Table of contents for Mac For Beginners 14th Edition in Mac For Beginners

Welcome to Mac for Beginners, the ideal companion to guide you through your first steps with your iMac, Mac Pro or MacBook. In this newly revised edition, we’ll explore all the essentials, including basic navigation, shortcuts and back up options. You’ll then progress onto discovering all the best OS X apps and features – from Mail to Safari, iTunes to Siri, AirDrop to iCloud. You’ll also find all of the latest updates for OS X El Capitan, including handy new Notes features and Split View. We’ll also take a look at what to expect from macOS Sierra later this year. You’ll learn how to work smarter and get creative on your Mac with programs like Photos, iMovie, GarageBand and Keynote. Finally, we tour the best apps from the Mac App…

Siri on the Mac was much rumoured and even leaked prior to the announcement of macOS Sierra at WWDC. That doesn’t mean it’s not worth getting excited over, though. On iOS, Siri has become significantly faster over the last few years and seems to be more and more capable of deciphering complex verbal requests. Some might say that Siri on the Mac was a long time coming, but in many ways, iOS was its training ground. Launching Siri is easy; click on its new dock icon, hit the menu bar icon or tap Function+Space to get going. Store your desktop in iCloud Drive Move closer to having every Mac in perfect sync What’s new in Messages? Taking the lead from iOS 10, Messages becomes more fun With Messages running across…

To get the most out of your new Mac or MacBook, you will want to connect it to the internet. Luckily, this is a simple process regardless of whether you choose to use either a wired or wireless connection to your router. If you wish to connect your Mac to the internet with a wired connection, all you need to do is plug one end of an Ethernet cable into your Mac, and the other into your router. If you plan to go wireless, then you don’t need any more equipment than your Mac and a wireless-enabled router. Follow the four simple steps outlined below and you’ll soon be able to access a whole host of content: you’ll be able to browse the web with Safari, stay in touch with…

When you hear people talking about the cloud, what they mean is using the web to provide various services for computers and internet-connected devices, wherever you may be. iCloud is Apple’s online hub for all its devices. Somecompanies provide general services that anyone can use,but iCloud has been optimised for Apple devices. It isprimarily a syncing service, but it also provides an onlinestorage facility for all of your files, apps and music. The greatest benefit of using iCloud is that it enables email, contacts, calendar appointments, reminders, photos, notes and more to be synced across all yourdevices, and made available to you no matter where you are or which device you’re currently using. You can create a document on your Mac and access it via an iPad, or adda contact…

Launchpad is another great feature, introduced by Mac OS X Lion, mirroring the functionality of Springboard on iOS. Springboard is the app launcher that you’ll find on your iPhone or iPad, which allows you to arrange icons for each of your apps across many Home screens and, if desired, nested into folders. Every app you install appears automatically on your Home screen, and the same applies for apps installed on your Mac, with each finding its way onto your Launchpad. However, unlike the iPhone, the Mac App Store isn’t the only means of getting apps onto your Mac, so how do you add, remove and control these non-App Store apps? We’ve collected together a series of hints and tips to help you get the most out of Launchpad, including taking…

The simplicity of Mac OS X means that you don’t have to become an expert on computer hardware to enjoy using your Mac. For most peripherals, you can just plug in and play; at the worst, you may have to install the occasional driver. However, with the improvements made in recent version of Mac OS X, even these installations are becoming fewer and farther between. This ease of use doesn’t mean there aren’t any settings to fiddle with, though – System Preferences has a whole row of icons dedicated to fine-tuning the hardware settings of your Mac, and a few well-chosen tweaks could vastly improve the way you work. Displays Make sure you’re using the optimum viewing settings to get the most from your monitor Display Everything seem a little…

It can become pretty scary when your Mac starts to show tell-tale signs of wear and tear. As well built as they are, like everything else on the planet, they are susceptible to the pitfalls of ageing. Prolonged use and writing and rewriting of data can cause things to slow down, and in some cases cause errors. Luckily, Apple has made it very easy for you to check on the health of your hard drive. Using an application called Disk Utility, users can very easily check disks, repair damage and even erase free space to keep the volume healthy and happy. If used on a regular basis you can quite easily keep your hard drive from slowing down and retain that great snappy feeling you had when you first bought…

It’s easy to overlook Mail on the Mac when we’re accustomed to browsing emails on the web. And with social networking becoming ever more popular, many people will communicate solely through the likes of Facebook and Twitter. However, if we’re lucky enough to own an iMac or MacBook, we really should make use of our sophisticated machines and allow them to do what they do best: make life a whole lot easier! Mail on the Mac is a smart way to manage your emails as you work and play. Now, the beauty of your Mac is of course its simplicity. But when that simplicity is a new application staring at you expectantly, it can feel a little intimidating. Pushing buttons at random in the hope you will eventually work it…

El Capitan brings many new features to OS X on the Mac and there are some welcome enhancements to Safari that make browsing easier, more convenient and enjoyable. Along with new sharing options and a brilliant new Search bar that offers results from places like the App Store and iTunes, there is also an all-new tab view that offers you an overview of all your open tabs on one screen. Tabs are one of the most useful features of modern web browsers. When you are browsing websites and searching for information, instead of going back and forth between sites and pages, or managing multiple windows, you can open them in a new tab. This makes it easier to return if you need to refer to information on them and it…

The Mac App Store first appeared in Mac OS X 10.6.6 and is home to a diverse range of apps aimed at enhancing the functionality of a Mac computer. As a bonus, the majority of apps are either reasonably priced or free. As we have come to expect from Apple, the interface is intuitive, and finding and acquiring apps is a breeze. This is largely because the store has adopted a very similar look, feel and process to shopping to that used by the iTunes App Store. When you want to buy an app, simply enter your iTunes ID and password, and it’s purchased. It really is as simple as that. The app is automatically downloaded and installed in the Applications folder, and can be accessed via Launchpad when required.…

Apple Music is Apple’s brand new music streaming service. This is Apple’s equivalent to Spotify and it lives on your Mac in the iTunes app. Apple Music gives you access to virtually the whole of the iTunes library (that’s a staggering 30 million tracks in case you were wondering) and a 24/7 radio station called Beats One. You can also find out what your favourite artists are up to in Connect, Apple Music’s dedicated social network. Apple Music gets more powerful the more you use it, and the For You tab gives you personalised playlists to enjoy. You can also download tracks and whole albums to your Mac to listen to even when you’re not connected to the internet. “You can download tracks to your Mac for offline listening” Inside…

Calendar (formerly known as iCal) is one of the unsung heroes of OS X and iOS. It is the Macbased predecessor to Calendar on your iPhone or iPad. This application has the ability to really help you organise your life and – with the ability to share your calendars – the lives of others. As you would expect, Apple has made the app simple yet effective, with an incredibly user-friendly interface. You can colour code certain calendars, for example, so that you can set up different ones for work, social events, sport matches and more. You can set any events that you create to a certain time or to ‘all-day’, and there are plenty of other options that will suit your needs. In this introduction to the application, we’ll show…

Messages is an instant messaging application that is built into El Capitan, which iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users will find familiar. That is because it is the same messaging facility that is part of iOS. You can chat with your friends and relatives using your Mac as well as your iOS devices. In fact, you can start a conversation on your Mac and then pick up where you left off on your iPhone or iPad because they are automatically kept in sync through iCloud. The app looks a lot like SMS messaging and at the top you specify who to send the message to. As you start typing, matching contacts are displayed and you can select someone by their email address or phone number. Down at the bottom of…

The iOS version of Game Center has been live for a few years now, allowing users with an Apple ID to connect to their friends, compare high scores and earn achievements. Apple also includes a Game Center app on the Mac, so that scores from all of your games can be stored and shared in one place. Scores from both iOS and Mac games are displayed alongside each other, so achievements can be earned for the same profile on either device, and the social features of the app allow you not only to share scores but send challenges to friends with customised messages. You’ll also get friend recommendations for those you might know, and a tally of your current score from achievements, enabling you to quickly see how you rank…

LESS IS MORE iMovie’s transitions are fun to add, but you can get carried away. Think of transitions as adding salt to a meal. A little will enhance it but too much can spoil it. A pro will use less Balance colour transitions than a novice. Stablise footage Iron out handheld wobbles for a smoother short When filming with a handheld camera, your footage might look a bit wobbly. iMovie can analyse the camera shake and reduce or even remove it entirely (though it will crop your footage after stabilising it). The best way to avoid shake (or a cropped clip) in the first place is to use a tripod. 01: Add a clip Add a shaky handheld clip to the timeline. Our example clip was filmed in a pool,…

Photos is the default app for all your iPhone pics, and chances are you’re going to be taking a lot of them thanks to the iPhone’s stunning camera. However, the problem with taking so many wonderful shots is that when you want to show them off to your friends and family, it takes an age to trawl through them all and find the one you want. Luckily Photos has a whole host of features that ensure you are never far away from your favourite photos, and you can sort them in a range of ways to keep your albums fresh and easily located. Here are just some of its options that mean you can snap away to your heart’s content without worrying you’ll never find that one amazing picture again.…

Learning to play an instrument is a rewarding struggle. Most people begin by attempting to master the fundamental techniques before advancing. Aside from merely recording and mixing your compositions, GarageBand acknowledges this vital learning stage by providing exercises for guitar and piano. As part of its Learn to Play feature, the app offers 38 free modules ranging from beginner to more advanced. Budding guitarists can learn basic chord shapes and progressions, while practising pianists can learn classical and pop styles. The Play chapter then invites you to record your progress. “GarageBand offers 38 free modules ranging from beginner to advanced” GarageBand Learn an instrument in GarageBand 01: Finding lessons Guitar and piano lessons are listed under the Learn to Play tab in the New Project dialog. They appear after being…

Apple has spent a fair bit of time building a new Notes app that has a slightly different design but lots of new features. It is better than ever and certainly much more useful. Among the new features is support for almost every type of file and content you might want to store in a note. For example, you can add photos, videos, audio, maps, web links, sketches, PDFs and so on. When you click the Share button in an app you now have the option to store the content in a note. Many apps have sharing facilities and we look at a couple in the step-by-step guide. There are others and it makes it easy for you to build notes and store items that you need for a work…

At first sight, Pages looks just like a word processor and it’s true that it can create simple letters and documents. However, there is a lot more to this application, as it can create visually exciting publications such as flyers, posters, newsletters, brochures and much more. The app has been designed to make the task as easy as possible, and this edition has some great features. For example, there are some fantastic templates to get you started, as very often creating a publication is just a matter of selecting a template and replacing the text and images with your own. It’s brilliantly simple. Other new features in this latest version include interactive charts, sharing facilities on iCloud and a whole lot more. “This edition has some great features” Pages Create…

One of the best things about Numbers is that it’s a great place to manage all your data in a single area without having to use any third-party alternatives from the Mac App Store. Although having pages of data may be beneficial to you, it can be difficult to read and differentiate between when not labelled appropriately. However, Numbers includes some fantastic chart and graphical options that help add a visual aspect to your data. Each chart you choose to use to represent inputted data can be heavily customised to suit your specific tastes or the data it’s based on. Use the following steps to learn how to completely visualise from top to bottom and create the perfect accompanying charts. “Numbers includes some fantastic chart and graphical options” Understand your…

To access FileSilo, please visit http://www.filesilo.co.uk/bks-A29/ 01 Follow the on-screen instructions to create an account with our secure FileSilo system, or log in and unlock the issue by answering a simple question about the edition you’ve just read. You can access the content for free with each edition released. 02 Once you have logged in, you are free to explore the wealth of content made available for free on FileSilo, from great video tutorials and online guides to superb downloadable resources. And the more bookazines you purchase, the more your instantly accessible collection of digital content will grow. 03 You can access FileSilo on any desktop, tablet or smartphone device using any popular browser (such as Safari, Firefox or Google Chrome). However, we recommend that you use a desktop to…

Ondevice AI Apple is boosting its privacy credentials with macOS Sierra by doing all of Photos’ in-image object recognition on your device, so your photos are kept private and not sent to a server for processing. It’s an impressive feat and sets Apple apart from its competitors as far as privacy goes. Copy & paste between devices Revolutionise how you work across your devices Universal Clipboard feels like a long time coming, and many third-party apps have attempted to make it a reality. But with macOS Sierra and iOS 10, copying and pasting from your iPhone or iPad to your Mac or vice versa is now possible. Your devices will need to be signed in to the same iCloud account, and data is transferred via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to ensure…

It’s easy to think of your Mac as a wonderfully creative toolbox, packed to the brim with inspirational tools to finely hone your projects. Those tools are the software saved on your hard drive, the applications. Software, for the most part, is kept in the Applications folder – a shared folder that any user of the Mac can see and open applications from. The beauty of Mac OS X is that each user’s version of an application can behave differently and use different files, the same way that each user can have an individual iTunes library. Of course, before you start learning how to use specific applications, it’s worth taking a moment to look at how you open, close and switch between them, which is just what we’re going to…

The Dashboard has been present in Mac OS X for several years now, but recently it has seen a lot of changes. At its most basic, the Dashboard is a place in which you can put widgets – which are small, always-on apps that can only be used when in the Dashboard. Mac OS X has always included some useful widgets that you can use straight out of the box, but independent developers have spent hours creating hundreds more that you can easily install for free from Apple’s website. The Dashboard has recently changed from a screen that overlays your desktop (so that you can see parts of it underneath, but never use it) to a fully separate section to the left of the main Desktop screen. Click on the…

There’s one aspect that sets the computers of today far apart from those we were using just ten years ago: networks. Back in 2000, the internet was only just starting to become commonplace, and if you did have it then you probably only had it on one computer in the house (which wasn’t really a problem, as most houses only had one computer). Now, with the advent of easy Wi-Fi and cheaper computers (plus iPods and iPhones), many houses have a handful of connected devices sharing the airwaves and, with a little setup, sharing their connections, files and data too. The Internet & Wireless row of icons in System Preferences is all about your Networks – local and worldwide – how you interact with them and how you choose to…

Transferring files had, for a long time, been an incredibly tedious process. Before Wi-Fi was commonplace, users were forced to save their files to floppy disks and USB Flash drives, unplug them, plug into another device, then drag the files onto their desktops. Even now, for many users the process involves creating an email and sending it to themselves, a process that not only takes time, but also inbox space. Since Lion, there’s been a much simpler solution to this problem, and it’s called AirDrop. When you open up the finder, you’ll notice that there are a number of icons in the sidebar on the left hand side. One of these is the AirDrop icon, which is in the shape of a radar mast. Clicking this icon will start AirDrop,…

The sharing facilities built into El Capitan are more extensive than in previous versions of OS X. In fact, the features that have been added are more like those available on iOS devices like the iPad and iPhone, so you may well be familiar with some of them already. However, while the sharing system is similar to the one used by iOS, it also offers more features than the latter. One feature with which iOS users will be familiar is the instant sharing of web pages. When you are browsing the web and you come across a page that has something funny, interesting or useful, you might want to share it with your friends. On an iPhone, you’d just click the Share button, and now there is a similar button…

Mail is a typically ‘Apple’ product – sleek and uncluttered, but full of functionality. The latest version borrows from the Mail application found in iOS, and particularly on the iPad. To get the most out of Mail, it’s important to understand how to set up and customise it, since this will let you add important things like mail signatures and formatting, control junk mail filtering, and apply rules – which are really useful when you’re managing multiple accounts. The General tab holds a lot of the really important stuff, including how often Mail should automatically check for messages. Accounts lets you control and edit all the different email accounts you own. The Junk Mail option lets you control how Mail filters any mail it suspects to be spam. Check out…

Maps has been on iOS devices for some time and now it's available on Macs too. iPhone and iPad users will find many familiar features, but there are also new ones – and there's lots to discover in this fantastic app. From a large map of the country, you can smoothly zoom in right to your street, or whichever location you are interested in. There are three different views to select from and you can opt to view a standard map, a satellite photo image or a hybrid of the two.All three are useful and switching from one to the other is very easy and intuitive. You can find businesses around you or look up the attractions at a place you plan to visit. The information, reviews and collections of…

An Apple ID lets you personalise your Apple experience. Once you’ve created one, you can use it to access Apple resources that require you to identify yourself and make purchases from the Apple Online Store, the iTunes Store and the App Store. If you have held a MobileMe account, or use an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to access the iTunes store, you will already have an Apple ID, and this can be used to sign in to the App Store. But what if you don’t have an Apple ID? Well, you can still browse the Mac App Store, but you cannot download either free or paid apps. Creating an Apple ID is a very straightforward process and, although the majority of people use iTunes to set up their account,…

iTunes is the place you go to for entertainment on your Mac, whatever it is you fancy doing. Movies and TV series, new songs and albums, smart playlists that are based on tracks you like, books that you can start reading on your Mac and carry on reading on your iPad, even a digital store full of educational courses, plus podcasts and apps for your iOS devices; iTunes has it all. While the App Store (with its own blue and white icon in your Applications folder) is the place you go to find apps like iPhoto, Pages and Numbers. iTunes is for everything else. The app comes in two, very big, halves: the Library and the iTunes Store. The front page of the Store has a carousel that you can…

As well as being one of the world’s largest digital music hubs, the iTunes Store is also home to great movies and TV programmes from all over the world. To access this incredible selection of brand new and classic films, you can either scroll down on the iTunes Store home page or select ‘Films’ from the tabs at the top of the screen instead. As well as being loaded with content, the Film marketplace is an easy place to navigate. In addition to searching through the Store with the search bar, you can also use the drop arrow in the right column to search by genres, like comedy, drama or sci-fi & fantasy. For some films, there’s also the option of iTunes Extras. Not entirely unlike bonus features on a…

Apple’s Calendar app is great for keeping track of your hectic schedule, adding events and inviting other people to attend them. When creating events that other users will be able to see, it is obviously a good idea to include as much detail as possible. However, you don’t want to pepper the main event window with too many words, so what can you do? Easy: add a note. Once you have added an event you can double-click on it to bring up a floating window of information, including the all-important start and finish times, and by clicking the various fields you can then start adding invitees, alerts and notes. Simply click on ‘note’ and you’ll be able to write as much text as you want into a dialog box and,…

One of the most acclaimed features of the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices is also available on your Mac. From the comfort of your laptop or desktop, FaceTime for Mac now makes it possible for you to have a chat or share a smile with your friends and family who also possess an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or Mac. It is even possible to engage in video calls over your local network. With the simple further requirements of an email address and an Apple ID, a whole new world of enhanced communication is now easily accessible. The sleek, simple and powerful interface of the FaceTime for Mac application is fully integrated into your Mac OS X environment. Plus, if you have an iPhone running iOS 8 or later, you…

Once you’ve spent time getting your programme to look and sound as good as it can, you can quickly and easily share your edited masterpiece with a global audience thanks to iMovie’s direct link with social media platforms such as YouTube. YouTube enables you to create a personal channel that fans of your work can subscribe to, so there are potentially plenty of people ready to be impressed with your iMovie editing skills. 01: Choose YouTube Double-click to open up the project that you want to share so that it appears on the timeline. At the top right of the viewer, click on the Share icon. Click on the YouTube icon. 02: Select a size In the next window, type in some keyword tags so viewers can find your content.…

It seems a little strange that in an age where cameras offer tens of millions of pixels, advanced sensors and incredible lenses, we often see photographs trying to recreate a ‘vintage’ look. But there’s a reason for this – old photos, while they may have been taken with now-outdated hardware, can be truly beautiful. It’s that sense of nostalgia that we all want to recreate, to capture that moment of beauty snapped with a camera that would now be described as ‘retro’. An effect that really screams ‘old school’ is grain; when old cameras struggled to capture light efficiently it could cause the photo to fill with ‘noise’, or a grain. Sometimes a photo looks great with a bit of this noise –_and you can add it Photos. Here’s how.…

For new GarageBand users, perhaps the single most important concept to master within GarageBand is tempo. All music projects are built around a predefined global tempo, measured in beats per minute (bpm) and set within the control bar’s LCD. Beginning from a fairly typical 120bpm, lowering or increasing the tempo will dramatically dictate the pace of your project, most crucially rhythm loops or Drummer tracks. Importantly though, GarageBand also allows for the project tempo to be changed mid-song using a Tempo Track and a series of automation points. This is vital for keeping time the way you want for certain passages within broader and more complex compositions. “The tempo is measured in bpm” Tracking down tempo Tracking down tempo FLEX TIME EDITING GarageBand implements timing tweaks within audio regions using…

Often overlooked, the Contacts app (previously known as Address Book) is an important element of OS X. While it might not be the first thing you open in your dock, it’s the hub for all your contacts and makes sure that apps like Mail run a lot more smoothly. It seems only fair, then, that the address book has been given an El Capitan overhaul, too. It now sports a cleaner, simpler interface that before. It is easy to create and edit contacts and you can also share them effortlessly. Managing your database is easy too as the app can sniff out duplicates and merge them with existing contacts in a single click. You can also create Smart Groups by entering what criteria to include and omit. Read on to…

One of the reasons many people will use Pages as their primary app for creating documents is the vast selection of templates that can be used. The templates are a great way of getting a starting point of what you want your document to look like, before you go ahead and add your own twists. However, on occasion it’s not uncommon to be unable to find a template that really suits your needs, but thankfully Pages still has you covered. Users are able to create their own custom template, save it and then use it whenever they see fit. Plus if you’re really proud of it, then Pages also has a share feature where you can distribute your new template to friends and family. Here’s how to go about it.…

Keynote makes it simple to create fantastic presentations, thanks to its easy-to-use but surprisingly powerful tools. Whether you want to create a simple textbased presentation or you need something a little more creative, with images, videos and animations, Keynote gives you all the tools you could possibly need, all with just a couple of clicks. But once you’ve created your presentation, Keynote makes it simple to create fantastic presentations, thanks to its easy-to-use but surprisingly powerful tools. Whether you want to create a simple textbased presentation or you need something a little more creative, with images, videos and animations, Keynote gives you all the tools you could possibly need, all with just a couple of clicks. But once you’ve created your presentation, “Keynote gives you all the tools you need”…

It happens to even the most experienced of us – you absent-mindedly put something somewhere and the next thing you know you’re searching around wondering where you had it last. It happens to your car keys and it happens to the files and folders on your Mac. Luckily, your Mac makes it easy tosave your stuff in the right place, quickly and often without having to think about it. The key to this is how your Mac handles Home folders, which are a special set of folders that are automatically created for each person that has a user account on your Mac. Know your way around here and you may never get lost on your Mac again. Find the right folder Finder sidebar Every Finder window has shortcuts to the…

With the release of OS X El Capitan, Apple has consciously placed more emphasis on performance over obvious updates. So while revamps to features are not wholesale, this general streamlining does apply to aspects like app workflow. Mission Control remains central to the way you use your Mac, by providing rapid access to organising apps across a selection of ‘spaces’ or desktops. The latest iteration of the program makes fairly subtle but useful tweaks, such as placing your app windows together more relatively and giving you the opportunity to arrange them all within a single layer. The integration with new El Capitan features such as Split View, plus the ability to create new spaces by dragging your apps upwards, all help to maximise the usability experience. Read on for our…

The Notification Centre is a central focus for change on your Mac, recording new happenings and occurrences. It’s a place where you can find information regarding updates for your apps and you can also see information on new mail that has arrived. Reminders are another area that the Notification Centre handles, as well as information from the likes of FaceTime, Game Center, Calendar, plus messages from other third-party apps. The Notification Centre can be configured by yourself, however, so it’s not set in stone. You can tell the Mac just how you want to see your alerts, in what style and format and for how long you want these alerts to remain on the screen. This focuses on the visual end of the Centre, but you can also include sounds…

Many Mac users are happy to leave their Mac set up the same way it was the day they opened the box. That’s fair enough – after all, why fix what isn’t broken? However, if you’re prepared to take a few minutes to delve into the wealth of settings at your fingertips, you may just find a few that could change the way you work, make your Mac a safer place or just spruce the ol’ gal up a little. In the first of a four-part guide, we’re going to take you, icon by icon, through the top row of the System Preferences window: the Personal settings… Security Energy Saver By setting your Mac to require a password when waking it from sleep or screen saver, your Mac will automatically…

The System settings, like the Network settings above them, get deep down and dirty into the depths of OS X. Many of the changes affect all users of the Mac, and it’s here where you’ll discover the tools you need to control which users can do what. It’s also where you’ll find Accessibility, the first place you should go if you have physical difficulties that make it hard for you to enjoy using your Mac. Date & Time Always be sure that your Mac’s clock is bang on time by setting it to automatically stay synchronised with Apple’s time servers over the internet. Time Zone Let your Mac know where you are in the world by clicking the map near where you are, then choosing the closest city to you…

A lot of the files on your Mac will no doubt be quite valuable. There are videos, music, photos, personal and work-related documents, and much more on the disk drive. How would you cope if you lost them? Fortunately, Time Machine aims to solve the problem by making backups – copies – of files, and storing them elsewhere in a safe place. If you lose a file for whatever reason, be it an accidental deletion or a disk fault, then Time Machine lets you recover it. It is called ’Time Machine’ because that’s what it is. For all intents and purposes, it effectively allows you to go back in time, and if a folder contained a file last week that you can no longer find, then you simply turn back…

Safari is Apple’s own web browser and it’s tightly integrated into the operating system. Although for most of its previous life it was much more stripped down than other browsers, largely for the sake of speed, it has more recently taken on more features such as Extensions that will enable you to customise it, in addition to a range of things you can change in its preferences. Perhaps unsurprisingly it is the most Mac-like of any browser – it’s sleek, polished and easy to use. Most of its options are accessed through the Preferences section and it is here that you can, for example, change the default search engine and the location for downloaded files. There are also some great security applications, such as the ability to block the annoying…

When you need to plan a long journey and you aren’t sure which route to take, the Maps app will provide all the answers. It can work out your current location, which means you only need to enter the destination and click the Directions button to see a complete turn-by-turn breakdown of the route to take. You can also manually enter start and end points, so you could plan several trips before even setting off. With OS X El Capitan, this service has been enhanced with the addition of public transport information. You have the ability to zoom into every turn and see it in detail on the map. Another handy trick is the live traffic information and notifications of road works, closed roads and other problems. You won’t always…

When it launched at the beginning of 2011, the Mac App Store offered Mac users an entirely new way to browse and download apps that had never been seen before. There was widespread shock at Apple’s decision to do this because it was a move based on the success of the iPhone App Store, and one not guaranteed to work on the Mac platform. As has been the case for many a year now, Apple was right and the Mac App Store became an instant success. These days, a lot of people take the Store for granted, while others don’t even know it exists and have never even opened it up. If this is you, you’re missing out on a huge amount of incredible content. In this tutorial, we’ll start…

iTunes was born to help people manage their digital music, and over time it has grown to offer all of the entertainment you could possibly want to carry with you. The iTunes library is huge, and all of the major new releases are available to download as quickly as they are on competing services. It has reached the point where almost every artist you like will have a large selection of content on offer. You can quickly search for individual songs, albums and tracks via the search bar, and also dig down deeper within an artist’s catalogue. There are multiple ways to browse music, and once you have an account set up with a valid credit card or gift card code, the process is as simple as choosing what you…

iBooks has been around since 2010, first appearing as an app on the iPad. Since then its popularity has kept on growing. iBooks connects to the iBooks Store, which functions just as iTunes does – giving users the ability to have access to a digital library of literature that has made iBooks so successful. Now, with the introduction of Yosemite OS X, iBooks has been made available on the Mac. iBooks syncs perfectly with all your devices, letting you access your books in any format. If you start reading a book on your iPad then come back to it on your Mac, iBooks will let you pick up right where you left off. Although iBooks is much more tablet-friendly than on a desktop, (since you might not be used to…

For all your good intentions of adding events to your Calendars, they don’t mean a thing if you fail to take notice and forget about them. Thankfully, to prevent this happening, you can set yourself handy alerts so that the app will inform you on the day, hours or minutes before or at a precise time and date that you determine. These alerts can consist of a message, a message with a sound, an email sent to yourself, the automatic opening of an application or, if you use AppleScript, you can set up a specific script, or action, that your Mac will perform when it needs to alert you at the specified time. You have full freedom to determine the time and date of the alert, and you can even…

Preview is a powerful and flexible general purpose utility that is designed for viewing and editing a wide range of different file types. However, it is mainly used for viewing PDFs and images. Since Mountain Lion, it has come with additional features that make it even more useful, such as the button and menus for sharing files. It is possible to share files directly from Preview using Twitter, AirDrop, Messages and so on. Sending a file to a friend or work colleague via Preview has never been easier. There are now more PDF editing tools and it is also possible to insert pages from other files, as well as images directly from a scanner. Notes can be added throughout a document, but they are hidden. There is a new panel…

A trailer is a great way of presenting footage and getting people excited about it 1: Choose a template Click the New button and click the Trailer icon. Click the Play icon on a trailer’s thumbnail to preview its music, pacing and titles. Click Create when you find one you fancy. Add it to an event. 2: Use the Storyboard Click on the Storyboard tab. This gives you editable text fields and placeholder graphics that suggest the type of shot you might add. Music and transitions are all added automatically. 3: Drag and drop Modify the text fields to customise the trailer’s text and click on your event’s clips to drop them one by one into an appropriate placeholder. To see how things are shaping up, tap the spacebar to…

By shooting a subject against a clean green (or blue) card, you can use iMovie’s keying tools to replace the colour backdrop. Green screens tend to be popular as many people have blue eyes (and these could become transparent when replacing a blue screen with other footage). This compositing technique is a great way of adding variety and texture to your productions. You can place people in exotic locations or add special effects to your drama productions. 01: Source footage To get the green (or blue) screen footage to work well the card needs to be evenly lit (or holes can appear). Try and avoid shadows being cast on the card as these might remain solid 02: Layer the clips Drag the background footage to the timeline first. Then drag…

Video clips will take up much more storage space on your Mac than stills, especially if you shoot at a HD (or UHD) resolution. If your Mac becomes too stuffed with video clips it might start to behave sluggishly, which will be especially annoying if you’re trying to edit a video. A sensible (and relatively affordable) solution is to purchase a portable hard drive and store your iMovie assets on that drive, instead of on your Mac. By default iMovie organises its events, projects and video clips using a library that is stored on your Mac. We’ll show you how to set up an additional library on a portable hard drive, so that you can store projects there instead, and how to move existing events from the default library to…

You’re missing out if you have never used the Levels tool in your Mac’s Photos app before. Adding the Levels panel to your toolkit gives you some serious control over your images, enabling you to quickly adjust colour casts and light levels from one place, without having to use multiple sliders. The results are absolutely fantastic, especially in photos in which some colours dominate others, and this control can make even the most washed-out image into something worthy of your wall. And, unlike apps such as Photoshop that offer just three sliders for adjusting levels, Photos has an impressive 12 sliders, giving you much more control over your edits than you could ever imagine. “Photos has an impressive 12 sliders” Photos Adjust Levels to optimise photos 01: Add the option…

Ah, the electric guitar effects pedal – the stompbox if you will. For guitarists they are the gear equivalent of designer handbags – they can never have too many and it’s often the vintage, expensive ones that are the most attractive. Garageband does an awesome job of modelling popular units virtually, emulating the most desirable effects across genre and era. Whether you want to apply fuzz or overdrive distortions, pitch shifters, chorus, delays and even wah-wah, GarageBand has a pedalboard for chaining stompboxes together. In this guide we’ll look at that pedalboard and the core techniques required for arranging multiple units, as well as signal routing for more advanced configurations. “Apply fuzz or overdrive distortions” GarageBand Working with guitar stompbox effects 01: Locate Stompbox icon With a guitar track already…

When Apple introduced Siri on iPhone and iPad back in iOS 5, it was expected that the system would soon be making its way over to the Mac. While you have to wait for macOS Sierra to get the full Siri experience, you do currently have the ability to speak to your Mac and have it understand exactly what you mean. Dictation enables you to tap a key on the keyboard and then speak to your Mac. The Mac will listen to what you say until you click Done, and then transcribe your words onto a page or into another app on your Mac. The system needs an internet connection to work normally but you can change this with a download. Read on to find out how to speak to…

Spreadsheets may scare you, and with good reason – they are not always easy to use. Microsoft Excel is a very powerful spreadsheet program, but it’s complex. So is Numbers, but it delivers all of the functions you need in the simplest way possible and it even offers up explanations to help you out. With a range of templates and the ability to add tables, resize them, calculate and choose from a range of maths options, you will soon be populating your tables with reams of data. You aren’t confined to one sheet either, as you can edit multiple ones at once by selecting the Sheet button in the toolbar. Numbers makes it easy to work with each one, providing you with a tabbed options pane. “It delivers all of…