’s. Follow the instructions given by the manufacturer to install your mouse correctly. Then head to Mac’s Mouse System Preferences as per the instructions above to adjust the controls in a way that suits you.

158

Completely customize your gesturesIf you're just starting to discover Mac’s possibilities, it will be helpful for you to customize input devices according to your needs, and this is very easy to do using BetterTouchTool. BetterTouchTool is the app that puts total control at your fingertips, as it allows you to customize a variety of input devices.

Make your gestures do whatever you want:

Open BetterTouchTool from Launchpad.
Click Add New Gesture to create custom commands.
Use the dropdown selector Touchpad/Mouse Gesture to take your pick from the defined gestures, or create your own with Custom.
Add in keys to the gesture by selecting the checkbox next to the relevant key.
Open the Predefined Action menu and click to select the action.

159

Ctrl+Alt+Delete on Mac

Vocab:

Ctrl+Alt+Delete function — a command that can be applied on a Windows-operated system to quit a program or reboot a computer. CPU — Central Processing Unit of a computer.

We know you have this question. Shoot it. Is there a Ctrl-Alt-Del equivalent for Mac? The answer is yes. And no. There’s no exact keyboard shortcut that performs the same task as Ctrl+Alt+Delete does on Windows, but you can achieve the same results on Mac, using different commands.

How to Perform "Ctrl-Alt-Delete" on Mac

The simplest solution would be to use Force Quit:

Press ⌘+Option+Esc and you’ll bring up the Force Quit dialog box. This can be used at any time but, given that you can quit any app by making it active and pressing ⌘+Q, the only time you’ll need it is when an app stops responding or starts beachballing. The command would still work when the app is in full-screen mode.
Once you’ve called up the dialog box, you’ll see a list of currently running apps. Usually the one that’s causing a problem will be labelled as not responding.
Select the non-responding app and press Force Quit.

160

Tip:If apps regularly become unresponsive or start hogging processor cycles, iStat Menus can help get to the bottom of what’s causing the problem. It will show you which apps are using most CPU cycles. And if you need more information, you can launch Activity Monitor directly from the iStat Menus app.

161

Other ways to force quit apps on Mac

There are a couple of other ways to unfreeze app on Mac:

Dock. If you hold down the Control and Option keys, and click on an app’s icon in the Dock, you’ll see Force Quit listed as an option in the menu that pops up. Select it and the app should force quit.

Activity Monitor. You can double-click on any application in the Activity Monitor to bring up a separate window with more information about it and the Quit option to close it.

162

Apple Menu. The third way to do the equivalent of Ctrl+Alt+Delete on a Mac keyboard is to click on the Apple menu and select Force Quit. This will bring up the Force Quit dialog box and you can select the unresponsive app from there.

What do you do when Force Quit doesn't work?

Sometimes it’s not just one app that’s unresponsive. What to do when your Mac freezes? How do you start Task Manager on a Mac?

Unlike Windows macOS doesn't use the typical Ctrl-Alt-Delete shortcut to choose frozen programs to Force Quit. If you have a frozen Mac that won’t do anything and you can’t use any of the methods above to force quit (tip: you can force quit the Finder if it’s misbehaving — it’s just an app), you need to force it to restart.

Simple steps to fix a Mac that is not responding:

Hold down Command and Control and press the power button to restart it. If you have a MacBook Pro with a Touch Bar, that won’t work. You’ll need to force it to shutdown and then start it normally. You do that by holding down the power button for five seconds. Your Mac will then forcibly shut down.
You can restart your Mac again by waiting a few seconds and pressing the power button.

163

How to check performance with Activity Monitor

If your Mac is running slowly, but all your apps are still working, or if the fans seem to run more often than normal or are louder than usual, there may be a process hogging CPU cycles. Seems it is a good time to start Task Manager on a Mac. You can use Activity Monitor to discover the culprit.

Launch Activity Monitor from the Utilities folder in your Applications folder and click the CPU tab. Make sure the arrow next to CPU% is pointing down. If not, click it. If there are any apps or processes using up significant CPU cycles (more than half), they may have a problem. You can quit them by selecting the app or process (it could be a Safari tab) and pressing the X in the toolbar.

All in all, there is no direct equivalent of pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete on a Mac but by using a combination of the Force Quit function and Activity Monitor tool you can actually achieve a more informed result.

164

How to cut, copy and paste the right way

Vocab:

Kill command — Ctrl+K, resembles the cutting feature on Mac Yank command — Ctrl+Y, resembles the pasting feature on Mac Paste — Cloud clipboard manager for Mac, third-party Unclutter — a sticky notes app for Mac, third-party

Rocket Typist — macOS application for saving text snippets

Copying and pasting text is one of the most basic functions on any computer, including a Mac. It’s so fundamental to the way we use computers today that it seems astonishing to think that it wasn’t until iOS 3 (or iPhone OS 3 as it was known then), or a full two years after the original iPhone, that copy and paste came to Apple’s mobile devices.

However, it’s not just text that can be copied and pasted. In image editing applications, for example, you can copy and paste images, layers, and selections from one document to another. And in audio editing tools, you can copy and paste passages of music. In the Mac’s Finder, you can even copy and paste files and folders to move them from one folder to another, instead of clicking and dragging them — useful if you prefer to use the keyboard over a mouse or trackpad.

When you copy anything, whether it’s text, an image, or a file, it’s stored on Mac’s clipboard until you paste it somewhere else.

How to set up copy and paste on Mac

To copy anything, select it and press Command-C (or Command-X if you want to remove it and copy it to the clipboard). Then go to your destination and press Command-V. That will paste it into your destination. If you want to move a file

165

from one location to another, instead of copying it, press Command-Option-V, instead of Command-V.

When you paste the item to its new location, it remains on the clipboard so you can paste it again and again. But it’s removed when you copy something else. Unfortunately, the Mac’s clipboard can only store one item at a time.

You can view the contents of the Mac's clipboard at any time by clicking on the Finder icon in the Dock, choosing the Edit menu, and then selecting Show Clipboard.

Seems, it's no big deal: use Command-C to copy, Command-X to cut, Command-V to paste. But is that really it or is there more to explore? There are actually a lot of features and possible improvements for macOS.

Paste and match style

How do you strip out the formatting of the copied text and make it match the destination? You've probably seen a quick shortcut in the "Edit" menu: Option-Shift-Command-V. This executes a "Paste and Match Style" command.

This shortcut is available in most default Apple applications, but some third-party apps neglect to include it.

Copy and Paste style only

To copy and paste the style only, not the text, open a TextEdit document, select the text containing the style that you'd like to copy and hit Command-Option-C, then select the text containing the formatting that you'd like to replace and hit Command-Option-V.

Killing text

Select the text that should be killed and hit Control-K. The text should disappear.

Keep in mind: if you kill text with no selection, it jumps to the end of the paragraph.

166

There's one more cool hidden feature: hitting Control-K while inserting your cursor half way through a paragraph should kill all of the text from that point to the end of the paragraph.

Note that Control-K cuts, rather than copies, the text. As this feature uses a different functionality, it won’t remove what is currently on the “main” clipboard.

Reinserting text previously killed

Yanking inserts the most recent kill, leaving the cursor at the end of the inserted text. To do this, just hit Control-Y. This will work exactly like a paste command, it's just pulling from a different source.

Note that Kill and Yank works in most native Mac apps, including Notes, iWork, and most text editors — but they may not work in some web apps like Google Docs.

Copy and Paste two items on Mac

Say you want to copy two items from one app and paste them into another. To pull this off in one sweep, you would need some sort of secondary clipboard. It's a handy way to have two clipboards on your Mac:

Instead of switching back and forth between the apps twice, copy the first with Command-C and the second with Control-K.
To paste, use your default Command-V shortcut to paste the first item, and press Control-Y to yank your second clipboard item back from the dead and paste it into your document.

Copy and Paste between Apple devices

Universal Clipboard is a feature that was introduced in macOS Sierra and iOS 10, and allows you to copy and paste between Apple devices, as long as they’re

167

signed into the same iCloud account and connected to the same WiFi network, with Bluetooth switched on. They also need to be physically close to each other.

To use Universal Clipboard, all you have to do is copy on one device and paste on the other.

Copy-Paste limitations and how to overcome them

One of the big flaws with copy and paste on the Mac is the fact that the clipboard can only hold one item at a time. Wouldn’t it be great if you could store multiple items, categorize them, and then paste the right one whenever you need to? Well, the good news is that you can, by using a third-party clipboard manager, of which there are several available for macOS.

Paste is one such app. Paste automatically keeps everything you’ve cut or copied, whether it’s text, an image, a link, or anything else. You can then use the smart search feature to search for what you need and drag it off the board onto your document. Copied snippets can also be shared using AirDrop or synced with iCloud.

Unclutter, a tool designed to keep your Desktop tidy, also has a clipboard manager that retains the contents of your Mac’s clipboard. That way you can view your clipboard history and recall any item you need to paste.

168

If you need to store snippets of text that you use frequently, Rocket Typist is a great solution. It allows you to store chunks of text and then paste the ones you need by selecting them. Or you can create abbreviations for snippets so that whenever you type the abbreviation, it’s replaced with the snippet. Use it to store email templates, for example. You can organize your snippets in folders to keep them ready.

Copy Paste not working on Mac? Fix the issueHere's how to fix a stuck clipboard issue with Activity Monitor:

Quit the Mac app(s) where copy/paste are not working as expected.
Go to Applications > Utilities and double-click on Activity Monitor to launch it.
In its search box, type “pboard”. When it shows the pboard process, select it and press the X in the toolbar, then click Force Quit.

169

Exit Activity Monitor.

If it still doesn’t work, try using Terminal to fix it:

Go to Applications > Utilities and double-click on Terminal to launch it.
Type: killall pboard.
Hit Return and close Terminal.

Try and copy and paste again in the same app as before. If neither Activity Monitor nor Terminal solves the problem, the next step is to restart your Mac.

Sometimes that issue means that Mouse Keys is enabled, or that some other app is conflicting with the standard keyboard shortcuts. As a workaround you may have to remove those shortcuts and get used to the default ones to switch layouts.

170

Copy and paste is such a fundamental part of macOS that we often forget about it — using it is so natural. However, there are, as you can see, a few tips and tricks that can help you get even more out of it. As good as the macOS clipboard is, it can only store one item at a time. If you want to store more, you’ll need a third-party app.

171

How to transfer data from Windows to Mac

Vocab:

IMAP server — Internet Message Access Protocol, a mail protocol used to access email on a remote server.

In the previous chapter, we’ve covered the ways to get your data on a new machine. Let’s quickly recap how you migrate across Windows and macOS specifically.

There are various ways you can transfer data from PC to Mac, effortlessly. If you’re lucky enough (or, better said, if you’ve been responsible enough) most to almost all of your important data will be stored in the cloud. That means that if you’ve been using Dropbox, Google Docs, or an IMAP server, you’ve already got a bunch of your files safely stored and ready to be used on your new Mac by just installing the specific app. This way, you’ll have little docs left to manually transfer from PC to Mac without a struggle.

Another possible method to transfer data from PC to Mac is by using Migration Assistant.

172

Here’s a quick guide to using Migration Assistant:

Download and install the tool on your PC, making sure your Windows is up to date.
Next, once you’re setting up your Mac, you’ll automatically be prompted by the assistant about your migration preferences. Here, select “From a Windows PC”.
Enter your administrator ID and password and make sure you close any applications.
Once your PC shows the same code as your Mac does, hit Continue to select the info you want to migrate.

That’s it! With the Migration Assistant you’ll get more than a replica of docs on a Mac, you’ll get as close as possible experience to the one you had on your PC. That means bookmarks will be recreated in Safari, your Contacts, Calendar, and so much more.

173

How to use a USB flash drive on Mac

Vocab:

IUSB flash drive — a small external flash drive that can be used with both Windows-operated computers and Macs that have USB ports.

SMC (System Management Controller) reset — a common troubleshooting command on Mac.

USB flash drives are a great way to store data — they’re cheap, portable, spacious and versatile, allowing you to quickly save your folders and files, and access them on another computer.

If you have a compatible format, it takes a few clicks to open a flash drive on Mac. But there might be a need to format it first.

Format a USB drive before using it on Mac

Out of the box these devices may function unreliably or even fail to work on Macs at all. The reason? Mac and Windows each use different file systems. After unboxing a new storage-based item, it’s a wise move to look into how to format a flash drive to reduce the likelihood of unexpected corruption, data loss, or other performance issues.

Thanks to Disk Utility, the issue of how to format a USB flash drive on Mac is fairly straightforward. Likewise, you can use this tool to format Micro SD cards, hard drives, and so on, getting your new device into the right condition:

Plug the device into your Mac.
Go to Applications ➙ Utilities and launch Disk Utility.
Select the relevant device or drive on the left hand side and click Erase.

174

Give the device a name and choose the desired format (more on that below).
Click Erase to reformat the device.

When you format a USB drive on Mac, or any similar device for that matter, you need to erase everything that’s on it in order to do so. That’s not a problem if the device is new, but means you’ll need to take some precautionary measures if it’s not.

Easily open a USB flash drive on MacUsually, flash drives come formatted with exFAT, FAT, or FAT32 file system. If that’s your case, you’ll be able to instantly open a USB flash drive on Mac:

Insert your USB flash drive into a port on Mac.
Open Finder to view your flash drive inside.
In the left pane, under Devices, click on the name of your USB flash drive.
View the contents of your drive in the right pane of the window.

175

How to recover files from a damaged USB flash drive

The more you use a flash drive, the more likely it is that one day something bad will happen — particularly so if you use your USB device across different computers.

Failure due to physical damage is easy to spot but more often than not it’s something going inside the device that’s the problem.

Here are some of the common issues that affect USB flash drives:

Unsafe USB ejection.

Connecting the drive to a system that’s infected by malware.

Downloading an infected file to the device.

Mac fails to recognize the drive.

An error message displays when trying to access data.

File structure damaged.

Accidental deletion of files.

Files unable to open.

If you’ve experienced any of these problems, you’ve every right to feel panicked. Can a broken USB be fixed? Don’t give up hope, there’s a high probability that you can get your files back.

If your USB flash drive appears to be broken, there are a few quick recovery methods you can try.

First of all, try connecting the USB device to another port on your Mac. If it works on another port, then the issue is with the port and not your device.

If the flash drive isn’t recognized in any port, try connecting it to a different Mac.

If it works, then the issue could be related to your USB drivers.

To check for updates, open the Mac App Store and click on Updates.

176

You can also try a System Management Controller (SMC) reset — a well-known troubleshooting fix for USB issues.

Follow these instructions to reset the SMC on an iMac, Mac Mini, or Mac Pro:

Shut down your Mac.
Disconnect the power cable.
Press and hold the Power button for 5 seconds and release.
Reconnect the power cable and boot up the Mac as usual.

If you’re using a MacBook, the method is slightly different:

Shutdown your MacBook.
Connect the power adapter.
Hold Shift + Control + Option and the Power button at the same time.
Release the keys at the same time.
Boot up your system as usual.

If the flash drive is being recognized but your files aren’t available, you can try performing first aid using Disk Utility:

Go to Spotlight > Disk Utility
Click on the USB flash drive from the list on the left, then click First Aid.
Click Run.

First Aid checks the volume for errors and attempts to fix them. If this doesn’t work, you’ll need the help of a third-party recovery tool like Disk Drill.

Disk Drill does all of the heavy lifting for you. All you need to do is install it and follow these instructions:

Connect your USB flash drive.
Launch Disk Drill, leave the first three boxes checked and give it permission

177

to scan your drive (you’ll need to enter your administrator password to do this)
Select your drive from the list and click on the Recover button next to it. Disk Drill will scan your drive in search of files.
Select your deleted file from the list and choose a location to store the file.
Click on Recover and Disk Drill will put the file right back where it belongs.

If the Recover option can’t be used after a scan, Disk Drill can also perform a Quick Scan or a Deep Scan to scan drives at binary level and recover your data that way. Whichever option is required you can be sure Disk Drill will bring your files back to life.

macOS alternatives to Windows programs

The stickiness of any device you have in your life depends on the functionality package. Once you get used to a program you use every day on a phone or a computer, it’s hard to let go.If you’ve recently switched from Windows, there will be a couple of programs you’ll miss on Mac — just because you’re used to them. Luckily, macOS always has a decent alternative.

178

Notepad++ for Mac

Vocab:

Notepad++ — a text and source code editor for Windows

Wine — a free, open-source compatibility layer that allows Windows programs run on Unix-like operating systems

VMware Fusion — a software hypervisor (virtual machine monitor) for Mac CodeRunner — a code editor app for Mac, third-party Espresso — an easy web editor for Mac, third-party

TeaCode — a tool for Mac that accelerates coding, third-party.

It might seem surprising that Notepad++ is by far the most popular and trusted source-code editor on the Windows operating system. The program’s features are quite limited at best and the overall look too simplistic compared to some runner-ups. What it does have going for it though is a free distribution on an open-source license, which lets anyone build plugins and extensions as they see fit.

Turns out that’s exactly what more than 30 million developers who use Notepad++ on a regular basis are looking for. This simple text editor developed by Don Ho in 2003 has become the rockstar of the open-source movement in just a few short years. So naturally, if you’ve recently switched from Windows to macOS, you might be wondering how to download Notepad++ for Mac as well.

Unfortunately, the exact native Notepad++ Mac alternative doesn’t exist. And there are a few good reasons for it. Notepad++ is a non-commercial open-source project that was originally built by just one developer for the Windows operating system. That’s why it extensively leverages the Win32 API, and trying to port the software to macOS would require substantial investments in rewriting the whole codebase.

179

But worry not. There are ways you can still use Notepad++ Mac version with a few workarounds, by either running an emulator or a virtual machine. Additionally, you can always choose one of numerous outstanding Mac HTML editors that run natively and truly utilize all the possibilities of macOS.

Run NotePad for Mac with an emulator

One of the possible ways to run an actual Notepad app in macOS is using an emulator program, which essentially creates a compatibility layer between Windows and Mac, and thus able to load virtually any Windows-based software within its interface right on your Mac.

Sounds complicated because, in fact, it is. But by using one of the emulator apps such as Wine, you can quickly install and enjoy Notepad++ or any other Windows program you miss. Here’s how to do that:

Download the Wine package from its official website and unzip the archive.
Open up Terminal and type winecfg to create a C drive where Notepad for Mac will live.
Download Notepad++ from its GitHub repository and put it in the newly created C drive.
Back in the Terminal, navigate to the C drive directory and install the .exe file by typing wine [file name].
To launch Notepad after the installation is complete, just type wine [file name] in the Terminal once more.

Done! Now you can run the Notepad++ you’re so used to, with all of its features, right on your Mac. As good as it is, the solution is not ideal — mostly because you’re essentially running an app within an app, which introduces twice as many bugs to the whole stack. There is, however, another option of using Notepad++ for Mac, and that’s setting up a virtual machine to basically run Windows on your Mac altogether.

180

Use Notepad for Mac with a virtual machine

If using Notepad++ for Mac with minimum bugs and maximum stability is a priority, then installing a virtual machine might seem like an attractive option. A virtual machine would basically run a full-scale Windows environment within your Mac, letting you install and use any Windows-only software without limits.

Out of all available virtual machine offerings, VMware Fusion has a long-standing reputation of being both robust and (relatively) easy to use. Here’s how to get it to install Windows on your Mac:

Make sure you have an official ISO copy (and license keys) of the Windows version of your choice.
Download and install VMware Fusion.
When prompted, drag and drop the Windows ISO file onto the Installation Method window.
Check the Use Easy Install option.
Fill out your license credentials for Windows.
Save your new virtual machine.
Your Windows environment window should now be active!

After you set up your virtual machine, use it to download and run Notepad++ like you’ve used to. Overall, using VM software is a more stable solution than working through an emulator and it does accomplish what you’re after. But it would be fair to say that it does come with a few downsides as well:

Having to purchase and update both Windows and VMware Fusion.

Dealing with less than ideal integration of Windows in Mac, which can seem frustrating if you’re used to perfect native speed and reliability.

A better and simpler approach to the Notepad++ problem, that also lets you avoid emulators and virtual machines, would be finding a great Notepad++ Mac

181

substitute, of which there are lots. A true Mac-first code editor would leverage everything you love about Notepad with native compatibility and even allow for some great new features.

What’s the best Notepad++ Mac alternative?

It goes without saying that using Mac with software that was specifically made for macOS is an unbeatable experience. And when it comes to source code editors for Mac, CodeRunner instantly stands out.

CodeRunner is a multi-language programming editor ready to take on any software engineering task you can throw at it, from writing code in one of the supported 25 languages to swift debugging. Some good reasons to switch Notepad++ for CodeRunner include:

IDE-level code completion for most languages, which significantly speeds up the software development process.

Instant breakpoints that make debugging, one of the most tedious steps in any development project, part of a single integrated workflow.

Documentation support for all languages right from the app to minimize distractions and save time.

CodeRunner is an intuitive, fast, and versatile general-purpose programming editor that could become the Notepad++ Mac alternative you were looking for. It’s suitable for beginners and professional developers alike.

However, if your development work is mostly focused on the web, then choosing a more specialized Mac HTML editor could serve you better.

182

What’s the best HTML editor for Mac?

Without a doubt, you could use CodeRunner for basically every kind of a development project. But if you mostly find yourself developing for the web, it’s worth looking into trying out a designated web editor, which is designed to address problems specific to web development.

Espresso does just that — helps you design, code, build, and publish websites with ease. Unlike CodeRunner, its feature set is more specific to and heavily influenced by the needs of the web:

Live browser preview and CSS styling, so you can update your web project in real time without republishing, reloading, or even saving.

Built-in server infrastructure to allow for the flexibility of dynamic content on static websites.

Custom templates for any web component you frequently reuse.

Using a Mac HTML editor for web projects not only makes development faster and less buggy, it organizes the whole workflow in a way that significantly increases your productivity.

Whether you choose a general-purpose or web-specific Notepad++ Mac alternative, you can accelerate your development process even more by using an efficient code-expanding app.

183

How to write code faster with expanders

In any development project there are hundreds and even thousands of instances when you’re essentially writing the same thing over and over again.

The good news is there is no need to repeat yourself anymore if you employ dynamic snippets.

TeaCode is a native Mac app that lets you write code much faster by specifying abbreviations which turn into full snippets. There are over 80 expanders for Swift, PHP, Objective-C, and HTML already built in, and you can create your own easily as well.

184

The real benefit here is that you can use TeaCode right inside apps like Espresso and CodeRunner, supercharging them with extra productivity. This is one of the things that would be impossible to do in Notepad for Mac.

185

Internet Explorer for Mac

Vocab:

Internet Explorer — a default web browser for Windows, developed by Microsoft Safari — Apple’s default web browser.

Instead of Internet Explorer or Edge that you’re used to, Mac has its own proprietary browser called Safari. In fact if you try searching for “download Internet Explorer for Mac” you’ll quickly realize that the exact IE equivalent on Mac doesn’t exist.

Interestingly, at the dawn of the world wide web in the late 90s, Internet Explorer was the default browser on all Macs. But when Apple introduced Safari as the new default browser in 2003, Microsoft has decided to discontinue the development of IE for Mac shortly after. So unless you run Mac OS X 10.6 or earlier (why would you?), there is no way to directly install Internet Explorer on Mac. And you definitely shouldn’t use the Internet Explorer versions from pre-2003 right now.

How to use Internet Explorer on Mac

Although natively launching Internet Explorer on Mac isn’t possible, there are other ways to simulate IE for Mac experience. You could mask Safari as different versions of Internet Explorer or Microsoft Edge, you could also install a virtual machine and launch IE for Mac that way, or you could simply choose to use any other third-party browser available on macOS.

Simulate Internet Explorer on Mac with SafariMost of the time, if you need to use Internet Explorer on Mac, it’s probably for

186

testing purposes, to see how certain websites or web apps perform, or to access websites that require you to use IE (yes, those still exist).

Both of those use cases could be easily performed by Safari. To use Internet Explorer with Safari, you just need on developer tools:

In Safari, go to Preferences > Advanced
Check “Show Develop menu in menu bar”

Now you can access developer tools directly from Safari, which let you inspect websites, empty caches, and most importantly simulate a variety of other browsers right through the Safari app. To use Microsoft Edge or Internet Explorer on Mac:

Go to the Develop menu in Safari’s menu bar.
Navigate to User Agent and select the browser you’re looking for, whether it’s Microsoft Edge, any of the Internet Explorer versions, Google Chrome, Firefox, etc.
The website you’re on will be automatically refreshed to reflect the browser of your choice. Just don’t forget to switch back!

The User Agent option in Safari should cover nearly all reasons for using Internet Explorer on Mac. However, if you do absolutely need to launch Internet Explorer for one reason or another, you could also try doing it with the help of a virtual machine.

187

Launch Internet Explorer on a virtual machine

While using a virtual machine for Internet Explorer is not by any means an easy solution, it’s still there for anyone who needs it. What virtual machine essentially does is installing a full-scale copy of Windows on your Mac and letting you launch it as an app on macOS. From there you can launch Internet Explorer or, in fact, any program you miss from your Windows days.

To set up virtual machine, first you need to buy a copy of some virtual machine software (VMware Fusion is a good one) and a license for Windows. Once you have those in place:

Download both VMware fusion and the Windows ISO file.
Launch VMware Fusion.
In the Installation Method window, choose “Create a new custom virtual machine”.
Drag and drop your Windows ISO file onto the dialogue window.
Click Finish.
Relaunch the virtual machine and click the play button to setup Windows.

Now every time you need to use Internet Explorer on Mac, you can just launch the virtual machine and use IE directly with Windows that way. There are certainly a few downsides to this solution. First, you have to purchase both VMware Fusion and a licensed copy of Windows for the sole purpose of using Internet Explorer. Second, virtual machines tend to be quite heavy on your processor, as they are running the whole operating system inside them.

Another option available to you in case you don’t specifically need to use IE for Mac but rather move away from Safari is to switch to any other third-party browser, all of which are freely available on macOS.

Use third-party browsers on MacIf Safari is not your first browser of choice and using Internet Explorer for Mac is

188

at the very least quite complicated, you can download any other stable and widely used browser out there and make it the default one on your macOS.

Google Chrome

By far the most dominant browser of today, Google Chrome currently commands 45–65% browser market share. Developed by Google, the browser is available on both desktop and mobile devices, and thus boasts a significant amount of plugins and web apps that are exclusive to it. Chrome has also been praised for its speed and tight integration with all other Google products. As for the downsides, using Chrome means being subjected to Google’s pervading tracking and helping Google to effectively monopolize the web.

Firefox

Firefox is another great everyday browser. Heir to the first commercial web browser called Netscape, it’s an open-source program owned by the not-for-profit Mozilla Foundation. Firefox is fast, secure, and boasts a supportive community around the world. All of this makes it a great alternative to Safari and Internet Explorer.

Brave

Brave is a newcomer to the browser arena that first appeared in 2015. Based on the open-source Chromium project (as is Google Chrome), the browser quickly gained a loyal following due to its aggressive privacy controls and ad blocking. Turning Brave into your default browser might seem a bit experimental at this point, but it nevertheless presents a good option for anyone concerned with privacy.

Microsoft EdgeAlthough not available on macOS as of early 2019, Microsoft has announced that it’s currently rewriting the Edge browser engine to run on Chromium (like Google Chrome and Brave), which means it will become compatible with macOS too upon

189

release. Fingers crossed, but in the meantime you can choose one of the alternative browsers listed above.

Overall, these are your three options of running Internet Explorer on Mac. You can use Safari’s User Agent to view any webpage just as Internet Explorer would, launch the actual Internet Explorer browser through a virtual machine running Windows, or choose one of the alternative browsers if all you want to do is get away from Safari on Mac.

However, if you’re new to Mac, a browser might not be the only thing you’re concerned about. You also need to find apps to cover all kinds of issues related to optimization, organization, security, and productivity.

190

Paint for Mac

Vocab:

Tayasui Sketches — a drawing tool for Mac, third-party.

It's true that objectively MS Paint is not the best raster graphic editor around. It's clunky, slow, not accessible to beginners, and at the same time doesn't offer enough for pro-level users. Still, Windows Paint might be the most widely used graphic software around. And lots of people wish there was Paint for Mac as well.

Is there Paint for Mac? Well, not really. Official Microsoft Paint for Mac doesn't exist. But there are in fact more accessible alternatives that allow you to do better things and present much less of a learning curve at the same time. One of them is already installed on your Mac by default, only that its toolkit is hidden inside the app called Preview.

Best MS Paint Alternatives For Mac

Since its inception, Mac has been the operating system of choice for creative enthusiasts and professionals around the globe. So it's no wonder that macOS is the primary destination for the best new drawing, painting, image and video editing, and sketching applications.

As mentioned above, beginning your journey with Preview will cover all your basic needs that Windows Paint used to do. To get a specific result, you can try apps with more to offer, such as Tayasui Sketches for painting or Capto for working on images.

Annotate and edit images with easeNot everyone knows that Mac's default Preview application is not only an image

191

viewer but also provides a basic painting and annotating toolkit that's just enough for it to be a decent substitute for Microsoft Paint for Mac. Here's how to access it.

Right-click on any image and choose Open With > Preview.
Locate the marker icon in the upper-right corner of the app window.
Click on it to open all available tools.

All the tools in Preview are fairly close to what you used to see in MS Paint. There are three broad functionality groups separated by vertical dividers: selection, creation, and modification.

Using Preview is just as intuitive as it was with MS Paint. Let's say you want to draw a circle around an object on one of your images to bring someone's attention to it:

Select the Sketch tool (third from the left).
Simply draw around the object. By default Preview will autocomplete the shape you've drawn, getting it to a perfect oval, square, or triangle. You can, however, choose to keep the line freehand by selecting such option from a small pop-up menu.

If you want to modify your line, choose Shape Style (fourth from the right) to

192

pick the appropriate line thickness and Border Color (third from the right) to alter the color of the line itself.

And yes, Preview has the bucket tool as well. If you've drawn an enclosed shape, you can select the Fill Color tool (second from the right) and choose to fill your object with any color.

Just like that feel free to explore all the other tools Preview has to offer, such as Shapes, Text, Sign, Adjust Color, etc. We guarantee you won't miss MS Paint one bit.But why limit yourself in the first place? Since you're switching to a new platform altogether, pick the tools that will serve you in any situation, such as producing a high-quality tutorial, for example. For this, you'd need a more powerful app, such as Capto.Unlike Preview and Windows Paint, which offer bare-minimum functionality in terms of annotating your images, Capto is the top app for recording screen, whether it's just grabbing a screenshot or making a video, and modifying all the resulting files afterward.Starting with Capto couldn't be easier:

In the app's Organizer window, where all Capto's images and videos are kept, you can either grab a new screenshot using the tools in the top bar (Screen,

193

Area, Window, etc.) or import any image you already have on your Mac just by dragging and dropping it onto the app's window.

To modify an image, double-click on it to open.
Choose the tool you need from the left-side bar. Beside the basic tools you might be familiar with from MS Paint and Preview, Capto features more advanced ones, such as Spotlight, Numbering, Blur, and Callout.
To use a Numbering tool, for example, simply select it from the menu, choose the Type, Style, and Color, and leave the sequence of numbers on your image by clicking on the appropriate locations.

One of the best features of Capto, and one of the ones you wish Microsoft Paint for Mac would have, is its extensive sharing capabilities. As the app is mostly used to show someone how to do something, you also need an easy way to send the explanation to them.

To share your creation with Capto:

When you're done with your image, click Share in the top-right corner of the app's window.
By default, you have a selection of Mail, Messages, or AirDrop. Choose one of these or click Configure for more options.
In the new menu, select one of the options you'd like to set up, from Dropbox

194

to your own server, and follow the login instructions on the right. Now you'll be able to share images from Capto through your favorite platform in no time.

Finally, don't forget that Capto goes beyond images and lets you record, edit, and share video tutorials as well.

See also:

Check how you can use Capto to capture and record your screen here.

Paint at any level right from the get-go

When it comes to drawing and painting, a lot of people are used to MS Paint mostly for the lack of accessible alternatives. Macs, on the other hand, have plenty. And one of them is Tayasui Sketches.

Tayasui Sketches is a lot more than just Microsoft Paint for Mac. It combines natural drawing experience you're so used to with a near unlimited selection of beautiful digital brushes and colors.

Starting with Tayasui Sketches is just as easy as picking up a pen in real life — simply choose the paper type, select one of the tools in the left sidebar, and begin to draw.

Quickly you'll realize how none of the MS Paint's artistic brushes can compare to the flow and realistic beauty of the tools available in Tayasui Sketches. At the same time, the app doesn't require you to go through lengthy workshops and spend hours in settings, which positively distinguishes it from other professional alternatives.

195

It's likely that Tayasui Sketches will serve you for many years to come. It remains an indispensable tool for lots of professional artists. And even if you decide to switch to a different professional drawing app in the future, the foundational functionality would probably remain the same.

196

Adobe Flash Player for Mac

Vocab:

Adobe Flash Player — a computer software with a dedicated toolkit for managing content created on the Adobe Flash platform.

By the simple virtue of browsing the web over the years, nearly all of us have seen a variety of pop-ups asking us to download or upgrade Flash Player for Mac. Usually, there’s little explanation involved, which leaves you thinking, “Do I really need to install Adobe Flash Player on Mac?”

Adobe Flash is a proprietary software that started in the late ‘90s as a way to include advanced interactivity, gaming functionality, and video capability into your browser. By the early 2000s, Flash was supported by every major browser and seemingly ran the internet. That is until Steve Jobs himself declared a war on it.

In a press release published by Apple in 2010, Steve Jobs laid out his reasons for not integrating Adobe Flash in the Safari browser by default. His main criticism of the platform was its closed proprietary nature, slow updates, weak security, and increasing the availability of open standards that were arguably better equipped to handle browser interactivity.

197

For a long time, Adobe Flash security issues were the primary reason most developers discouraged people from installing the application. As you may have noticed, oftentimes Adobe Flash Player pop-ups haunt you on the least trustworthy websites. It’s highly likely that those were hackers using Adobe Flash installers to find a way into your system.

Fortunately, in the last 10 years, the popularity of Adobe Flash has decreased significantly. By now, 95% of all websites have switched to the open HTML5 standard. This even includes all the major video companies, such as Vimeo, Netflix, Facebook, and YouTube. In fact, the popularity of the Flash technology has declined so much now that Adobe decided to end its Flash support in 2020.

So is Adobe Flash Player safe? Generally, yes, given that you download Flash Player for Mac from Adobe’s official website. And sometimes there is no way around installing Flash as you might still need it to run that lagging 5% of the web properly. Whatever the reason, below we’ll discuss how to manage Adobe Flash safely and securely.

If you absolutely need to download Adobe Flash Player for Mac, you should at the very least do it securely. Good tips to note are install Flash only when required, disable it when not in use, update it regularly to get the latest security patches, and delete it completely as soon as you can make the full switch to more modern web technologies

Safely install Adobe Flash Player on Mac

If there would be only one takeaway from reading this article, it should be: never ever download Flash Player for Mac from unrecognized websites.

Using Macs in general is very safe. But by far the most popular way for hackers to get into your system is to persuade you to download malware that’s masking itself as a well-known program. And Flash Player for Mac tops the list, having the worst security record out of any software. Moreover, Adobe Flash is the number one reason Macs crash overall.

198

So when you are about to install Adobe Flash Player on Mac, you should:

Go to get.adobe.com/flashplayer (this is the only official Flash Player for Mac distributor).
Click “Download now”.
Navigate to your Downloads folder and open the .dmg file.
Proceed through the installation instructions.
Restart the browser, after which Adobe Flash Player for Mac should be activated.

Update Adobe Flash Player for Mac regularlyOnce you have Flash Player installed, you need to remember to update it regularly (e.g. once a month) to avoid any security issues. To check whether there’s a new version of Flash available:

Open System Preferences.
Click on the Flash Player and navigate to the Updates tab.
Select Check Now or Install Now if there’s an update available.

199

Disable Flash when not in useWhen you encounter a website that doesn’t work properly without Flash, proceed to install the player from the official (very important) website as per the steps above. But for complete security, turn off Flash right after you use it and enable it only when there’s no workaround.To disable Flash Player for Mac in Safari:

Go to Preferences and then Websites.
Scroll down to Plugins and uncheck the Adobe Flash Player.

Similarly, disabling Flash can be done in Content Settings in Chrome and Addons > Plugins in Firefox.

Completely uninstall Flash Player for Mac

There’s a lot of confusion with regards to deleting Flash Player. As we’ve seen, when you download Flash Player for Mac, it doesn’t install itself as an app, but rather integrates into your System Preferences.

Hence removing Flash Player is not as easy as just dragging it to the Trash. Adobe has a whole page devoted to the uninstallation process and makes you download a separate tool to delete Flash properly.

To remove Flash Player the Adobe way:

Download the uninstaller for your macOS.
Launch it as any app and follow the instructions.
Restart your Mac.

200

However, due to the Flash Player’s pervasive presence on your Mac, it’s highly recommended that you use a professional uninstaller, CleanMyMac X.To uninstall Adobe Flash Player on Mac with CleanMyMac X:

Navigate to the Uninstaller tab.
Select Adobe from Vendors.
Check the box next to Flash Player and click Uninstall.

Recover files lost to Flash Player

Sometimes you simply can’t prevent the malware from getting into your system. And most of the time you only realize that infiltration happened after the fact, when you discover some of your files completely gone.

Good news is you might be able to recover your files if you act quickly. As soon as you notice any files missing, install Disk Drill and follow this process:

Launch Disk Drill from Applications.
Find your hard drive in the list and click Recover.
Choose one of the recommended options, from disabling system protection to connecting another Mac, to allow Disk Drill to recover lost files.

201

Finally, to stop compromised apps or files from getting into your system, use a malware protection utility in CleanMyMac X on a regular basis.To scan your Mac for viruses with CleanMyMac X:

Select the Malware Removal tab.
Click Scan.
Delete anything suspicious that shows up in the report.

Overall, there are very few reasons to download Flash Player for Mac today. Nearly all modern websites have switched to community-supported standards like HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. But if you need to use Flash, make sure to download it from the official source and turn it off when not required to protect yourself from its security flaws.

202

Microsoft Publisher for Mac

Vocab:

Microsoft Publisher — a desktop publishing app developed by Microsoft.

Swift Publisher — a desktop publisher for Mac, third-party.

PDF Search — an AI-powered tool for searching text inside a PDF, third-party.

MarsEdit — a blog editor for Mac, third-party.

As one of the most widely used layout programs in the world, Microsoft Publisher is beginner-friendly and lets virtually anyone design a variety of marketing materials, whether for web or print, with ease. Its tight integration with Office 365 contributes to it being the default choice for many when it comes to design software as well.

However, if you’ve recently switched from Windows to macOS and installed your favorite Microsoft software, you might have noticed that Microsoft Publisher is absent from the app lineup. How could it be? Is there Microsoft Publisher for Mac? What do you use instead? Let’s tackle all these questions one by one.

Is Microsoft Publisher available on Mac?

As the official Microsoft website indicates, Microsoft Publisher is available for PC only. But that shouldn’t discourage you in the slightest. After all, the key value proposition of Mac computers for the longest time has been an abundance of platform-specific designer-oriented software.

Not only there are lots of Microsoft Office Publisher for Mac alternatives — they are generally more intuitive and focused on getting the professional results you’re after much quicker. One of those options is Swift Publisher.

203

Create astonishing layouts with Swift Publisher

What exactly is a Microsoft Publisher equivalent for Mac? There are certain tools that professional full-time designers use to create books, brochures, and printed advertising. Generally, those apps take hundreds of hours to get a grasp of and, even after you know them quite well, demand highly manual approach.

The other category is software that was designed to be accessible to all but which is still capable of producing results comparable to its highly specialized alternatives. Microsoft Publisher is certainly in that camp, and by comparison Swift Publisher is too.

Swift Publisher provides you with more than 200 templates and 2,000 royalty-free images right from the get-go. That means whatever you’re planning to design has already been mocked up and all the media you need can be found with a quick search, no purchase required. To accompany all these images, the app also features a built-in image editor you can use for any necessary cropping or color correction.

Building out your perfect layout in Swift Publisher couldn’t be easier, as the whole interface operates on a drag-and-drop functionality to enable you to fill out the template you’ve chosen at the beginning. You can also change the template yourself with regards to master pages, grid, layers, tables, and more.

204

Unlike Microsoft Publisher for Mac, Swift Publisher makes full use of programmatic automation. For example, calendars and maps can be added in a snap to show timelines and directions. Contacts can be merged from Apple’s address book to output names. New QR codes can be created to guide users to where you want them to go.

Printing your project has never been so seamless. First, you can simply check out the layout integrity by printing samples at home. When you get the result you seek, the app allows you to further fine-tune the image resolution, mark bleeds, and customize anything else required by your commercial printer.

As you can see, the inability to download Microsoft Publisher for Mac shouldn’t affect your need for creative expression. Swift Publisher offers all the same features and more in a convenient and approachable package. But what if someone sends you a .pub file Macs can’t read? There are workarounds for that too.

How to open a .pub file on Mac

It’s true that none of Mac’s default apps would be able to peek inside the .pub file, simply due to how closed the Microsoft ecosystem is. Luckily, it’s less of a problem than it seems. A quick search online would reveal dozens of free web-based utilities that instantly convert Publisher files into PDFs, .docx, .png, etc.

Alternatively, you can notify your team of your recent switch to Mac and ask them to export .pub files to another format before those get sent to you. To do that your colleagues need to go to File then Export then Change File Type.

Most likely, all the files you’ll receive from now on would be PDFs, which are great, as they preserve the original formatting and can be read by any program that deals with images. With time though you’ll accumulate hundreds of PDF files, so your new challenge will be finding the right one quickly. That’s where PDF Search comes to the rescue.

PDF Search is a powerful utility that first and foremost scans any folder on your Mac for PDFs and then uses its AI capabilities to work with them. This app doesn’t just search for a word or phrase, it also analyzes a variety of semantically

205

related keyword combinations and ranks them for you based on relevancy. To put it simply, there has never been an easier way to scan your PDFs.

Publish flawless blog posts on the web

A frequently overlooked use case for Microsoft Publisher is laying out the content for the web, whether it’s a website or complex blog post. And while Swift Publisher is an outstanding tool for creating website mockups, it would seem like an overkill to use it for putting together a blog post. Working with a single-focused app like MarsEdit would make so much more sense.

MarsEdit is a lightweight but powerful all-in-one blogging tool. It lets you write, design, optimize, and publish outstanding blog posts using a single workflow, and thus saving time and reducing errors in the process.

When you launch MarsEdit for the first time, it asks you to connect the app to your existing blog, whether it’s on WordPress, Blogger, or Medium, so that it can import all your settings and configure the publishing process. That way, MarsEdit will also become the de facto content management system for your website — good news, as keeping a copy of all your posts offline certainly wouldn’t hurt.

Writing in MarsEdit is straightforward and distraction-free. You can also copy-paste the text from another app and even retain the Markdown syntax. Adding media is the best part, as MarsEdit supports a variety of image engines and even features a native image editor to make all the necessary adjustments. What’s

206

more, the app can scan Apple Photos, Lightroom, and Aperture for images.

You also get to preview your resulting blog posts in real time to avoid after-the-fact tweaking. And if you have more than one blog, you can simply switch accounts right within the app. To sum up, MarsEdit is exactly the software web publisher have been waiting for.

Despite the fact that there is no official Microsoft Office Publisher for Mac, you’re not left without tools that are crucial for your success. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Lots of apps could be called a Microsoft Publisher equivalent for Mac. Your task now is to pick the right one. Swift Publisher does the trick for nearly every use case, and MarsEdit effortlessly takes care of your web presence. Finally, in case someone sends you .pub file Macs can’t read, search online to resolve the issue and try any top-ranking utility.

207

Visio for Mac

Vocab:

Microsoft Visio — a diagramming and vector graphics app created by Microsoft. iThoughtsX — a brainstorming visualization tool for Mac, third-party

XMind — mind mapping software for Mac, third-party MindNode — a macOS app for visual brainstorming, third-party

With our work lives speeding up towards more — more responsibilities, more people to manage, more time at the office — we get overloaded with information. Naturally, we can only read so much text every day to deeply understand the problem at hand. That’s why well-designed imagery has been on the rise in the last decade or so. And there is no more popular visual editor than Microsoft Visio.

Microsoft Visio makes it easy to produce all the diagrams and workflow visualizations your team requires. You can collaborate with other people in real time to create organizational charts, engineering designs, and floor plans, which could also adapt, based on live data you have available.

The software is widely used by structural engineers, project managers, business analysts, and executives of all kinds. Unfortunately, there are two problems with it: Microsoft Visio for Mac is not officially available and, if it would be, its license costs well over $500.

So if you and your office work predominantly on macOS, what do you do? Luckily, a good Visio alternative for Mac does exist, even a few! And more impressively they are much cheaper than the original software.

While Visio sets the bar high for any alternative on Windows, its long-time absence from macOS has resulted in some strong competition from smaller independent startups. Apps like MindNode, XMind, and iThoughtsX have largely captured what would be MS Visio for Mac market share.

208

For good reasons. All three apps provide mind-mapping features that aid the confident decision making. At the same time, each one is different enough that they can be used in combination, depending on the goals you have in mind.

Create mind maps with ease

Sometimes you just want to put your thoughts down on (digital) paper. You don’t need complicated schemes. These are the times when you should fire up MindNode.

MindNode is a simple but delightful mind-mapping tool. It acts as the perfect Visio for Mac equivalent for everyday tasks, as it’s much more nimble at creating something quick.

Use the Quick Entry feature in your menu bar to put together images, words, links, and the connections between them, and MindNode’s Smart Layout will adjust your thoughts to become more readable and beautiful.

When you’re done, swiftly send the resulting file as a text outline to print or another more advanced app that will perfect what you’ve started. Just remember that MindNode excels at visualizing your initial ideas and doesn’t pretend to be an all-in-one tool.

209

Plan your work at scale

Working with teams tends to get exponentially complicated. While three can do a stand-up meeting to catch up, seven need some sort of a written process in place, and ten or more would certainly benefit from a dedicated project manager, whose job is in part to design effective workflows for the company.

XMind is your project manager’s best friend. The app not only allows you to create mind maps of any complexity, it also lets you transform them into Gantt charts to clearly display the resources each task would require and its timeline. Finally, with a quick glance, you can see where your team is overcommitting and where they could pick up the slack.

Good news is you don’t even have to design something from scratch. A wide variety of templates for every business function makes XMind an essential Visio alternative for Mac that gets you up and running in no time.

In addition, XMind makes it effortless to present, as the app features more than 60,000 icons to help you design outstanding maps and charts, and then turn them into slide-based presentations, perfectly fitting for any audience.

210

Gain complete control over visualizations

If your team is used to constantly stretch the possibilities of Visio, working with all of its features in some capacity, or even when you just need to up your game once in a while, a true Visio Mac alternative might be necessary. Look no further than iThoughtsX.

iThoughtsX enables you and your team to organize ideas, create task lists, brainstorm, plan ahead, set goals, write down meeting notes, and much more. No concept is too grand for iThoughtsX, which makes it a perfect Visio for Mac app choice.

It’s easy to integrate iThoughtsX into your team’s workflow, as it lets you import files from all other popular visualization apps such as XMind, ConceptDraw, Scrivener, Excel, and all types of text including Markdown. More importantly, it also lets you export to widely used Microsoft software like PowerPoint, Word, and Project, as well as PDF, PNG, and HTML.

Your team will immediately love iThoughtsX because of how well this Visio Mac alternative plays with the operating system. It features instant cloud synchronization via iCloud or Dropbox, can be edited simultaneously on Mac and iPhone, and looks gorgeous on retina screens.

Even given the three popular options of Visio alternative for Mac above, it’s a quite difficult choice. Think of it this way: MindNode is a perfect app to start your

211

new idea, get it out of your head, and maybe show someone on your team. XMind is a robust planning tool that can take on a complete organization of your team’s processes, from brainstorming as a group to allocating time and resources.

Finally, iThoughtsX is king of all, a true Visio equivalent for Mac that could match it on every level and then add some. It’s a heavy-hitter and should be used in that way, when you really need that extra power.

212

Microsoft Project for Mac

Vocab:

Microsoft Project — project management software designed for Windows Merlin Project Express — a macOS app for advanced project management, third-party

Whether you have a team of one or 1,000 — you need to make sure everyone knows what to do, when to do it, and how much time to spend on it. Most companies employ a full-time project manager to oversee the work process, and the most essential tool they use in their work is some form of project management software.

Project management software helps teams plan, organize, and manage their work. There are lots of alternatives on the market: some are as simple as to-do lists and others include all the bells and whistles, like budget estimations, forecasting, and cost control. The most popular and widely used option by far is Microsoft Project.

Microsoft Project was first developed in 1984 as an MS-DOS application, even before there were graphical interfaces. Over the years, it has gained a loyal global following and has become the go-to tool for the majority of project managers.

Sadly, if you predominantly work on Macs, Microsoft hasn’t released a Mac-compatible version just yet, although the rest of the Microsoft Office 365 suite is available on Macs (short of Microsoft Access). So what’s the best Microsoft Project alternative for Mac?

Naturally, since Microsoft hasn’t been in a hurry developing an MS Project for Mac build, lots of Mac-specific players have entered the game, occupying all possible niches based on cost, features, tech support, and more. But to understand what makes a perfect competitor to Microsoft Project management software, we need

213

to know what exactly Microsoft Project is revered for.

Microsoft Project supports all project management activities with:

Built-in customizable templates to quickly get up and running when new projects come in.

Gantt charts to clearly see the timeline and the capacity for execution.

Visual reports to evaluate progress on the go.

Besides, Microsoft Project is a great tool for your business portfolio optimization and project evaluation to see where your organization is going and how it is doing. Finally, the software also does a continuous resource analysis, predicting bottlenecks and showing where resources are currently being underused.

So the ideal alternative to replace Microsoft Project for Mac needs to cover most if not all of these features and do it well. And maybe even have a few cards up its sleeve too. For example, Microsoft Project’s cost of $500–1500 per install or $30–60 per user a month is a likely target for other up-and-coming apps.

When we consider all available Microsoft Project alternatives, one stands out right away. In many ways similar to what Microsoft Project on Mac would be, it offers a more intuitive interface, easier onboarding process, and simpler cost structure.

Use Merlin Project Express as MS Project for Mac

Merlin Project Express is an all-in-one planning software that doesn’t constrain you into any project management paradigm. Control multiple projects, resources, and budgets with ease in the way that streamlines your own workflow.

214

Some notable features of Merlin Project Express include:

Outstanding planning tools. The app lets you create tasks, sort out dependencies, track progress, and schedule for the future — all on one screen.

By-the-minute tracking. See how much income your project generates in real time. Check how busy and productive your team is, and how many hours a day get clocked in.

Custom templates. Create intuitive templates for all repetitive processes and have your colleagues fire up new projects in no time.

Precise resource management. Handle all information about your team, tools, and equipment in one secure place. Adding people is just as easy as dragging them from your Contacts, and the calendar view makes it effortless to see everything at once.

Accurate project timelines. When you have a large project on your hands, how do you predict its success? The best way to do it is to break everything down to smaller tasks, which don’t seem daunting and are much easier to keep track of.

Unlimited version-based attachments. Storing task-related information separately is a sure way to mismanagement on large projects. With Merlin Project Express, you just drop the required files right onto the task and it will keep it safe, including all the updated versions.

215

Hopefully, the mentioned tools will disclose the new, beautiful sides of macOS to you. But you should also know, there are many more appearing on the Mac App Store, Setapp, and other platforms every day — so don’t stop exploring and finding bells and whistles for your Mac!

216

Сhapter 3

The Mac lifestyle

In this chapter:

Travel and work remotely with a Mac Edit and download favorite video Tips for music fansOrganize your work routine on Mac

Contents

218

Set up your music environment

219

The Mac rules of digital nomadism

Vocab:

Digital nomad — someone who uses the Internet to work remotely from any spot on a planet.

Who doesn’t want to make money while traveling? Spending your life cruising the world in the state of digital nomadism sounds like a dream lifestyle for the ever-increasing amount of people.

The truth is working remotely while traveling is not difficult. But as everything else, it takes careful planning and dutiful organization. Tons of companies in the US now allow their employees to work remotely abroad. So finding the job isn’t even the hard part — planning your journey, staying safe, and managing your budget is.

Luckily, there are a few tools that can help you out. Here’s the checklist:

A robust backup app

If your MacBook is your main source of income, its data is very valuable. In case it gets lost or corrupted, you’d be in a lot of trouble. So you should always have fresh backups for everything you do, which is even more important when you decide to work remotely abroad, as your Mac is much more vulnerable to being damaged or stolen.

Make sure you do regular incremental backups to a local external drive or online storage. With Anytrans you can compress and encrypt backups of all your devices

— macOS, iOS, Andriod — making it very useful for traveling. You can also use Get Backup Pro to create a complete bootable clone of your Mac. ChronoSync Express lets you run scheduled backups of your Mac, but you can use it to

220

synchronize files and folders between two different Macs as well — useful if you find yourself working on a different Mac while you travel and work remotely.

Digital notebook

Whether you’re planning to write a blog to make money while traveling or simply communicate with colleagues remotely, you’re going to write a lot. And to do that you need an app that’s versatile enough for all kinds of writing formats (including Markdown) but is also easy on the eyes and lets you concentrate on the task at hand.

Ulysses does all those things. It’s one of the best writing tools on the Mac and keeps all your documents organized in one place, so you don’t have text files lose on your hard drive. Its distraction-free writing mode will help keep you focused, and it syncs with iCloud, so if you have the iPad or iPhone version you can swap between the two very easily.

221

Stable Wi-Fi, always

Perhaps your working has gone really remote, and you don’t have access to WiFi. Or maybe you do a lot of work on the move — or it could be that you’re staying connected to back home with plenty of video calls.

How often do you end up needing to connect to a mobile hotspot and run through your data? And if you’re on international charges, fees can quickly mount up. To minimize the data you’re using when connected to a mobile hotspot, use TripMode. It automatically activates once it connects to a familiar network, so you don’t have to worry about forgetting to set it up.

222

You can also customize your access: If you’re working, you might only want data being used for emails, whereas if you’re chatting with family you may want everything shut down except for FaceTime to save both data and battery life. You can also examine which apps are using more data than you’d like, or where your data went on a particularly heavy-use session.

Physical protection of your Mac

We understand if you go into a digital nomad journey all by yourself. And we totally understand if you don’t want to talk to people in public spaces. But come on, somebody has to watch your Mac while you’re ordering muffins in a cafe. Or, an app can do that, completely human-free.

To ensure your Mac is protected in public places, have Beepify with you whenever you’re on the road. The app can be instantly activated to produce a loud sound when a stranger closes the Mac’s screen or tries to disconnect the charger. Plus, you get a notification to your messenger once the incident takes place.

Transferring files with easeUnless you’re going on a vacation, you’ll need to transfer files to your collaborators and clients. Email works fine for text documents and PDFs but will

223

struggle with large images. Cloud storage services are ok, but some companies will insist that you send files directly to their FTP server.

For the latter you should get a stable FTP client like Dcommander or CloudMounter. All make it incredibly easy to transfer files from your Mac to a %)/2 $) =>? 2% C=>? #)%4)%7 2% )4): D)8E@F 2% @/.G2: CH #$2%.')7 ,A ;2& :))3 $20

Money management on the go

If you’re going to travel and work remotely for more than a month or two, there are additional things you should think about. Managing money is crucial — you’ll need to set a budget and stick to it. You’d also want to block off time in your diary for fun stuff — after all, there’s no point in your travel lifestyle if you’re going to spend all your time working.

Quicken is one of those apps people will keep recommending if you’re new to Mac. Indeed, it’s pretty incredible what this app can do — not only help you track expenses, but also give advice on smart investing and performance analytics. If it’s worth the cost for you, go ahead and buy it — the price of a starter plan is $34.99 a year. For more affordable budget tracking, use MoneyWiz or Chronicle.

MoneyWiz allows you to plan budgets, forecast spending and pay bills. It displays your spending in infographics so you can get a handle on where your money is

224

going. And it can hook directly into your bank account to pay bills and allow you to manage your money. Chronicle also makes it easy to track and pay bills, and will remind you when it’s time to do so. Its capabilities are not as extensive as MoneyWiz’s but it could be just what you’re looking for if you only need to see how much your travel lifestyle costs you.

Get your work together

Organization is key. You’re juggling your workload with the trials of setting up in a new country, and there’s little room for error: You need to know your tasks for the day, their deadlines, and how they overlap, not just for managing your projects but also in your day-to-day living.

225

It could be tempting to enjoy your surroundings and lose enthusiasm for your work, or, conversely, dive into your work and neglect time for yourself. If you want everything in one place, Pagico is the app for you. Projects, tasks, and contacts are quickly accessed. Embracing the digital nomad lifestyle is inclusive of balancing ambition and leisure, and with Pagico you can manage your daily, weekly, and yearly goals to keep on track.

Communication without time zone obstacles

Have clients or friends in different timezones? Feel inspired at night but only want your email to land the next morning? There’s one hack you’ll need to learn: With Right Inbox, you can write emails at any time that works for you, then have them sent at a time that works for your recipients.

Right Inbox's email scheduling feature is very useful for digital nomads. The email reminder feature sends you automatic reminders when they become relevant so you never lose track of important emails while on the move.

One more thing you should know if you’ve switched to Mac is there are lots of unboring mail clients you can use. Unibox is a nice example. Supporting iCloud, Google and Outlook, the app creates an elegant inbox that chronologically collates all your messages for each contact into one place, so you don’t have to scroll through a mess of conversations to find all the emails you’ve exchanged.

226

Choose whether you see your attachments as a thumbnail preview, list information in a grid, or as part of the message, and, even better, keep your attachments from one contact all in one place.

227

Download YouTube videos

Vocab:

YouTube Premium — a paid streaming subscription service created by YouTube. Video downloader — an app that allows to save video content on a computer. Torrent client — an app that initiates, truncates, and manages the downloads of data using BitTorrent file protocol.

You may hate funny cat videos or game reviews, but the chances are you still use YouTube. A mammoth of video content, YouTube is a go-to spot for many. In fact, the platform has over 1 billion users which is one-third of all internet users. Huge.Or, maybe your daily companions are Vimeo and Twitch. One way or another, video content is a part of your digital life. The question is how to utilize it. On a Mac, you can legally save a video with YouTube downloaders to watch it anytime and anywhere. It’s not easy to step into the jungle of video downloaders and instantly pick the right fit — impossible if you’re new to Mac. There’s help, though.

Download streaming video with YouTube Premium

Streaming content is a huge chunk of your internet traffic. Think Vimeo, Twitch, YouTube, Dailymotion, and other platforms where you can watch video displayed in real time.

Relying on online streaming stymies your watching experience in many ways – from limited data usage to network issues. Plus Wi-Fi often fails you at the most crucial moments.

If you ask YouTube, it will probably suggest you use YouTube Premium, a native paid subscription service to save content. For the monthly cost of $11.99, it

228

allows you to download videos on iPhone and Android devices. Yes, you got it right – no Mac. To fill the gap and bring streaming content to a computer, you’ll have to consider third-party software.How to legally download YouTube videos

Whether to capture a few movies for an upcoming flight or save favorite clips to rewatch, Mac owners love downloaders. And it’s a piece of cake to find one. The problem with the majority of such tools is that there are too many of them. Not to mention they could be used for copyright infringement.

To legally save content from YouTube and video streaming services to Mac, you can use third-party apps as long as you’re not earning money from downloads or breach copyright. Decide on the functionality – maybe you want the tool to convert videos, batch-download, or save audio only – the options are very diverse, but definitely worth looking into.

Disclaimer: You may download from YouTube using third-party software if you represent a copyright holder or own the permission of a copyright holder. The YouTube content should be copied for personal use only. For a more thorough understanding, check out YouTube’s Terms of Service.

Below you’ll find a small collection of YouTube downloaders that we recommend you look into. Use the apps to play, manage, and automatically save videos. Best of all, you can use the full toolkit of apps reviewed in this article for a flat fee.

Downie: Save YouTube videos within secondsThe easiest version of a YouTube downloader you can imagine. Grab a link, drag it onto the app icon, wait a few seconds for the content to travel to your Mac. While you don’t really do much, you can do even less with the browser extension.Downie already has it, so you don’t have to install the extension separately – check the box in your browser preferences and you’re good to go. Magically, Downie can also scan text files for links and download video content from there.

229

In other words, Downie is a media downloader that commits to cherishing your time. Here are the key ways to align the app with your workflow:

Enable Simple mode to get rid of distractions in Preferences > General. Perfect for those who are annoyed by a progress bar showing up each time a download takes place.
Downie is also a search machine. You can find YouTube videos on for download by searching right in the app, without opening a browser.
If you love YouTube concerts and music videos, you can download audio only. To set Downie to the MP3 mode, open Preferences > Postprocessing > Enforce MP3.

This downloader automatically converts all videos to MP4, but if you need more options there’s Permute to help. It covers virtually all media formats and works both for video and audio. The app is basically Downie’s cousin, created by the same team of developers, Charlie Monroe Software. So you get a discount if you buy two. Also, Downie and Permute are both available on Setapp.

Play and download video content with Elmedia Player

Elmedia Player is one of the best tools to entrust your movie watching experience with. Not only does it tell you how to save videos from YouTube, it also enables

230

viewing content ad-free, right from the app. Download audio, convert to different media formats, or stream via AirPlay – it solves tons of problems.

Not limitless, but the functionality is pretty impressive. It’s a good idea to work with Elmedia Player if you want to:

Organize downloads and bring them into curated playlists.
Play Vimeo, Dailymotion, and YouTube videos in the app, without downloading.
Open and convert files to different formats – from MP3 TO MKV.
Extract audio tracks from YouTube videos.
Stream media content to all Apple devices that support AirPlay.

Compared to Apple’s native QuickTime, Elmedia Player supports a bigger number of formats and is generally a decent alternative to the default program.Swiftly download large videos with Folx appThere’s no better option than Folx if you’re big on big downloads. Combining the functionality of a download manager and torrent client, the app brings large videos to your Mac in a matter of minutes.

231

With your browser and Folx open, you can download any video from YouTube by URL. Once you have the URL, paste it directly into the search bar or click on the plus button > YouTube > paste the link. Give the app a few seconds to prepare a download, and click OK. Before you know it, the video is on your Mac.

The in-built torrent client that is available to Pro plan users works in a similar way

– simple and lightning fast. Navigate to the Torrent tab via the plus button. In the top search field, click on the three dots to select a torrent file, customize default preferences if needed, and click OK.

To accelerate the process, Folx splits downloads in up to 20 streams. The app also cleverly adjusts download speed to your online activities, so that not to hamper important programs and processes running on your Mac. To tweak the default speed settings in Folx, access Preferences > Smart Speed.

AnyTrans to download and transfer content

Many think of AnyTrans as an alternative to iTunes, but it’s much more than that. The app is an all-mighty file manager that works with all your devices. So whether you want to copy images from iPhone to Mac, or transfer from Android to iOS, AnyTrans has you covered.

Apart from cleverly managing your content, the app also helps you grab some

232

new. Using an in-built Media Downloader, you can save video from 900+ websites, including Vimeo, Dailymotion, and YouTube.

Capturing and instantly sharing media is why you should pick AnyTrans over the other options. It has limited functionality in terms of download preferences, but is pretty good for capturing short videos.

233

Photo editing: A complete guide

Vocab:

Markup tools — a set of editing tools like adding arrows and text, highlighting, etc.

Watermark — a mark on a photo that identifies an original owner of the photo.

Time-lapse video — a sequence of photos that is played as a video.

People love photos. We are more visual now than ever. With most of us using smartphones and digital cameras to share with the world everything from what we had for dinner to holiday and birthday memories. We snap, share and print more than ever before. All of this makes our choice of editing tools something worth thinking about.

Apple took care of you having a basic photo editing toolkit integrated with macOS

— the Photos and Preview apps. Let’s see what they are capable of and why you’ll need a bit of extra help.

Edit images on macOS

You can take a picture and instantly enhance it in Photos – crop, adjust color, or apply filters. On macOS 10.15 Catalina, you also get access to robust photo organization features like viewing images by days, months, or years.

The Preview app has an in-built Markup toolbox with some solid photo editing capabilities. If you need to remove image background or do some color adjustments, this could be your perfect go-to instrument.

But before entrusting photos to a default tool, define what has to be done. The chances are, Apple’s native software might fall short of meeting your needs.

234

Crop, straighten, rotate, and flip

To crop an image automatically or manually with Photos, open the photo and click Edit > Crop. Choose Auto for automatic cropping or customize aspect ratio if you want to crop a specific area. To manually straighten your photo, click Crop > Dial, and then adjust the area by dragging up and down.

Also, look no further if your task is to rotate or flip an image. Once you launch Photos, choose Image in the top menu bar, and click Rotate clockwise/ counterclockwise or Flip vertical/horizontal to apply desired changes.

To crop and straighten your photos instantly, try CameraBag Pro:

To straighten your image, drag the dial up or down.

To crop the photo, drag one corner inwards, then drag a box around the image until its positioned the way you want it.

Batch resize photos in Preview app

Let’s say you want to set custom dimensions for 20 images. It’s very likely, your eyes might betray you if you go through them one by one.

In the Preview app, you can batch resize any number of photos without even opening all of them. Drag images onto Preview icon in your dock and select

235

thumbnails for all by clicking Edit> Select All. Set any dimensions and press OK to see your photos in the new shape.Adjust lighting and exposure

Editing software won't turn a poor picture into a Pulitzer prize winner, but various apps can be used to improve and enhance the lighting of a picture. Within Photos, for example – Apple's native images app – you can make some changes to the light levels and overall warmth of an image. To quickly fix exposure, brightness, and other lighting values, click Edit and start adjusting by moving sliders to the right or to the left.

Other apps that are good at adjusting the light levels and exposure within an image include the following:

TouchRetouch: Includes a range of tools for selecting areas you want to erase. TouchRetouch is also great at making color adjustments to your photos to ensure that your final edited work looks the way it should, which includes lighting changes.

PhotoBulk: It can apply lighting adjustments to a whole folder of images in only a few clicks, taking a matter of minutes. Useful if you're someone who regularly needs to make simple, quick adjustments to large numbers of pictures with a short turnaround to think about.

Photolemur: An AI-powered photo enhancer that automates the editing process. You don't need to learn what the pros know and you don't need to spend hours messing around with sliders and editing every image manually. Using 12 smart AI-powered technologies, Photolemur identifies then makes changes to images, including adjustments to lighting, colors and exposure.

To adjust the lighting and color with CameraBag Pro:

Click the Adjustments tab on the right-hand toolbar (first from the top). The color adjustments are grouped at the top and the lighting adjustments are below. Drag the slider in each adjustment left or right to change its value.

236

Scroll further down and you'll see options for adjusting hue and saturation and for using curves to adjust highlights and shadow. To use curves, click on the Curves tool, choose whether you want to apply the change to all channels or only the red, blue or green channel. Then, when the curve appears, drag the points on it up or down.

Quickly retouch and correct Red-Eye in Photos

Apple's Photos app includes a healing brush and red-eye correction tools that enhance your images. To quickly retouch, click on the arrow next to the bandage icon, customize the size of your brush and apply it to a specific area in a photo. For red-eye correction, use the same logic or choose auto-correction.

Another option, great for beginners is using: TouchRetouch. It comes with a wide range of easy-to-use features that help you identify and remove imperfections.

The app includes a one-click tool for blemishes, and a clone stamp to copy pixels from one part of the picture to cover an imperfection you want removed. You can also crop a section of a photo if it proves too difficult to clone pixels.

Fix color balanceWhen making edits to photos, the color balance is worth reviewing to ensure

237

some areas aren't too warm or cold, depending on the look you are aiming for.

This is something you can change using Photos.

Once you open your image with Apple’s native app, click Edit and scroll down to SelectiveColor. In the drop-down menu, you can adjust Hue, Saturation, and Luminance, as well as customize a range of colors, based on your preferences.

More conveniently, you can make changes as part of a series of edits within other photo editing apps such as Emulsion.

Emulsion provides an immersive environment, created by photographers. Different areas of the picture can be made warmer, colder, brighter or darker - making small but necessary changes to enhance the original image to stunning effect.

Add photo effects and filters

The easiest way is to apply filters in Photos. Simply click Edit > Filters and fit any of the suggested effects on your photo. The collection is pretty limited though.

Some apps are more equipped than others for applying filters and special effects. Photolemur can also make enhancements and apply color and texture changes to single or whole batches of images. It can even enhance the color of foliage and the sky.

CameraBag Pro comes with dozens of filters, including black & white, classic photographic styles, grainy effects, mattes, vintage, numerous types of film stocks, and many more. Well worth testing out if you want to apply a range of styles to your images.

So what is the best app for photo editing?

Every app we've mentioned here has several features worth recommending, including Photos. What you choose partly depends on what you need and how familiar you are with photo editing software. Here is how we would classify the apps mentioned alongside Photos, a Mac tool available on every macOS device.

238

Quick and simple: Photos - for a basic tool that can make a few changes, we would always recommend Photos.

Accelerated editing and resizing: Preview. This native app is mainly known for its Markup toolbar – an easy access to basic color adjustment, cropping, etc. Also, the app batch resizing helps you change tons of your photos lightning fast.

Robust, ideal for professionals: CameraBag Pro. Described as the ultimate tool for bringing both advanced adjustments and one-click filters to your photos and videos. Emulsion comes a close second in this category, providing photographers and filmmakers with an immersive environment to work on your images, with an interface which scales from small laptops to professional 5k workstations.

AI-powered, smart automated editing: Photolemur is capable of taking away the strain of manual photo editing. It can produce better lighting than the original image, Photolemur uses 12 smart technologies that can automatically make adjustments to pictures.

Removing imperfections: TouchRetouch is an ideal option.

Bulk edits: Photobulk and CameraBag Pro.

Watermark your photos

So imagine you took the best photo in your life, put it on social media, and the next thing you know it’s on someone’s blog. The solution is to identify the photo as yours in a way that can’t easily be altered. In other words, add watermarks.

What is a watermark?A watermark is a mark made on a photograph, translucent enough that it doesn’t obscure or detract from the image, but visible to the naked eye, used as a means of identifying the original owner.Once you put a watermark on your image, with your name, logo, or website

239

URL, it’s very difficult for anyone to remove it without changing the image. It’s a very effective way of stopping unscrupulous social media users from claiming credit for your image.

Watermark images on a Mac

There are a number of ways to add watermarks some easy, others not so easy.

The best way to add a copyright watermark to an image in Photoshop is:

Create your watermark by opening up a document in Photoshop and typing the text or adding the logo you want to use for the watermark.
Adjust the size and remember to reduce the opacity so you can see the image through it. Save the image and close it.
Open the first image you want to put watermark on. Go to the Window menu, select Actions, and click the New Action button at the bottom of the panel — it’s an icon of a document with a corner folded down.
Give the Action a name that makes it obvious what it’s for — Watermark will do — and press Return. Photoshop will now start recording every step you take.

Go to the File menu, choose Place, navigate to the file containing your watermark, and click Place at the bottom of the window. Resize your watermark and put it in the position you want. When you’re done, hit Return. Press the Stop button at the bottom of the Actions palette to stop recording.

240

Close the image without saving it.
Go to the File menu and choose Script, then Image Processor.
Click Select Folder and navigate to the folder where your images are saved and click Open. Then, just below, do the same again, but this time navigate to the folder where you want to save the watermarked images.
At the bottom of the window, click Run Action, and in the right-hand menu select the Action you created earlier.
Click Run at the top of the window. Photoshop will now open all the images in the folder, one at a time. Watermark and save them in the folder you specified.

Does that seem complicated? Well, consider this. The steps above work perfectly if all the images in your folder are the same size and shape. If they’re not, you have to add several steps to the process to make sure the watermark is displayed correctly in every image. Then it gets really complicated. That’s why there are apps that do it better now.

Watermarking images in batches is much easier in PhotoBulk than in Photoshop.

Here’s the workflow for that:

Launch PhotoBulk.
Drag the photos you want to watermark onto PhotoBulk’s main window.

241

You’ll see thumbnails appear along the bottom.

Check the box next to Watermark at the top of the sidebar.
Choose whether you want a text, image, or date stamp for you watermark.
If you choose text, you can type or paste the text in the box and format it. If you choose image, click Browse to navigate to the image you want to use and select it.
Drag the box with the watermark into position and resize it.

Press Start, choose a folder to save the watermarked images and click Save.

242

PhotoBulk will watermark each image in turn. You can add multiple watermarks to images, too. Once you’ve created and placed the first one, go back to step 4 and this time, press the plus icon at the top of the Watermark box and choose the type you want.

Create time-lapse videos

Time-lapse is a wonderful way to capture the essence of something. A sunrise, or sunset. A busy city scene. The tide, as it goes out or comes back in.

Anyone with an iPhone and a Mac can create it. You can do this one of two ways:

Use a time-lapse mode on iPhone: Open the camera app > Scroll along to Time Lapse > Press the red button to start filming > Press the red button to stop.
Make a time-lapse video from photos: Download the macOS app called GlueMotion to batch edit, deflicker and assemble sequences of images into time-lapse movies. You can crop, rotate, flip and adjust the colors of your photos, inclining the exposure, saturation or brightness. In a matter of minutes, instead of hours, GlueMotion will have combined your photos to create the perfect time-lapse video.

Calculate your time-lapse

Intervals reflect the flow of your time lapse. To set the right intervals, you should dive into your setting and analyze how often the scenes change within the setting. Next, choose how you want to display these changes in a time-lapse video. So it’s all about “feeling” the scene and experimenting with the flow.

Here are a few examples of average intervals between one shot and another:

Sunrise and sunset: 10 seconds.

Clouds moving: 5-20 seconds depending on the speed.

Crowd and commotion: 5 seconds.

243

Building construction: from 10 minutes to several months.

The number of frames you use determine the length of the video. On average, it takes 25 frames to produce one second of a time lapse. So if you need a 5 sec video, you’ll use 125 frames. As simple as that.

Keep in mind that if you set custom intervals, the number of frames will change accordingly. Let’s say you have to create a 10 sec time lapse with a 3 sec interval. To calculate the total number of frames, multiple fps (frames per second) by 10 and then multiply the received number by 3 (interval): (10 x 25 = 250) x 3 = 750.

Add audio to your time-lapse video

You can easily do it in iMovie, Apple’s native video editing software. Once you create a time lapse with GlueMotion, import it into iMovie and start personalizing the sounding:

Click on Audio in the top left corner.
Toggle between Effects and Theme music or import tracks from your computer.
Drag the selected audio clip to your timeline or select a custom range to add a specific part of your clip.

Convert video into a time-lapse

If you don’t have time to shoot a time lapse or you lack skills to pick the right intervals between snaps, go with converting. Video editors like Adobe Premiere

or Pro allow to quickly turn a standard video into a nice-looking time lapse or hyperlapse.

Here’s how you convert videos in Adobe Premiere Pro:

Import your video and open the Effects panel on the right.
Select Posterize time and drag it onto the timeline to customize the frame rate.

244

Change the rate from the default 24 frames per second. If you set fpt to 1, you’ll see only one frame per second.
To adjust the speed, right-click on the video and select speed/duration. Increase the speed several-fold so that the frames change at a normal rate.

Professionally organize photos inside your library

Some photos are on your laptop, some on the external hard drive, some still on your camera, some on your phone, and some in the cloud. Knowing what and where has increasingly become a nightmare.

But there is a solution. Using a combination of just a few apps and tricks, you can get your photo library back in shape and proudly exhibit your best shots to anyone interested.

Delete duplicates and similar photos

It might feel like the first step to photo organization is importing your images to a photo editor. But wait. What you definitely don’t want to do is to scan through hundreds of images you take on your average trip and manually delete the ones of the same view.

There is an app to help your here called Gemini, which will accept individual files or folders, show you identical photos or even similar ones, and suggest you delete the copies. Simply drop the folder onto the Gemini app, look through the suggested pairings, and select the images you don’t like. Then click Remove.

245

Import image collections

For the last few years, macOS has featured a decent tool for storing and organizing your photos — the Photos app. The good thing about it is that it’s able to import your photos from anywhere: existing folders on your Mac, your camera’s memory cards, or your iPhone through a USB cable. All you need to do is just drag and drop the images onto the app’s interface.

On macOS 10.15, you can also organize photos by views — days, months, and years — for easier navigation. So once you’ve deleted all the duplicates with Gemini, import what’s left into Photos to make your typical organization a breeze. Photos automatically reads all EXIF data from your images to split them into collections based on the dates your pictures were taken.

246

On macOS Catalina, the Photos app also has native duplicate search

capabilities — less powerful than in Gemini, but a decent solution for keeping your gallery organized.

Add places and people to photos

Overall, Photos is a good beginner-friendly app. On macOS Catalina, it includes native People and Places recognition. However, it doesn't cater for directly tagging people in photos. This is where Emulsion helps you.

When you launch Emulsion, choose to Create New Catalog and select an imported photo folder of your choice. By reading the EXIF date from your pictures, Emulsion will detect all locations the pictures were taken and can display them all on a single map if you select certain images from the catalog and then go File > Show Selected Images on Map.

Another brilliant feature is the ability to tag people in your photos, which is heaven if you take a lot of group portraits. To add a specific person to your list, go to Tools > Add Face or use a shortcut Option + Command + L. The circle around the face will appear, in which you can type the person’s name.

Then, to find this person in all your images algorithmically, go to Tools > Find Faces or use the Shift + Command + L shortcut. Now you can select all photos featuring your friend Henrik with just one click on his face on the left-side panel.

If you need to batch edit images metadata — great tool for photographers — use

247

MetaImage. The app also allows adding GPS coordinates and is the best on the market in terms of the variety of tag and image formats.

Add tags and mark favorites

To add a custom tag in Emulsion, right-click on any image and choose Apply Tag.

If none of the existing tags fit, you can select Add Tag and create a new one.

Selecting images grouped by tags is then done via the left-side panel.

It might be that you are not necessarily working with photos, but say inspirational images or creating moodboards and want to tag all of them appropriately. A perfect app to use here would be Inboard — a flexible organizer, enabling Pinterest-like display of your images.

Share your photos easily

In a lot of ways, we take pictures not only so we can remember them ourselves, but also so that others might enjoy them too. And for professional photographers, this is the whole point.

That’s why Inboard makes it so easy to export your images. If you used it, you should now have a gallery of beautiful inspirational retouched photographs in Inboard. To export them:

Select the exact images you’d like to export while holding down Command.

Go File > Export Selected Items and choose a destination.

248

Then you can share your photos through a variety of messaging apps, email, Dropbox, or iCloud. Pick something you already use heavily.

Import your images into Inboard by dragging them onto the app. Add tags by clicking on the particular image and typing the tag name into the right-hand side window, separating them with Return. Then, once you go to the All Tags tab on the left, you can see all images grouped with particular tags.

Selecting favorite images can be done in a variety of ways. If you use the default Photos app, you’d see a small heart icon when you hover over the images in your collection. Hearting your first image would automatically create a Favorites folder on the left-side panel.

Emulsion, on the other hand, offers a more granular approach of giving your photos stars (from one to five). So you can say that all the photos with five stars are your favorites. To give stars to a photo, click on it and select the appropriate rating on the right-hand panel.

249

Social messengers for Mac

Vocab:

Messages — native. Text-messaging software for Mac.

Hotkeys — keyboard shortcuts.

If you think chatting is for mobile, you simply haven’t discovered how easy it can be on a Mac. macOS has a native communication tool called Messages. Basically, it’s a tool that you’ll find convenient if you have to connect across Apple devices — anyone who has a Mac, iPhone, or iPad can contact you via Messages.

The problem is, the native app doesn’t work with Facebook, GChat, and many other platforms. So you’ll need a more advanced tool to consolidate your messengers.

An all-in-one messenger

IM+ for Mac brings you every popular messenger in one beautiful interface. Use Slack, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, LinkedIn, Telegram, and more in one app, and effortlessly handle the mayhem of direct messaging.

Connecting your accounts to IM+ is a breeze. To do so, go to Preferences and select Services. Choose the app you want to add from the list, set its name and color (so you can distinguish two Skype profiles, for example), and click Save. The account should then appear in the sidebar. Just click on it and log in with your credentials.

250

When all your accounts are in one app, things can get messy. IM+ has a few wonderful features to keep things organized. First, you can select Home or Work tags to set categories for your apps, or create completely new ones. Second, assign a color profile to each service to easily distinguish multiple Telegram or Facebook accounts.

The dark side of having constant access to all your messaging apps is never-ending distraction. Luckily, IM+ provides a good remedy for that, allowing you to set sound and push notifications for each account individually. Just go to the Connected tab in Preferences and click on each account to choose which type of notification you prefer to get.

IM+ comes with an easy hotkey solution. You can switch between all your accounts by using the shortcut ⌘ + the order of the go-to account. You can also change the order in the Connected tab in Preferences.

Use Instagram to DM on Mac

If you’re used to Instagram, you don’t have to give it up. Here is a simple way to hack the Instagram DM feature on a Mac:

Get Flume. The app adds that magical DM button to your app’s menu bar. The button appears in the overlay menu in the bottom as you hover over the lower part of the Flume’s window.

251

As you click the button, the app will take you to the list of your Instagram inbox conversations. To create a new message, click on the plus button in the top right corner. You can also search through your messages as well as filter by unread or by friends only.

252

Gaming on Mac

Vocab:

Steam — a platform focused on the digital distribution of video games.

Unlike their PC counterparts, Macs have never been associated with hardcore gaming. Games for Mac were customarily more simple, and none of the top games were even present on the platform for a long time.

Meanwhile, the gaming industry skyrocketed, mainly on PCs, which made it easy for people to build powerful computers to take full advantage of all the latest games and then update those computers with even more processing power, RAM, and new video cards to keep up with the gaming evolution.

Today, gaming on Mac is becoming increasingly more popular, and more developers are dedicating resources to producing new (as well as porting older) hit games for the operating system. Thus the iconic StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty was developed for both PC and Mac at the same time, while hugely popular Stardew Valley was ported to Mac at a later date. Steam games for Mac are also gaining popularity worldwide as the Steam platform continues to grow.

So if you have a Mac today and want to dive into the gaming world, it’s not that hard. All your Mac needs is just a little tweaking and optimization to make sure you can really enjoy the experience.

Free up space for Mac games

Whether you’re getting Steam games for Mac or download one-off titles from the App Store, one thing is for sure — they take up lots of gigabytes on your hard drive. More than that, besides the actual size of the game, it’s also recommended that you keep at least 25 GB (and preferably more) of your hard drive free, as

253

some of that space would be used while you play.

To free up space, go through your Mac’s folders and see if there is something you truly haven’t used in a while. Check Movies, Music, and Pictures folders in your user Library — those tend to be quite heavy. Even if you can’t delete something, consider moving it to the cloud.

Then go to the Applications folder and check if you can purge an app or two there. Anything you haven’t used in a year is probably better deleted and reinstalled than kept occupying space on your disk. And, of course, don’t forget to delete games you no longer play.

The good thing is you can use third-party software to detect clutter and remove it completely, leaving you enough space for even the best Mac games. To start, download a pro-level disk analyzer like Disk Drill. Besides its main purpose of recovering lost files and data, it’s a top utility for revealing what your disk space is consumed by. Simply use the “Clean up” tab to scan your disks and remove anything you don’t need anymore.

When it comes to uninstalling applications, solely removing the folder from Applications could potentially leave hundreds of associated files all over your hard drive. You can use an Uninstaller scan of CleanMyMac X and find everything that belongs to the application to delete it at once.

254

Keep an eye on your Mac’s performance

While having lots of free space will generally boost your Mac’s performance, it’s not the only contributing factor. For instance, RAM and CPU are just as important. And once you hear the overheating fans, you really need to take a look at how your processing power is being consumed.

To see all active tasks, you can use the in-built Activity Monitor. Launch it from your Applications folder to scroll through tabs like CPU, Memory (RAM), Energy, etc. The app shows all the active tasks consuming your Mac’s resources and allows to terminate those tasks right from the app as well.

But in most cases, CPU, RAM, and energy levels won’t give you a complete picture of what’s really happening with your computer. iStat Menus caters for that.

255

See also:

Here’s more on what Active Monitor is capable of and how iStat Menus does the job if you need more detailed insights.

Simple tweaks to improve your Mac’s life

Apart from regularly cleaning your Mac with CleanMyMac X, you can also optimize it with some manual work.

For example, if you don’t find Notification Center useful at all, you can turn it off and save the power your Mac uses to keep it running in the background. Unfortunately, macOS doesn’t give you a way to turn it off in the settings, so you need to use Terminal:

In Terminal, enter launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/ com.apple.notificationcenterui.plist
And then follow up with killall NotificationCenter
Notification Center should now disappear and won’t relaunch with the next system restart.

256

Likewise, you can disable the Dashboard utility if you don’t use it often:

In Terminal, enter defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled - boolean YES
Then restart the Dock with killall Dock.

If you think through every process running on your system, you can probably come up with more functions that you don’t need. However, Dashboard and Notification Center are probably the most common ones people want to see gone.Finally, when you’re playing a game, check if you can lower the strain on your graphics card in its settings. Frequently you can change the resolution, level of details, and shadows to increase processing speed. To get a little extra game graphics card in its settings. Frequently you can change the resolution, level of details, and shadows to increase processing speed. To get a little extra game booster for Mac, try playing a game in an app window rather than full screen.Choose the best Mac for gamingIf you had the most powerful computer available, no game would be a problem. And truth be told, PCs are easier in the sense that you get a box to fill up with everything you need and reshuffle the parts with ease. When it comes to Macs, parts are difficult to change, and most of the time you have to decide on what you

257

need right away.The two most important Mac components to games are processor and video card. While processing power is fairly straightforward — the more the better (with Macs you also have to note the Turbo Boost each model can provide) — video cards have always been somewhat tricky.Video cards can be discrete or integrate. The former are faster but independent from the processor. The latter are part of the system and able to use the available processing power. That’s generally what you want here.There are currently three integrated video cards available on Macs: Intel HD Graphics 5000, Intel Iris Graphics, Intel Iris Pro Graphics. So any computers featuring these are more or less suitable for gaming. Just remember to opt in for the highest CPU you can afford. Generally, this means selecting from such models as:15-inch MacBook Pro.

27-inch iMac (5K or regular).

21.5-inch iMac (most powerful model).

Mac Pro.

Laptops of 13 inches and smaller are significantly less powerful and thus not recommended for serious gaming on Mac. And if you choose to employ your 15-inch MacBook Pro, keep in mind that games for Mac are the greediest when it comes to energy consumption.Following recommendations above will ensure that your computer is 100% prepared to face the best Mac games out there.

How to install Steam on Mac

Now is a better time than ever for gamers on Mac, thanks to greater Steam support and more powerful hardware parts. So if you’re wondering how to download Steam for Mac, you’re in the right place:

258

Navigate to steampowered.com
Click the Install Steam on the top right of the screen.
On the next page, click Install Steam (make sure the Apple logo is next to the button, the browser should have automatically detected you’re on a Mac).
When the Steam download for Mac is finished, click on steam.dmg
From the new window, drag steam into Applications.
The install should now be complete. Test it by opening Steam from your Dock or Applications folder.

Tip:Most of the popular games use a traditional two-button mouse configuration, whereas many of Apple’s mice only have one by default. Make sure you update the settings of your mouse, including the Apple Magic Mouse, to use a two-button style in your System Preferences.

259

Despite Macs now having a more viable hardware platform for game developers, you’ll find that not all best Steam games for Mac are the same as Windows. Game developers still have to make accommodations for their games to run properly, most often quality assurance testing and specific Mac updates. In such an environment, here’s how you can find the best Mac games on Steam:

Open Steam from your Dock or Applications folder.
Create a new account or log in if you already have one.
All featured games (on the first page) should be Mac-compatible (identified by the Apple logo).
Double-click on any title to learn more about it.
Click “Add to Card” and then “Purchase for Myself”.
Choose Install Game Now.
The Steam downloader will automatically start in the background and notify you when complete. Your game will then become available from the Library tab.

A helpful trick for first-time users is to take advantage of the Wishlist function, which adds games to a watchlist and notifies you when they are on sale. You can find the Wishlist button on the game page, near the “Add to Cart” button.

260

Additionally, you might want to begin your gaming journey with some free games for Mac. In Steam, navigate to the Store tab, then Games, and then Free-to-Play. You can download any of these following the same instructions as purchasing games.

261

Set up your music environment

Vocab:

Music streaming service — a platform you can use to discover and stream music across devices (Google Play Music, Spotify, Apple Music).

Music equalizer — a tool that allows to improve sound quality of a browser or particular application.

Apart from being a perfect machine for work, Mac is always ready to entertain you with good music — if you set it up right. We’ve collected the core tools you’ll need to play, convert, and silence music.

Download free music on Mac

Here are a few places where you can find free music to download legally on a

Mac:

Jamendo. All the music on Jamendo has been made available by the artists on a Creative Commons licence. That means that, while they retain the rights to the music, they’ve agreed to allow it to be saved to your Mac for free.

Soundcloud. It's a hugely popular site where amateur and professional musicians, and some well-known names, share music. Not all of it is available to download for free, and you’ll need to create an account. But there are some real gems to be found.

Last.fm. Among its discovery and sharing features, the site also allows you to save music tracks for free.

262

There is a number of both paid and free tools that help download free music. Based on your requirements, decide on the functionality of a downloader you’re searching:

Folx: Combines the functionality of a download manager and torrent client. This is the best option for capturing large media files, while the app splits downloads in up to 20 streams.

Elmedia Player: A great alternative to Apple’s native media player – QuickTime, with an in-built media downloader.

Downie: Video and audio downloader that’s based on superb drag and drop functionality.

AnyTrans: A file transferring solution and a media downloader that works with iOS and macOS devices.

Once you’ve found a track you want to save, copy the link. To do that, you’ll need to identify the download link on the site – it will usually be an icon with a downward arrow in it. Right-click or Control-click it. From the menu that appears, click Copy Link.

If you use Folx, paste the link with ⌘+V keyboard shortcut. Or the main Folx window, press the ‘+’ button next to the text bar at the top of the window. You should see that the box at the top of the window that opens already has the URL you copied in it. If not, paste it where it says ‘Add URL here.’ To download music from YouTube, select Audio in Quality.

263

It’s pretty similar with Downie – with the exception that you have to drag the link onto the app icon. To extract music from video, navigate to Settings > Extract Audio Only. From there, you can also customize the quality of output files, convert to mp4, or send to Permute – a universal media converter.

Once you’ve added the link, choose where you want to save it to. If you’re happy to leave the destination at its default, great. If not, you can change it as you like in any app. In Elmedia Player and Downie, open Preferences > General > Put new downloads in/Save files to folder. For those using Folx, you can also customize the app’s behavior upon completing a download – quit, sleep, shutdown, or do nothing.

In case you want to move your audio collections across devices, you can do so with AnyTrans for iOS.

Note: It’s important that when you go looking for free mp3, you only use sources that have permission to share that music.

264

Choose the best music streaming service

Having a music streaming subscription allows you to access a library of songs on-demand via any of your devices without having to make individual purchases. This means more choice for less money.

Spotify and Apple Music make the most widely used options you can benefit from on a Mac. Spotify, which is the Swedish streaming service, has dominated the music scene since 2008. Its signature features include a discovery algorithm that easily crushes any competitor and free service that allows advertisers to capitalize on revenue.

The opponent comes all the way from San Francisco. This Silicon Valley giant has already gained a combined total of 50 million users on paid and trial subscriptions. It’s Apple Music! Launched in 2015, Apple Music has risen up the leaderboard with feature releases such as notifications when your favorite artists publish new music to Siri voice commands, so all you have to do is ask Siri to play what you want to hear.

We say try both to know who suits your flow — you can do this for free. In case you still need some facts, we’ve done the visualization for you:

Spotify vs Apple Music battle

265

Spotify Apple Music2006 2015

Paid users

100 million 50 million

266

Pricing

Free Trial

30-Day 3-Month

Individ. Plan

$9.99/mo. $9.99/mo.

Student Plan

$4.99/mo. $4.99/mo.

Family Plan

$14.99/mo. $14.99/mo.+ Hulu Basic Plan for free79 countries 113 countries - Spotify - Apple Music - Spotify & Apple Music

267

Sound quality

Mobile

256 kbps 256 kbps

Desktop

320 kbps 256 kbps

Songs

40 million 50 million

Available on

268

Personalized playlistsNew Music MixFavorite Music MixPersonalized playlistsSocial media integrationSocial media integration

269

ChartsNew ReleasesMood Mixes

So what do I choose?

If you’re in for discoverability

If you’re addicted to Apple

and social sharing, Spotify.

ecosystem, Apple Music.

270

Convert audio on Mac

"MKV to MP4", "FLAC to MP3", "M4A to MP3" — chances are you typed one of those into Google search at some point, because media file formats can be a pain. Some are way too space-consuming, like FLACs, which can be 10 times bigger than equivalent MP3s. Others are unsupported by your Mac's built-in video player, like MKV. No matter the specific case, you're going to need an audio or video converter to transform the file into a friendlier, more widely used format, which is typically MP4 for video and MP3 for music.

Luckily, Permute has your back here. It can convert a video or audio file to a different format the same way it turns video into audio. In case you skipped the previous section, this is how you can convert music and movies with Permute:

Open the app and drag-and-drop your file into it.
Select the resulting file format in the upper right corner.
Click Start.

Permute supports a few dozen video formats and over 10 for audio, which means it can handle pretty much any media file you throw at it. And by the way, if you're unsure which format you need in the end because all you want is for the file to open on your iPhone or Apple TV, Permute has you covered. You just pick "Apple

271

TV" or "iPhone" as the resulting format and the app will figure out the rest. Long story short, make sure you give it a try, because a media converter simply doesn't get better than this.

How to enhance music volume

Songs aren’t interchangeable — they all have optimal settings for bass, treble, and more that your speakers don’t necessarily provide. If it’s just the volume you have issues with, the first solution to try would be to enhance the output sound on Mac:

Click on the Apple logo and select System Preferences.
Navigate to Sound > Output.
Drag the slider below the Output Volume to the right.

Doesn’t help? In this case you need a bit more advanced equalizer. Our suggestion is to try Boom 3D, an all-around sound enhancer and equalizer for Mac, designed to help your speakers perform optimally without any additional hardware.

The app can adjust audio levels to match the genre of whatever you’re listening to, act as an instant volume booster, and manage independent volume levels for each open app. Plus, its 3D surround sound feature creates the impression of being surrounded by speakers, all inside your headphones.

272

Here’s what you can do with Boom 3D:

Use the button at the top left to toggle the volume boost, and use the slider bar to adjust the master volume.

Each of the round buttons can highlight a different feature of the music; use the round sliders to make adjustments.

Set the Equalizer by hand or use the drop-down Presets menu to optimize settings for your chosen genre.

Click the Apps Volume Controller to manage the volume of sound for particular apps. Use the button at the top left to toggle the feature on and off and the slider bars to adjust individual volume levels.

To activate the app’s 3D Surround Sound feature, connect your headphones and click the 3D Surround button. You can toggle individual directional speakers on and off by clicking them, and adjust the bass and intensity using the slider bars at the top and bottom of the screen.

Click the Musical Note icon at the bottom of the window and press + to add songs from your library to the queue. You can also drag and drop them in sequence.

273

Remove noise distractions

Music should be an inspiration, not a distraction. On a Mac, you can use third-party software to make music your environment as healthy as possible.

Silenz is a small app that makes your headphones complete. It adjusts and optimizes your attention span by tracking the sounds of your environment. Once the app detects someone is speaking to you or your phone is ringing, it will pause the music or turn the volume down. So you can stay focused on tasks while staying present in the environment at the same time.

Silenz controls your music flow via a number of media players, giving you the flexibility of choice. The list of supported programs covers Deezer, iTunes, Spotify, VOX, Radium, Audirvana Plus, Decibel, Swinsian, Radiant Player, Hermes, Downcast, Noizio, and VLC. So if your Mac has one of the compatible players, Silenz will manage playback and volume trouble-free.

Silenz has a smart pass-through mode enabling automatic management of your microphone sound. But you can also flexibly customize the pass-through and other settings.

Apart from hushing your music, Silenz can also combine it with whatever is coming from the outside. If you choose to hear what’s going on around you, the app will amplify the detected sound and mix it with your track.

274

Noizio cuts out distractions by letting you create custom mixes of relaxing white noise. Its audio palette consists of over a dozen unique sounds, but rather than forcing you to choose between rain sounds and low coffee shop chatter, the app supports custom “mixtures” of its existing tracks. Easy to manage and toggle on and off, it’s a great way to find a sense of calm focus for work or relaxation.

Here’s how Noizio works:

Access the app by clicking on its icon in the menu bar. The pause/play button will start and stop the music as needed.
In the app’s main panel, you can click the icon of each sound to toggle it on and off, and use the slider bar to adjust its relative volume.
When you’ve settled on a combination that sounds good, click the “floppy disk” icon to name and save it as a Mixture.
Click the “checklist” icon at the top left corner of the screen to view, play, and share saved Mixtures.
Click the “play” button to play a saved mixture, and the “share” button to text or email the mix to a friend.
Click the large “gear” icon at the top right to adjust the app’s settings.

275

Use the timer button at the bottom right to save an automatic stop time for your audio.

In case you use AirPods Pro with your Mac, there's a native way to deal with the noise. Simply switch between Noise cancellation and Transparency modes with one tap and your music environment will adjust. You can find out more about how to use AirPods Pro on Apple's support page.

276

Read the latest news on Mac

Vocab:

RSS feed — the list of notifications about content updates that is being sent to a wide number of people.

If you’re the type of person who doesn’t enjoy reading news on a morning commute, this is for you. The most comprehensive coverage of news on your Mac is available via Apple News.

The original Apple News app was released in 2015 with iOS 9 and was only available on iPhone and iPad, designed specifically to work best on smaller screens. Four years later, the app migrated to macOS. In 2019, Apple introduced a significant and long-awaited update to its Apple News app with a brand new Apple News Plus subscription.

Essentially, the new Apple News subscription gives you access to more than 300 otherwise paywalled publications, both magazines and newspapers ranging from sports to politics and technology, and lets you precisely configure the kind of Apple News content you want to read.

277

The standard set of features in the Apple News app remains free. You still get the best stories of the day curated by Apple’s editors as well as personalized recommendations and notifications for breaking news. Beyond the free tier, you can choose to subscribe to Apple News Plus.

Apple News+ lets you access more than 300 premium publications that are regularly only available with corresponding subscriptions to each one separately.

Some examples of premium publications include TIME, The Atlantic, ELLE, Bon Appétit, Sports Illustrated, Vanity Fair, WIRED, National Geographic, etc.

To get the Apple News app on your Mac, simply update to the latest available version of macOS. To do that on Mac:

Go to System Preferences.
Select Software Update.
Click Update if there’s a new version available.
Follow the instructions.
Launch the app from your Applications folder.

To subscribe to Apple News Plus:

Launch the Apple News app.
Select News+ from the sidebar.
Click Try It Free.

Want an alternative with more customization features? Instead of subscribing to Apple News Plus, you could just download News Explorer.

278

The app handles RSS feeds and Twitter posts alike, putting all the sources you want to hear from in the same place. Smart filters help sort and organize your updates, so you only see the stories that interest you most, while customizable alerts and layouts are ready to meet your reading needs.

279

How to become a polyglot

Vocab:

Binge-watching — watching multiple shows or episodes of a show in rapid succession.

You might say you need nothing to pick up a new language. Except for a strong desire, a few books, and travelling. But well, why not make things easier for yourself? A Mac is a perfect machine for learning a new language if you know the right tools. These include apps, an old good Google Translate, streaming services, even games. Just pick whatever you like and play.

Google Translate tricks for Mac users

Google Translate is a powerful tool that lets you communicate with people in different languages almost instantly. It’s not quite as easy to use as Star Trek’s “universal translators,” but until that day comes, here are some Google Translate tips to make the most out of it.

Tip #1. Use Google Translate offline

Using Google Translate offline is easy, but does require some preparation when you’re online. All you have to do is download a Google Language pack.

280

You’ll be given the option of downloading the language pack you use most often when you open the Google Translate app for the first time — just check the box Translate Offline when setting up the app. However, if you want to add any additional languages, it’s easy too:

Tap on the hamburger menu (the three lines in the upper left).

Select “Offline translation” in the menu. From there, you will be given a list of languages to download. Each one weighs around 35–55 MB, making it easy to get ready for your trip.

Download any languages you think you might need and you’ll be able to use the Google Translate app offline.

Tip #2. Translate highlighted text from image

One of the coolest Google Translate tricks is the ability to translate text from a photo. To use this fantastic feature:

Tap Camera on the left-hand side of the home screen.

Set your language settings. Remember the source language should be on the left and the output language should be on the right.

Align text with the frame and press the camera button at the bottom. This will take a photo.

At this point, the Google translation app needs to know where to look in the

281

photo. Highlight the area of the image with the text you want translated by tracing it with your finger.You will be given a preview of the translation at the top of the screen. Press the blue arrow to see the full translation.

Tip #3. Translate a website

Google Translate is extremely easy to use with Google Chrome, where a pop-up will ask if you want to translate the site into your default language. All you need to do is click Yes and Chrome will do the rest.

However, if you’re not using Chrome, you can still effortlessly translate websites using Google Translate. Just navigate to its web version and type or paste the URL of the site you want translated into the left-hand side. Google Translate will give you a link to a translated version of that site on the right. Even better, any links you follow in the translated site will also be translated.

282

Binge-watching Netflix is good for you

We won’t surprise you by saying that it’s easier to remember new words if they are associated with a specific context. Video streaming services are the perfect sources of such context.

Everyone you know either watches Netflix, or at least knows it exists. This means people like it. And there’s no more effective way to pick up a new language than by doing what you like.

Here are the top tips on how to use Netflix on Mac to learn a language:

Tip #1. Watch Netflix while on the go

Your Mac connected to WiFi means thousands of opportunities — from writing a blog post to playing online games. When there’s no internet connection, your capabilities are pretty limited. This is why dedicating your time to watching Netflix in a target language is easier if you can watch it offline.

You can download Netflix shows on Mac using AirPlay. If you’re already invested in Apple technology and own an iOS device, streaming via AirPlay is an effective solution. iPhones and iPads are both iOS devices that will do the job.

AirPlay works via WiFi, which connects AirPlay-compatible devices together. This is where NetSpot, Mac’s WiFi analyzer, will be very useful as an ideal network planner, because having powerful and consistent WiFi will ensure an uninterrupted viewing experience:

Open the NetSpot app.
See where the most powerful WiFi in your area is and move your iOS device accordingly.
If the WiFi signal is weak all around, use the NetSpot Survey option to plan out a better WiFi network.

283

After all WiFi problems are solved, move on to streaming from your iOS device:

Connect to WiFi.
Download the Netflix app on iOS device.
Open AirPlay on your iOS device and tap Screen Mirroring.
Select your Mac from the list of devices.
Open the Netflix app and select the downloaded content you want to play.

Now that you have AirPlay set up, a good way to save on data is to download movies to your iOS device and then stream the downloaded content over WiFi:

Ensure you have strong WiFi or enough data to successfully complete the process.
Open the Netflix app on your iOS device.
Select the movie or TV show you’d like to download.
Click the download button (if it’s a series you’ll need to individually select the episodes you want to watch).

Enjoy the show and don’t forget to pick up some new words!

Tip #2. Take every show as a researchIf you like documentaries, Netflix has plenty of them. Depending on your proficiency level, watch a show in the target language or with target/native

284

subtitles. But make sure watching is only the first part of your experience. Once you close Netflix, do an online research in the target language, make a few notes, or discuss the topic with your colleagues. Anything that works for you.

You can use an app like SideNotes to instantly jot down your ideas about the show, as you watch. If your research is pretty comprehensive, get a tool for mind mapping. It will help you build connections across your ideas and easily share or export. MindNode works just right for the job. There are plenty of other tools you can play with while researching Netflix content — as long as you keep yourself engaged and entertained.

Install Mate Translate on Mac

Mate Translate is a translation app that integrates with your Mac, so you can translate words, sentences, and even paragraphs without breaking your stride. Just between us, it’s better than Google Translate and it works with Netflix via Safari extension.

The app is fluent in 103 languages. It automatically logs your translation history so you can easily pull up that puzzler you just looked up. You can even compile a custom phrasebook for an upcoming meeting or trip. What’s more, Mate Translate provides synonyms and similar phrases with each translation, so you can be sure you’re saying what you mean. Its built-in text to speech function can help your pronunciation sound like the genuine article too.

285

See also:

Check the video and see how Mate Translate works with Netflix shows.

286

Сhapter 4

Creativity

In this chapter:

How to use your Mac for creative writing and design Create, edit, and share video content Professionally compose music on Mac Beautiful mind maps in seconds

Contents

Install fonts on Mac

Create, edit, and share videos

288

Install fonts on Mac

Vocab:

Font — a variation of a typeface family that may differ in weight, size, and other characteristics.

Typeface — a family of related fonts.

Font Book — Apple’s native font manager for Mac.

On a Mac, you have fonts each of which is an individual style with distinctive width and weight properties — even though they might belong to the same typeface. For instance, if you say Verdana, you mean a family of fonts which includes Verdana Regular, Verdana Italic, and more.

For a designer, one family of fonts is never enough. So if you want to try your hand at graphic design, make sure you can install and easily manage a large number of fonts. That’s pretty easy on Mac.

How to install fonts on Mac

There are four places where you can get new fonts:

Search for free Mac fonts, which would yield hundreds of predominantly low-quality options. Google Fonts is in this camp.
Visit a type aggregator store like FontShop and MyFonts, selling a variety of fonts from various type foundries.
Buy fonts from the type foundry or type designer directly, like Monotype and Hoefler&Co.
Rent fonts by paying a monthly subscription to a licenser like Adobe Fonts.

289

Once you’ve downloaded what you like, installing fonts on Mac is a no-brainer due to the handy app that you already have pre-installed: Font Book, which you can find in your Applications folder:

Double-click on the .otf or .ttf file (or several at the same time).
Preview all the fonts in the pop-up window by switching between them using the dropdown at the top.
Click Install Font when you’re ready.
See the fonts under the User tab in your Font Book.

Manage fonts collections on Mac

With time, your collection of fonts will grow. Naturally, Font Book makes it easy to keep track and manage all your typefaces.

When you open the app, all the default typefaces can be found in the Computer tab, and everything you’ve downloaded since — in the User tab. In addition, you can combine various fonts together in collections (for a specific project, for example, or based on style).

For previewing fonts, you have three options you can choose from in the top bar:

Sample, Repertoire, and Custom.

290

However, if you want more flexibility and features, Font Book is not the best choice. Instead, try using a professional font manager. Here are the best options:

Typeface

Unlike the clumsy Font Book, Typeface works as a designer’s personal assistant — whatever the proficiency level.Here’s what you can do with it:

Control your fonts

A user decides how the fonts should be displayed on a Mac’s screen. From preview samples to font size and blurring effects, you can completely customize your Typeface journey. The best thing is you can actually create instant mockups that show you how a particular font will look on a project.

Hundreds or thousands, you’ll keep all fonts at hand

To find a font you need, browse through the categories on the sidebar, or type in the name in the upper right corner. The fonts are grouped by families, so it’s easier to navigate between different typefaces.You can take a closer look at each font by clicking on it. Not only will you see the sample text, every font page also covers the detailed metadata and all letterforms. If you switch to the Info tab, you’ll also see the list of supported languages as well as tags for this particular font.

291

Curation functionality

Typeface doesn’t only record your collections, it also allows share particular sets of fonts with the whole team in a click. As you browse through available fonts, you can save them to a quick collection on the spot and organize them into collections later. All you have to do is grab a font and drag it onto the quick collection button in the upper left corner.

Whether you are a professional graphic designer with your personal base of fonts, or you can’t tell the difference between a font and typeface, this app is for you.

Focus on all proficiency levels.
Customizable font collections.
A quick collection feature.
Available with Setapp subscription.

-Works on macOS only.

And the price is

$19.99 if you purchase the app on the Mac App Store or official website

$9.99/per month with Setapp, an all-in-one pack of 150 apps for macOS.

Free trial available.

RightFont

RightFont is an advanced solution on how to organize fonts. The app works on Mac, Windows, and Linux — so it’s handy if you design for different operating systems. Plus, RightFont works with all major design software like Sketch, Adobe CC, Illustrator, and more. Here’s a brief overview of the app’s features:

Font management: Create curated collections of fonts, based on your project specifications.

Font Syncing: Share your fonts with colleagues via iCloud or Dropbox.

Cloud fonts: Easily install and use Google or Adobe fonts.

292

Font auto activation: Solve the problem with missing fonts through instant auto activation.

Final verdictThe app is for professional graphic designers. Even better — teams of designers working on shared projects.

Auto-activation of fonts.
Grid view for easy comparison of two fonts.
Sharing font collections via Dropbox and other cloud services.

-Steep learning curve.And the price is$49.99 per single license on the official website

Starting $45 per device with a volume license (2+ devices).

FontBase

The only font manager that offers a free plan, this app does a good job if you’re interested in the features like font upload, Google fonts management, and simple UI. Add the new fonts by dragging them to a specific folder. You can also create and customize your own collections of fonts. In the preview, you’ll be able to switch between styles, glyphs, and waterfall.

293

The main disadvantage is the preview section. It’s pretty basic and doesn’t allow simple customization. For instance, you’ll have to get a paid plan to have access to grid view.

Final verdict

The app is uncomplicated and can be used by beginners. For everyday use, designers will lack flexibility in terms of previews as well as won’t be able to auto activate fonts with a free plan.

Simple UI.
Advanced glyphs and views with the paid plan.
Google fonts support.
Doesn’t make much use without upgrading to a pro plan.

And the price is

FontBase is the only free font manager on the list. You get a set of basic features like font collections and search. But to get access to auto activation, super search, and multiple views, you have to upgrade to FontBase Awesome, which is a $3 monthly subscription.

So here’s the final-final verdict:

If you know graphic design backwards and forwards, get RightFont. It’s gonna be expensive, but will pay off in the long run. FontBase is your choice if you’re just starting — once you learn the ropes, you can upgrade to the pro plan and expand the toolkit. Typeface is as close to a universal font manager as you can imagine. It has functionality perks for pros and is easy to master for complete beginners.

294

Create, edit, and share videos

Vocab:

FTP and SFTP — file transfer protocols that majorly differ in terms of security. Screencast — a video recording of your screen that usually includes audio narration.

Whether you’re recording a short clip to share with your friends on social media, editing a home movie, or putting together a feature film, Mac allows you to produce visuals of the highest quality.

macOS has several notable built-in tools that allow you to get right to it. Photo Booth, QuickTime, and iMovie are all incredibly easy to use — simply open them up and hit the red record button. iMovie even lets you turn your videos into movies.

Apple’s native tools are all great, but they’re not the only options out there. If you’re a vlogger or an aspiring YouTube celebrity, or use video for your business, there are some robust third-party apps you should know about:

Capto for powerful screen recording and video editing in one.

CameraBag Pro for pro-level video edits and filters.

Dropshare for sharing and collaborating on your videos.

iFlicks for adding videos to iTunes and iOS.

Best ways to record video content

When you think about making a video, the apps that come to mind are probably something already on your computer, like QuickTime, iMovie, or Photo Booth. And they are great in their own way: easy for beginners, although they do lack

295

some advanced features. Let’s talk about each one in particular.

Record with QuickTime

Launch Quicktime from Applications.
Go File > New Movie Recording.
Hit the red record button, the recording will start.
Click the same button to end the recording.
With the newly made video on your screen, click File > Save. And find a new home for your recording.

To record your screen:

Go File > New Screen Recording.
Hit the red button.
Select the area of your screen you’d like to record and click Start Recording.
When done, just click on the recording icon in your menu bar.
Save the video the same way as you did in the step above.

The downside with QuickTime is that if you want to record something more complicated than that, you’ll have to switch to a more powerful app.

296

Record with iMovie

iMovie might as well be the most popular Mac video editing tool for beginners, thanks to how easy it is to use. You can record demos or tutorials with iMovie in no time, either by using the built-in camera or connecting an external one:

Launch iMovie.
Click File > New Event.
Tap on Import Media.
Choose FaceTime HD Camera.
Hit Record to start recording.
To stop the video, hit Record once again.
Click on the save button when done.

Record with Photo Booth

Photo Booth is an easy and fun way to take selfies and record small videos to send to your friends. You can apply different effects before starting your video by clicking on the Effects button once you’ve launched the app:

In the Photo Booth app, select View Video Preview.
Click on Record video.
Make sure to choose the video icon in the left-bottom corner of the app.
Hit Record.
Hit Stop to finish recording.
To save your video, select File > Export.

297

Record with Capto

All the native macOS apps are good enough for a quick recording. But if sharing professional videos with friends, followers, and subscribers is your thing, you need Capto.

Call this a bold statement, but we think Capto is the best screen recorder and video editor on the market, because of its simplicity and range of features.

To record a video in Capto, open the app and click on Record from the top menu. From there you can choose how and what you want to record: the full screen (you can even hide desktop clutter), an area of the screen, or the built-in FaceTime HD camera (or external webcam) for selfie footage. By plugging in your iOS device, you can also record footage from your iPad or iPhone.

298

It’s then possible to set a timer for recording (handy if you’re going to be talking into the camera), set the frame rate between 10 and 60 frames per second (FPS), and choose the compression type.

Record with CleanShot

This is a snipping tool for Mac that helps you record video while weeding out distractions such as desktop icons and wallpaper. To quickly capture video on Mac with CleanShot, click on the app icon in the top bar and select Record video. You’ll only have to choose between two options – record GIF and record video. To make it clean, click on Hide Desktop icons before you start recording.

Record with Dropshare

Dropshare is an app made for collaboration and sharing. But it’s no less valuable when you need to record a quick how-to on your screen.

To record your screen in Dropshare, click on the Dropshare icon from the status menu and select the video icon. From there, select an area of the screen and hit record. To record the full screen, just click on the big red button from the menu.

When you’re done recording, click on Stop & Upload to send your file to the cloud.

299

How to edit your video on Mac

Here’s how you post-process the recorded content with the mentioned tools:

Tweak with iMovie. Once you have a video, use the Crop feature under the Edit menu to separate video sections and move them around. Look through the Effects library to set transitions, audio effects, or text layovers by assigning various times to Effects-in and Effects-out. In general, this is the extent of iMovie that you want to use in your editing.

Edit screencasts in Capto. Edit tools for cutting, cropping, and trimming; add

annotations and voiceovers — all from within the same interface. All of the editing tools in Capto can be found in the Video section of the app.

Edit with CameraBag Pro. Explore over 200 preset filters already included with the app or create your own and save them for later. Make full use of the adjustment tools to fine-tune exposure, hue, color, temperature, and more.

300

Share your video creations on Mac

Once your video is shot and edited, it’s time to share it with your audience, whether that’s colleagues, friends, or movie goers. All the native macOS apps discussed here (iMovie, Photo Booth, QuickTime) have a standard built-in sharing feature, which allows you to share videos via your social networks, if you have them connected, or email.

Capto also allows you to share right from the app by clicking on the Sharing icon. There you’ll find options to share across all popular social media sites, as well as cloud storage providers, and FTP/SFTP.

By far the best way to share your videos is through Dropshare, as it sends your video to the cloud with a single click and gives you a link that you can distribute among your friends or team in Slack instantly.

If you’ve just recorded a masterpiece that belongs in your iTunes library, an app like iFlicks will help you get it there with minimum fuss. iFlicks lets you convert almost any video into an iTunes suitable format (.mov, .mp4, or .m4v) and offers features to make your video look professional, by adding metadata, subtitles, chapters, and even artwork.

To add your files to iTunes with iFlicks, all you need to do is open the app, drag your video onto the main window, and click on the “Add to iTunes” box from the sidebar. Hit start and you’re all done.

301

Boost your design skills with inspiration boards

Vocab:

Inspiration board — a physical or digital collage consisting of images, texts, samples of objects, etc.

There’s an awesome way to kick your design skills into a higher gear and get those creative juices flowing for your next masterpiece — inspiration boards.

An inspiration board (or a mood board) is a mish-mash of images, illustrations, colors, words, fonts, and textures that define the direction of a project. They can be used for anything from planning a wedding to building a website, and are created digitally or physically using bits of everyday inspiration.

To help you get the most from your mood boards, we’ve shortlisted some tools that make the process easier and more effective:

1. Source inspiration everywhere

Inspiration isn't confined to a Google Image search. In the internet, cool things are everywhere! Websites, social media, forums — you never know where you’ll find something to add to your board. Always keep your eyes open. And take photos when you’re out — the world around you is full of interesting things. Once you’ve collected enough, it is time to add them to your mood board.

Scan or digitize everything you need for your digital board. And vice versa, print everything to fill your physical one. If you know beforehand you have a lot of moving pieces on the board, digital might be an easier choice — and a better one for the environment too.

302

2. Do the designs with Tayasui Sketches

A mood board doesn’t have to be entirely made up of inspiration from outside sources. Feel free to get your own ideas in there too. If you’ve designed something in Illustrator before or drawn sketches in Tayasui Sketches that might complement the mood board, add them in! If you are working with physical board, however, your possibilities might be limited to things you can do around your apartment or office, but give it a try anyway.

See also:

Mac has many advanced ways to replace Windows’ Paint and help you draw beautiful designs. Check out chapter 2 for more insights.

303

3. Use apps to create, store, and organize your boards

A mood board is only as successful or inspiring as the tools used to create it. Ease of use is what you need in a mood-board maker — the ability to see something and instantly be able to add it to a collection. There are three apps that, working in tandem, can get you the perfect result: Inboard, Emulsion, and Swift Publisher.

While Inboard is a fantastic photo organizer, its best qualities are found in its ability to let you create beautiful mood boards. Think of Inboard as Pinterest for your Mac desktop. Here’s what it can do for you:

Allows to easily capture and organize images, graphics, and fonts, and present them in a grid layout with the attention right on the content — no distractions from ads or browser tabs.

Works with all popular file formats, so that you can easily import images from everywhere.

Enables tags and organization by folders for easy navigation.

In Emulsion, photos and mood boards can easily be grouped into categories and auto-tagged according to color and size, so that you can easily find them. All image file formats are supported, so you won’t have any issues transferring mood boards or uploading something you’ve found online.

304

And last but not least, Swift Publisher — a perfect app to use when you need to print out your mood boards, whether for a client meeting or to give out to contractors working on your renovation project.Compared to a variety of apps you could work with to make your digital mood board, it would seem like its physical counterpart is far behind. Not necessarily. Use cork pinboards, papers, printed photos, cut out and make something by hand. Constraints are your friends inspiring creativity here.

Record sound and compose music

Can you record audio on a Mac? Sure. For very basic jobs, QuickTime Player is just fine, allowing you to record audio using your Mac’s built-in or an external mic and save the file. But you wouldn’t be able to create multiple tracks, edit the audio, or add effects.

For more complex jobs, you’ll need a tool with a bit more power, like n-Track Studio, a fully fledged professional recording app for Mac. This digital audio workstation allows you to make multitrack recordings, mixing them with custom effects. You can choose to record your masterpiece live or build it up, piece by piece, making multiple takes and using the step sequencer to create the result one section at a time. There’s also a built-in drum synthesizer, so you don’t need to worry about setting up a drum kit in your office.

305

Three steps to sound recording on Mac

A few things to keep in mind before you start recording:

Buy a high-quality microphone

Modern software can work wonders when it comes to cleaning up audio, but it can’t add what wasn’t recorded in the first place. If you plan to podcast or make music regularly, even as a hobby, an external mic is a must. Good news that nowadays you can buy a decent quality USB microphone for less than $100. If you already have a microphone that uses XLR connectors, you could buy an audio interface with XLR inputs instead. And don’t forget about a good pair of headphones to monitor your recording process.

Consider a USB audio interface

Even if you don’t need XLR inputs for your microphone, a USB audio interface will allow you to record electric guitar or bass and use software to emulate the sound of your favorite guitar hero. Some audio interfaces can even control the audio input level and use hardware controllers to adjust faders and direct effects in software.

Choose the best recording environment

While you could choose just about any place, there’s no substitute for a small room with thick walls that absorb sound rather than bouncing it back at your microphone. (Unless you want real-life echo or reverb as an effect.)

Consider how you set up the microphone as well. If you’re recording yourself, you’ll obviously sit in front of it. But when interviewing someone or recording multiple musicians, you’ll need an omni-directional mic, placed in the center of the group.

306

The tools to compose your hit song on Mac

GarageBand, which is Apple’s in-built digital audio workstation, is a tool that can help you try your hand at music recording for free. Perfect option if you only need to record sound from the microphone. For quality and depth, you’ll need to use n-Track Studio.

Once you’ve installed the application, set it up, but first make sure your Mac is ready to record audio from your preferred audio input.

Open System Preferences from the Apple menu.
Click on the Sound pane.
Choose the Input tab.
If you have a USB microphone or audio interface connected, you should see it here.
Select the microphone you’re going to use.
Check the levels by speaking into the microphone and watching the meter in the System Preferences window, adjusting the volume accordingly.

Now launch n-Track Studio. Click on the Settings menu and choose Audio Devices. Select Mac’s Default Recording Device. This will ensure the device you selected in System Preferences is the one used for recording in n-Track Studio. Make sure to disconnect or switch off audio input devices you’re not going to use.

To the left of the main window, you’ll see a level meter with the name of the current audio input above it. Test the microphone level and watch the meter. It should peak below the maximum (0db). If it’s too high, you’ll hear distortion on the audio track. So if it’s peaking at 0db, adjust the level.

You can now record your first track by clicking the Record Audio button in the quick start window that opened when you first launched n-Track Studio.

307

How to record system audio

If you need to grab music or audio that’s being played by your Mac rather than the audio you create, you’ll need a different tool. Capto is a screen recording app designed for making screen video tutorials. It can easily grab your Mac’s audio as well as video outputs. To record the audio, you would set Capto to capture your Mac’s screen, with audio input set to system audio. Then, when you’re editing, you can split the audio and video tracks and delete the video.

If you want to strip the audio from an online video and save it on your Mac, Elmedia Player — a player that can download video from streaming sites — can do just that.

308

See also:

There are pretty cool things that screen recording apps can do for you. If you’re interested in exploring more, check Screen and Video Recording in Chapter 1.

Record audio notes (podcasts)

The biggest use case for audio recording in 2019 is, undoubtedly, a podcast. Your Mac can be a perfect machine for recording a podcast with an external mic and software for capturing audio notes.

Apart from being an excellent assistant, Siri can also serve as a sound recorder you can use to take audio notes. While on the go, you can quickly dictate to Siri and it will save audio to Apple’s native Notes app. Unfortunately, it only works on mobile. On your Mac, you can use Evernote which adds audio to your text notes – a handy tool for research and interviewing.

For professional use, n-Track Studio will be a great tool to record voice. You can rely on the instructions described above to do podcasts with n-Track – it’s pretty simple to get started — even for complete beginners. The beauty of it is you can additionally record intros and outros, adjust levels, and hone the sound of your podcast through built-in Compression, Pitch shift, Echo, and other effects.

309

Mind mapping tools for Mac

Vocab:

Mind map — a hierarchical diagram that allows to visualize large sets of data.

Before you can do anything with an idea, you’ve got to put it down on paper or a screen. Mind maps are perfect for outlining big and small ideas that relate into your memory.

Mind mapping is a technique for capturing information and visualizing thought processes, invented by the author, speaker, and self-described brain expert, Tony Buzan. Mind maps can be used to aid learning, to present information, or as a tool for brainstorming and developing ideas.

The key to mind mapping is visualization. It's the visual elements that allow you to make connections, remember links, and spark new ideas.

Paper is nice. But digital tools allow much more flexibility. Apps such as XMind, iThoughtsX, and MindNode come with extensive visual functionality and the ability to share with others and yourself, so you can start documenting ideas with minimum fuss. Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating mind maps with these tools:

Step 1. Come up with the key idea

Your central idea — main goal or challenge — should be represented visually, in the center of your mind map, in a way that grabs attention and makes it clear what you're describing. It can either sit at the left of your mind map, with branches expanding in front, above and below it, or it can be right in the middle of the page, with branches expanding from all directions.

310

Note: XMind calls it a topic, but it's the same thing. It's automatically placed on the page when you open a new blank document. Double-click the text to rename it with your central idea.

Step 2. Add top-level themes, sub-branches, and notes

Think about your goal or challenge from the highest level. What are the key, the driving elements to what you are trying to achieve?

If you are creating a marketing strategy, for example, your top themes wouldn't include social media, blogs, and landing pages. You would start with the message and audience (who are they, personas, etc.), and other key themes to consider, before diving into the details.

311

In the mind mappers you can change the shape of the node, as well as its color and the thickness of its border. You can also change the font, color, weight, case, and the size of the text.

Enrich your mind map with notes, keywords, and phrases — like who assigned to complete the task and when it must be completed. Images are great for conveying a message, but sometimes you need to add more detail.

Step 3. Greater than the sum of its parts

A finished mind map should outline all of the ways you could achieve the answer/ solve the problem at the centre of the map. It doesn't mean you will everything written down; but this should prove a useful starting point. Everything on the mind map should lead back to the core theme.

You can now add more topics and add images and other details to them to flesh out your mind map. As well as the elements we've discussed, you can add markers to each topic, such as a day of the week icon, a progress meter, or a priority badge. Using icons and images in this way is a great way of conveying details in your mind map without adding too much text. Don't be afraid to experiment with themes and colors. Remember, the idea is to make it stand out and be visually stunning.

312

The mentioned mind mapping tools will also allow you to print the mind map, export it in one of many supported file formats, or press the share button to share it on social media, the web, or by email. Cloud integration allows you to sync, view and edit mind maps online, on your Mac, iPad or iPhone so that you can brainstorm on the move.

313

Desktop publishing essentials

Vocab:

Swift Publisher — a desktop publisher for Mac, third-party.

Scrivener — a word-processing program for Windows and Mac, third-party.

PostScript — a page description language used in digital publishing.

QuarkXPress — desktop publishing software for Windows and Mac, third-party.

Adobe InDesign — desktop publishing software created by Adobe.

Mac is capable of making many of your big and small goals easier, from creating a high-quality booklet or publishing a book.

From the invention of the laser printer and the development of PostScript, through the creation of QuarkXPress and Pagemaker, and later Adobe InDesign, page layout apps have been fundamental to the Mac. However, while QuarkXPress and InDesign are brilliant professional publishing tools, they’re overkill for those of you who just want to make a booklet, or create a poster. For those jobs, we need an InDesign alternative.

Fortunately, there are quite a few around, including Apple’s own Pages. One of the best, however, is Swift Publisher. It’s not a direct InDesign competitor, though it allows you to do many of the same things and is much easier to use.

Create content for your book offline

You need no paper and pencils, of course. What’s more, you don’t really need WiFi to write a book on Mac — except you use it for research. The tools like Ulysses and Scrivener will help you write your content right from the desktop. Ulysses is also a superhero in terms of markdown editing and will sync your content across devices if needed.

314

Lay out your book with Swift Publisher

Once you’ve planned your booklet or eBook, and created the content for it, it’s time to lay it out. Swift Publisher has lots of templates for you to choose from. Before you choose a theme, though, it’s a good idea to gather all the resources you’re going to need in one place. That includes text, photographs, logos, and any other graphics you want to use.

If you’re struggling to find just the right images for your booklet or eBook, don’t worry, Swift Publisher has a huge library you can choose from.

Once you’ve assembled everything you need, launch Swift Publisher and choose a theme for your booklet. You’ll see from the Template Gallery that there are lots of different categories of templates and examples of desktop publishing projects. Some of them, like posters and flyers, are intended for single-page documents.

Others are designed to be folded leaflets. For a booklet, you'll choose Catalog.

315

Before you start laying out your booklet, consider what size it will be. If the booklet is designed to be downloaded as a PDF, this is less important. But if you want to print it, you’ll need to make sure your layout matches the paper size. For example, the templates in the Catalog section are designed in Half Letter size. If you want to print it at A4, you’ll need to choose A4 from the panel on the right-hand side and then move and resize the elements on the template so they fill the new page.

Here are a few tips to get started laying out a booklet:

Add images. The easiest way to add pictures is to select the image on the template that you want to replace, then click the picture icon in the left sidebar. From there you can click Photos to add a photo or Custom Folder to navigate to a folder on your Mac. When you’ve found the picture you want to add, drag it onto the one you selected and it will fill the image box.

316

Add text. Click a text box on the template, select the existing text and delete it. Type or paste the text you want to add (you can see in the image above we’ve added “Port Isaac, Cornwall” to our page).To format the text, go to the toolbar at the top of the window and choose Text Styles, then pick a style. Or, if you don’t want to use a pre-created style, click the Text button and choose the font, size, color, and weight you want. To add a new text box anywhere on the page, click the T above Editing Tools in the toolbar and pick Text Box.
Add more pages. If the template you’ve chosen doesn’t have enough pages for your booklet, click the ‘+’ to the left of the page thumbnails bar above the document. The new page will be blank, but you can copy elements from other pages. Template pages usually have at least two layers, visible in the layers window at the bottom of the right-hand sidebar. So, when you’re copying elements from them, remember to copy from both layers in turn.

317

Create timelines on Mac

Vocab:

Digital timeline — a tool for visualizing work in progress.

Great visualization can boost your analytical skills, help get your team on the same page, and bring creative projects to life. With great flexibility and customizable templates, timeline creators for Mac are great tools that anyone can use.

The choice of a tool will typically depend on whether you use it for personal work or project management, how many people will have access to it, as well as template complexity.

If you want a full-scale solution for managing your organization or project, monday.com is pretty solid. Here’s what you can do with it:

Work across two versions — a web solution and a desktop app for Mac.

Build a visual board with project/team tasks, deadlines, and analytical insights.

Plan timelines and track everyone’s progress.

Integrate with Excel, Google Calendar, Slack, Dropbox, and other services.

Advanced as it is, monday.com is rather an enterprise-level solution — a pretty expensive one — which means it makes little sense to use it for personal work.

That’s where Aeon Timeline will come to help. A powerful tool for organizing and presenting a sequence of events. Whether you’re laying out the plot of a screenplay, planning an event, or presenting evidence to a jury, the app’s simple interface gives clarity to even the most complex timelines. Here’s how you make the most out of it:

318

Create a timeline: The app’s opening lets you search and sort your timelines and offers a set of templates for different fields. It also gives you access to some more fleshed-out timelines for inspiration. These can be found under the “examples” tab.
Create an event: Once you’ve created a timeline, it will appear empty. You can populate it with events using the “Add Event” button. When you create an event, you’ll have the option to name it, color-code, and assign it to “entities”: locations, participants, and more. Don’t worry if you don’t have all the details about an event just yet—you can always return and edit events as your timeline develops. Once your event appears, you can click and drag to adjust its position in the timeline.

Create and assign entities: Besides events, you can also enhance your timeline with entities. These have different names depending on the type of timeline you’re using (“category” and “person” in Legal become “arc” and “character” in Fiction) but they all give you ways to assign people, places, and things to events.

As we’ll see later, this can be a useful way to sort through a complicated timeline, so don’t be shy about making them. You can create entities with he “Add Entity” button and edit them with the “Entities” button. You can assign any entity to an existing event under the “Roles” tab for that event.

319

Use your timeline: Once you’ve developed a timeline, there are many ways to navigate it. You can search for a term with the search bar, then navigate using the “find” arrows. Use the “group by” menu to arrange events according to the characters, places, and other entities assigned to them. If you need a closer look or a bird’s-eye view, the zoom slider can adjust the timescale with ease.
Customize: When you click the “Display” button, you’ll find options for customizing the look of your timeline. Here you can adjust the background color, layout, and scale of your timeline.You can also select how much information each event will show when selected and unselected.

Set up your design routine

To a non-designer, the process of design seems to be pure magic. In reality, it’s not all rosy, though. Design is hard work, however talented you are. That’s why we’ve collected apps that will make it easier for you. We intentionally didn’t focus on the traditional tools like Sketch and Adobe products. Instead, we’ve done some digging to discover cost-effective apps that can make every aspect of your design process easier and more enjoyable. So here they are:

Sip: Universal color picker with pallets

320

When you get used to the fact that you can pick colors from anywhere on the screen and they are automatically added to your Color Dock (a sliding palette on the side), you wonder how did you manage to draw anything without it before.

Naturally, Sip has any color format you might need for design or web development. You can customize how many colors you need in your history or how you want the code to be formatted.

Emulsion: Image organizer with smart tags and live folders

Emulsion allows to create your own photo catalogs, it auto-tags colors, size, location, and all kinds of stuff making it super-easy to find a specific image. Plus, for the pictures you import from the web, the app will grab web address, extensions, even metadata.

While tagging is nice, the real gold of the app are folders. You can view, organize, tag, rename, copy, and move images in Emulsion while keeping them in their original folders. You don’t have to import and then export them like in Photos. Images are links, the file remains in the folder on your Mac, or even in the cloud.

321

Image2icon: Turns images into icons

Beats manual icon-making big time: Image2icon has 20 retina-ready icon templates of all sizes. You can export icons in a whole range of icon formats, like icns, folder, windows ico, iconset, jpg, png, favicon (for mobile and desktop), iOS and Android.

Squash: Compresses and converts images into other formats

322

Whenever you need a whole bunch of images converted from TIFF or RAW into JPG, or GIF, or a flying ninja-turtle — Squash does is faster and simpler than most similar apps. It also takes care of quickly compressing files that you need to store or send, because as we all know, some mail clients have troubles receiving those half-a-ton-weighting images.

But the best thing about Squash is that compressed images don’t lose in quality or clarity. They don’t get blurry, grainy or ugly, they only get small.

PDF Squeezer: Compresses PDF and reduces file size

If you turn your portfolios or projects into PDFs, you know how their size can grow ridiculously large. Sharing or sending an overweight like that is usually a lose-lose situation. There are often size limits on web forms for PDFs and uploading a PDF into Google Drive to send a link is pretty odd.

The only elegant option would be to reduce the size of a PDF, but most online tools corrupt its quality. That’s when you get PDF Squeezer out of your pocket Applications folder and save the day.

323

Capto: Records video from your screen and lets you edit it in the app

Screen recording needs no promotion because it’s the easiest way to show animation in dynamics with user interaction. It’s perfect for tutorials and educational stuff. It’s just a good way to show anything happening on your screen that’s not fit for screenshots.

Capto lets you edit the video and share it in a few clicks, which is a huge advantage over apps that do screen recording only.

See also:

A lot more detail on Capto’s screen recording power you’ll find in Chapter 1.

324

Hazeover: Highlights the window you’re working in, darkens the rest of the screen

Hardly something you would google, Hazeover is an app that helps you focus and see your work in a new way. Literally: it darkens the whole screen but for the active window. Hazeover clears out the noise that usually prevents you from immersing into the task. No more blinking shiny icons around your workspace, just the thing you have to finish, staring right at you from the only highlighted spot on your Mac.

It’s also really useful for your color choices, because even the Dock is mildly distracting when it comes to picking the right combinations. So it’s either full-screen the whole time or Hazeover.

325

Gemini: Finds and removes duplicate files

The best way to find out why Gemini is a great tool is to run the first scan with it. Just look at the number of duplicate files on your Mac and how much disk space they waste. You seldom notice downloading the same thing again or copying folders and leaving the originals, so the duplicated files just pile up higher and higher (figuratively).

The coolest thing about Gemini is not the space-style design, it’s the similar file search. Gemini has a smart image analysis that looks into the content of the image, not just its name or size. So you can find nearly-identical images and get rid of them as well.

That’s about it, now you’re well-equipped for a life full of marvelous design adventures. None of the apps above will make you a better designer, but they will surely make you a faster one.

326

Сhapter 5

Coding on Mac

In this chapter:

How to set up your new Mac for software development Developing your first website on MacHow to build an app on Mac Create and manage databases Control design quality and workflows

Contents

Setting up your Mac for app development

Your custom app icons tailored for macOS

328

Setting up your Mac for app development

Vocab:

Compiler — a program that turns source code into object code.

Xcode — Apple’s integrated development environment (IDE) for developing macOS, iOS, tvOS, and watchOS software.

Homebrew — a free software package that simplifies software installations on Mac.

Git — a version control system that is used to monitor source code changes through the process of software development.

Debugging — identifying and resolving defects in a computer program.

Your Mac comes with every capability you need to write code and create high-quality software. macOS includes some copies of programming languages — including Python 2, Ruby, and many others. Yet, you’ll often have to update them or install the missing frameworks.

In this section, we’ll tell you how to manually prepare your Mac for development.

What does it take to start coding on Mac?

To code on Mac, you need to install a compiler, a program that turns source code into a programming language that your Mac can read and process. You can get one via Apple’s Xcode package.

The toolkit is free to use, works with macOS 10.10 or later, and can be installed via the App Store. Once you download it, go to Terminal and type the following command: xcode-select --install. That’s it. You can now enjoy a complete Xcode Command Line Tools package.

329

The next step would be getting a program that allows stable management and installation of your coding tools, libraries, and databases. Homebrew is one of the best options. The Homebrew package complements your macOS, allowing a wide range of third-party installations. While it installs packages to their own directories and won’t install files outside of its prefix, the installations are easy to handle.

Here are the core Homebrew commands you’ll need at the setup:

To check whether the Homebrew installation is correct, type in Terminal brew doctor.

To ensure every package has an up-to-date index, type in Terminal brew update.

To add command-line software to Mac, run the command brew install.

To add graphical software, run the command brew cask install + [name of the program].

To make every new installation take precedence over the previous one, edit the .bashrc file in the home directory: export PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/ local/sbin:~/bin:$PATH".

Just to make it clear, you can totally go with Xcode only. However, Homebrew will help you enhance many things. For instance, while Xcode covers Git, a version control system, it’s pretty much outdated. Homebrew will help you install a newer version of Git, have a larger variety of Text Editors, as well as fill the gaps in terms of programming languages — those that are covered by neither macOS nor Xcode.

Note that Xcode is an IDE initially meant for app development and pretty much tied to Objective-C and Swift. While you can technically use it for creating websites, we recommend to consider dedicated solutions.

Create apps on Mac with Xcode

The huge benefit of Xcode is that it allows to manage an entire flow of app

330

creation. From coding to submitting your application to the App Store, Xcode has you covered. What’s more, it allows to create software that’s catered for a variety of Apple devices (iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch).

Code within a single interface

A simple code editor allows you to work inside a common workspace that reconfigures itself whenever needed. Xcode comes with assisted code editing feature. So whether you use Objective-C, Swift, or both, Xcode will check your source code for accuracy, indicating errors and even automatically correcting some of them. You can also enhance Xcode with snippets and ready-to-use templates to accelerate the process of coding.

Create UI for your app

Use Xcode’s Interface Builder to craft a user interface for your app. It entails a default collection of windows, controls, and views as well as an asset catalog you can incorporate into the app. If these don’t cover your needs, there’s no problem creating your own library.

The nice thing is you don’t need advanced design expertise to align your code with the UI. Xcode has an Auto Layout feature to help you with window size adjustments, customizing views and localizations, etc.

Debugging and testing

Start a debugging session and collect detailed insights about your app performance. You can debug your iOS app in a simulator or a connected device. In case you’re debugging a macOS app, Xcode will launch it directly on the computer. You can monitor an entire debugging process directly from the source code editor and track resource consumption of your app.

In the test navigator of Xcode, you can run three types of testing — functional, performance, and user interface testing.

331

Xcode will keep track and save all your testing sessions as well as any changes you apply, based on these tests. So you can experiment without fearing to lose anything.

App distribution

Finally, Xcode will help you prepare the app for TestFlight and App Store release. Along with an extensive app description, you will use your Xcode project archive to submit the app for review.

Xcode is a solid IDE — but only if it matches your needs in terms of programming frameworks and approaches. You can read more about your capabilities with Xcode in Apple’s documentation.

332

How to create a website on Mac

Vocab:

Unsplash — a website for sharing stock photography.

GDPR — 2016/679 regulation on data protection and privacy in EU law.

The abundance of website builders makes it very easy to create websites — even for complete beginners. Depending on the complexity of the project and your skills, you can choose a beginner-level software like iWeb and BlueGriffon, or more advanced solutions — WordPress or Adobe.

Every tool has its own assets. We’ll guide you through the flow of website creation with RapidWeaver, an intuitive tool for creating slick, professional-looking websites. There’s no code to learn. Instead, you organize pages and plugins as you would a series of folders. This simple layout supports a wide variety of features, including text boxes and forms, image hosting, embedded videos, and premade themes.

Here’s how to make your website a reality:

Start a project

333

To begin, click the “Create a New Rapidweaver Project” icon on the opening screen. You’ll see a blank project.
To add your first text, click the “+” sign at the top left and choose from the drop-down menu. This will create your site’s first page. Enter as much or as little text as you’d like.
Then, click over to the “Themes” tab and select from the app’s extensive catalog of pre-made designs.

Add pages

Once you’ve started your project, you can add more pages with the plus button. Any page you add will be linked to your homepage with the app’s built-in navigation feature. Be sure to name each new page you create by clicking its tab in the sidebar: this will make navigation much easier.

RapidWeaver supports finding the perfect imagery by using Unsplash right within the app. And with a straightforward but powerful built-in plugin manager, you can choose any extra functionality you need, from blogs to contact forms.

Preview your work

Once you’ve got a few pages filled out, it’s time to see how the site looks on its feet.

Click over to the Preview tab to see your themes and text in action.

You can also use the Responsive Device Simulator to see how your site will look on a variety of devices with different screen sizes.

You can toggle between themes. To view how it looks, click Preview Page via context menu and view the page in the Google Chrome. Or click the Master Style tab on the left side of the window and adjust font size, color, and other visual attributes to your liking.

Flick the privacy cookie banner in Settings with just one click to enable GDPR compliance.

334

Publish

When you’re ready to take your site live, click the Publishing Setup button in the top right corner.
Fill in the details about your hosting server and web address in the text fields and drop-down menus.
When complete, click Test to try out a demo or Publish to post your site online.

If you’re not sure that your site is ready for prime time, hit the Health Check button, which analyzes your site and lets you know if you’ve skipped any crucial steps. And don’t forget about SEO. Whether it’s fine-tuning your Twitter cards, declaring a language inside the HTML code, or specifying custom .htaccess requirements, now is your chance to do it right all at once.

335

Create and manage databases on Mac

Vocab:

DBMS (database management system) — software for creating and managing databases.

SQL — a domain-specific programming language that is used for managing data within a relational DBMS.

NoSQL — a class of DBMSs that focus on non-relational data.

If you want to code within specific programming boundaries — you’ll have to work with a database. Databases are much easier than unlimited stacks, because they allow autocomplete and other automated coding methods. So it’s incredibly useful if you work with the same sets of data repeatedly.

Types of databases

SQL and NoSQL. These are two fundamental database types, the first being table-based and the second document-based. You may also hear they are called relational (SQL) and non-relational (NoSQL).

There are three major types of SQL installations you can choose from: SQLite, MySQL, and PostgreSQL. For a beginner, SQL is a perfect choice — with a relatively small library and the possibility to be embedded into the app. MySQL is a more extensive library, and PostgreSQL works for advanced users. Oracle and MySQL are the most popular relational databases you’ll come across. In the world of NoSQL databases, MongoDB and BigTable are the top hits.

It totally depends on your project what type of database you’ll use. But if you need a simple explanation — relational databases work for structured data, while non-relational ones are better if you have unstructured data to process.

336

How to choose a DBMS

If you often need to work with multiple database types, you know the pain. Most database management systems only support one or a few, so you end up using multiple database managers, which defeats their purpose in the first place. Not the best setup.

Naturally, there is a better way to handle every database you need from one single interface. Most people will say Oracle for relational and MongoDB for non-relational databases. We say — not for personal use. While enterprise versions of these DBMSs are cutting-edge, they are too pricey if you are one person. For instance, Oracle DBMS will cost you between $90 and $460.

Let’s get you all set with a DBMS that works for each of your projects and won’t drain your budget.

If SQL is your focus

Try Base or TablePlus. These are the top two DBMS solutions for Mac that we totally recommend, no matter what your current expertise level is.

Base has an easy SQLite interface that lets you create and manipulate databases with ease. The app makes it easy to import and export databases from CSV and SQL formats or build them from scratch. Add tables and constraints with a few clicks, saving time and giving clarity to your data. Plus, with its easy-to-use search feature and multiple views, finding the data you need has never been easier:

Create databases. When you open the app, you’ll be prompted to start a new database. If at any point you need another, go to the “File” menu and select the New option, then name your database and select a location for it. Once you’ve got your database, you can customize it as needed.
Add tables. One way to populate your database is by importing SQL or CSV files that contain data you want to use. If you’re not importing tables, you’ll need to build them from scratch. Click the “+” button at the bottom left of the database page to start a new table. Name your table, then click the top “+” button to add a column, name it, and specify its type. When you’re

337

finished, click save to create your table.

Search with ease. The app is equipped with a robust search bar to help you find exactly what you’re looking for. It also gives you four different views of your tables: Schema, Data, SQL, and Log. To switch between these modes in table view, just click the relevant tab.

A bit more extensive solution in terms of compatibility is TablePlus. It suits tons of SQL variants like MySQL, SQLite, and Microsoft SQL Server through to Cassandra, Oracle, and Redis.

You can manually enter new connections in TablePlus but, if time is of the essence, you can also import all of the relevant information by copy-pasting the database URL. Making changes to existing data is a breeze using inline editing, and feels just like editing a cell in a spreadsheet. On the off chance you can’t find the field you’re looking for, you can use the app’s search (which includes autocomplete) and filter functions to track down whatever it is you need, quicker than any database diagram tool.

If you work with SQL and NoSQL databases

For a combination of relational and non-relational databases, we recommend to

338

use SQLPro Studio, a database management system that will combine all your previous data stacks into one straightforward app. Here’s what you can do with it:

Connect a database of any format. When you are ready to work on a project, just launch SQLPro Studio and click Connect in the top-left corner. Select the plus icon in the top left and choose the type of the database you’d like to connect. Enter the credentials and click Save. Or, just to see how the system works, you can select one of the Sample Connections first.

Create a new database query. Once you connect to your database of choice, you can type your custom query right in the editor and click “Run all” in the top-right corner to perform it. The table below would then respond to your function accordingly.
Run multiple database queries at once. SQLPro Studio also gives you the option to perform multiple queries (even if contradictory) at once and splits the view of your database to show you the results. Just type in the query in the text editor as usual and click “Run all.” The table underneath will then reflect the result for each query separately.
Effortlessly edit table data. Just open the table you’d like to edit. Right-click on the row and choose “Edit selected row.” Then scroll through all the cells, find the one you need, type the change in the text editor, and click Accept.

339

Whatever database format you work with, MySQL or PostgreSQL, and regardless of whether it’s local or up in the cloud, SQLPro Studio is the right choice.

340

Your custom app icons tailored for macOS

Vocab:

Human Interface Guidelines — Apple’s software development and design recommendations.

ICO — an image file format for computer icons.

Pen Tool — a selection feature in Photoshop that enables you to fill and make selections from what you’re drawing.

Creating an own app or a website reaches far beyond coding. You need your project to have a memorable visual representation. An icon is the primary touchpoint for those interacting with your project. So it’s very important you make it right.

Apple has very straightforward regulations on how to choose icons sizes, colors, textures, and perspectives. No need to struggle over design methods. Just pick an icon creation tool and try to stick to Apple’s recommendations.

341

⇘ See also:Since Apple very coherent environment in terms of design, they are willing to help you create interfaces that look good — consistent across an operating system, Apple-like. Icons are an important part of the experience, so we recommend that you follow Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines to create icons that fit in.

Creating your first icon

There are two ways you can craft an own icon — by drawing it from scratch, or by turning an image into an icon.

Adobe’s Photoshop is the most solid tool for creating icons from scratch. It has some limitations, yet the most popular design software won’t let you down in terms of the variety of tools — from shading to bitmaps manipulations.

Tip:Hold off using Photoshop and Lightroom on macOS 10.15 if you use versions before 20.0.6 and 2.4.1. They don’t work on macOS Catalina.

Here’s a collection of must-have tools that you’ll need to create an icon in

Photoshop (or its alternative):

Pen Tool. You’ll need it to actually draw the shape of your icon image.

342

ICO format plugin. To make your icons readable on Mac, you have to ensure the tool you use has an ICO file format plugin installed.
Apple icon composer. To enable icon editing, download Icon Composer via the Xcode toolkit. Unfortunately, it’s not a part of macOS.
A collection of layer styles. Photoshop comes with a wide range of in-built layers which you can apply to your unique icons.

How to turn an image into an icon

There are tools that will help you. Image2Icon is a one-stop app for creating custom icons and applying them to your files. Its simple drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to organize your files with eye-catching custom icons. Plus, it’s easy to save and share what you’ve made on any number of platforms with the app’s export feature. Here’s how it works:

To start, select the image that you want to base your icon on, and drag and drop it into the circle at the center of the app window. Alternatively, you can start from an emoji or a piece of text. To do this, click the “Aa” button next to the circle and either enter text or select an emoji.

343

Once you enter your image or text, you’ll be automatically brought to the next step. The app offers lots of template options for your icons, including folders, discs, and simple shapes. Scroll through the pane at right to try them out on your image. Use the slider bar at bottom to blend your image with the background and adjust its color. The slider button at the top right has options for adjusting the rotation and orientation of your image.
Once you’ve created an icon that you’re happy with, drag any file into the app to assign it your new icon. If you change your mind, click the app’s “restore” tab and drag the file into the circle again. This will cause it to revert to its original icon.
Once you’re satisfied with your work, you can export or share it. To share an icon, click the share button below the circle and select the app you’d like to use to share it. To export it to an icon manager like favicon or to save it in your format of choice, click the “Export” button at the bottom of the app and choose from the pop-up menu.

How to organize icons on Mac

Designers who work with icons tend to have a lot of icons. Not just a couple, or a couple. More like a couple thousand. Icons come in huge sets, after all, and digging through multiple sets of icons, stored in random locations all over your Mac, is like searching for a needle in a haystack.

If you have to deal with this problem, we recommend using IconJar to keep them organized, so they're easy to find, resize, and export into your other projects with a simple drag and drop.

Here’s a list of IconJar’s capabilities:

Importing. Choose File > Import, or press the Plus button on the top-left of the window. IconJar can search inside subfolders if you want — it found thousands upon thousands of icons in my Mac's home folder, for instance, but designers will likely have sets they're already working with.

344

IconJar also helpfully includes icon sets you can directly download into the IconJar app. The site features gorgeous icon bundles available for purchase, as well as tons of free sets you can download and use for personal or commercial projects. With one click of the Download button, the set will open in IconJar, ready to save.

Converting icon fonts. An icon font is just a font, but it's full of scalable icons. Designers embed the icon font into their website code, and then insert each character's unicode where they want the icon to show up. It keeps webpages lighter than using individual icons, but you usually need some kind of cheat sheet to remember all the unicode values.

When you import an icon font, IconJar converts it to SVG (scalable vector graphic), so it's just as searchable as the rest of your icons, with the same flexible export options. And when you find an icon you want, its unicode value is right there in the sidebar, ready for you to copy and paste into your code as an icon font character.

Filtering and searching. Icon sets come with metadata, and IconJar supports it all. You can add tags to your icons and sets, which makes it much easier to search for exactly what you want. IconJar's toolbar has options to filter your view by icon type (including standard vector and bitmap formats) and license.

If you need a sad-looking emoji or an icon of a credit card, you might not remember which specific sets have those, or how their filenames are structured,

345

but a search for the tags can unearth them no matter where they're stashed. Plus, when you export a set in IconJar format, all the metadata goes with it.

Creating and sharing collections. Once you have imported your icon sets into IconJar, you can create collections in the sidebar, and copy or move icons from other sets. Right-click any icon or group of icons for options to copy the font to a new group, or move it.

Keeping a project's icons grouped together isn't just good organization. IconJar lets you export icon sets in its own .iconjar format, which has quickly become a popular standard for sharing icon sets. This format keeps all the metadata intact, including icon names and tags. When you share a single .iconjar file, the recipient gets every icon in a neat package, and naturally IconJar imports these with a simple drag-and-drop.

Exporting your icons. When you want to use an icon, IconJar gives you tons of ways to export it. The drop-down has tons of presets, including default sizes and formats for Android, macOS, and iOS, and you can export your icons in more than one size and format of course.

Once you have all the settings just how you like, you can save them as a preset, which gets added to the drop-down list where it's ready to be used next time.

346

If you’re using design software that supports SVGs, you can drag icons right out of IconJar and drop them onto the other app’s icon to open them there. A preference in IconJar > Preferences > Dragging can tell the app to include PDF format data in case your design software doesn’t support SVGs.

That’s not even all IconJar can do — you can tweak your icons’ sizes and colors, send icons to other apps like Sketch for editing, and more.

347

Visual quality and design checking

Vocab:

iOS simulator — Apple’s Simulator enabling you to easily test app builds throughout the development process

If you create an IOS app and want to compare your design mockups against what’s actually output by your code, there’s a nice Mac app that can do that. It’s called Flawless and it helps you see exactly which elements are off, and by how much. It’s the ideal solution for perfectionists who want to get everything pixel-perfect.

Flawless works with the iOS simulator, which developers use to test their iOS apps on a Mac. The simulator can mimic any iOS device made by Apple (all the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch models), and your code runs inside it so you can test out your apps on your Mac, and save on-device testing for later.

Here’s what you can do with Flawless:

Share animated designs. You can create and quickly share animated screenshots of your designs with your teammates. GIFs are created right in the simulator with the native functionality, no need to employ other apps. The GIFs you create with Flawless can be paused and resumed to view each step separately and stop the animation when needed.

Use Zeplin with Flawless. If you’re using Zeplin to track and implement your designs, now you can integrate Flawless into this process because it supports Zeplin files. And, you can add them to the app by the simplest drag & drop move.

Visual quality check right in simulator. Flawless app itself follows your simulator. When it’s upfront, the app is right at hand as well. It also disappears once you switch to another window and the simulator is out of

348

focus.No need to resize items manually. Flawless reads the resizing rules from your Sketch files, automatically defines the device you’re running your simulator on right now and resizes appropriately.

When you run Flawless, you’re asked to specify an image file to use for the comparison. This is the mockup you created of what you want your app to look like. Flawless accepts images in Sketch format, as well as JPG, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, and PNG.

Once you choose your image, Flawless will overlay it against what’s showing in the iOS simulator. There are three view options:

Overlay. You can choose to have the images overlaid one on top of the other, and then use the slider below to adjust the opacity. If the slider is on 0%, you’re seeing only your app. At 100%, you’re seeing only your design mockup. Move the slider to 50% to see both together, which can help you notice if a button is out of alignment, text has changed size, the colors look right, and so on.
Slider. If you choose slider view, Flawless splits the screen in the iOS simulator between your code, and your image. A big slider appears in the middle, and you can slide it back and forth to compare one image to the other.
Hidden. If you need to interact with your app running in the simulator, you can click the Hide button to make your mockup image temporarily disappear.

The developers of the app have taken great care to make Flawless useful without adding extra work for you. It installs easily as a plugin to the iOS simulator, so there are no libraries to download or manage.

349

How to write and edit code faster: The key hacks

Vocab:

Code snippets — small blocks of reusable code that can be inserted into your code.

Regular expressions (regex) — patterns that are used to match character combinations in strings.

Expanders — error-correcting codes.

So here you are. The final stop of the coding journey. If programming on Mac is no longer an issue, it’s time to learn how to code and edit your code faster. Just as with text, it takes a few simple shortcuts and useful tools to increase the speed of coding.

Mac keyboard shortcuts for a programmer

While Mac is crazily customizable, you’ll soon learn how to simplify your coding yourself. Before that, you can try the following shortcuts:

Command + right/left arrow to jump to the start or the end of the line. It’s useful if you’ve missed something at the beginning and want to quickly make a change.

Command + Shift + right/left arrow to select an entire line.

Option + right/left arrow to navigate by words. If you’ve made a mistake in a specific word, you can jump right to it with this shortcut.

Option + Shift + right/left arrow to edit a word in the middle of the line without having to delete anything.

Command + 0-9 to jump to a specific tab if you have less than 10 active

350

tabs. The command will open a tab in the specific position, according to the number you press.Command + d to add the next word to the word or sentence you’ve already selected.

Command + Shift + f to find and replace words across your code lines.

A programmer’s toolkit for faster coding

You can take the speed of development even further with snippets and regular expressions. This will help you manage and store reusable code on your Mac, so that you don’t have to start from scratch every time. We’ve collected the best code editors and snippet management apps for Mac that will help you boost development productivity.

Atom for flexible coding collaborations

No matter what your level of experience is, Atom is a code editor with an easy learning curve. The huge benefit of Atom is that it allows working on your Github projects right from the app as well as has a Teletype-like collaboration tool. So it works well for both individual work and shared development projects.

You should consider, though, that Atom uses substantial memory and CPU resources. Not the best choice if you work with large files.

Espresso for code preview and server configurations

Whether you are a web designer trying to bring your UI to life or a seasoned web developer, Espresso will help you code in your favorite language, preview changes in real time, and configure servers automatically.To begin using Espresso, you can either create a new project with a handy HTML5 boilerplate or import an existing one. Go to File > New Project and select

351

the option you want. The boilerplate will then offer you to include a responsive grid and server files in your folder, which is a good time-saver for a code editor.

Espresso is able to show how your changes will be displayed in the browser in real time — no need to refresh the actual staging web domain. Also, the app has a dynamic content system — it’s clean, it’s modular, and it makes for maintainable code. The whole framework is well-documented and to get a sense of it, you just need to open a Welcome project.

With Espresso, you can finally stop spending hours trying to configure an unstable server. The new Clodette menu allows you to edit and sync servers automatically, as well as publish your content quickly. Even better, all your files auto-upload to the server as soon as you save your work.

TeaCode for extensive coding shortcuts

TeaCode is a time-saving app from Apptorium that gives you 70+ built-in expanders in Swift, PHP, and HTML. Instead of typing the whole action, you can only put down the expander and it with unfold into a full section of code.

You can view all expanders in the library or browse for the ones you need. To open the list of expanders, install the app, click on the menu bar icon and choose Expanders. Right next to it, there’s a Quick browser that takes you to a Quick Look-like search window.

352

While TeaCode does work with any code editor, it has a library of only three languages: Swift, PHP, and HTML. To create an expander for the language you work with, go to Expanders and find a small “+” sign in the bottom left corner. Then you can choose to make a single one or a bundle. Bundles are more convenient, especially if you plan to share them with your teammates.

You can also share the bundles of expanders you created with your teammates or just fellow programmers. That is pretty easy, simply right-click on the bundle and choose Export. Send the file and anyone with an installed TeaCode will be able to import and use it on their Mac.

353

Expressions for coding with regex

Regular expressions are extremely useful to save development time. It allows to extract information from text such as code, log files, or documents.

Expressions is a sleek and simple app for coding with regular expressions. The app’s pared-down interface gives clarity to your work, highlighting the syntax in real time as you build up expressions. Plus, with a built-in library of metacharacters, you’ll never be stuck if you forget an expression.

Here’s how to use it:

To create a new expression, click the (+) button at the bottom left of the screen, then name it. You can enter your expression manually in the upper text box, or copy-paste from somewhere else. The app will automatically break up your expression according to syntax, and prompt you if the expression is invalid. Enter sample strings in the lower box to test for matches.
To adjust the display, click “Expressions” in the menu bar and select “Preferences.” This window lets you adjust the display theme, choosing “light,” “dark,” or “default.” It also gives you some control over the text fields, allowing you to choose the conditions under which your expressions will be displayed.
Use the library of characters. Regular expressions depend on a variety of metacharacters, and it can be hard to memorize them all. The app eliminates that problem by including a built-in character library. To view the library, just click the top-right button in the window. The “Basic”and “Advanced” tabs let you toggle between two character lists. These lists make it easy to check your work and fix mistakes.

Keep your collection of code snippets at handWhile GitHub is one of the best tools for solving your code chaos, it’s pretty much tied to your network connection. Plus, many developers seek a cozier, personal

354

spot for their code. Like SnippetsLab.

It’s a Mac app that allows to bring together, edit, and share code snippets. Working with over 350 languages, there’s virtually no chance SnippetsLab fails to manage your code. The app embraces two different shapes — you can work in a full-screen editor, or deal with your snippets from the menu bar. Always within your ideal workflow.

The purpose of using SnippetsLab is to have code fragments and snippets at your fingertips, always. Keeping the promise, the app comes with powerful organization assets. You can create smart groups, nested folders, and tags to easier navigate across your code. Search is pretty flexible, too — enabling you to sort snippets by date, title, etc.

If you need some additional space for notes — basically, any background info that relates to your code — SnippetsLab has it covered. Combine multiple fragments into the same snippet or add notes of any size, all within the same interface.For quick access, you can search across code snippets from your menu bar. And not only search. Customize the search scope, so that SnippetsLab always shows what you expect to see. Preview snippets, open the main window, or instantly copy the snippet content to your clipboard.

355

SnippetsLab allows to easily import your code from Github, thanks to built-in Gist integration. It works both ways — you can grab code from Github or export your snippets as gists from the app. Even export your complete library as JSON, XML, or plain text. To keep your code consistent and secure across devices, SnippetsLab has iCloud integration and runs daily library backups.

356

Сhapter 6

Create your productivity flow

In this chapter:

How to speed up basic actions on MacSplit your screen and manage windows, painlessly Top hacks on working with PDF filesTime tracking and removing distractions How to manage your finances on Mac

Contents

358

Personal finance and invoicing

Solve your tasks like a pro

359

How to manage windows — lots of windows

Vocab:

Sidecar — the feature of adding an additional screen to Mac available on macOS Catalina.

FTP transfer app — a utility that enables file sharing using File Transfer Protocol.

Split View — two side-by-side panes of content on the Mac screen.

Problem number one with Mac productivity is that you often have dozens of app and browser windows open. Constantly switching between them is not the best setting for solving your problems. Luckily, macOS is equipped with simple tricks that make things easier.

The first thing you should know is that if you open a few apps, only one of them can be active at the moment. The name of an active app is displayed in the left corner of the menu bar. Safari allows you to use multiple windows at the same time.

Here’s what you can do to manage windows conveniently:

Maximise a window: Option + the green button at the top left corner of the app window.

Minimise a window: Command-M, or the yellow button at the top.

Move a window: Drag the window title whenever you want it.

Align a window: Drag one window close to the other until they align without overlapping.

Merge windows: App menu > Window > Merge all windows/Merge Tab to New Window.

Switch to the previous app: Command-Tab.

360

Scroll through active apps: Press and hold Command > Tab key > Left/Right arrow key. Once you get to the needed app, release Command.While these commands won’t come very helpful for multitasking, you should definitely know how to use them for basic organization of your windows. The next steps would be mastering tiling and Split View.Best way to tile open windowsMacOS’ Mission Control and full-screen mode are great for swiping quickly between apps and keeping your workspace organised. However, it doesn’t allow multiple windows open on one screen, but in a way that’s neat and tidy and allows you to move from one to the other easily.Mosaic allows you to tile open windows on your Mac screen so that they are all visible at the same time, but also neat and tidy. This app has a library of set layouts for tiled windows. When you drag a window on your Mac, the layout view appears as an overlay on screen and you choose the one you want, and where you want the current window to sit in that layout. You can then add more windows to the it.Layouts can be organized in groups – such as those for two apps, three apps, etc. And you can create your own if none of those in the library suit you. And, as a final neat touch, you can control Mosaic on your Mac from an accompanying iOS app.Here’s how to use Mosaic to tile open windows on your Mac screen:Step 1: Install Mosaic

Install Mosaic from Setapp or purchase it as a separate licence. Once it’s installed, agree to it opening at login, or not if you don’t want it to, and give it permission to manage windows in Accessibility preferences. Click the button on the window that’s displayed on-screen to go to the Accessibility pane, then click the padlock, type in your password and click the box next to Mosaic.

361

Step 2: Tile the first windowChoose a window that you want to tile, click and drag it. The Mosaic layout library will appear.

Drag the window onto a layout and over the position you want it to take, then let go.

The window will snap into position.

Step 3: Tile the second window

Choose another window you want to appear on the screen alongside the one you just tiled, and drag it onto the same layout in a different position. The two windows will now appear on-screen in the layout you chose. You can click on one to make it active and work on it, just as you would normally.

Step 4: Change layout activation settings

If you don’t like the layout view appearing every time you drag a window, you can change that behaviour so it only appears when you drag a window to the top of the screen or when you hold down the Alt key and drag a window. Click the Mosaic menu bar item, navigate to ‘Show Layouts’ and choose the option you want.

Step 5: Change group settingsBy default, only the most common layouts are shown when you drag a window. To change that, so that all layouts are shown, or those from a specific group:Click on the Mosaic menu bar item.

Navigate to the Drag & Drop section and hover over Group.

Choose the group whose layouts you want to see when you drag a window.

362

Step 6: Change layout view settings

If you want to change the way layouts appear when you activate Layout view, that’s easy too. By default, they appear in a row on the screen and if there are too many for one view, they’ll wrap onto a second row. You can set up a column view

– similar to row view but with layouts displayed vertically; a grid view – that displays layouts on a grid in the centre of the screen; or docked view – that displays half-size layouts docked to the top of the screen. To change the view, click on the Mosaic menu bar item and select Layout View, then your custom view.

Step 7: Change keyboard shortcutsTo activate Layout view with a keyboard shortcut, rather than by dragging and selecting, make sure the window you want to apply the layout to is selected and press Alt-Shift-Cmd-L. You’ll see the Layout view appear on screen. Click on the layout you want to use. To change the keyboard shortcut, go to Preferences Behaviour. Click on the keyboard shortcut at the bottom of the window and type a new shortcut. To change how layouts activated with a keyboard shortcut appear on screen, click on the Mosaic menu bar item, go to the Click & Select section and choose a Layout View. To change which layouts are displayed, do the same, but choose Group instead.

363

Tip:You can set up Drag & Drop differently from Click & Select so that when you activate Mosaic using one method it displays one group of layouts and when you activate using Click & Select it displays a different group.

How to split screen on Mac

Starting El Capitan, all versions of macOS have included a MacBook Split Screen feature called Split View, which lets you easily open two apps to fill the whole screen and adjust them as needed. To activate Mac Split View on macOS El Capitan and later, you need to do the following:

Open two apps of your choice.
Hold the green “full-screen” button in the upper left corner of the window.
Drag the app to fill either the left or right side of the screen.

364

Click on the other app to fill the rest.

With macOS Mojave and later, you can use a different flow:

Hover the green full-screen button in the upper left corner of the window.
In the menu, select Tile Window to Left of Screen or Tile Window to Right of Screen.
Click the window on the other side of the screen.

Note: some older, not frequently updated apps might not support Split View.

Feel free to experiment with various app combinations that would fit your work the best. If you need to see more than two apps, you can easily create another Split View on a new Desktop. To do that, launch the Mission Control utility and click on the plus icon in the top-right corner of the screen. If you’re wondering how to switch screens on Mac in Split View, you can either go through the Mission Control or swipe left or right with four fingers.

To change the portion of the screen used by each app, drag the divider in the center to either side. To quit Split View, either press Escape, the same green “full-screen” button, or use a shortcut Ctrl + ⌘ + F.

365

Create and save custom workspaces

While using Mosaic as a better Split View Mac alternative will help you keep all the app windows in place, reopening every app and file you need for your work can take lots of time.

Switchem is an automated solution that lets you create preset workspaces for all major activities. For example, if you’re about to code something, you can get Switchem to open your text editor, FTP transfer app, Terminal, your framework of choice documentation in Chrome, and anything else you regularly use.

With Switchem, you can create as many workspaces as you like and switch between them with ease. To activate a workspace, simply choose it from the menu bar or use a shortcut.

To create a new workspace in Switchem, click on Switchem and choose Create New Group. Activate any app or open any file you need and check the boxes next to them. When you’re done, select Create New Group.

366

Do more with Mac split screen and workspaces

If you need more flexibility in how precisely you configure the app window arrangement, look no further than Mosaic.

In addition, combine everything you need into detailed packages and call on them at any time using Switchem. This way you can easily divide responsibilities or separate work from personal life. Most importantly, you stop wasting time on opening all the right documents and turn on the always “ready to go” state.

Add an extra screen on macOS Catalina

If Split Screen doesn’t do the job for you, use an extra screen. Apple has added the extended workspace functionality — named Sidecar — to macOS Catalina, which enables you to connect an iPad screen to a Mac screen. Mirror your desktop or work across two screens flexibly. The connection works both with a USB cable and wirelessly.

The only condition is your Mac should run on macOS 10.15 and your iPad on iOS 13.

367

Mirror or stream to a big screen

And if an additional iPad screen is not enough, how about a TV screen? Mac makes this possible, too. You can stream media content or mirror your desktop screen to Apple TV and other large screens via Apple’s built-in AirPlay utility. Here’s how it works:

Make sure your Mac and TV are both connected to the same Wi-Fi network.
Click on the AirPlay icon in the menu bar and select the TV device from the list.
Initiate connection and start streaming.

If your TV device isn’t covered, or you need more flexible presentation functionality — like mirroring the mouse pointer or mouse clicks to the screen, try JustStream instead of AirPlay. The app works with Apple TV, Chromecast, Smart TV, and basically every known TV manufacturer.

368

Block websites and apps that distract you

Vocab:

Pomodoro technique — a time management method, according to which working time is broken into intervals with short pauses between them.

Naturally, the topic of limiting web access has been in discussion for decades now. How do we block websites with inappropriate content? What does blocking websites like Facebook and YouTube mean for a modern workplace? Why do we need to restrict ourselves with website blockers to resist temptation and distractions?

All these are valid questions we’ll explore below. We’ll also show you the best ways to block websites that seem to be stealing your attention all day long.

How to block websites on Mac

Restricting access to apps and websites has been a feature on both Windows and Macs since the early days. Surprisingly, most people aren’t even aware this is a possibility or don’t use it as it seems to be too complicated to set up.

We’ll start by tackling the flow for Parental Controls on Mac. If you’ve used a similar feature on Windows before — called Family Safety — the steps would sound familiar.

Blocking websites with parental controls

As the name suggests, the parental controls feature was developed by Apple to help parents put certain restrictions on their kids, such as accessing adult websites, addictive games, endless video streaming, etc.

Lately, however, it hasn’t been uncommon for employers to set Parental Controls

369

for their employees, mostly to limit social media usage or deter them from reading news at work.

Regardless of your purpose, here’s how to set up:

Open Parental Controls from System Preferences.
If you have an account you want to restrict already set up, choose it from the list. If you don’t, click to create a new user account and then Continue.
Fill out all the necessary information and click Create User.

Now you should see the full Parental Controls menu with tabs such as Apps, Web, Stores, Time, Privacy, and Other. Feel free to explore all of them and set the restrictions that you deem a good fit. But first, let’s walk through the most popular setups.

To limit your kid’s’ exposure to adult websites, go to the Web tab and choose “Try to limit access to adult websites.” Click Customize to enter websites you want to limit or block. Similarly, if you don’t want your employees wasting time on social media, you can include any of those websites here too.

If you only allow children to visit a handful of websites overall, choose “Allow access to only these websites” and list them all in the window below using the plus button.

370

To limit certain apps, navigate to the Apps tab and check “Limit Applications on this Mac.” Now in the Allowed Apps window, click on the dropdown arrow and select any applications that you’re fine with kids having access to.

When you are done, simply click the padlock icon on the bottom left to lock your settings in place. If you want to ensure that over time your kids don’t find a sneaky way to go around your settings, you can monitor their logs by going into the Logs menu on the bottom right of your Parental Controls panel.

Easily block websites without changing settings

The truth is, Parental Controls are somewhat complicated. It takes a while to get all the settings just right. And every time you catch your kids coming up with a new workaround, you have to devise a way to solve that, too.

If you share the same computer with the kids, you’ll need to log out and log in every time you pass the laptop to each other. Some of us just don’t need those complications and wish there was an easier way.

We recommend to try Focus, a simple website blocker that also works for apps and even specific webpages from your Mac’s menu bar. To block out distractions in Focus:

Click on the app’s icon in the menu bar > Preferences.
Navigate to the Blocking tab.
Add any websites, webpages, and applications to the list using plus icons at the bottom.

The beauty of this app is that it doesn’t enforce the focus mode all the time - it works in sessions, which is perfect for sharing the same computer with your kids. So when your kids are asking for some playtime, you can just click on the app’s icon and select “Focus for 25 minutes” or “Custom focus...” to set the period of time during which blocking websites will be enforced.

To prevent your kids from changing settings, just go to Preferences again and, in the General tab, check the “Hardcore mode.” For extra safety, you can also turn on

371

the “Password mode.” If your kids have their own computer, go to the Preferences window, and choose Schedule to set the limits you desire.

Eliminate distractions to be more productive

Another major advantage of Focus over Parental Controls is that it works not only for your kids but for you too. You can use it to turn off YouTube, eliminate Facebook, stay away from Reddit. Focus makes it easy to focus. Just follow the same instructions as you would for your kid: block websites and apps, set up a schedule that mirrors your work hours, and lock preferences during sessions to minimize temptation.

The app would also delight the followers of the Pomodoro technique, which automatically lets you have a short break after an intensive focus session. You can set up your break periods in Preferences as well.

372

For extra motivation, you can include a list of your favorite “go get it” phrases in the Quotes tab in the app’s preferences. These quotes will appear when you try to access one of the blocked websites and remind you to get back to what’s truly important.

Use Apple’s screen time to set limitations

If your Mac runs on macOS Catalina, there’s one useful built-in utility that might come helpful. It’s called Screen Time. From one handy window, Screen Time enables you to track how much time you spend in different apps, set app usage limits, activate downtime, and many other things.

373

Quickly concentrate on the task at hand

If Focus can easily solve all your problems related to blocking websites and apps that waste your time, it won’t really help you concentrate on a single task amidst your cluttered desktop and a heap of open windows. That’s where you need HazeOver.

HazeOver is essentially a professional screen dimmer. While it’s not a way to block websites on Mac, it’s the perfect solution for your scattered focus. What this app does is highlighting the currently active window and dimming the rest of the screen, including notifications and other apps.

Even though HazeOver is simple in its application, it allows you to fine-tune every single setting to suit your needs. By going to its preferences from the menu bar icon, you can set how strong the dimming effect is, whitelist apps you don’t want dimmed, which is useful when you work with two windows at the same time, and configure how the apps will work on two or more displays.

As a bonus, HazeOver is perfect for working at night, as it only lets the light from the active app window to go through instead of overwhelming you with an ocean of blue light, which will make it harder to fall asleep later on. Similarly, watching a movie in the evening is so much more pleasant when HazeOver is there to dim everything around the video app.

374

Overall, if you’ve used to tinker with all the complex settings in Family Safety on Windows or simply like the granular level of control, using Parental Controls is certainly an option. For the rest of us, using Focus + HazeOver presents a much more flexible solution - one that can protect our kids and not let us slack off at the same time.

375

How to batch rename files on Mac

Vocab:

Renamerlet — Renamer’s structure in which a chain’s information is saved — used to simplify batch renaming.

If it seems the obvious thing to do, well, it isn’t. Batch renaming files on a Mac can save you hours of work — but you have to know the mechanics. Here’s how you can change the names of multiple files, the Apple way:

Find the files you want to rename via Finder.
Select all files (Shift + Click) and tap Action at the top of Finder.
Select Rename (number) items.
In the drop-down menu, select Format> Name Format for the style of format you want.
In the Custom Format, type the name of your files.
Customize the starting number — you can start with 1 to rename all, or choose any other number.
Click Rename.

376

The problem with this method of batch renaming is that you can’t organize and rename files by type. Plus, the whole process is a bit tedious — especially with a long list of files. Therefore, we recommend to automate things with Renamer.

Renamer is a total organizational reboot in a lightweight package. This app lets you import and rename files in batch, painlessly. It comes pre-loaded with “Renamerlets” tailored to different file types like photos and music files, and lets you create custom versions as needed. Plus, it’s an easy way to automatically add useful metadata to your files, making them easier to search.

Here’s how it works:

Import files to start renaming

The easiest way to add files to the app window is to drag and drop them. However, you can also use the “+” button at the top right to add files from your hard drive. Once you add a file to the app, it will appear as part of a sequence. If you need to adjust the order of the files, just click and drag each one to your preferred position.

To see more information about the selected file, click the “i” icon at the top right.

377

How to use Renamerlets

Renamerlets are protocols that allow you to rename all of the files you’ve placed in the app window at once. Some only work when applied to specific file types, like music and photos; if you try to apply one to an incompatible format, the app will alert you.

To use these protocols, click the tab for the one you’d like to use on the left. Use the drop-down menus and drag-and-drop terms to get exactly the renaming pattern you need. The app will automatically preview any renaming in the right-hand panel. Once the names look correct, click “Apply” and the app will rename them as a batch.

Create your own renaming rules

If you’d rather create a custom format for your files, you can make your own template Renamerlets presets from scratch. Click the “+” button at the bottom left, then select “New Renamerlet.” Use the drop-down menu to assign a type, then give your new Renamerlet a name and click “OK.” Once it appears, use the menus in the middle tab to assign it a function.

Remember that you can assign multiple functions to the same one — just click the “+” button at the bottom of the middle panel to add another set of conditions.

So if you’ve got a thousand photos with nonsense names clogging up your hard drive or just want to impose a little order on your work files, Renamer is a perfect choice.

378

Edit, sign, and redact your PDFs with ease

Vocab:

Redact — censor or obscure a part of a document, which is usually used to hide sensitive information like names, dates, signatures, etc

PDFs are everywhere, especially in the workplace. Although convenient to read, PDFs can be tricky to deal with if you just need to make quick changes to the text, sign a form, or send a file through a size-restrictive platform.

Today, there are dozens of applications that can read, modify, and edit PDFs. All are different: free PDF editors, PDF modifiers, costly Mac PDF editors, and even a default PDF reader for Mac that comes with your operating system. So let’s see who is who and how you can get the best value.

How to edit PDFs with Apple’s Preview app

Apple provides every Mac with Preview, a free program that allows you to read and edit PDF files. It has the basic toolkit that helps you add and highlight text, combine PDF documents and transfer pages from one PDF to another.

Add text and notes to your PDF

Open the PDF in Preview and try to add text by clicking on the target text field. If it doesn’t work, you’ll have to add a new text or note field:

Select Tools > Annotate > Text/Note
Click on the text/note box that appears in your document and start typing.
Close the box by clicking outside it. You can move the note/text field

379

anywhere via drag and drop.

To customize fonts or color of text, select View > Show Markup Toolbar > A.

Highlight text in a PDF

To activate the highlight mode in Preview, select the Highlight button in the top right corner. Click on the down arrow next to the Highlight button to change color, or choose an option to underline or strikethrough.

When switched on, highlights will be applied to any text you click on. You can switch it off by clicking on the same Highlight button. To view notes and highlights in the PDF, select View > Highlights and Notes.

Combine multiple PDFs

To merge PDF files, open one PDF in Preview.
Select View > Thumbnails to see the thumbnails of all pages.
Click on Edit > Insert > Page from file and open another PDF.
Choose destination and save the updated file as PDF.

Rotate, delete, rearrange pages, and renumber pages

You can cut pages out or change the order of pages in a few steps via thumbnails:

Open a document in Preview.
Navigate to View > Thumbnails.
To rotate, click on a page thumbnail > Tools > Rotate Left or Right.
To delete pages in a PDF, select thumbnail > Tools > Delete to remove a page from your PDF.
Rearrange by dragging pages around in the sidebar.

380

To change page numbering, you can use PDFpen editor. When you open a file, go to Edit > Headers, Footers, Page numbers > Insert. From there, you can customize the position and format of the page numbers as well as define a starting page.

Split PDF files

To separate pages in a scanned PDF, simply drag the page you want to remove from the thumbnails pane to desktop. If needed, you can combine those pages into a separate PDF file afterwards.

Reduce PDF size

You can compress your PDF in Preview while exporting the doc. Once you’re done with editing, select File > Export. Click on Quartz Filter to open the pop-up menu > Reduce File Size.

Redact, sign, and customize PDFs with pro-level tools

Apart from Preview, you can use a scanning application like Prizmo app to create easily searchable PDF files out of paper-based images like brochures, books, or posters. This app lets you scan and recognize any photo documents to make them editable. You can even take a photo of a physical document on your phone, and finish editing on your Mac.

To make corrections or rewrite some text within the original file with editable text blocks, try PDFpen. You can also use it to highlight, draw, scribble on the document.

381

Make smart corrections inside PDFs

To edit text with PDFpen:

Open the desired PDF document in the application.
Highlight the text within the PDF and click Correct Text.
Erase the current text and type the desired changes.

To insert and edit an image in PDF:

Click on 'Insert' icon and choose an image you want to add.
Move and/or resize the image by dragging it around inside the PDF.
Double clicking an image lets you adjust it or add some effects.
You can also delete pictures and drop new ones.

382

You can edit images by converting them into PDFs with Prizmo. With powerful OCR, Prizmo app instantly captures text and makes it fluid and editable.

To create a PDF from an image with Prizmo, use the following steps:

Click the plus icon in Prizmo.
Find your source in the drop-down menu.
Select an image that you’d like to convert to PDF and click Add.
Click Recognize in the top right corner or toggle Text mode in View.
Editable text will appear on the right side of the window.

383

Comment and draw notes, flexibly

A regular PDF viewer app won’t let you attach comments to specific areas on a PDF, so you need to use an editor like PDFpen to do that. This app allows to add comments to PDF files with highlights, sticky notes, or a freehand drawing. Annotations are useful because they are least distracting for a reader. You can also use markup tools to add shapes around important areas of the PDF and underline things to remember.

To comment and make notes on PDF:

Click on the Comment (cmd+8) or on the Notes (cmd+7) on the PDFpen’s menu bar.
Tap on the area of the document where you want the comment or note to appear.
Type your comment or note in the area field.
Drag the comment or note text box to the desired area on the document.

Fill and sign PDF forms (e-sign)

Printing documents just to sign them and scan them back can be frustrating and time-consuming. Many of us don’t even have printers anymore. But luckily with e-signatures, there’s no need for all that.

384

Now you can easily add your signature to digital forms and documents in macOS. Whether you're looking to have a new client sign an agreement, a tenancy contract, or any other PDF form, e-signature will save you time (and ink).

To sign a document using PDFpen:

Scan your signature and save it as an image file.
OR draw your signature right on a PDF with your trackpad, magic mouse, etc.
Drag, resize and correct the position of the signature inside your PDF file.

Redact sensitive information from PDFs

Many of the PDF files on your computer may contain sensitive or personal information, leaving you at risk of becoming a victim to identity theft. For example, a PDF form could contain your tax information, credit card numbers, or other personal details that you don’t want to share with third parties.

This is where PDF redaction comes in handy. Without an appropriate PDF editor like PDFpen, it can be very difficult to remove parts of the text you want to hide from a document. Redaction can remove a word or an entire line of text with a black box or empty white space.

Of course, if you don’t want to use software to redact your PDF, you can always take a black marker to cross out any information from a printed sheet. To make

385

your life easier, use the following steps to redact sensitive information.

To redact an entire section of a document:

Within PDFpen, click Tools and select the rectangle tool.
Select the area of the text you want to redact.
Click Format and Redact Text-Block.

To redact selected text:

Under Tools select Text Tools.
Select the text you want to redact.
Click Format and Redact Text – Block.

Compress and share a PDF

If you don’t have a strong or reliable internet connection, it can be hard to send large PDF files to friends or colleagues. In order to upload large PDF files onto the cloud, send via email, or add them into size-restricted forms, you’ll need an app like PDF Squeezer to help you compress the PDF file while keeping the original quality. This process won’t convert your PDF into a ZIP file.

To shrink your PDF CVs, applications, or visa-related documents for the web, use the following steps:

Open PDF Squeezer.
Drag the PDF file you want to compress into the “Drop Your Files Here” section.
At the drop-down menu, select your preferred dpi and image quality.
Click Save.

386

With a built-in feature to send your PDF files to friends, clients, or colleagues, it makes sharing your compressed documents super easy. Click Share to send your file via text, email, or other.

So with the use of a few apps, you’ll easily be able to create, search, and share PDFs, all while saving time and frustration by being able to directly make changes to your documents.

387

Transfer files across devices

Vocab:

AirDrop — Apple’s ad-hoc feature that allows transferring files across iOS and macOS using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connection.

Android File Transfer — Google app that enables you to share files across Android and Mac with a USB cable.

If you ask someone what they appreciate about Apple, most people will say something about connectivity. Indeed, the devices inside Apple ecosystem are wildly connectible — with the functionality of syncing content almost on the go.

There are a few conditions, though, the main of which is your devices should use compatible operating systems. This is not always the case. Plus, if you want to transfer files from Mac to an Android phone or PC, Apple doesn’t really cater for that.

Below we’ve collected a short list of tips and workarounds that should help you stay connected, no matter what devices you want to sync.

Transfer files between macOS and Windows natively

If you have a Mac and a PC connected to the same Wi-Fi network, sharing files between them is pretty easy. And you won’t need any third-party tools to do this. Your Mac is equipped with everything you need:

Access System Preferences on Mac and click Sharing .
Check the box next to File Sharing.
Click Options and select a user account you’d like to share with under Windows Files Sharing.

388

Enter your admin password if asked to and click Done.

Once it’s done, you’ll see the Sharing window again. Customize shared files and users by pressing the plus/minus buttons. Lastly, make a note of your Mac’s IP address — you’ll need to type it in the File Explorer on your Windows machine to accept transferred files.

Move content across Mac and iOS devices

There are three native ways to sync files across macOS and iOS devices. The first one is using iCloud Drive. If you enable automatic syncing across your Apple devices — provided you’re signed in with the same Apple ID on each of them. This option is limited, though, because you receive only 5 GB of free storage with iCloud Drive.

Share with AirDrop

If you want to instantly share a file to your iPhone, iPad or Mac — and the device you want to share with is nearby — you can use AirDrop. This is a built-in utility that enables you to transfer content using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth only.

389

Here’s how you drop a file to another Apple device with AirDrop:

Launch the app and click Share or hit the Share button.
Tap the name of the user you’re sharing with (your name in case you’re transferring to another device).

To accept the file shared via AirDrop, tap Accept once you see the alert on your screen. Note that you won’t be prompted to accept or decline if you AirDrop to your device — the content will be transferred to the corresponding app automatically.

Move files using iTunes/Finder

The most common way to share files remotely is using iTunes on macOS Mojave and earlier, or Finder on macOS Catalina.

See also:

Check out what else iTunes and its cutting-edge alternatives are capable of.

The benefits of iTunes/Finder are the easiness, no boundaries in terms of storage, and a completely remote process. To share using iTunes, you should have macOS 10.14 or earlier, the latest version of iOS, and the latest version of iTunes.

To transfer files from iPhone/iPad to Mac:

Connect your iOS device to a computer using USB cable.
Open iTunes on Mac and click on the name of your connected device in the sidebar.

390

Select File Sharing in the left sidebar.
Once you see the list of apps that have sharing capabilities, click on the app where your files are stored.
Select the files you want to transfer and drag them onto the Documents window.
Click Done.

If you want to go the other way around and transfer from Mac to iPhone/iPad, the process is just the same.

All of the above is impossible to do if your mac runs on Catalina. While iTunes is unavailable on macOS 10.15, you’ll have to use an alternative way, one of which is sharing via Finder:

Open Finder .
Connect your iOS device to a computer using USB cable.
Access your device via Finder and click on the Files tab to open the list of apps with shareable files.
Click on the triangle next to the app name to open it.
Select the files you want to transfer and drag them onto the app.
Once you’re ready, hit Sync.

Share files between Android and MacOf course, iPhone owners are spoilt for choice in that they can use AirDrop, Image Capture, iCloud, or the Photos app to transfer files between smartphone and Mac. Sadly, it isn’t quite so easy to transfer files from Android to Mac. You need to get a bit more creative here.The “official” solution to this problem is using Android File Transfer, but there are also various other workarounds and apps that can be used to connect Android to Mac — both wired and not.

391

How to use Android File Transfer

Although Android File Transfer is designed for use (at least partially) with an operating system other than iOS (e.g. Google’s Android OS), downloading and installing the app is pretty straightforward and feels like any other app on Mac:

Download and install the software from the Android website.
Double-click the AndroidFileTransfer.dmg file in your Downloads.
Drag the icon to your Applications folder and double-click it.
Open the software and, if required, authorize it to run.

Once you’ve done that, plug your smartphone into Mac using a USB cable. Open AFT if it doesn’t open automatically, and transfer files using the familiar Finder interface.

From there, using the app is pretty intuitive. The issue of how to transfer pictures from Android to Mac is the only thing that’s a little counterintuitive, as any images taken using your Android’s camera appear not in the Pictures folder but in DCIM

Camera.

392

Why Android File Transfer is a bad idea

A big problem with the above is if you have a newer MacBook (i.e. one that uses USB-C), you won’t necessarily be able to connect your smartphone using your usual USB cable.

That means you’ll need to purchase either a new cable or adaptors to successfully test out how to move files on Mac from Android. That’s far from ideal, particularly if time and money are of the essence.

Fortunately, there are a few wireless solutions for how to connect Android to Mac without using Android File Transfer at all.

Sync with Dropbox and Google Drive

If you already have a Dropbox account, you’ll probably already know how this process works. If not, here’s how to do it:

Sign up for an account on the Dropbox website.
Download the app on your Android (and your Mac, unless you’re happy to use the browser version).
Place files in the Dropbox folder on your Mac to make them visible on your Android Dropbox app.
For how to connect Android to Mac, you’ll need to select Upload in your Dropbox app, and choose a file type and the relevant item.

You’ll notice that, while this process is fairly simple, it’s not particularly well-suited if you’re trying to figure out how to move files on Mac in large batches from your Android.That’s even more true if you want to transfer files from Android to Mac of many different types at once (e.g. a Word doc, several images, and a video that all need to move over to your Mac for a use in a single project).If you’re not a fan of Dropbox, or have simply never signed up for it, Google Drive is another alternative for Android to Mac file transfer. Steps on using it are pretty

393

similar to those listed for Dropbox, except there’s no longer a dedicated Google Drive app for Mac. That means you would need to get their Backup and Sync app for macOS instead.

Some people find Dropbox or Google Drive a bit clunky and end up joining everyone who googles “Android File Transfer not working on Mac” (the app is sadly known to be a bit temperamental). Luckily, there’s another option available.

Connect via wireless transfer apps

Similar to the way AirDrop allows connections between iPhones and Macs on the same network, there are apps that allow for wireless Android file transfer to Mac using WiFi or USB.

One such app is AnyTrans for Android. Using it is simple:

Download the AnyTrans app on your Mac and Android device.
Open the apps and scan the QR code using your Android handset.
Your device will be added to the Device Manager for file transfer.

You can use AnyTrans for Android to back up important files, move all of your data to a new Android handset (or iPhone), and download content from more than 900 sites using a built-in media downloader before transferring it to your Android.

394

How to convert media files on Mac

Music, video, and images come in a baffling variety of formats. Plus, there's player compatibility, device compatibility, playback quality, and 99 other reasons why you may need to change the format of a media file. That's why we've put together a guide on how to convert video, music, and images to whatever format you need.

Convert video to audio

Converting video to audio — MP4 to MP3, for example — means not so much converting the video file as extracting the audio track from it. That comes in handy when you want to turn your collection of music videos into a playlist to put on an iPod, distil the sound from a video you took at a concert, or use your favorite song as a ringtone for your iPhone.

macOS comes with built-in media encoding functionality that lets you convert video to audio right in the Finder. There's a similar feature in QuickTime, too. The downside is it's fairly limited in that you can't pick what the resulting audio file will be, because it generates an M4A track by default. The default macOS video to audio converter works like this:

Right-click on the file.
Select Services in the drop-down menu, and then Encode Selected Video Files.
Select Audio Only as a Setting in the window that opens and click Continue.

The M4A file will appear in the same location as the original video and will have the same name.

While M4A works well for iTunes, you might want a little more control over the audio format you're getting. The most common scenario is converting video to

395

MP3, and that's where Mac's built-in converter falls flat. Fortunately, there's a whole range of third-party apps that do the job — Permute being one of them.

Here’s how to convert MP4 to MP3 using Permute:

Open media converter and drag-and-drop the video file into the app.
Pick MP3 in the drop-down menu in the upper right corner.
Hit Start.

Permute is super fast, so you should have your audio in the same folder as the video file in no time. Go ahead and feed it some of your movies to see how well it works.

But “MP4 TO MP3” is not a limit. There are also options like converting "MKV to MP4", "FLAC to MP3", "M4A to MP3", etc. Some are way too space-consuming, like FLACs, which can be 10 times bigger than equivalent MP3s. Others are unsupported by your Mac's built-in video player, like MKV. No matter the specific case, you're going to need an audio or video converter to transform the file into a friendlier, more widely used format, which is typically MP4 for video and MP3 for music.

Luckily, Permute has your back here as well. It can convert a video or audio file to a different format the same way it turns video into audio. In case you skipped the

396

previous section, this is how you can convert music and movies with this media converter:

Open an app and drag-and-drop your file into it.
Select the resulting file format in the upper right corner.
Click Start.

Permute supports a few dozen video formats and over 10 for audio, which means it can handle pretty much any media file you throw at it. And by the way, if you're unsure which format you need in the end because all you want is for the file to open on your iPhone or Apple TV, Permute has you covered. You just pick "Apple TV" or "iPhone" as the resulting format and the app will figure out the rest.

Convert a YouTube video to MP3

There are a few good apps that can help you extract music from a favorite YouTube video (unfortunately, macOS doesn’t cover that). Specifically, Elmedia Player, the multifunctional media player we mentioned earlier, and Downie, a simple downloader for Mac.

Note: Before downloading any content from YouTube, make sure you're not violating YouTube's copyright policy.

Downie is pretty easy to figure out, and it does the job well. To convert and

397

download YouTube videos, do this:

Open the downloader.
Select Extract Audio Only in the Settings in your menu bar.
Drag-and-drop the link to the video into the app.

Downie saves the track to Downloads as an MP3 file for your listening pleasure.

Elmedia Player might be a little less straightforward, but on the bright side, it gives you more options as to saving and playing all kinds of online media, so it's definitely worth giving a shot.

But the easiest way to extract the audio track from a YouTube video is Elmedia Player app:

Open the app and switch to Browser mode (click Window in the menu bar and checkmark Browser in the drop-down menu).
Paste the YouTube link into the built-in browser and hit Enter.
Go to the Audio tab in the menu underneath your video.
You'll see the audio track right there. Hit Download next to it.

398

The big plus of Elmedia Player is that you can keep browsing YouTube within the app after you're done downloading, which can streamline the process when you need to save multiple tracks in one sitting.

Convert image to text

There are a few ways you can copy the text from an image — so that you don’t have to type it. Obviously, trying well-known shortcuts like Command + C and Command + V should be your first options, just for the speed and ease of it. But if they didn't work, the following tips are for you.

The key thing to remember is that you'll need an application that can recognize text via OCR (Optical Character Recognition). An example would be using Prizmo that acts as a scanner to convert image text into usable text:

Click the plus icon and select an image source from the drop-down menu.
Highlight the images you want to bring into Prizmo and they will appear on the left side of the window.
Click Crop and eliminate any image distortions by using the frame and grid icons.
Using the Adjust button, change the sharpness or contrast of the text to increase readability.

399

To begin the OCR process, click Recognize.
Review the extracted text on the right side of the app window to correct any formatting errors.

Convert jpg/png, PDF, and receipts to textThe same flow can be used with your jpg/png images and screenshots as well. If you don't have Prizmo to read your image, you can use a PDF reader with OCR support instead. In this way, to convert image to text would mean to turn it to PDF and then copy text from a PDF. Here's how you quickly turn a jpg/png to PDF:

Open your image in Preview.
Go to File and choose Export as.
Select PDF as an output format.

See also:

We’ve talked about more powerful tools for PDF manipulations above.Check it out if you’ve missed it.If you need an OCR tool to simplify your accounting on Mac, you can use Receipts app for the job:

Drag your image of PDF right into the Receipts window.
Set the app to extract data like document date, bank connection, and taxes.
Organize and filter your receipts by tags and categories flexibly.

400

Copy text from image online

If you want to extract text from image without using any OCR tools, you can do it online. Google Drive gives you free OCR help in minutes. Although it may not render the formatting properly, you get editable text from any image — including screenshots.

Here's how you turn picture to text with Google Drive:

Access your drive and click New > File upload
Once you upload an image, right-click on it and select Open with > Google Docs.

The new tab with a Google Docs document will open automatically. To convert some scanned copy into text:

You'll see an image and editable text extracted from it at the bottom.
Make edits if necessary and delete the image.
The doc with text will be accessible from Google Drive.

Note that this flow comes handy with short pieces of text. The more text you extract, the more mistakes it will have.

401

Manage your household with a Mac

If you think Mac is a part of office essentials, you’re right. What we tend to forget, though, is that Macs are also perfect tools for managing your household — just as effectively as any other job.

To dispel the myth about Mac being an exclusively office machine, let us give you two tools that upgrade a computer for home use.

Keep track of your possessions

How much do you really know about your stuff? The chairs, the appliances, the kayak you were planning to use eventually? What happens if they break? Are they under warranty? How much are they worth?

To know the answers to all these questions, try Home Inventory, a powerful tool for keeping track of information about your possessions. The app was created specifically for maintaining an inventory of household stuff and would be an ideal tool for homeowners interested in building their first digital home inventory.

Home Inventory is organized like, well, a home. The master list is divided into rooms, and each of those rooms is filled with items. Unlike a home, however, you don’t have to search through every room to find what you need. Instead, the app lets you organize your belongings by category, mark them with custom tags, and assign them to heirs.

This makes searching for a specific item fast and easy. You can switch between different tabs using the drop-down menu, and add heirs, rooms, or categories by clicking the (+) button at the bottom left of the panel.

402

Catalog your household goods

Once you’ve got your rooms laid out, you can populate item. To create an item, click the (+) button at the bottom left of the panel. The item profile lets you save vital statistics and details so that your belongings can be grouped according to type, collection, room, or heir.

Once you’ve created an item, you can attach reference photos, scanned or emailed receipts, warranty details, and files of any other types. The more information you attach to an item, the easier it is to search for and sort.

Saving policies

The app also includes a convenient tab marked “policies,” which lets you log information about any insurance policies you have. By having the relevant details about your homeowners, renters, life, and disaster insurance in one place, you’ll be one step closer to an accurate account of your possessions.

To add a policy, simply click the (+) button at the bottom of the panel and fill in the relevant information.

Create reports

Whether you’re moving, filing an insurance claim or police report, or drafting a

403

will, Home Inventory can create useful reports in an instant. These range from moving lists to analyzing of how well the insurance covers your possessions.

When you’re ready to create a report, click the “run” button and select the type of report, then select which items or categories you’d like to include. You can save or print the report right from the app.

The more diligent you are about logging changes and documenting new and old possessions, the more powerful Home Inventory becomes. By putting everything in one place, it can provide real stability during moments of transition.

When a Mac becomes useful in the kitchen

If you take food preparation seriously, you have to know there’s one app that allows to build a recipe database, plan your meals for the week, and create a grocery list so you won’t find yourself missing one ingredient when it’s time to get cooking. MacGourmet Deluxe lets you organize your thoughts on everything food and drink related.

First and foremost, MacGourmet can be your go-to recipe database. You can save recipes from tons of food websites using the Recipe Import Assistant—click Get Recipe From Web in MacGourmet’s toolbar.

404

You can also build your own recipes from scratch, and the recipe builder is incredibly detailed. You can keep it simple with just the ingredients list, directions, and a photo. Or you can dive into prep times, equipment lists, cuisine types, recipe categories, and so on.

Don’t worry that your recipes will be trapped in one place, either. MacGourmet’s developer, Mariner Software, provides cloud sync between Macs and with the Gourmet app for iPhone and iPad. You can also print out recipes on cards, or create your own cookbook.

Keep notes on wine, beer, and cheese

MacGourmet also has places to take notes on wine, beer, and cheese. That way you remember your favorites, and finally come to appreciate the difference between Vermont and Wisconsin cheddar. Give them ratings, snap a picture of the label, and add lots of keywords to search for later.

You can even jot down where you found each item and how much you paid for it. That way, for example, if you see the same wine you bought at a fancy wine store on sale, you’ll know if it’s a good deal.

Find out calorie counts and nutrition info

When you’re editing a recipe, one tab in the editor is labeled Nutrition, and it can help you calculate how many calories will be in each serving.

405

The app will match up ingredients to the built-in nutritional database, which you can view for yourself by pressing Command 1. If one ingredient’s nutritional info isn’t found automatically, you can just search for the ingredient, drag it onto the recipe card, and drop it onto the missing ingredient. Then, enter the number of servings and click Calculate for a complete nutritional breakdown: calories, fat, cholesterol, fiber, protein, sodium, etc.This is incredibly handy for anyone on a restricted diet, or those who just like to tinker in the kitchen. Maybe you want to take an existing recipe and substitute a few ingredients to change the nutritional content as well as the flavor profile.

Plan meals and build a shopping list

MacGourmet lets you plan meals for the week, print out the list, and put it on the fridge, with or without the recipes. Once they can see the meal plan, your kids will know which nights to invite themselves over to a friend’s house. Ha, just kidding.

To get started, click Mealplan > Weekly Planner in the menu bar, and keep the Recipe Box window (Window > Recipes) open too. Then just drag recipes from your database onto the weekly calendar. If you’re planning every meal (as opposed to just dinners), you can drag in meal labels like Breakfast, Lunch,

406

Dinner, and so on from the sidebar on the right to separate the recipes for each day into meals.

Once you’re happy with your meal plan, click the little shopping icon at the bottom-left of the Weekly Planner. That automatically creates a shopping list in the Shopping Lists section of the main Recipe Box window. Double-click it to open the shopping list editor, where you can check off any ingredients you already have on hand. What remains is your shopping list. Press Command-P to print it, and you’re off to the store.

Share recipes and make your own cookbook

MacGourmet lets you share recipes on Facebook or by email, and it’s easy to print neatly formatted recipe cards if you’re into that. If you ask me, keeping a little file box of recipe cards never went out of style.

Even better, you can design your own cookbook with recipes, text pages, and big, beautiful photos. MacGourmet makes it simple with the Cookbook Builder—find it by selecting Cookbook > Cookbook Builder in the menu bar.

Drop recipes and photos into each chapter, and add in extra text pages, photo pages, and blank pages for notes. When you’re all done, select Cookbook > Create PDF to export a high-res PDF ready for printing, or sending off to an on-demand publishing service.

407

Personal finance and invoicing

Budgeting is a discipline that’s not often met with excitement. Many assume that budgeting is something reserved for companies or, say, freelance workers. However, personal budget software is just as important as corporate one — it’s a fundamental understanding of where money is coming and going.

Thankfully, there are tools and apps on Mac which can help you get on top of budgeting, no matter how experienced you are. From tax accounting to personal expenses to invoicing, there are Mac apps for everything.

Apps to keep your finances controlled

When it comes to programs to help budget money, there are countless options. It’s easy to get lost diving deep into each budget software review, but here are some of the best available, ranging from beautifully basic to powerfully advanced.

Quicken

You’ve probably heard of Quicken, given that the name has been around since the early 80s. Even then, it was known as one of the best tax software companies around. That says something about the strong product, which carries all of the basic functions you’ll need to manage your budget well.

Right away though, you might notice that the interface has become somewhat outdated in comparison to the newer contenders out there. But one of Quicken’s praised features is the ability to download bank statements and have the records automatically categorized, which can drastically reduce the time it takes to input your information, so you can spend more time making sense of it. Sadly, the Mac version is somewhat limited when it comes to advanced features, unless you splash out for the Home and Business edition.

408

MoneyDance

MoneyDance is very similar to Quicken in terms of its basic features, including the ability to create a budget with notifications for bills and invoices. It also allows you to make your own charts and graphs to monitor spending habits over time, which can be seen on the homepage for a quick glance of your activity. Out-of-the-box integrations with online banking services also make it easy to send payments.

Unlike Quicken, Moneydance has some more advanced features including an investment monitor, which tracks your investments and their fluctuations — a useful addition, although best for the intermediate to advanced user. The app also has a developer API system in place to allow extended functions, mostly good for power users. Importantly, security is not an issue, as Moneydance utilizes end-to-end encryption for your data to give you that extra peace of mind.

409

YNAB

You Need A Budget, also known as YNAB, is budget tracking software that runs on both Windows and Mac via web — saving automatically to the cloud, which is a bonus for multi-platform users. It also features native apps for iOS and Android, so you can literally tackle your budget from anywhere.

The app itself follows a simple design language, which is perfect for beginners, but if you find yourself needing help you can sign up for a personal instructor. YNAB doesn’t let you slack at all, and if you start to stray from your budget, the app will raise a red flag through it’s built-in Accountability Partner.

Although YNAB doesn’t support the ability to download and automatically categorize records from bank statements, it could be argued that entering them manually helps the user pay more attention to where their spending is going. Still, it’s a more time-consuming process that might be problematic for users processing hundreds or more records each month.

410

MoneyWiz

MoneyWiz stays true to its name — a comprehensive budget software and investment tracker that’s packed full with over 400 useful features. View your financial situation quickly by browsing accounts, groups, or searching for individual records. Speaking of records, you can enter them manually or have them automatically sync with leading banks, cryptocurrency exchanges, and financial services for an accurate real-time understanding of your accounts.

With all of this data in hand, MoneyWiz can prepare and export over 50 reports to help you gain deeper insights into your finances. Your data could be accessed from its cloud-based app or straight from the native software for Mac. All in all, MoneyWiz is extremely powerful: accessible for beginners and interesting for the most advanced users.

411

Receipts

Receipts is yet another money management software for Mac, and is specifically well-known for its clever handling of invoicing. Using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology, Receipts automatically reads and translates important information about your bills, such as amount, date, currency, and more (even if the text is in another language).

Besides, Receipts can issue payments for invoices directly using third-party providers, such as iFinance and BankX. The OCR technology alone makes it a strong contender against other more simple online budgeting tools. Not least, Mac users will be glad to see how this application was designed to look and feel like a macOS product. Using a familiar user interface could make life a little easier after all.

Deal with your freelance invoicing

When freelancing is your lifestyle, you have lots of freedom. But with the freedom comes the responsibility to take control of your task management, taxes, and invoicing. GigEconomy is an amazingly useful time tracking app for freelancers. It can automatically record the time you spend on every client and then create professional invoices for each project.

Once you launch GigEconomy, it places itself in your menu bar as a small icon. Click Show GigEconomy to open the app itself. Once you’re there, create your first

412

client. You can make it easier for the future by putting all the details right in there at once.

These would include a client’s address (for the invoice), your hourly rate, project details, tax rate etc.

Once that is done, you can start recording time for future billing. Whenever you open a project, you simply click on the menu bar icon of GigEconomy and hit Start billing. If you have multiple clients, make sure the one you need is selected before you start.

What happens next is that when you’re done with the project, hit Stop billing and then Create invoice. This way the invoice for the time spent will be created based on the rate you’ve specified. You can see it in the app, when the client is selected.

413

Double-click the invoice to view its details, save it as a PDF or print it out. You’ll see that the app has a number of styles for the invoice and the amount of detail you’d like included. You can also check the Paid box if you’d like for it to be completed as an already paid document.

Also, in case your usual rate does not include extra expenses, like field trips or paid software, or basically anything that also needs to be added to the current invoice, take a look at the Add Expense button. You can specify the amount you’ve spent on top of your time.

You can also add time manually if some of your work wasn’t on the Mac or you forgot to turn on the tracker. Hit Add manual time in the menu before you create the invoice. There’s also a way to choose custom dates for which you’d like to specify the billing, this can be done in the bottom of the app.

Let your Mac pay the bills for you

If you have many regular payments to make and you’re terrified to make a mistake, there’s a tool that can help you. Chronicle is a Mac app that can make a huge difference in your overall financial health — ensuring you pay all the bills on time.

You’ll have a better handle on your monthly cash flow, which can lead to you stop relying on credit cards. You might even be inspired to cut your monthly expenses

414

and pay off debt faster. And Chronicle is totally painless to set up.

Your list of bills is color-coded so you can see what’s overdue (red), what’s due soon (orange), what’s paid (green), anything that gets auto-drafted (blue), and income coming in (black). On the far right, Chronicle shows how many bills are due soon and how much those should be, how much you’re still on the hook for this month, and how that stacks up against your projected income.

Along the bottom, Chronicle can help you add a new bill or credit card balance, log a payment, view more details or edit a bill, and log new income. There’s even a Pay button that launches the built-in browser, so you can pay bills online without having to leave the Chronicle app. It’s pretty easy to use, with all the features you’d expect in an intuitive interface.

415

Don’t overlook the most obvious benefit of using Chronicle — you’ll be paying attention. Once you get it set up, it only takes a few minutes to check in. Once a week, or twice a month, you can sit down to pay bills without the anxiety of not really knowing what the big picture looks like.

416

Solve your tasks like a pro

No promises Mac will do the work for you. But you can enhance your macOS so that it helps you along the way. From time-tracking software to task managers, the following tools will help you shape the best working mode.

Pick the best task manager for Mac

Some say there’s no need for the Apple Task Manager, as Macs run better and smoother than their PC counterparts. And while this is largely true, from time to time you absolutely need a way to force quit Mac processes to keep it in good shape. There’s a Task Manager pre-installed on Mac. It’s called Activity Monitor, which you can find in Applications ➙ Utilities.

Activity Monitor is basically the macOS Task Manager, a utility that shows how much memory your Mac processes are using and which apps are currently active (even if they aren’t open), letting you force quit installed ones if you can’t close them the usual way.

417

If you’ve never used this task manager for Mac before, it can be quite a lot to take in. But don’t worry, here’s a quick breakdown of all Activity Monitor’s features.

CPU

The first tab in Activity Monitor lists all the processes that are currently taking up your Mac’s CPU, displays the exact percentages of power they are consuming, and notes how long they have been running.

There’s a process you might notice in the CPU tab called “kernel_task” that could be taking a large share of resources. Don’t panic and don’t shut it down! The process simply ensures your CPU isn’t working too hard by forcing other memory-intensive Mac processes out. As a result, it might seem like one of the heaviest processes on the list. Similarly, “mds” and “mdworker” help index files for the Spotlight search, which sometimes spikes their appetite.

Memory

The second tab reflects how much RAM every process is taking up, which could be the most useful indicator of all. RAM is directly responsible for the speed of your Mac, so getting rid of heavy users is the fastest way to speed things up.

Another interesting feature of the Memory tab is the RAM Pressure Gauge at the bottom. If the bar is green, your Mac’s RAM isn’t being taxed too much. But if it turns red — consider buying additional memory for your machine.

Energy

The middle tab comes handy when you’re using your MacBook without plugging it in. Here you can easily find apps and processes that drain your battery and quit them to extend your screen time.

Disk

Even though this tab might not be the most useful one for daily use, it still shows how various processes interact with your hard drive, rewriting data. If you ever

418

happen to install some malware, you might find its processes here as large outliers and quit them just in time.

Network

The last tab in Activity Monitor reflects the amount of data received and sent by every app you have installed. Again, it’s generally good for spotting outliers that might send too much data online.

Cache

If you’re running macOS earlier than High Sierra, you might see another tab in Activity Monitor called Cache. It basically lists how much data your network devices have cached so far and is only useful for those who know how to clean up those caches (read more on this below).

How to use Activity Monitor

Unfortunately, there are no keyboard shortcuts like Ctrl + Alt + Delete to open your Mac process monitor, but launching Activity Monitor is still quite simple. Pick one of the three ways to do it.

Open Activity Monitor from Spotlight:

Press ⌘ + Space to open Spotlight.

Start typing Activity Monitor.

Once Activity Monitor comes up highlighted, hit Enter or click on it.

Open Activity Monitor from Finder:

Click on Finder in your Dock.

Navigate to Applications on the sidebar.

Choose Utilities in the Applications window.

419

Double-click on the Activity Monitor icon.

Open Activity Monitor from Dock:

If you’ve been having recurring troubles, setting up Activity Monitor in your Dock is absolutely worth doing. It’s essentially a handy one-click Mac Task Manager shortcut.

But before you can open Activity Monitor from your Dock, you need to use one of the previous two methods first. Then, once Activity Monitor is active:

Right-click on the Activity Monitor icon in your Dock.

Select Options.

Choose “Keep in Dock.”

“Keep in Dock” should now have a checkmark beside it, which means it will stay in the Dock even if you quit the app.

If you’re looking for answers regarding the macOS Task Manager, chances are it’s because some app has stalled on you. There are two ways to go there.

From the Activity Monitor:

Navigate to either the CPU or the Memory tab and find the slow process.

Click to highlight.

Press the X icon in the top toolbar.

Confirm that you’re sure you want to quit the process.

The other force-quit option is from the Force Quit Applications window:

Press ⌘ + Option + Esc

Highlight the program you want to quit.

Click Force Quit.

420

iStat Menus as an upgraded )*%+,+%- ."/+%"0

While Activity Monitor is definitely the Mac equivalent of Task Manager, sometimes you want to monitor your Mac’s processes a little more closely and get real time updates on your Mac’s performance. iStat Menus will help you do that.

iStat Menus gives you fast updates on what’s using your Mac’s resources at just a glance. Working hard right from the menu bar, the app displays graphs for nearly every function of your Mac, so you can instantly find out what’s wrong or just notice how your Mac behaves in different conditions.

421

iStat Menus can show you if an app is eating up all your RAM or hogging your network bandwidth, if your hard drive is out of space or indicating errors, and how stressed the CPU and GPU are at any given moment. The most detailed insights you could imagine.

Work across different time zones

If you’re a freelancer or a business without a dependence on locality, there are Mac tools that can help you work with people from any location.

By default, the Calendar app on your Mac is linked to your current time zone. However, it’s possible to change the time zone so that any new events that you schedule are saved in that time zone. For example, if you’re in L.A. operating on Pacific Time (PST) you can switch the Calendar time zone to London time (GMT) to schedule a meeting and revert back to PST time without losing the GMT time zone setting for the event.

Switching the time zone is easy:

Go to Calendar > Preferences and click on Advanced.
Click the checkbox next to Turn on time zone support.
A pop-up menu will now appear next to the search field in the Calendar from

422

which you can choose the time zone that you need. If the time zone you want doesn’t appear in the list, you can find it by selecting Other.

With time zone support switched on you’ll be able to set the time zone for specific events. Do this by double-clicking on an event (or creating a new event), selecting the date, and choosing a time zone from the pop-up menu.

To make sure that the event isn’t moved when you’re viewing the Calendar in a different time zone, choose Floating when editing an event.

The Calendar app is useful for arranging meetings in one different time zone, but things can get a bit confusing and convoluted if you need to work across several time zones. Say, for example, your meeting with a client in London needed to include a member of the team based in New York and another in Paris. Using the Calendar app would mean creating several different events.

If you’re a serial meeting scheduler, World Clock Pro is a much better solution.

World Clock Pro is a time zone converter and meeting organizer that seamlessly integrates with your calendar. Here’s how to use it to schedule meetings, group activities, webinars, calls, or anything else that involves people attending something at the same time, in seconds:

423

Open World Clock Pro and click on the + button to enter the names of the cities or time zones that you want to add.
Click on the map and drag the shadow across to select a suitable time. Notice how the time changes for each location as the shadow moves.
Click on Add Event to create a calendar event.
Name the event and add the necessary tag (Work, Home, Family, or Events). Set an alert to remind you of the meeting, then click Add. The meeting will then be added to your calendar.

Create to-do lists that make you keep promises

There’s an art to using to-do lists effectively, no matter the technology. You don’t need to be a project manager or have high attention to details to make a Mac task manager work for you. Simply follow a few of the most important tips:Understand what should be on the to-do list versus what should be a daily habit or calendar item. Brushing your teeth probably shouldn’t be on the to do list, as it would ideally be baked into your daily routine. Whereas your friend’s birthday should probably be put in your calendar. However, you might write “purchase gift for friend’s birthday” as a to-do item.

424

Try to keep a manageable level of to-do items at any time. Having a list of 300 probably won’t do much for your productivity, as it becomes difficult to quickly ascertain the correct priority and order. Make sure your to-do list stays below 15 items to not get overwhelmed.

Focus on completing one item at a time. Multi-tasking is never as productive of a method of executing a task as you might think. So when it’s time to get things done, focus on the task at hand.

Honestly, there are too many to-do list apps out in the world to count. To make your decision easier, we’ve narrowed down all the tools to just a few — each with its own pros and cons that could sway your decision depending on your preferences.

Reminders

As a Mac user, you’ve probably heard of Apple Reminders, which comes pre-installed on iPhones, iPads, and, of course, Macs. One of the main pros of using Apple Reminders is the fact that it’s ready to go — no additional tinkering required. It also has the benefit of looking and feeling like the rest of your Apple software, including Siri support, so it’s a familiar experience.

Reminders works well with other Apple users by allowing you to share tasks in iCloud, but, unfortunately, you can’t assign tasks to people outside of that ecosystem, or to multiple people. Here’s what you get:

Smart location-based reminders.

Task list sharing through iCloud.

Simple, Apple-based interface that includes a quick calendar view.

425

Omnifocus

If you’re looking for the best task manager for Mac with more features, then you can’t pass Omnifocus. Made exclusively for Apple devices, Omnifocus takes everything one step further by allowing lists to be grouped into different projects, depending on the type of activity you’re doing, making it useful for work. Everything syncs, but only between Apple devices, of course. With the following perks, Omnifocus is definitely a strong candidate for any power user:

Full-featured software designed exclusively for Apple devices.

Multiple project types for any given workflow.

Six handy views right out-of-the-box, including calendar, due date, projects, tags, and more.

426

Wunderlist

Another to-do list on Mac that comes with a strong set of features is Wunderlist. Unlike Apple Reminders and Omnifocus, it can be used across all devices and operating systems, including Windows. While the app features a clean interface, it does have some complexity to it, so overall Wunderlist targets users who would like to collaborate on tasks together. Here’s what you get:

Task reminders with notifications.

Multiple assignees and collaborators on projects and tasks.

Add hashtags to any descriptions to help search and organize task lists.

2Do

If you care about speed and efficiency, you need 2Do — a perfect to-do list app for people on the go. The quick-add feature makes creating new tasks a breeze, and you can even break your agenda up into a checklist format for subtasks.

While 2Do isn’t as full-featured as some of the alternatives, its upside is simplicity — essential for those who just need to get things done.

Quick-add feature for maximum efficiency.

Extra context for tasks via the tagging system.

Smart lists let you view critical information at a glance, including due date, tags, and reminders — nothing more than what you need.

427

GoodTask

The beauty of GoodTask is its native ability to integrate with Apple Reminders and Apple Calendar, while adding some extra functionality on top to help you become more productive. The downsides are few and far between: for example, it doesn't have the extended functionality of something like Omnifocus. Here’s what you get:

Automatic sync with your iCloud or Outlook calendar.

Reminders (and repeat reminders) to help you stay on top of tasks.

Smart sorting to organize your list by alphabet, due date, time created, or manually.

428

Be Focused

With one of the best to do list on Mac options in hand, you’re ready to become more productive than ever. Just remember to consider the difference between a task and a habit, keep your task list below 15, and pick an app that helps you stay in control.

While you’re at it, give Be Focused a try. Be Focused is another task manager for Mac with a welcome twist — alongside the standard features, such as multi-device support and task list organization, Be Focused lets you set timers for each task.

Now you can get to work knowing that you’re on track by the minute. Want to look further ahead? You can even breakdown your annual, quarterly, and monthly tasks into groups for a wider view of your life’s goals.

429

Сhapter 7

Writing and blogging on Mac

In this chapter:

Is Mac the best computer for writers? Useful apps for writing and editing faster The best grammar and style editors Creating social media content on Mac

Contents

431

Write without distractions on Mac

Vocab:

Markdown — a markup language with plain text formatting syntax, which can be converted to many output formats.

The only reason why you might still prefer paper to a Mac is that paper doesn’t have Facebook, desktop notifications, and other annoying distractions. But actually, you can create a writing vacuum on your computer too.

There are many different ways to embrace distraction-free writing and work towards your writing goals. The right combination of healthy workflows and high-quality writing tools will carve your route to success, and of course, a dose of motivation and positivity goes a long way. We hope that the following tips and tools will help put you in the mode to achieve your daily writing goals.

Start by learning to focus

The majority of people across the workday are juggling too many tasks and activities and get distracted by their colleagues, short visits to Facebook, and even themselves.

There’s only one way to focus on a writing task — reduce multi-tasking. No more rallying up tasks to do all at once, just focusing solely on one task at hand will suffice. This is known as mono-tasking, something many professionals are adopting as part of their workday routine to help reduce the pressure of being on three or four tasks at once.

The stress of working on many projects won’t help your efforts to get a distraction-free period of time to write. Focusing on one piece of writing or even one section at a time will help to complete an article or piece of work much more

432

smoothly and provide faster results in the long-term.

Using a Pomodoro timer like Be Focused can help you get started with the Pomodoro Technique. It has a super easy interface, enabling you to quickly navigate across work and rest. By default, the app will set 25-minute working cycles followed by 5-minute breaks. But you’re free to customize the cycles if you like.

Get a writing app that supports your focus

There’s one tool that stands out when it comes to distraction-free writing. It’s called Ulysses. Used by hundreds of thousands of writers on a daily basis, this writing app is the perfect way to take control of all of those distractions. With Ulysses, using the single panel view you can open a full-screen note or document and type away. But that’s only a part of its superpowers.

433

MarkdownXL

The app makes it easy for you to integrate MarkdownXL into your work. MarkdownXL will handle all your formatting needs, from making text bold or italicized to creating numbered lists and footnotes.

A handy guide to formatting keystrokes is built into Ulysses' interface, you can detach it and keep it open for as long as you need to refer to it. You'll be creating beautifully formatted work without a single click.

Publishing from the appIf you frequently blog on sites like WordPress or Medium, you can configure Ulysses to publish directly to those platforms. Plus, you can sync the desktop app with its mobile counterparts, so you can speak your mind from any of your devices.If you're not publishing to WordPress or Medium, the app allows you to export your work as HTML, .doc, PDFs, and even ebooks. MarkdownXL is compatible

434

with all these formats, so no matter which one you choose, your work will consistently look professional. You can also choose from a number of built-in styles to give your writing extra polish.

You can even get useful insights into your writing and your progress from the top bar, as well as subtle text-editing options that make things easier than ever.

Remove background noise

Many writers love to work with music humming away in the background but a lot of the time lyrics can play a huge part in distracting. If this is a part of the problem for you, we recommend to try Noizio.

Noizio provides a tuner for background sounds. Giving you a way to tune into a coffee shop, a rainy day and many more environments providing a sense of being there. It’s perfect for those who work with background noises and can use that to produce optimum results.Summing it up, for many people, writing is a fun and interactive activity, but with all things, you can get tired and dreary and stressed, naturally.One of the things to note is making sure you don’t punish yourself too much if you

435

have a poor writing session or can’t quite get into the writing mode for the day. There have been countless times this has happened for writers, from novices to professionals.

The best way to handle this is to take some time out. Whether that’s grabbing a cup of tea or coffee, going on a stroll around the block or even calling a friend. A simple 5-10 minute activity might help to re-ignite your writing spark and kick the momentum back off.

436

Choose the best grammar and style editor

Vocab:

Tone — the way of conveying a message that is determined by the choice of words, structure, and viewpoint.

Wordiness — using too many unnecessary words or complex structures in a sentence.

If you’re not 100% confident in your grammar, spelling, or style, don’t ever let it stop you. When the magic of writing happens on a digital device, you can use an online writing editor to fix any problem – from structure to grammar to style. The only challenge is to find the tool that does it all.

We’ve analyzed quite a few options and came to the conclusion ProWritingAid, Grammarly, and Hemingway Editor are best for using on Mac. Let’s dive into what they can do so that you could pick the right one.

ProWritingAid

ProWritingAid is a professional grammar checker software and vocabulary enhancement tool rolled into one. Apart from traditional features like spelling and grammar checkers, there are tons of other perks: ProWritingAid can analyze readability and repetitiveness, refine wording, improve the structure, and even scan texts for acronyms. Best of all, it offers detailed summary reports for you to have a full picture.

437

ProWritingAid can also boast pretty amazing thesaurus assistance. Even if you read Shakespeare and drill your vocabulary round the clock, you’re still not immune to awkward wording. ProWritingAid has an integrated contextual thesaurus that expands your vocabulary lightning fast. In one click, you can view suggested synonyms and vocabulary enhancements to help you find the perfect words.

Here’s why you should choose ProWritingAid:

If you want detailed summaries on different writing aspects.

Get access to the richest thesaurus we’ve seen in writing editors so far.

Clever style enhancement suggestions.

438

Price: $70 per year or $9.99 per month with Setapp subscription.

Hemingway Editor

This is a good choice if you’re not looking for a solid grammar assistant, but rather a style enhancement tool. Hemingway Editor is all about making your writing more readable. It eliminates wordiness, detects passive voice, and lets you know in case your sentences sound too complicated.

Hemingway Editor is also one of the most affordable editors out there. So if your goal is to learn to write concise, logical statements, and you like color coding (Hemingway’s interface looks like a rainbow), this might be a nice fit.

Here’s why you should choose Hemingway Editor:

You want to improve your writing style.

You’re looking for an affordable solution that can help you beat wordiness.

Pricing: $19.99.

439

GrammarlyGrammarly has everything you would expect from a writing editor. It will help you with punctuation, spelling, and grammar checks, analyzes readability, and assigns an overall score to your texts. You’ll also get smart vocabulary suggestions — although Grammarly’s thesaurus is not so extensive as the one you’ll find in ProWritingAid.

There’s one thing that Grammarly fans are particularly fond of — the unique tone detection functionality. It enables writers to hone their texts, based on who they are writing for and how they want to sound. The feature is AI-powered and seems pretty useful — especially if you have to switch between different tones often.

Grammarly has a basic free version, but if you want to explore advanced functionality like tone detection and smart suggestions, you’ll have to buy Premium — and it’s not very affordable.

Here’s why you should choose Grammarly:

For stunning user experience.

If your company is ready to pay a little extra for a pro-level editor.

Try its brand-new tone detector.

Pricing: $29.95 per month for the Premium version.

440

Effective plagiarism checking on Mac

In the part about best grammar and style editors, we’ve mentioned Grammarly. This tool is good enough for verifying the uniqueness of your content. So if you already use it in your writing career, you’re good to go. Unfortunately for many, Grammarly is quite pricey. And if your only need to run plagiarism checks, you probably don’t have to waste your budget on this app.

We’ve reviewed free web services and paid apps to help you find the most optimal way to check for plagiarism on Mac. And here’s what we came up with.

Novus Scan for internal docs

Price: $15.99

Novus Scan is a Mac app that works with a particular selection of texts, enabling you to detect and remove similar parts. Basically, you upload a collection of texts that will serve as the basis for your tests and verify content against those. It’s not Internet-wide. It won’t find plagiarism if the text is not in the internal database. It can still be very useful.

Here’s why you might consider using Novus Scan:

You work in education and want to check whether students use the same patterns/ideas in their writing.

Check your blog for duplicates. This is a good way to verify the uniqueness of the content you create.

Compare two very similar works.

441

Quetext for deep scanning

Price: Free (5 checks), $9.99 per month for PRO

Quetext is a web service that ensures high-level plagiarism detection. With DeepSearch technology at its core, the service works across webpages, textbooks, academic sources, and whatnot. Here are the best use cases for Quetext:

You want an easy way to replace plagiarized text. While Quetext comes with a snippet text viewer, it’s easy to apply changes on the fly.

You’re testing lots of texts and need a comprehensive uniqueness score to assign to them.

Plagiarism Checker for easy uploading

Price: $9.99

Plagiarism Checker is another Mac app — the most affordable option we’ve found out there — that fetches content from millions of online resources and verifies your texts against it. With this app, you can count on quick results and complete security of your content. Here’s why you should choose it:

You want to quickly check your files stored on Dropbox or Google Drive. Plagiarism Checker supports instant uploads and basically handles it all alone.

Work with different file types, from PDF to images.

Care about privacy and don’t want your content to be a part of any third-party database.

442

Blogging on Mac: Tricks and best tools

Becoming a successful blogger will take skill and effort, but even the best had to start somewhere. Thanks to the popularity of blogging, starting a blog today has never been easier.

The only problem is using a whole bunch of tools for writing, editing, and publishing content — some of which might be pretty expensive. To simplify the task, we’ve reviewed only those that are a part of the Setapp subscription, so that you can use everything for a flat fee.

Brainstorm the topics for your blog

Before you set up your blog, it would be a good idea to think about what you want to accomplish. If it’s just a hobby or a way to express yourself, then you probably don’t need much of a game plan.

But if you want to use your blog to springboard you into a career, then it helps to write about one thing instead of everything. To determine what your focus should be you can research successful blogs in the niches that interest you. Maybe you’ll find inspiration. Or even identify a gap in the market.

Once you have your research, put it into a mind map using macOS apps like XMind and iThoughtsX. They will help you to explore your options, brainstorm your ideas, and identify the perfect niche for your blog. Choose what you’re most passionate about, or what you think will be most successful, and then find those specific references for inspiration.

443

Tip:Don’t just rely on your interests when starting a blog. It’s also important to research what your audience is interested in. We recommend using Google Trends to find out about the popularity of a particular niche.If you hope to monetize your blog, it’s also a good idea to sign up to Adwords and use their Keyword Planner to see whether keywords from a niche have high CPC (cost per click).

Plan your blogging project

To create a successful blog, you should try and look at your blog as a work project. Using project planning tools can help you achieve more in less time. There are two tools that you can use for blog planning:

Cloud Outliner: An app that will get you managing projects and creating structured outlines.

Aeon Timeline: A timeline app that helps visualize your blog plans to make everything a lot more clear.

As your plans take shape, your creative juices will be flowing so make sure you’re capturing your ideas with a writing app for Mac. The best tool for distraction-free writing, as we’ve mentioned before, is Ulysses. But if you have Setapp, you can also additionally test lots of other writing tools like the following:

MarsEdit: An all-in-one solution for writing and publishing your blog articles right from your desktop. You don’t have to rely on a Wi-Fi connection, ever. Plus, MarsEdit has functionality for editing and previewing your content.

Diarly: If your blog is all about recording interesting moments of your life, this tool is perfect. It’s a journaling app that syncs content across all your

444

devices and provides writing statistics.

What blogging platform to choose?

With millions of blogs out there, it’s no surprise that there are plenty of blogging platforms to choose from. They all have different strengths and weaknesses; so your choice will come down to personal preference. For instance, you might want a blogging platform that is as newbie-friendly as possible, even if it’s also limiting.

There are many great blogging solutions for beginners, like WordPress, Blogger, and Medium. Just be aware that the free blog options will own your content and use their own ads. If you want to use your own domain name or ads, you’ll have to explore self-hosting options.

Since this is such a personal choice, we’d recommend trying out a few of the most popular blog platforms. Don’t spend too much time setting them up, just play around and get a feel for the user experience and features available. Also, make sure the platform integrates with your writing app — this will help you publish right from the desktop. For instance, Ulysses works with Medium and WordPress, so the whole process will be much easier for you if you use one of these.

Choose a design template

Most blogging platforms (except Medium) will have free themes and customization options to create your own blog design. Once again, fire up Google search to find design inspiration in your blogging niche because starting with a blank page can be intimidating.

Free themes are often straightforward and limited, but by using media in blog posts you can still put a strong personal stamp on the look of your blog. There are some talented theme makers out there but to get the most impressive themes you’ll need to pay. When considering a paid theme make sure that it includes good support and user-friendly features alongside a design you love.

445

The final option creating your own blog design with an app like RapidWeaver. RapidWeaver makes it easy for anyone to create a blog site in no time at all. No coding is required.

Publish content that works

There may be no rules, but there certainly are best practices. For instance, readability is very important. Insert images and use headings and subheadings, so you don’t have big, intimidating blocks of text.

Another important point to focus on is visuals. Nothing works better than showing, so use every opportunity to replace text with artful images, video, or even GIFs. To help give your blog posts a visual boost you can use CameraBag Pro photo editor to make good photos look great, and Gifox to make your own animated gifs.

See also:

Here’s a complete guide to photo editing on Mac. Check it out and make your blog visuals stand out.

446

Create visual content for blog and social media

Vocab:

VSCO — (formerly known as VSCO Cam) a mobile app that allows to instantly capture and edit photos on iOS and Android.

Writing is not always a relaxed process of creativity flowing through your Mac. Sometimes it’s just about work. But one way or another, you can always enhance the results of your work with high-quality visuals. In this part, we’ll explain how to optimize your workflow, batch-edit images, create gifs in one click, and upload everything in seconds. In other words, make more quality content, fast.

Best apps for creating visuals

Photoshop is too complicated when you're short of time and have 10 posts to publish asap. So leave Photoshop to people with loads of free nights because there are much more efficient photo editors that have built-in filters, batch editing, and more intuitive tools.

CameraBag Pro Photo editor

The right photo editor app is a massive time saver. CameraBag Pro deals masterfully with social media images. Which means making professional pictures at the pace of a factory worker stamping boxes. When you struggle to align all your photography with the "personal brand" look or to keep up with your "a session a day" promise, the app really helps. Let's take a look at how it works.

Just like Instagram and VSCO, CameraBag Pro has ready-to-use filters for your social media images. Unlike native Mac Photos app, these filters are actually

447

good. And just like in Instagram, they can be customized to your taste. What's cool is that since it's a robust desktop app, after you save 30 minutes on coloring and exposure, you can switch to advanced features and edit photos the way you want to. With gradient masks, toning, layering and so on.

It's impressive how many hours filters can save on the initial stage of deciding which way to go with a particular image. It's a dressing room that was never available on desktop in such a handy way.

Photolemur AI Editor

For most bloggers who deal with visuals, getting humans to look nice is not the easiest task. There's lighting to fix, skin to smooth, teeth to whiten, and many more tiny detail. Photolemur has smart face recognition that works way better than similar expensive Photoshop filters, at least to my taste. Automatic tools allow for quick skin tone editing, eye brightness fixes, even lip reddening (which sounds terrible but looks nice). With this app, portrait editing becomes a breeze.

Sip Color Picker

Sip is a color picker which gives your amazing powers to choose colors from anywhere. Your browser, a YouTube video, any picture in any app, or your desktop. For anyone working with tone, this is clearly a big help.

448

All you have to do is activate Sip and click on any point on the screen to choose the right color. Sip also remembers your previous picks and creates pallets. It's an all-around-indispensable tool when you're working on creatives.

Create GIFs for blog

Animated GIFs are clearly following closely behind videos in terms of internet love. Looped and lovely, they provide us with the right info without the need to "play" them.

To make a high-resolution shareable GIF, you need a good GIF maker. You can use online tools, but they are laggy, or you can use Adobe's tools — but do accept the complexity. Better, go with an easy-to-use “instant” GIF creator like Gifox.

Gifox is a small app living in the top menu that makes animated GIFs at the speed of light. You can record your whole screen or a specific window (for instance, a video player). It's perfect for small tutorials and screen recordings that are too short to be videos.

Keep your library organized

Knowing where's what and how to retrieve a particular image saves precious time that can be spent on making more cool stuff — like more posts. When it comes to photo organization, Emulsion does most of the job for you. It groups images by tags, dates, and sizes, as well as assigns color tags to your images.

449

Emulsion defines the general color scheme of the picture, so when you're working on something blue and you need an illustration, you don't try to recall if you have used the color in the last five years, you just open the app. Browse what you have, pick what works best for your social media, post it and enjoy what you see.

Get a dedicated Instagram app for Mac

In case your creativity lies in the realm of Instagram, you can use Flume to view and upload images from your Mac to your feed. It's fast, really pretty, and efficient.

Unlike the web version of Instagram, which has very limited functionality, Flume expands what you can do:

Directly upload images from your computer to Instagram.

View your creations in a full resolution — and a very attractive interface.

Quickly switch across your Instagram accounts. It’s particularly useful if you work across personal and business accounts.

450

Сhapter 8

Using a Mac for study

In this chapter:

How to use a MacBook to solve math problems Flashcards and writing assistantsA research laboratory inside your Mac The bonus list of apps for students

Contents

Smart ways to calculate on Mac

Writing an academic paper

How to create flashcards on Mac

Learn to type faster on Mac

Bonus: Best apps for students

452

Smart ways to calculate on Mac

Vocab:

Reverse Polish Notation — a mathematical notation in which operators follow their operands. In calculators, it’s a method to write math expressions without round or square brackets.

A Mac has a built-in calculator and any browser has hundreds of free web services that will help you do quick calculations. But not everyone knows that Apple’s Calculator has four modes for different complexity levels and can generally do much more than calculating. Let’s see how to use it efficiently and what alternatives you have.

How to make the best use of Apple’s Calculator

Throughout the years, Apple has been enhancing Calculator — going from very simple calculations to complex equations. There are four views in Calculator you can switch between, depending on your needs:

Basic: For simple arithmetic calculations.

Scientific: For advanced calculations that involve powers, roots, logarithms, and exponents.

Programmer: For binary, octal, decimal, and hexadecimal caclulations.

RPN (Reverse Polish Notation): For writing math equations without round or square brackets.

453

Basic Scientific

Programmer RPN

Convert values and round results

To convert: Type any value and convert it to the desired output in the menu bar. You can choose to convert the original value to currency, length, speed, temperature, etc.

To round: Navigate to View > Decimal Places and select the number of places to display. The calculator will always store the full values, but you’ll see the rounded ones.

454

Track every operation in Paper Tape

The hidden gem of Apple’s Calculator that not everyone knows about is Paper Tape. It displays the entire list of your operations, so you can always review what you’ve entered or use it to repeat calculations.

To view Paper Tape, go to Window > Show Paper Tape or hit Command + T.

Calculator’s smart alternative for MacYou can be productive using Apple’s Calculator only. But you have to know all the nuances of working across different views and functions. If that’s too time-consuming, we suggest you use Numi instead.Numi is the calculator app that lets you perform calculations in plain English, exactly as you would say them. Instead of punching in numbers, you write down what you need and the app gives you an output that’s easy to copy and paste elsewhere.The app handles all sorts of unit conversions and advanced mathematics with ease, all from a stripped-down interface. It even lets you save frequent calculations so you can refer to them easily time after time.Enter your calculationTo start using Numi, simply type in a calculation you’d like answered. Time conversions, unit conversions, simple and advanced math are all supported.The terms of your question will appear on the left side of the app window in blue and white. The answer will appear on the right side in green text. You can play around with the phrasing of your question; “20% of $50” will yield a different result than “20% off of $50.”

455

Save frequently used calculations

To create a new saved calculation, click the “+” button at the top right of the app window. To name your new calculation page, enter a “#” followed by the name of your choice in the first line.

To find and open a saved calculation, click the “all calculations” button at the top right and scroll through the list or use the search bar. Then click the name of the calculation and it will open in the main window.

Create variables, copy and export

Numi supports the creation of custom variables in your calculations. Use the initial lines of a calculation to establish the names, values, and relationships between variables. In the later lines, you can have the app use those variables for more complex calculations.

It’s easy to use the answers you find in the app for other purposes. Any green-text result will automatically copy to your clipboard when you click it. You can paste into any other app or document. To export or share an entire calculation, click the arrow at the bottom right of the window and choose from the pop-up menu.

456

Writing an academic paper

Writing academic research papers does not start with writing. Instead, students need to get organized and start researching. Students are busier than ever, with more of them juggling jobs and extracurricular activities, which means carrying books around is increasingly impractical. More often than not, research happens online — through academic journals, eBooks, and digital libraries. However, it still takes time. A Mac and the right Mac tools can simplify things for you.

Organizing your work

Research is taking place on students’ smartphones, which also means students need to record and juggle copious notes, citations, and paper outlines on iPhones too. To keep everything organized on the go, students need apps. One of the biggest challenges for new students, even more so than figuring out the right outline for a research paper, is time management.

Academic paper writing, especially adhering to writing style guides can seem difficult at first; but that is nothing compared to juggling different classes, reading lists, self-directed research, writing, copyediting and everything else you are doing during each semester, including having any kind of social life. To stay on the tasks, use Be Focused, a time management app that uses psychology to keep you focused — we've referred to it a few times throughout the book, but that's because it's really awesome.

You can also use it to plan how much time you want to spend on research and assign time slots to tasks.

457

If you have multiple academic research papers due at the same time, get a project management app like Aeon Timeline. This will allow you to see and visualize everything you are doing, from the outline (and the thesis) to the conclusion and appendices.

When you need to take loads of notes, from online, journal and offline (books) sources, use Studies. It’s a great way to store multiple notes and sources on dozens of different topics, with space for images, screenshots, and notes.

Now when you know how to plan your project effectively, let us give you the confidence you can be just as successful with the execution.

458

Always start with a clear thesis

Once you have all of the research you need, it’s time to start writing. And of course, there are numerous awesome apps that can help. But first, you need to order your paper correctly.

Start with a thesis. You may have a vague thesis before you start researching, or your tutor may set one; but, if not, your reading should guide your thinking and that should align around an idea you want to prove or disprove. A thesis should be clear and unambiguous.

Focus on a particular issue — either the one that you have a unique take on, or the one whereby you’ve read other academics work on the same topic and you disagree/want to prove them wrong. Every tutor will say what they expect, how that relates to how you are graded, so always follow those guidelines - but remember that a lot of academic paper writing is about proving or disproving theories, which is why most papers start with a clear, specific thesis.

When tutors read papers, they aren’t the audience. What they are assessing — alongside academic guidelines — is how well you argue a point and how successfully, or not, you could convince an audience with your arguments, facts, and sources.

The writing itself: Tips and tricks

Even if you start with a quote, you need to write an introductory paragraph after the thesis. In this, you need to outline and reference the sources you’ve read and academics you agree/disagree this, within the framework of the paper and thesis.

Once you have done that, dive into the main body of the argument. Manuscripts is an awesome app for managing footnotes, references/citations (colleges and schools in colleges will have different guidelines on how you reference sources), restructuring and editing, and of course, sticking to the style guideline your tutor has assigned.

459

Ulysses is another great way to write an academic paper, in a writer-friendly distraction-free environment.

See also:

If you want to discover more tools for writing without distractions, roll back to the previous chapter.

Unless you are rushing to meet a deadline or pulling an all-nighter, don't try and do everything in one go. Take short breaks. Try and get all of your research done before you start writing, but have your research close at hand when you need extra information or to clarify something you’ve noted down. It is also massively important, as any tutor will tell you, to reference and cite sources correctly.

Once you've finished the main body of the argument, pull everything together in the conclusion to prove the thesis. And don't forget your appendices and bibliography, as needed, with sources pulled from the apps you were keeping them in.

460

How to create flashcards on Mac

A few years ago, flashcards were card-based memorization tools that helped note down dozens of complex issues in easy-to-digest cards. Now, flashcards have digital equivalents, available within a couple of apps you can download on Mac. With considerably more powerful and convenient features than cardboard versions, flashcards can accelerate any learning process.

Instead of hastily scribbled paper notes, you can access more detail, link to journals, documents, articles, and resources, while also making it easy to share and collaborate with others studying the same subject. Here are a couple of Mac apps that will help you.

Support your studies with flashcards

Best thing about flashcards — you don’t even have to create them. No matter what you are studying, fine art, history, languages, law, mathematics, medicine or music, you can use pre-made digital flashcards.

One of the best tools you can get if you study on Mac is Flashcard Hero. It’s an intuitive app that not merely creates cards for you — but is a full-featured tutor with three study modes: Multiple choice, Typing the answer, and Answer covered. Plus, it automatically tracks your study progress, providing hints on what you should still learn.

461

With all the benefits, Flashcard Hero is not the most affordable solution — it costs $12.99. If you own a Setapp membership, it definitely makes sense getting Studies instead.

Studies is a hugely useful companion, with built-in study notes. We’ve talked about this app before — in the part about academic writing — because it’s really a perfect tool for anything study-related. Similar to traditional flashcards, except you can have unlimited slides, and can include text, links, images, audio, and video notes.

For anyone studying foreign languages, one of the most valuable apps, either alongside or separate from Studies, is Wokabulary. This is the most effective way to learn and manage your vocabulary.

Both are very useful, and you can easily create flashcards in either app. It only depends on what you are studying as to which you might want to use. You could also use Wokabulary for vocabulary exercises, while using Studies in the broader context of your academic work, therefore benefiting from the convenience and functionality of both apps.

462

Share flashcards with anyone

Within both apps, Wokabulary and Studies, students can easily import information in multiple formats and share with friends and others studying the course. You can share notes and flashcards through a range of formats just with a few clicks. With Studies, you also have the option of sharing an archive of a set of flashcards, so that anyone else with Studies can upload and share with others.

A collaborative study is a great way to share knowledge, test your abilities, help others and gain insights to other research you may not have uncovered.

463

Learn to type faster on Mac

Vocab:

Touch typing — the ability to use muscle memory to find keys fast, without using sight.

The more you study, the more you type. Well, you might argue with that — for sure. Maybe you’re consuming most of your study materials via audio, or prefer textbooks. Still, there’s hardly a student who manages to avoid writing a thesis. For such occasions, it’s useful to accelerate your typing. Let us give you a bit of guidance on this useful skill.

Record macro actions for more speed

This is a good solution if your workflow involves many repeated processes. The app that perfectly caters to action recording is called Keyboard Maestro. It allows you to record shortcuts and assign them to macro actions. Next time, whenever you try to run the action, it will take a few keystrokes to invoke it.

464

Test and train your typing skills

If you’ve struggled to raise your words per minute, KeyKey Typing Tutor is the typing tutor for you. With just one 15-minute keyboard typing practice per day, this app helps you type faster and with fewer errors, all without annoying tests or games. By modeling proper finger placement on screen, adjusting the wordlist in response to your errors and successes, and providing a smooth, continuous practice, it lets you master touch keyboarding at your own pace.

Built with function and utility in mind, lessons are compiled from over 3,000 books and articles. It dynamically assigns both common and uncommon words so your practice mirrors its real-world applications.

With full support for both Roman and Cyrillic characters and dozens of keyboard formats and languages to choose from, the app can help you get familiar with a new setup at top speed. With a daily commitment to practicing, you can reach 60 words per minute in just a few weeks. Plus, the app’s “expert mode” can continue to push your limits and drive your skills to the next level.

Start with a touch typing lesson

To complete a daily lesson, open the app and arrange your hands so they match the ones onscreen. Type the string of letters as they cross the middle of the screen, taking care to match finger movements. If you make an error, it will appear in red. The numbers at the top of the screen will update in real time in response to your performance.

465

Customize your typing tutor

Click the gear icon to change the setting to fit your needs. At the top, you can choose between the automatic lesson, wherein the app advances you automatically as your skills grow, and the manual lesson, where you choose the difficulty yourself. You can also select the language and keyboard style that you’re trying to improve. Error sound throwing you off? Need some extra help? Toggle the guide features using the switches at the bottom of the menu.

Keep track of your typing stats

Click the pie chart icon in the bottom right corner to bring up the analytics screen. Here you can see how far you’ve progressed in the typing course, and how your score ranks on each lesson. The bar graph running along the bottom of the screen shows you your WPM as well as the frequency of your errors. This is a great way to see what’s going wrong and where you’re improving and can help you stay motivated to go further.

466

Choose an electronic lab notebook

Vocab:

ELN — an electronic lab notebook that replaces paper lab notebooks.

Research institutions generate heaps of data. And it shouldn’t go in vain. Just as it shouldn’t go to paper. To reduce paper waste and have a more convenient method to manage research projects, digital solutions emerged — including many that can be used on a Mac. They are called ELNs, and they can completely automate the work of a professional laboratory.

The top-rated ELN solutions that you can use on Mac include the following:

SciNote: An ELN that keeps your research data safe, while enabling access and collaboration across large teams. For solo researchers, it offers a free account covering 1 inventory and 1 GB of storage.

Benchling: A large, cloud-based R&D platform that helps manage complex

R&D workflows, analyze the outputs of experiments, and make forecasts.The platform covers a tool for DNA and protein sequence design.RSpace: In contrast to the previous two, this one has an in-app file store and unlimited free storage capacity. Plus, it’s the best tool to use if you want to connect the eCAT sample tracking system.

Manage individual research projects with Findings

It’s not a big problem to find a sophisticated ELN software for complex projects. Most of them are really expensive and tailored as B2B solutions for big laboratories and research institutions. If you want a tool

467

for individual use or for your university course, it’s a good idea to go with Findings.

Findings is a flexible, customizable digital notebook. Designed with scientists, inventors, cooks, and other tinkerers in mind, the app lets you plan, track, and execute your work in one convenient place.

Keep track of your research projects

The app lets you group your work into overarching sections called "projects." You can organize them by assigning statuses, such as ongoing, in review, or completed. To manage projects better, break them down further into a meeting or research notes, experiments, and stickies.

In the main organizational space, you can then toggle between your active projects, review individual experiments, and create new ones. This space makes it easy to see when you have tasks scheduled, and whether you’ve completed them. It also lets you revisit and search completed projects so that your notes and data are always in easy reach.

468

Manage scientific experiments

Once you’ve set up a project, the app lets you organize the necessary steps into collections and sub-collections. Each experiment page in the collection will then work like a note-taking app, with notes organized chronologically. Simply click to add a new day. For longer projects that require more planning, you can always return to the task at hand by clicking the Today button.

The experiment page offers a number of useful tools. You can insert tables, add timestamps, create built-in timers, and check off tasks as you complete them. This means you never have to fumble with setting timers, and it’s always easy to keep track of what you’ve already finished.

Build experimental protocols

The feature that sets Findings apart is its "protocols" manager. You can compose protocols just as you would any other note: they can include multiple days, timers, checkmarks, and tables. The difference is that protocols are then saved as a unit and added to your protocol library. This is extremely useful for keeping track of complex tasks that need to be repeated often. You can simply drag and drop protocols into experiments as needed. You can also edit their local implementations on the fly by adjusting timeframes or deleting steps.

Share the results of your research

When you’ve finished your experiment or want to give an update on your progress, you can click on the share button. Findings automatically creates PDFs for all your entries, making your work instantly shareable. This will let you share your work by email, text, or AirDrop. Plus, if you sync your account with Dropbox, you can access Findings on any device.

469

Your ultimate math toolkit

Vocab:

LaTeX — a document preparation system used for typesetting.

MathML — a mathematical markup language.

Smart calculators mentioned at the beginning of the chapter will help you solve most of the math problems. They are not the limit, though. You can also get a tutoring tool for kids, a handy app for LaTeX conversion, or more sophisticated solutions for professional mathematicians — like those enabling you to do 2D and 3D plotting. Let’s make your math toolkit complete.

Fun Math Games for kids

This is a free app that enables kids to play with colorful flashcards — learning numbers, adding and subtracting, and earning scores for every small game. Thanks to an easy interface, Fun Math Games will work even for the youngest mathematicians. It’s a great way to prove digital devices can be really useful for kids.

470

PocketCAS for advanced calculus, algebra, and statistics

PocketCAS is something you can benefit from both as a math geek and a complete beginner. But mostly as a math geek. Even your high math teacher would appreciate the quick help PocketCAS can provide. It’s easy, intuitive, yet extremely powerful in terms of math capabilities.

Here’s only a small list of features the app has:

Calculate determinants and eigenvalues.

Compute symbolic integrals.

Calculate limits, derivatives, and taylor expansions.

Invert and multiply matrices.

If you don’t find what you need, there’s a way to customize your experience. Using PocketCAS’ C-like scripting language, define your own functions or use conditional expressions and loops.

471

PocketCAS also covers extensive support for plotting graphs that will help you represent relationships between different types of variables. There are three types of plots the app can draw for you: 2D cartesian, implicit, polar, or parametric plots; 3D parametric and x-y cartesian plots; animated plots.

To easily type your equations and define functions, use PocketCAS’ robust math keyboard. Toggle between tabs to find the symbol you need — whether for calculus, linear algebra, or scripting. No need to install anything, the keyboard is equally easy to use on any of your Apple devices.

Anything you create with PocketCAS can be taken into the real world — whether through export, printing, or iCloud sync. You can also easily upload documents with functions or plots, and even run a CSV import. All kinds of ways to flexibly manage your math jobs.

MathKey for LaTeX and MathML conversions

If you’re dealing with math documents and reports, you’ll want to get your hands on MathKey. The app converts your handwriting to LaTeX, MathML, or a perfectly formatted image. Write an equation with your mouse or TrackPad and hit the Convert button — it’s that easy. You can also apply various colors to formulas and images.

472

Once converted, you can copy your LaTeX or MathML expressions into any document — a true life-saver if you need to work with expressions that are impossible to type.

473

Best apps for students

It’s hard to predict what tools will help you nail the next college course. Here's a quick overview of all that can be accessed with a single Setapp subscription — some of them mentioned before. So that you have as many assistants as possible. When you have the right tools, it's so much easier to score those A's.

Manuscripts: Academic document manager

Handling footnotes, annotations, references, restructuring, and editing is unbelievably easy with Manuscripts. Everything is a click away and, unlike in Word processors, all formatting is intuitive and painless.

Prizmo: Image to text converter

Prizmo is the best for scanning and performing OCR (Optical Character Recognition ) in 23 languages, has powerful editing capability, text-to-speech, iCloud support, and translation into 59 languages.

You can convert printed documents, photocopies of text documents, text on the images, scanned documents, and screenshots into digital text. What’s more, Prizmo has editing tools to correct warping, skewness and other distortions. For multipage documents or multiple text documents, the software offers batch OCR functionality to speed the process.

PDFpen: Robust PDF editing

When it comes to cramming, PDF is way more convenient than hard copies. And with PDFpen, you also get the freedom to tweak your docs in any way imaginable

– from editing text to merging multiple PDFs into one test prep package. Redaction functionality is a nice perk as well: if you’re often tempted to check

474

solutions to exercises in your textbook, PDFpen covers them up, so that you concentrate on tasks.

MarginNote: A non-boring way to read and learn

Out of all the apps for studying and completing assignments, MarginNote is the most fun. Whenever your relationship with a textbook gets complicated, the app is there to save the day. The ultimate e-reading expert, MarginNote adapts to your study habits: You can choose your perfect annotation mode, outline and mindmap, or turn notes into flashcards.

Be Focused: A smart timer for productive work

Be Focused is a work timer that keeps you on task. If you're easily distracted, this app is your jam. It's created for the ultimate work-break balance, which is essential if you want to stay sane through the semester. Set daily goals and move towards them at a steady pace, controlled by the fun interface with a classic "pomodoro" timer.

Mate Translate: Quick translator with 100 languages

If Google's Translate kind of bums you out with its inaccuracy, try Mate Translate. It's way more powerful and can correctly translate phrases and sentences with its "Phrasebook" feature. It even has speech translation if you're in a hurry and typing

475

seems tedious. 100+ languages, a history of translations, and an easy access from the menu bar.

Studies: Storage for info, schedules, and memos

When you take on the next project, it all starts with notes. You probably have a pack of subject-related notes stashed somewhere on your Mac and it's a pain to find the ones you need when you need them. Studies solves this issue with elegance: it gives you separate and comfortable niches for each subject, there's a space for images and screenshots alongside text notes, and a schedule with statistics data on classes.

MoneyWiz: Personal finance manager to track your expenses

MoneyWiz takes care of money matters for you. A single setup and a single input of all your regular bills, and you'll never forget to pay anything. MoneyWiz will send you reminders, plan your monthly budget, even predict your future expenses for the nearest period.

Ulysses: Professional writing app

Even if your plans go as far as a thesis, Ulysses is where you should write it. This app is favored by writers and bloggers, it's distraction-free and highly reliable. It allows you to focus on writing, quickly export finished work as a PDF or an ebook,

476

and enjoy the process way more than with the usual doc-like services.

Aeon Timeline: Project management app

When you feel overwhelmed by the number of important items in the project, by the subtasks and milestones, open Aeon Timeline and put all of it in there. Aeon gives you a bird's-eye view of the whole project and lets you easily orient among its parts. You'll never miss anything important and your beautiful research will form easily, chapter by chapter.

Findings: Experiment and research notebook

If your academic endeavors include conducting experiments and keeping protocols, Findings is simply indispensable. It's a whole toolset of notes and indicators that allows you to keep track of anything and measure everything. From Physics to Sociology, it covers all processes and nuances.

TaskPaper: To-do list to have tasks at hand

Deep down you know that your memory did not undergo that tedious evolutionary process to cope with dry cleaning and groceries. Your mind is made for higher levels. That's why when it comes to routine, to-do lists are life saviors and should be used at all times. And TaskPaper is a perfect example: it has the simplicity of a sticker note, the search of a smart engine, and the cleanest interface.

XMind: Mind map for idea generation

Whenever you feel bubbling with ideas, use XMind. It's a brainstorming and idea-gathering tool. Visualize every possible solution or see how many studies refer to a specific topic. It's a fast and clear way to approach a complex subject and understand the big picture.

477

Сhapter 9

The ultimate list of Mac hacks and timesavers

In this chapter:

Mac hacks everyone should be usingEven more speed and control while working on Mac How to use Setapp apps for enhanced productivity Tips for macOS 10.15 Catalina users included

#1. Know your Mac’s location

Set up Find My Mac on macOS 10.14 and earlier:

Open System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Location Services Check Enable Location Services.
Go to iCloud in System Preferences and check Find My Mac at the end of the list.
Install Find iPhone app on your mobile device to track the Mac’s location via iCloud.

Set up Find My on macOS 10.15:

Access Find My app and set up two devices (your Mac and another device) — the app is native on macOS 10.15.

Once your Mac is lost, nearby Apple devices will pick up the so-called public keys generated by your Mac and send the location to your second device. You’ll be able to decrypt it with your private key.

Install Beepify to prevent Mac against physical theft:

Use Beepify, a straightforward app available on Setapp that beeps whenever someone touches your Mac in a public place. You can customize triggers and make the app send notifications directly to your messenger in case there’s a threat.

#2. Check your Mac for viruses

Remove suspicious apps:

Open Finder > Go > Applications or hit Shift + Command + A.
View the list of apps installed on your Mac.

479

Delete the apps that you don’t recognize.

If you use Safari:

Go to Safari > Preferences > General and check whether the Homepage URL is correct. If not, change it.
Open Extensions in Preferences and remove those that seem suspicious.

Run a cleanup with CleanMyMac X:

Launch CleanMyMac X app and navigate to Protection > Malware Removal. The app scans your device for viruses and malicious files and gets rid of them.

#3. Restore an overwritten file

An overwritten file is the file you accidentally replace in such a way that the old version disappears. Your Mac will warn you that the file with such a name already exists, but if you happen to replace it anyway, here’s help.

Get an overwritten file back with Time Machine:

Access the folder that has previously contained the overwritten file.
Go to the Time Machine menu and select Enter Time Machine.
Go to the moment before your file was removed by using the up arrow.
Click Restore.

While Time Machine stores a lot of stuff locally, it might be not the best solution — especially if you’re trying to save space.

Restore all overwritten files in Disk Drill:

Install the Disk Drill app on your Mac (via Setapp or from the official website).
If the overwritten file has been stored on an external drive, connect the drive to your Mac.

480

Give the app permission to scan your drive.
Select the drive > find the overwritten file > Restore.

#4. Fix random Mac shutdowns

Since it might be impossible to determine the reason behind random Mac shutdowns, you might try a few solutions.

Restart Mac:

Press Command + Alt + Esc to kill the background processes and restart your Mac.

Reset the SMC:

If you have a laptop with a removable battery: Shut down your Mac > Remove the battery > Press and hold the power button for a few seconds > Reinstall the battery and turn on your Mac.

If you have a laptop with a nonremovable battery: Shut down your Mac > Hold Shift + Control + Option + the Power Button for a few seconds > Release the keys and turn on your Mac.

Reset the PRAM:

Shut down your Mac.
Press the Power button + Command + Shift + P + R.
Release the keys once you see the Apple logo for the second time, hear the second startup time, (or after 20 seconds).

Fix 13-inch MacBook Pro shutdowns:

Discharge the battery to 90% and below.
Close all open apps.
Connect the charger and switch to the Sleep Mode.

481

Close the lid and let your MacBook Pro charge for about 8 hours.
Turn on your computer and update it to the latest macOS version.

Prevent shutdowns with iStat Menus:

Install the iStat Menus app from Setapp or the official website.
Customize the indicators you want to monitor (battery usage, storage space, etc.)
Keep track of your Mac’s health from the menu bar.

#5. Fix an app freezing

Use Force Quit to close the app that’s misbehaving. If it doesn’t help, uninstall the apps that make your Mac freeze with CleanMyMac X:

Launch CMM X and go to Uninstaller.
Locate the app you want to remove.
Check the box and hit Uninstall.

#6. Set up a VPN on Mac

The default way to set up VPNs on Mac:

Open System Preferences > Network.
Click on the plus button in the bottom left corner.
Select VPN from the drop-down menu.
Enter the VPN type and a name for your VPN in Service Name.
Click Create.
Enter the Server Address (from your VPN provider).
Enter the Account Name.

482

Click Connect.
Enter the VPN’s Password > OK > Apply.

Simplify VPN connections with Shimo:

Install Shimo on your Mac (from Setapp or individually).
Import all saved VPN configurations in Preferences.
Connect and disconnect from the menu bar.

#7. Connect iPad to Mac as a second screen

Make sure your Mac is compatible with Sidecar. You should have either an iMac (2015+), MacBook (2016+), MacBook Pro (2016+), iMac Pro (2017+), MacBook Air (2018+), Mac mini (2018+), or Mac Pro (2019+).
Check that your iPad is either iPad Air (3rd gen+), iPad mini (5th gen+), iPad (6th gen+), or iPad Pro (9.7-, 10.5-, 11-, and 12.9-inch will all work fine).
Update your iPad operating system to iOS 13.
Go to System Preferences > Displays.
Make sure that “Show mirroring options in the menu bar when available” is checked.
Click the AirPlay dropdown in the menu bar > select your iPad as a second monitor.

* Note that the Sidecar feature is available on macOS 10.15 only.

#8. Clone your drive to use it as a backup

Copy your drive:

Connect the external drive to your Mac.

483

Go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.
Click on the external drive in the sidebar > Erase.
Launch Disk Drill from Setapp or install the app separately.
In Disk Drill, click Backup > Backup into DMG Image > OK.
Choose your Mac’s boot disk in the main window > Backup.
Go to the erased drive and click Save. An exact copy of your boot drive will be saved as a disk image.

Recover files from a disk image:

Mount the drive.
Double-click on the disk image in the Finder to mount it.
Select the mounted volume in Disk Drill’s main window and click Recover.
Follow the on-screen instructions to scan the volume, identify and recover the files you need.

Remember that you should never recover files to a failing hard drive, so choose a destination that you know is stable.

#9. Enable Night Mode on Mac

Make sure your Mac is compatible: It should be MacBook Air, Pro, Mac mini, or iMac no earlier than mid-2012; Mac Pro of at least late 2013; or MacBook from 2015 onwards. Your computer should be running macOS Mojave or later.
Open System Preferences > Displays > Night Shift.
Turn the Schedule to either Custom, if you want to specify when the Night Shift for Mac will be on, or Sunset to Sunrise, in which the Mac Night Shift will turn on automatically at night.

484

Specify the Color Temperature you’d like the Night Shift to use.

#10. Enable Dark Mode on Mac

Navigate to General in System Preferences.
Click on Dark in Appearance.
Adjust Accent and Highlight colors as you see fit.

#11. Dictate to Siri

Open System Preferences > Keyboard > Dictation.
Enable Dictation.
Choose the custom shortcut for starting dictation (if you don’t want to use the default Fn).
From the drop-down menu under the microphone, select the type of microphone you want to use for dictation.
Once you want to start dictating, simply place the cursor at the text field and use the shortcut.

Use Voice Control for any job on macOS Catalina:

Open System Preferences > Accessibility > Voice Control.

View the available commands and pick those you’ll use.

#12. Rotate desktop backgrounds

Install Wallpaper Wizard on Mac.
Browse the app for the broad category you like, whether People or Vehicles.
Choose a specific set of images.

485

Click on the plus icon to add them to your Roll.

You can also create your own Rolls by clicking on the plus icon of specific images. And if you just want one of the beautiful Mac desktop backgrounds from Wallpaper Wizard to be static, simply open it up and choose Set Desktop Picture.

#13. Add attachments to Reminders

If you use macOS Catalina, you should know that it has an enhanced version of

Reminders:

Add a new task or reminder (they can be grouped by scheduled, flagged, and by date).
Choose whether to add an image, take a photo, or scan a doc as an attachment.
You can also tag your contacts in Reminders by adding a contact when you choose the option to “Remind me when messaging.”

#14. Legally download torrent files

You can use torrent clients on Mac provided the files you’re downloading aren’t subject to copyright or distribution laws. The common way to torrent is to use uTorrent or BitTorrent — the original clients. However, both are susceptible to security issues and contain ads. Therefore, we recommend to get Folx Pro via Setapp instead:

Use the top search bar to type in your keyword and hit Return.
Wait for all results to show up.
Choose the appropriate file and click Download on the right side.

Note that the uTorrent app is not available on macOS Catalina 10.15, due to 32-bit app architecture restrictions. You can either replace it with a web version or use an alternative.

486

#15. Downgrade from macOS Catalina

Back up your Catalina content with Get Backup Pro or Time Machine.
Download macOS Mojave from the Mac App Store.
Connect an external drive with minimum 8GB of free space via USB.
Open Finder > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.
Find your drive on the list and click Erase.
If you have more than one external hard drive, make sure to name it.
Choose the format from the list (APFS or MacOS Extended (Journaled) if your Mac is using HFS+) > Erase.
Open Finder > Applications > Utilities > Terminal.
Enter the following text into Terminal:

sudo/Applications/Install\macOS\Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/ createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath / Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app.

In case you’ve changed the name of your drive and it’s not called “Untitled,” make sure you change it in the command above.
Click Enter/Return.
Enter your admin password and click Y to confirm you want to erase the disk > Return.
Once you see Done in Terminal, click on the Apple icon and select Restart from the drop-down menu.
Reboot your Mac by holding down Command + R.
Select Disk Utility > Continue.
Click on your Startup Disk > Erase.

487

Enter the name of what should be removed (macOS Catalina).
Select APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and click Erase.
Reboot your computer by holding down Shift + Option + Command + R, and you’re good to go.

#16. Restore Catalina files after downgrading

If you used Time Machine to back up your files:

After checking the internet connection, choose to restart your system in the Apple menu.
Enter the Recovery Mode (Command + R).
Navigate to Utilities and click Restore from Time Machine Backup > Continue.
Select the backup source > Continue.
Click on your backup > Continue.

If you used Get Backup Pro to back up your files:

Open the Clone tab to find a Catalina back up there.
Choose the destination.
Click on the Start button.

#17. Analyze your network and run Wi-Fi site surveys

Install NetSpot on your Mac.
Set the slider to Survey and click on Start a new survey.

488

Set up your environment and let the app generate a visualization of your wireless space.
Set the slider to Discover and see a breakdown of your wireless surroundings.
Switch across tabs to review the details to stay in the know about your network.

#18. Mirror to a big screen

Use an AirPlay alternative to have a bigger variety of devices to stream to. Just Stream works with Smart TV, Apple TV, and Chromecast — so you can take your Mac content anywhere:

Install and launch Just Stream — it should appear in your menu bar.
Turn on your Smart TV.
Click on the plus button to choose the media files you want to play.
Select the device you want to stream to by clicking on the arrow next to the AirPlay icon. It’s at the bottom of the JustStream window.
Hit Start Streaming.

#19. Customize your Dock

Apple’s Dock can be as big as...well, it is. And it also, very possibly, contains lots of items you don’t need. The thing that not everyone knows is that you don’t have to put up with it — Dock can be replaced with uBar.

uBar is a Setapp app that makes your Dock shrink, adding lots of precious space to a Mac’s screen. You can completely customize the look of your custom dock, making it as large or small as you want.

489

#20. Get an on-off controller for Mac

There’s no limit to automating your Mac processes. One Switch is one of those apps that helps you save time by setting up your entire working environment from one place. You can get the app via Setapp and use it for quick actions like turning on/off Dark Mode, connecting AirPods, or putting your Mac to sleep. It’s a spark of convenience, really.

490

Your problem not covered? Here’s help

Created by Setapp enthusiasts, this book is all about making your Mac life easier. Setapp is a subscription-based service for Mac apps. So this book is the embodiment of values we share as a team — enriching a Mac with powerful tools. Since our daily job is to hunt down best Mac utilities, we’ve learned a lot about how Macs work. But not all.

For sure, some depths of a macOS remain unknown to us. And it’s very possible we haven’t managed to address your issue or need in this book. Hopefully, you will forgive us and continue your journey with a Mac. Because come on, it’s the best computer you can get to handle all your jobs.

Plus, there are many useful resources where you can seek (and find) help:

Official Apple Support: Apple’s very own collection of help articles on anything Mac-related.

iMore: Online media source featuring Apple’s news, reviews, and deals.

Macworld: News, tips, and reviews from the Apple experts.

Setapp Blog: Tips, timesavers, and stories written by the Setapp team.

We also encourage you to check Setapp if your current suite of Mac apps seems incomplete, or you simply want to be able to do more, and more. We didn’t create this book with the intention to promote Setapp as a service — only a few utilities that naturally fill the gaps have been mentioned. The full collection is pretty large (170+ apps at the time of publishing) and it’s constantly growing.

If you’re interested in what Setapp has to offer, you can have a quick overview of all apps on the website. If you’re like “Damn, that app I was looking for is not on the list,” tell us its name and we’ll think about adding it to Setapp. Seriously. Feel free to join our Facebook group of Setapp Members and leave your suggestion there.

Otherwise, experiment with your current toolkit and have a wonderful relationship with your new Mac!

491