Table of contents for December 1, 2015 in Macworld UK

Some users of Office for Mac have reported problems with El Capitan. (We haven’t had many, but then we don’t use it that much, so your mileage may vary.) Luckily, Apple pushed out updates for all three of its iWork apps for the Mac. Pages Pages 5.6 (£14.99) supports El Capitan’s new Split View feature. It can open documents from both Pages ’08 and ’06, while force-clicking images with a Force Touch trackpad will result in haptic feedback while you’re editing. The font menu has a handy Recently Used section. The Media Browser supports the album structure in Photos, including collections, moments, favourites, and shared albums. There are even some new Apple-designed templates, including ePub, Kids Certificate, Classic Certificate, and School Newsletter. Numbers Numbers 3.6 (£14.99) can open spreadsheets created…

What is Time Machine? Time Machine is the Mac OS X system component that creates automated backups. It periodically and silently backs up everything on the hard disk, including the entire operating system as well as your data. It’s called Time Machine because you can turn back time in a virtual way to see how a certain folder looked in the past, replete with files/folders you’ve since deleted or edited. Not only does Time Machine backup your current data but it keeps versions of your files going back days, weeks, months and years provided there’s sufficient space on the backup destination. You can restore a document to a version you were working on last Tuesday, for example, or even restore your entire system to how it was on that day…

Apple’s new Magic TrackPad 2 (priced £109) has an obvious selling point. It brings the Force Touch pressure-sensitive technology. No matter how old your Mac is (well, within reason), the Magic Trackpad means you can do both standard clicks and deeper Force Clicks, which activate a variety of additional functions depending on the application. Design and build quality First things first: what does the Magic Trackpad look and feel like? Minimalist, of course. It’s white across the top (and bottom), compared with the silver/aluminium finish on the 2010 Magic Trackpad. There’s still a metallic finish around the edge, however. The on/off button at the back offers a glimpse of lime green when the device is on, but this somehow works within the overall aesthetic. The trackpad sits on four soft…

When iWork doesn’t Pages, Numbers, and Keynote allow a fair amount of data manipulation and back-and-forth handling. The latest major revisions to each one brought the code up to date but left features critical to some behind. In the past, we wrote about how to manage the previous versions of these OS X apps so you could retain access and even round-trip files between old and new. Since then, many of you have written in with questions about merging data, selectively printing or exporting data, or gaining access to options that you think should be there. In Pages 5, people are afraid to merge Despite mail merge and data merge being one of the greatest features of business software, Apple stripped it out of Pages 5. However, earlier this year,…

It’s not that I’m such a fan of Apple that I don’t want to know about the nasty side of Jobs. I had first hand experience of what the man was like (I was once pushed out of the way by him when he wanted to show Alicia Keys how to use iTunes). Also, knowing people who have worked at Apple over the years, I am well aware of the fear and panic that being caught in a lift with him (or elevator if you are in the US) would cause. I’m well aware that Jobs wasn’t known for his soft side. And yet we all know that the man had many achievements. That he lead a revolution that has got us to where we are today. Sure he used…

As is the case with any new operating system, whether it be OS X or Windows, users have reported a number of issues with it. Here we address some of these issues, many of which are now said to be fixed by the OS X 10.11.1 update. Microsoft Office for Mac If you have been having with your Outlook email since updating to OS X El Capitan you may not be alone. Some Mac users have found that there email is no longer syncing properly in Outlook, with the email crashing when it tries to sync with the server, as a result users are unable to read messages unless they access their email via the web. The issues seem to be down to a bug in OS X El Capitan,…

Display Unlike the 21in iMac range, where only the top of the range model gains a 4K Retina display, Apple’s range of 27in iMacs are all now furnished with a 5K Retina display. Prior to the October range update only two of the 27in iMacs had the higher resolution display. All three Macs offer a resolution of 5120 x 2880 – that’s 67 percent more pixels than a 4K display. We have yet to fully test these new displays, but we have great expectations based on last year’s test results of the original Retina 5K iMac. When we tested the 5K Retina display on the 2014 5K Retina iMac we saw it turn in some of the best numbers our colorimeter had ever measured. That original 5K display was found…

When Apple releases new hardware like the new iPad mini 4, one way to look at it is to compare the new device to the one it replaces. In this case, the replaced device is the iPad mini 3, a completely forgettable iPad. How forgettable was it? Apple decided to keep the iPad mini 2 – not the iPad mini 3 – as the affordable iPad option in its lineup. The only new features the iPad mini 3 had over its predecessor was Touch ID and the option to buy a gold version. That was it—the processor, display, cameras, and everything else were the same as the ones in the iPad mini 2. Fortunately, the iPad mini 4 has a lot more to offer for owners of older iPad models.…

My friend and fellow Macworld contributor, Glenn Fleishman, recently wrote a column in which he argues that the iPad Pro is really Apple’s “pilot fish” for a future ARM-based MacBook. Glenn’s argument is convincing, but as I was reading his piece, I started thinking about the iPad and MacBook in terms of accessibility. Specifically, why I choose a tablet over a laptop for productivity, and where the iPad Pro fits into the equation. Why the iPad works for doing work I do 100 percent of my computing nowadays on iOS. Most of that time is spent on my iPhone, but a significant portion is done on my iPad Air. That I work so much on iOS is very much intentional, and stands as a testament to its capabilities. While I…

The Lisa versus the Macintosh It kicked off a race inside Apple between the teams developing the Lisa (pictured) and the Macintosh. The official line at the time was that Lisa stood for Local Integrated System Architecture, and the fact it was Jobs’ daughter’s name was purely coincidental. It was a high-end business machine slated to sell at close to $10,000. Convert that to today’s money and it would buy you a mid-range family car. The project was managed by John Couch, formerly of IBM. Jeff Raskin, meanwhile, was heading up development of the Macintosh, which had smaller businesses and home users firmly in its sights, and each team wanted to be the first to ship an Apple computer with a graphical interface. Whichever team got their first, Apple –…

Earlier this year, we reported that some Retina MacBook Pro owners had encountered a problem in which the anti-reflective coating on the screen glass came away, even if cared for properly. Apple has announced it will replace any screens with damaged coating for free. Those affected by this issue will be able to get a free replacement display for up to three years from the original date of purchase or until one year from October 16 2015 – whichever comes last. If you’ve had this problem with your Retina MacBook Pro, contact Apple and set up a repair. You can also take your MacBook Pro to the Genius Bar at any Apple Store, or bring it in to any Apple authorized service centre.…

There’s something of a misconception when it comes to the Mac. While it’s true that most Mac developers might not be engaging in the same race to the bottom that’s playing out in the iOS App Store, the notion that you need to spend a bundle just to boost your machine’s usefulness isn’t quite the case. Powerful tools like Photoshop or Final Cut Pro certainly have price tags commensurate with their robust feature sets, many of the greatest OS X apps won’t cost you any more than the time they take to download them. It’s not just plain text editors; everything from useful utilities to handy archivers and transcoders can be had for nary a penny, both in and out of the Mac App Store. So put away your wallet…

The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are here, and with a starting price of £539 we’re sure you’ll want to keep your new smartphone safe. Here, we’ve got 37 great cases that’ll do just that. Some of the cases in this round-up were originally released with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in mind, but we’ve added a note to any that we’ve been able to confirm will work with the 6s. We think almost all iPhone 6 cases will be compatible, but there is a tiny difference in size so the tighter cases might be a bit of a squeeze for the new models. Apple iPhone 6s and 6s Plus cases Price: From £25 The first cases you’ll come across for the new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are…