Indice dei contenuti per Issue 3 in Mac & macOS The Complete Manual

macOS Ventura is an amazing operating system that’s packed with features and apps. But are you getting the most from them? Our plain-English guides and fully illustrated tutorials help you get the most from your Mac. For the beginners, we show you how to set up, get online and use its key features such as Finder, Spotlight, gestures and the Dock. We show you how to use Ventura’s key apps, including full guides to the new applications that joined the Mac with the new operating system, namely Weather, Clock and Stocks. And then we move on to Ventura’s more advanced features. Look out for guides to the new System Settings, Passkey, Stage Manager, Continuity Camera and more. If things go wrong, check out our Maintenance and Troubleshooting guide. It’s all…

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

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

Connecting with Wi-Fi 1 Make sure that your Mac is within range of your wireless router’s Wi-Fi signal, then click on the Wi-Fi icon in the top menu bar. You’ll see a list of Wi-Fi networks. If your Wi-Fi is off click the switch to turn it on. 2 You’ll see a list of Wi-Fi networks available in your area. A lock to the right shows a password is required to join it. Click on the network you wish to join, whether it’s your own router or a public Wi-Fi in a cafe or bar. 3 If a password is required (it probably is), a window appears. Enter the password here. If you’re setting up at home, the password is probably supplied with your router. Your Mac then joins the network, and…

Accessing Your Applications from the Dock Add or Remove an Application To add an app, first click the icon filled with multicoloured boxes on the left-hand side of the Dock to bring up Launchpad. Then, click and drag the item you want onto the Dock. To remove it, just drag it out. Open an Application To open an application that’s in your Dock, simply move the mouse pointer onto the Dock and click on its icon. Notice that the app icon slightly bounces as the application opens before the main app opens. Move an Application To move an item to a new location in the Dock, click and drag to the required position. As you move the item the adjacent applications will move aside to allow you to drop the…

Using Spotlight’s Features 1 Press cmd-space bar or click the magnifying glass in the top menu to open Spotlight. You can drag this window to wherever you want on the screen. Type your search query into Spotlight and answers appear, with suggestions based on the contents of your computer as well as other sources. 2 Spotlight can do conversions. To convert from imperial to metric (or vice versa) type in the number and a type of unit, such as kilograms or pounds and then click the chevron next to the top result. Spotlight offers other commonly used units. It works in a similar way with distances and lengths. 3 To do currency conversions, type in a number and currency unit, such as dollars or pounds, click the chevron and Spotlight gives you the…

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

1 Before you can make use of the Home app, you have to add HomeKit compatible devices. You can only do this from an iOS device, you can’t use your Mac. There’s a list of HomeKit compatible devices online at www.apple.co/2MFjhb3. 2 After adding some devices using your iOS device, you can access them through Home on the Mac. Right-click a device’s window and click the cog (bottom-right) for the Settings, and you can change the room they’re assigned to. 3 Click Automation in the sidebar and you can set timers, actions and more. What they do depends on what kit you’ve incorporated into your Home app. Click the + icon to add automations or groups of automations (scenes). 4 For example, you can use the Home app to control and configure speakers that…

1 Use this button to toggle between regular thumbnails of your photos, as seen here, and square-shaped images that leave little border. 2 This slider increases and decreases the size of your preview images. 3 Use these buttons to view your photos arranged according to the year, month, or day in which they were taken. 4 Click here to see all your photographs in the Photos app, arranged as thumbnails. Double-click on a thumbnail to open a photo. 5 Select or open a photo and then click the ‘i’ for the information window. Here you can review and edit where and when it was taken, add captions and more. 6 The Share button lets you add the picture to shared albums, send it using Mail, AirDrop, Messages and more, add it to Notes or Reminders and…

1 This is your search field. Use it to search throughout your reminders. 2 This is the Reminders app’s front page, showing smart lists as well as the lists you’ve created yourself. A ‘list’ is a group of reminders you’ve set up and can be titled anything you like. 3 Click the plus sign to add a reminder to the open list. Call it anything you like. It appears in that list until you mark it as done. 4 These are smart lists. Click one to open it. ‘Today’ is reminders scheduled for that day. This list is divided into Morning, Afternoon and Tonight. ‘Scheduled’ shows reminders due in the future. This is now organised into months, and days for those due this week. ‘All lists all your reminders and ‘Flagged’ shows those that…

Using FaceTime 1 Click on the FaceTime app to launch the program. It should start straight away, and you’ll see your own face on the screen, as well as a panel inviting you to log in with your Apple ID. Type in your Apple ID password and click OK. 2 Before you make a video call, it’s a good idea to make sure they can see you properly. Using the camera view shown here, make sure there are no distracting bright lights behind you and your face is well lit. 3 Before you make a video call, it’s a good idea to make sure they can see you properly. Using the camera view shown here, make sure there are no distracting bright lights behind you and your face is well lit. You don’t…

Creating, Editing and Searching Notes 1 To create a new note, first of all, click on the pen-and-paper symbol found in the toolbar at the top of the Notes window. A new blank note appears. Start typing your note. The first line of a new note is used as its title in the notes list, so bear this in mind. 2 Your notes are listed in the left-hand pane. Click on a note to open it. To change the font or use bold, underline or italicise, select the text and right-click or ctrl-click for a menu; these options are found under Font. To attach an image, simply drag it onto the note or copy and paste it. 3 To search notes, use the search icon (the magnifying glass) in the…

1 In this sidebar, you see the locations you’ve saved in the Weather app. Click one to see the weather in that particular town or city. 2 Use this icon to collapse and open the sidebar. 3 The Search field. Use this to find other towns, cities and locations, which you can add to your sidebar. 4 Here you see the current temperature, weather along with the high and low forecast for the location you’ve highlighted in the sidebar. 5 Your by-the-hour forecast. Scroll it left and right for more information. 6 Your ten-day forecast, showing the high and low temperature, and general weather. 7 A precipitation map. Areas where it’s likely to rain are shown in blue. 8 An air pollution indicator. At the moment, it’s low. Useful information…

Setting Up and Using Freeform 1 First of all, make sure Freeform in iCloud is switched on. Open System Settings and go to [Your Name] > iCloud, and if the Freeform option at the bottom isn’t switched on, click on the switch to the right of its name. 2 Click on the pen-and-paper icon to open a new Freeform board. To share this board so you can collaborate on it, with all edits and additions appearing for everyone using the shared board, first tap the Share icon atop the board. 3 Tap ‘Only invited people can edit’ for pull-down menus that let you choose who can make edits, who can access the board and whether people you invite can also invite others. Set up the board’s permissions on these menus.…

Having to log into websites and apps can be annoying, but with Passkeys, the procedure is greatly simplified. A feature arriving with macOS 13: Ventura, iOS 16 and iPadOS 16, Passkeys is a new authentication method that uses Touch ID or Face ID to sign in. Passkeys are synced through iCloud, and you can even use them on non-Apple devices using a QR code. Passkeys can only be used on websites that have made them available. On Passkeys-compatible websites, you can log on using your Face ID, Touch ID or mobile device’s passcode, without having to enter your username and password. This has a number of advantages. As your Passkey never leaves your device, phishing attacks – whereby a user is conned into giving away his or her login details…

1 To open Stage Manager for the first time, click the Control Centre icon in the menu bar (the one that looks like two switches), and in the Control Centre window that appears, click the box titled ‘Stage Manager.’ 2 You’re now shown a screen that explains the new feature of Stage Manager, and invites you to switch it on. Click Turn on Stage Manager to open it, and you see all your open windows move to a space on the left of the desktop. 3 Click on a window on the left, and it’s brought to the fore. Click on an app icon in the Dock and it opens. If a window is too close to the left side of the desktop to allow Stage Manager to be seen,…

1 To use Sidecar on your Mac and iPad, first of all, open System Settings on your Mac then click on the Displays sidebar option. In the pull-down marked ‘+’ in the upper right, select your iPad. If it isn’t there, your Mac’s too old to use Sidecar. 2 Make sure your iPad is switched on and placed where you want it. Click the Arrange button and you can drag the small display desktop, which represents your iPad as an external screen, into any position you like regarding your main Mac display. 3 There’s a brief flash, and your Apple devices connect; sharing screen space between your Mac and your iPad. Your iPad can now be used as an input device or second – or even third or fourth –…

1 To switch on iCloud Desktop Documents and Folders, open System Settings and click Apple ID > iCloud > iCloud Drive. Click on the Options button, then check the Desktop & Documents Folders box. It may take time to set up. 2 On an iPhone or an iPad, first of all open the Files app. Go to the left-hand sidebar, under Locations (tap the chevron to its right to open it if necessary). Tap on iCloud, and then tap the Desktop folder. 3 Files on your Mac’s desktop can be accessed in this way through the iCloud Drive folder of any Mac or iOS/iPadOS device signed into the same Apple ID. All Macs must be running High Sierra or later, and all mobile devices must have iOS 10 or later.…

Getting Started with Shortcuts 1 The Shortcuts app comes preinstalled with recent releases of macOS. It’s found in Applications > Other. You can open it through a Finder window, by using the Launchpad or simply by typing ‘Shortcuts’ into the spotlight search. 2 The Shortcuts app is compatible with, and syncs with, Shortcuts on your iPhone or iPad, so if you’ve already created Shortcuts on those devices, they’re seen here, along with some ‘Starter Shortcuts’ which are prebuilt by Apple. 3 In the left-hand sidebar, click on the Gallery option at the top. Here you see a range of pre-built shortcuts which you can download by clicking on the + icon in their top-right corners. They then appear with your own Shortcuts. 4 Drag a shortcut from your own collection…

1 First of all, check you have an Apple Silicon Mac. Under the Apple menu in the top-left corner, select About this Mac. Look for the Chip listing. If it says ‘Apple M1’ or later, you can run iPad apps. 2 Open the App Store on your Mac. Click on your account in the bottom left corner of the App Store window to take you to a list of your purchased apps. Click on ‘iPhone & iPad apps’. 3 Scroll up and down and you’ll see a complete list of all the apps you’ve bought and/or downloaded on your Apple mobile devices. A cloud under the description means you can download it to your Mac. 4 If an app doesn’t have a cloud, it’s either no longer on the App…

1 When an update to your current version of macOS – or a new release entirely – is available, Software Update is badged in System Preferences. In the Apple menu, there’s an update listed in System Preferences too. 2 Open System Preferences from the Apple menu, the Dock or LaunchPad (it doesn’t matter which), and click on the badged Software Update icon. It checks for an update, then tells you what it is. Click the Upgrade Now button. 3 There next follows a licence agreement for macOS Ventura, the terms of which you must accept if you’re to proceed with the update. Read it all if you wish, but it’s not very interesting. 4 Click Agree to accept the terms and conditions, you’re asked for your administrator’s password. It’s the…

What is macOS Ventura, and why should we be excited? macOS Ventura is the latest version of the operating system that runs on Apple’s Mac range. It’s packed with great new features and improvements to functions you already have, and like all recent versions of the Mac’s operating system, it’s free too! Ventura brings the Weather and Stocks app to the Mac, and adds some great new features to Mail and Messages. Stage Manager makes it easier to organise open windows on your Mac, and improvements to Spotlight include Quick Look in Spotlight search results and the ability to search your photos. Continuity Camera lets you use your iPhone as a webcam, Metal 3 makes the Mac more attractive to games developers and more. Is macOS Ventura safe to use?…

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

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

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

Moving notifications to the Date and Time and combining them with widgets is a clever move on the part of Apple. All you need to do to view your notifications is to click on the Date and Time in the top-right of the desktop. If there are any, they appear at the top of the slide-in area that appears from the right-side of the screen. Notifications are grouped together depending on the app they’re coming from. For example, the News app displays notifications based on what news channels you’ve decided can send alerts to you. If you click on a notification in the group, the rest expand so you can see all the available notifications of that group. And clicking on a notification, whether it’s from Messages, News and so…

Using Launchpad 1 To open the Launchpad, go to the Dock and click on it, or place four fingers on your trackpad and bring them together. The screen darkens and your apps are shown as icons. To launch an app from this screen, click on it. To close Launchpad, press Esc or click on the desktop. 2 If you have more than one page of apps, move between them by swiping left and right with two fingers or hold cmd and use the arrow keys. Click and hold on an app and an ‘X’ appears in the top left corner; click ‘X’ to delete. Not all apps can be deleted in this way. 3 You can arrange your apps into folders on Launchpad too, just like on an iOS and iPadOS Home screen.…

1 This icon opens and closes the sidebar on the left. 2 Here you see how many tabs you currently have open in Safari. A chevron to the right shows and hides all those tabs in a list here in the sidebar. 3 This icon gives you a menu that lets you make a Tab Group of the tabs you currently have open, or start a new, empty Tab Group to which you can add tabs manually. 4 These two chevrons are your navigation controls, which let you move forward and backward through your browsing history. 5 These icons are for Safari Extensions you’ve added. 6 A lot of websites use trackers to track your browsing and to target advertising. The Shield icon lets you see what trackers have attempted to track you, and lets you…

In macOS Ventura, there are new music notifications, and recommendations that keep you in touch with bands, artists and genres you’re interested in are improved. 1 When you’re using the Music app, the top bar gives you pull-down menus offering controls and options. It’s worthwhile familiarising yourself with them. 2 Completion suggestions are offered as you type, and results can be limited to Apple Music, or your on-Mac library, as you wish. Results include artists, songs, albums and more. 3 These are, in turn, Shuffle Tracks, Previous track, Play/Pause, Next track, Repeat Play. 4 When you’re playing music, the album art, artist and title are shown here. Click on the album art to switch to the mini player, which shows the album art and controls only and takes up much less space on the…

Managing and Maintaining Contacts 1 This guide shows you to how to add new contacts to your Contacts address book, edit existing ones and share a completed contact card with other people. To create a new contact card, click on the plus button in the bottom left of the current card. Select New Contact from the window that pops up and you’re given a blank card to fill in. 2 To add details, click on the field and then type in the information. After entering a phone number or address, another blank is offered, in case you want to add a second one. Click on the name of the detail (in blue) for a pop-up window that lets you change it. When you’re finished, click Done. To change or add information to…

Setting Up Messages 1 When you first open Messages, you might need to sign in with your Apple ID’s email and password. If you’re not asked to do so, you’re already signed in. Select Settings from the Messages menu in the top bar, or press cmd-comma on your keyboard. The Settings window appears. 2 Click the iMessage tab and ensure the email address associated with your Apple ID is enabled. Set more than one email address and phone number, so messages sent to them appear on your Mac. Check the Enable Messages in the iCloud box, to sync Messages with your other Apple gear. 3 Once you’re signed in, click back to the General tab and click on the Set up Name and Photo Sharing button. This opens a setup wizard that guides…

Finding Places with Maps 1 To focus the view on your current location, click the arrow icon in the toolbar. The map zooms to your current whereabouts. To search for a specific location, type the address, postcode/zip code or road name into the search field. Possible matches are shown as you type. 2 You can search for a business by entering the business name or type, for example ‘Fast Food’, into the search field. Icons appear on the map indicating all matching businesses in the area. To get more information, click on an icon, then on any relevant information that accompanies it. Getting and Using Traffic Information When on a road journey, there’s nothing worse than getting caught up in a traffic jam or running into major roadworks. Luckily, Maps covers that…

Getting Started with Quick Note 1 You can open a Quick Note from anywhere on your Mac, and access it in the Notes app. There are three ways of opening a Quick Note. The easiest is to drag your pointer to the bottom-right corner and click the white box that appears. 2 In the Safari app, you can highlight a piece of text, right-click or ctrl-click on it and select New Quick Note from the contextual menu. A Quick Note is created containing both the text and the URL from which it came. 3 You can open your Quick Notes using a key command; Fn-Q. However you open a Quick Note, the last one you created is opened. If you need to start a new one, type cmd-N. A blank…

1 This is the front page of the Stocks app, that is, what you see when you open it for the first time. If you’ve already saved some stocks using the iPhone or iPad version of the Stocks app, they’re synced in iCloud and shown in the sidebar. 2 To find a company and see its current share price, type either its name or its ‘ticker’ – a four-letter abbreviation of the company’s name used by the stock market – in the Search bar. Click the company in the search results. 3 As well as seeing the company’s current share price (top right), you also get a graph showing the fluctuating stock value over time. Drag your mouse over the graph to find the price at a certain time on…

To open the App Store, click the Apple menu and select App Store. Alternatively, you can use the Ventura Launchpad or the App Store icon found in the Dock. 1 If you know the name of the application you’re looking for, type it in the Search Bar to go straight to it. Suggestions are offered as you type, so click on one to select it. You can search for developers here too. 2 Click on Discover for the App Store’s main page, where you can see Apple’s picks of the best and most essential apps for your Mac. 3 For a monthly fee, Apple’s all-you-can-eat Arcade gaming subscription service lets you play as many games as you want, for as long as you want. 4 Click Create to look for…

1 To use Split View mode, first open an app you want to use as a split-screen app. Here we’ve chosen Safari but any app that’s compatible will do. Just open the app window; there’s no need to open it as a full screen. 2 Click on the window’s top bar and drag it upwards, onto the menu bar. A strip appears, offering the current desktop image and a receptacle for the app you’re dragging. Drop the window onto the plus sign to make it a full screen app. 3 Go back to the desktop and open the second app you wish to use as a full-screen app in Split View mode. Here we’re using Apple’s own Pages word processor app, though once again, you can use almost any app…

Wi-Fi Instant Hotspot 1 Instant Hotspot’s system requirements are stringent. A Mac must be mid-2012 or newer and running Yosemite or later. To find out when your Mac was made, click on the Apple icon in the top left and select About This Mac. An iOS device must be an iPhone 5 or later, iPad (4th gen) or later, an iPod touch (5th gen) or later or any iPad mini. 2 Make sure your Mac and all the devices you want to use with Instant Hotspot are signed into the same iCloud account. On an iPadOS or iOS device, open the Settings app and check your Apple ID atop the screen. On a Mac, open the System Settings (it’s in the Apple menu, left hand side of the menu bar),…

Continuity Camera is macOS Ventura’s and iOS 16’s new feature that lets you use your iPhone as a webcam, connecting wirelessly with your Mac and giving access to the iPhone camera’s great features such as Centre Stage, Portrait mode and Studio Light which illuminates a user’s face while dimming the background. If your iPhone has an Ultra Wide camera, you can enable Desk View, which simultaneously shows your face and an overhead view of your desk. To set up and use Continuity Camera, use these simple steps. 1: On the iPhone, open the Settings app and go to General > AirPlay & Handoff, and tap the switch marked Continuity Camera Webcam. Close the Settings app. 2: On the Mac, open whichever video app you intend to use, such as FaceTime,…

1 The App Switcher is easy to use. Hold the cmd key and press Tab. A window showing the icons of all your open apps is displayed in a floating panel in the centre of your desktop. If you release the keys, they disappear again. 2 You can toggle through these apps by repeatedly pressing the Tab key and releasing cmd when you’ve highlighted the app you want. This app is then brought to the front of your Mac, so you can make use of it straight away. 3 You can move forwards or backwards through the list of open apps using the arrow keys at the bottom right of your keyboard, or to the left of the numeric keypad on a large keyboard. Alternatively, just click on one with…

1 First of all, open a photo containing the text you wish to copy. Here we’ve opened the photograph in the Preview app, but you can use Photos instead if you like. Click and drag to select the text you wish to copy and paste. 2 To copy the text from the photo, type cmd-C on the keyboard or in the Edit menu in whichever app you’re using, choose the Copy option. Again, this works in the Photos app as well as Previews. The text is saved to your clipboard. 3 Now open an app into which you can paste the text. Here we’re using Pages, but you could as easily paste it into an email in Mail, a note in Notes, a TextEdit document and more. To paste, type…

Getting started 1 Connect an external hard drive, via USB, FireWire or Thunderbolt, to your Mac. It should be at least the size of your Mac’s hard drive. The larger the drive, the further back in time you will be able to store backups. ‘Open System Settings, click General in the side bar then click Time Machine. 2 Click the Add Backup Disk button and you’re presented with a window listing your connected drives. Select the drive on which you would like to store your backups. If your external drive isn’t already formatted as ‘Mac OS Extended (Journaled)’, Time Machine invites you to erase and reformat it. 3 You’re invited to add a password to encrypt your backups. This is optional – click the Encrypt Backup switch if you don’t…

Modern computers like the Mac are amongst the most complicated machines ever designed. It’s an amazing testament to the quality of both the Mac hardware and software that they’re usually so stable and reliable. However, no machine can ever be 100 percent perfect. If your Mac stops working, the screen freezes up, there’s a battery problem or other such issues, you don’t always need to call the Genius Bar to get it fixed. There are a number of things you can try for yourself that might help and could save you the cost of a service call. Clearing a Frozen Screen 1 Press cmd+OPT+Esc or choose Apple menu > Force Quit from the menu bar. The Force Quit window appears. If the app is identified as ‘not responding’, select it…

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

Choose New Wallpaper 1 Click the Apple menu, select System Settings and select the Wallpaper option. Use the pull-down to set a Light, Dark or Automatic paper. ‘Automatic’ changes between light and dark according to the time of day. 2 Choose the image you’d like to use for your wallpaper and click on it. If there’s a cloud in the corner, click on it first to download the image. The desktop is updated immediately. Keep it or choose another one. Use an Image from Your Photos Library Open the Wallpaper options: Apple menu > System Settings > Wallpaper. Available pictures from your Photos app are shown at the foot of the window. Scroll them left and right, or click Show All to display them all. Explore your photo images, and then choose…

1 From the Apple menu, open System Settings. Click ‘Displays’ on the left and then on the Night Shift button. From here you can schedule Night Shift Mode to run from sunrise to sunset or during custom times; or you can simply turn it on using the ‘Turn on until tomorrow’ switch. 2 From the View menu, select the Use Stacks option. Your files are stacked on the right-hand side of your desktop, according to their type. For example, images are stacked together, as are documents. To turn this off again go to View and click Use Stacks. 3 To open a stack on your desktop, click on it. The items contained in that stack are revealed, allowing you to access and open individual files. To close a stack again, click on the…

1 Window Control Options: Use the gumdrops to close or minimise the window or open it in full-screen mode. We’ll cover this on the next page. 2 Navigation Controls: The chevron buttons in the top left corner of the window take you forwards or backwards through your navigation history. 3 View Options: These four buttons let you set-up how you view the files and folders in the Finder window; whether as icons, a list, in columns or as a cover flow which gives you a much larger visual preview. 4 Item Arrangement List: Click on the button shown here to order the contents of the window; according to date, alphabetically and more. 5 Perform Tasks: The Perform Tasks icon enables you to perform certain tasks within the folder or highlighted file, such as create a…

First Steps with Widgets 1 To access your widgets, click on the clock and date in the top-right corner of the screen. The widgets are found underneath the notifications. You can scroll the notifications and widgets up and down with two fingers on a trackpad. 2 Click on a widget to open the app that created it, or in some cases, the website from where its information is drawn. Here we clicked on a story taken from the News app, which opened that story in the application itself. 3 You can drag widgets out of their current position and drop them into a new place, just like you do with app icons in Launchpad. Reorder them to suit; maybe move the most used widgets to the top of the column. 4 Right-click on a…

Setting Up Your iCloud Email 1 If you set up your Apple ID during your Mac’s initial setup, or if you signed in with an existing Apple ID, your iCloud email account is already in place. But if not, or if you want to add another iCloud email account to your Mail client, follow these instructions. 2 Open the Mail application from the Dock and then under the Mail drop-down menu found in the left of the menu bar, click on the Add Account… link. From the pop-up menu that appears, select the iCloud link and then click on the Continue button to go to the next step. 3 Now enter the Apple ID for the iCloud email account you want to add to your Mail app, and then the password. When you…

1 This is the sidebar, which lets you select mailboxes, see emails from VIP senders or those which you’ve flagged, and more. You can resize and even close this sidebar by clicking and dragging the divider between this and your emails list. 2 The list of emails contained in the currently selected mailbox, in this case, All Mailboxes. The number of emails in the box, and the number of unread emails, are shown. You can resize this column by clicking and dragging its left or right edge. 3 Click this circular icon to toggle between showing all emails and only unread emails. 4 This button downloads new emails. You can set your Mail app to check automatically but this button does so manually. 5 When you want to write a new email from scratch,…

1 When you first open the News app, you see a sidebar and a main window. The sidebar’s Today option is selected, giving you a range of the day’s top stories. Click on a story to open it and read it in full. 2 When you open a news story, if it has a video it can be watched within the News app. In the File menu, there’s an option to open the story in Safari. This takes you to the web page from which the story was drawn. 3 The Special Coverage section gives you a selection of features chosen by Apple’s editors. If you find a story you particularly like or dislike, use the thumbs up/down icons in the top-right corner to improve future suggestions. 4 In the sidebar section titled ‘Suggested…

Changing the View 1 There are several different ways to view your calendars. To move between Day, Week, Month and Year views, you can use the corresponding buttons that appear in the top bar of the Calendar application. 2 The Year view shows you a complete year in a single window. Clicking on the title bar for any month takes you to its Month view. Double-click a specific day in either Year, Week or Month view to open its page in the Day view. 3 Click the Calendars button (top left) to open and close the sidebar, as shown here. This sidebar is visible regardless of whether you’re in Day, Week, Month or Year view and lets you mute or reveal individual calendars and more. 4 Click the Today button in the top right…

First Steps with Books 1 The Books app’s sidebar is divided into three sections; Apple Books shows what you’re reading now and offers two shop options; Library lets you view your book collection; In My Collections, you can organise them into categories. 2 If you’re already a Books user on your iPad or iPhone, you can access your books by clicking the All option under Library. Here you can see your book collection. Books not currently on your Mac have a cloud under the cover. 3 Click on a cloud, or the three-dots icon next to it, for options to download a book to your Mac, delete it from your Mac (it remains on iCloud, so you can download it again later) or add it to Library categories like Want to Read. 4 Click…

1 Open the TV app, and click on the Account menu in the top bar. If you’re not signed into your Apple account, select Sign In and enter your Apple ID and Password in the fields provided, then click the Sign In button below them. 2 Look at the tabs at the top of the window. Watch Now is the TV app’s front page, showing movies and TV shows you’ve previously bought alongside those available to buy or rent from the app. Scroll up for more suggestions. 3 If you subscribe, watch TV+ in the tab. Under the Store tab you can buy and/or rent films and programmes. TV shows can be bought individually or on a per-series basis; scroll up for available episodes. 4 There’s no separate Kids tab…

The People Tab 1 Click the People tab. Click on your own picture in the left-hand sidebar, and click on the ‘i’ in the window that pops up on the map. In the next window, you can change the device through which your location is represented, switch off sharing, Notifications and more. 2 To start sharing your location with someone else, click Share My Location in the bottom-left corner, Enter the name, phone number or email of another Apple user in the To field or navigate to their details using the + icon. People with whom you’ve recently shared your location are listed below. 3 Decide whether to share for an hour, the rest of the day or indefinitely, and your location is shared with that person. If they reciprocate,…

World Clock 1 The first tab is World Clock. The time for your current location is already there. To add cities and towns from across the world, click the ‘+’ icon (top right) and type the name of the location you want to add in the Search field. 2 You can add a number of locations, which are shown on the world map above the clocks, and the time difference and other details are shown below them. To delete a location, hover the pointer over it and click the ‘X’ in the corner. Alarm 1 Click on the Alarm tab to switch the Clock app to the Alarm page. To add an alarm, first click the ‘+’ icon, top right. You can then set a time and a day or…

Accessing the System Settings in Ventura As long as you read up on what you’re adjusting before making any changes, delving into System Settings is not a scary experience, and it can make using your Mac a lot more enjoyable. There are several ways to open the System Settings interface. You can click on the Apple icon in the top left corner of the screen and select System Settings, click on the Dock icon showing cogs on a silver square or open it from the Launchpad or Applications folder. Opening System Settings reveals a window with a list of categories in a left-hand sidebar, each representing a different area of options you can configure. Wherever you are in System Settings, this sidebar remains in place so you can open another…

1 To activate Mission Control, swipe upwards with three fingers on a trackpad or tap the F3 key on your keyboard. This is unchanged from previous versions of the Mac’s operating system, unless you’ve modified the gesture settings yourself. 2 Unlike older versions of Mission Control, open windows are presented in a single layer instead of being stacked according to which application produced them. Click on a window to bring its app to the fore. 3 You can open a document or app in full screen from Mission Control simply by dragging its window upwards, onto the strip showing the desktops. You can also create a new desktop space by clicking the plus sign, whether this Spaces bar is open or not. 4 You can still use the Exposé buttons,…

Universal Control is available with compatible Macs and iPads running macOS Monterey and iPadOS 15 respectively. They have to be signed into the same iCloud account, and both must have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth switched on. When using Universal Control, you can drag your Mac’s pointer off the Mac’s screen and onto the iPad’s screen, and then operate the iPad with the keyboard and mouse/trackpad from your Mac. Unlike Sidecar, Apple’s earlier Continuity feature that let you use your iPad as a second screen for your Mac, Universal Control lets you use your iPad’s own apps and features, and even drag files between your computer and your tablet. Here’s how to set up and use Universal Control. On Your Mac • Open System Settings from the Apple menu (top left), and…

Storing Your Documents in iCloud 1 Click on your desktop to open Finder, then open iCloud Drive from the Go menu. You may need to log into iCloud using your Apple ID. You’ll see a Finder window showing the contents of your iCloud drive folder, with folders for some apps that store output in iCloud. 2 To save files of any type into your iCloud Drive folder, simply drag them from their current location (in this screenshot, that’s the desktop) and drop them in the open iCloud window. They are now stored remotely and accessible from any connected Apple device. 3 You can organise your iCloud folder like any other folder, including creating new folders within it. To move files into a new folder in your iCloud Drive, just drag…

Setting Up Siri 1 You might have activated Siri during the set up procedure. If not, under the Apple menu, select System Settings. Click on Siri in the sidebar. If it isn’t already on, click on Ask Siri’s switch. You can also set whether you use ‘Hey Siri’ to wake it, and other Siri options. 2 You can change the language that Siri understands and also speaks in using the pull-down menu. You can also change the English language voice from a British male to a female voice and a different accent, and set up a keyboard shortcut for Siri if you wish. 3 To launch Siri, click on the icon in the Dock, click on the menu bar icon if you’ve opted for one or press the keyboard shortcut,…

1 Open System Settings (use the Apple menu, or the Dock icon). Some categories are already offered, namely Do Not Disturb, Driving, Personal, Sleep and Work. Turn on Share Across Devices to sync your settings across your Apple gear. 2 Tap the Add Focus button to choose a new focus to add. You can choose a focus designed to help when you’re Gaming, for Mindfulness, for when Reading. If none of these are a fit, choose a Custom focus and call it whatever you like. 3 If you’re making a Custom focus, the first thing you must do is give it a name, choose an icon from the range on offer (scroll up for more) and choose a colour for that icon. It’s simple enough to do. When you’ve finished,…

Finder Shortcuts These shortcuts are available when you’re using Ventura’s Finder features, like windows and folders. Command + [............................ Go to the previous folder Command +] ............................ Go to the next folder Command + ↑ ......................... Navigate up one level Command + ↓ ......................... Navigate down one level Option + Double click ............. the selected folder in a new window and close the current window Command + Double click ...... Open selected folder in a new tab Command + Tab ....................... Cycle forward through your opened applications Command + Shift + Tab .......... Cycle backward through your opened applications Space ........................................ Launch Quick Look Command + A ......................... Select all items in Finder Command + Option + A .......... Deselect any selected items Command + N ......................... Open new Finder…

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