Mark L. Chambers

Cheat Sheet / Updated 06-17-2024

Your MacBook keyboard puts efficiency at your fingertips. Startup keys, shortcut key combinations, and special function keys invite you to perform different tasks with a single touch — from turning up the sound volume to deleting selected text.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 02-25-2022

As an older adult entering the world of Mac computers, you can use a few basic things: a guide to prices and uses for various types of Macs and helpful keyboard shortcuts that get you quickly where you want to go. And you can never be too safe, so it pays to know how to avoid potential predators on the internet.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 02-25-2022

Whether you want to build a basic, mid-range, or high-end PC, make sure you have the necessary components and follow some general commonsense rules for easy assembly of your PC. Once you have your PC together, get to know the beep codes your computer will make and what they mean.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 02-15-2022

MacBook owners have a number of tools that come in very handy for using their laptops efficiently and for maintaining the operating system to keep it running in top shape. These MacBook keyboard shortcuts for the Finder, a maintenance checklist, and a "translation" of the modifier keys will speed you on your way to becoming a MacBook power user.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 09-22-2021

If you're new to the iMac, you'll be eager to discover its exciting possibilities. To get the most out of your iMac or iMac Pro, use the keyboard shortcuts for macOS Big Sur, follow a recommended maintenance schedule, and, if you run into a problem, follow the troubleshooting steps.

Article / Updated 09-16-2021

The Mac OS X Snow Leopard Finder helps you access and organize most of the important Mac functions while you work. Use Finder keyboard shortcuts to display windows, copy and move files, and launch applications. These keyboard shortcuts help you get things done more efficiently. Key Function Command+A Selects all items in the active window (icon view), all items in the column (column view), or all items in the list (cover flow view) Command+C Copies selected items Command+D Duplicates the selected item(s) Command+E Ejects the selected volume Command+F Displays the Find dialog Command+H Hides All Finder windows Command+I Shows info for selected item or items Command+J Shows the view options for the active window Command+K Displays the Connect to Server dialog Command+L Creates an alias for the selected item Command+M Minimizes the active window Command+N Opens a new Finder window Command+O Opens (or launches) the selected item Command+R Shows the original for selected alias Command+T Adds the selected item to the Sidebar Command+V Pastes items from the Clipboard Command+W Closes the active window Command+X Cuts the selected items Command+Z Undoes the last action (if possible) Command+, Displays Finder Preferences Command+1 Shows the active window in icon mode Command+2 Shows the active window in list mode Command+3 Shows the active window in column mode Command+4 Shows the active window in cover flow mode Command+[ Moves back to the previous Finder location Command+] Moves forward to the next Finder location Command+Del Moves selected items to the Trash Command+up-arrow Show enclosing folder Command+` Cycles through windows Command+? Displays the Mac OS X Help Viewer Command+Shift+A Takes you to your Applications folder Command+Shift+C Takes you to the top-level Computer location Command+Shift+G Takes you to a folder that you specify Command+Shift+H Takes you to your Home folder Command+Shift+I Connects you to your iDisk Command+Shift+Q Logs you out Command+Shift+N Creates a new untitled folder in the active window Command+Shift+U Takes you to your Utilities folder Command+Shift+Del Deletes the contents of the Trash Command+Option+H Hides all windows except the Finder's window(s) Command+Option+N Creates a new Smart Folder Command+Option+T Hides the Finder window toolbar Command+Option+Space Opens the Spotlight window Command+Space Opens the Spotlight menu F8 Choose another desktop using Spaces F9 (or F3, depending on your keyboard model) Shows all open windows using Exposé F10 (or Control+F3, depending on your keyboard model) Shows all open windows for the current application using Exposé F11 (or Command+F3, depending on your keyboard model) Hides all windows to display the Desktop using Exposé F12 (or F4, depending on your keyboard model) Displays your Dashboard widgets Space QuickLook

Article / Updated 05-11-2021

Even an iMac Pro with an 18-core Intel Xeon W processor can always go just a bit faster … or can it? There’s actually a pretty short list of tweaks that you can apply to your iMac’s hardware to speed it up, and these suggestions are covered in this article. You can also work considerably faster within Mojave by customizing your Desktop and your Finder windows, which makes it easier to spot and use your files, folders, and applications. That’s in this Part of Tens chapter, too. Finally, you can enhance your efficiency and make yourself a power user by tweaking yourself. (Sounds a bit tawdry or even painful, but bear with me, and you’ll understand.) Nothing Works Like a Shot of Memory Okay, maybe shot is the wrong word, but adding additional memory to your iMac (by either replacing or adding a memory module) is the single surefire way to speed up the performance of your entire system. That includes every application as well as macOS itself. With more memory, your iMac can hold more of your documents and data at once, and thus has to store less data temporarily on your internal drive. It takes your iMac much less time to store, retrieve, and work with data when that data is in RAM (short for random access memory) rather than on your hard drive. That’s why your system runs faster when you can fit an entire image in Adobe Photoshop in your iMac’s system memory. At this writing, you can cram up to 128GB of memory in an iMac Pro, up to 64GB in a 27″ iMac model, and 21.5″ models can be configured with up to 32GB of memory as well when you order from the Apple online store. Only 27″ iMacs can be upgraded with additional memory by the owner after purchase – the iMac Pro and iMac 21.5″ models must be upgraded by an Apple Authorized Service Provider (and usually at quite a cost). Hold a Conversation with Your iMac Many Mac owners will attest that you can significantly increase your own efficiency by using the Dictation feature, which allows you to dictate text by speaking within many applications. Your voice is indeed faster than your fingers! To enable Dictation, choose System Preferences →Keyboard, click the Dictation tab and click the On radio button next to Dictation. Remember that by default, Dictation is active only when you press the Fn (Function) key twice. (You can change the Dictation shortcut from the Dictation tab). Vamoose, Unwanted Fragments! Apple would probably prefer that I not mention disk fragmentation because macOS doesn’t come with a built-in defragmenting application. (Go figure.) A disk-defragmenting application reads all the files on your magnetic drive and rewrites them as continuous, contiguous files, which your machine can read significantly faster. To keep your hard drive running as speedily as possible, I recommend defragmenting at least once monthly. You can use third-party applications like Prosoft Engineering’s Drive Genius to defragment your drive. You should never defragment your iMac internal drive if it’s a SSD (solid-state) or Fusion drive (the memory in a solid-state drive has a limited number of write/delete cycles during its lifespan, and the defragment process continuously writes and deletes data from the drive). Only traditional magnetic hard drives benefit from defragmenting. To determine which type of internal drive you’re using, launch Disk Utility, click the internal drive entry in the list on the left, and check for the acronym SSD in the drive description. If you see it, your iMac has an SSD or Fusion drive installed. Keep Your Desktop Background Simple It’s funny that I still include this tip in a chapter dedicated to improving performance. After all, I recommended using a solid-color background in my first books on Mac OS 8 and Windows 98! Just goes to show you that some things never change. If you’re interested in running your Retina 5K iMac Pro system as fast as it will go, choose a solid-color background from the Desktop & Screen Saver pane in System Preferences. (In fact, there’s even a separate category that you can pick called Solid Colors. Someone at Apple has the right idea.) Column Mode Is for Power Users One of my favorite features of macOS is the ability to display files and folders in column view mode. Just click the Column button on the standard Finder window toolbar, and the contents of the window automatically align in well-ordered columns. Other file-display options require you to drill through several layers of folders to get to a specific location on your hard drive — such as Users/mark/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music, which I visit on a regular basis. In column mode, however, a single click drills a level deeper, and often you won’t even have to use the Finder window’s scroll bars to see what you’re looking for. Files and folders appear in a logical order. Also, it’s much easier to move a file (by dragging it from one location on your hard drive to another) in column mode. Make the Dock Do Your Bidding Just about every Mac owner considers the macOS Dock a good friend. But when’s the last time you customized it — or have you ever made a change to it at all? You can drag files and folders to the Dock, as well as web URLs, applications, and network servers. You can also remove applications and web URLs just as easily by dragging the icon from the Dock and releasing it on your Desktop. I find that I make a significant change to my Dock icons at least once every week. I find nothing more convenient than placing a folder for each of my current projects on the Dock or adding applications to the Dock that I might be researching for a book or demonstrating in a chapter. You can position the Dock at either side of the Desktop or even hide the Dock to give yourself an extra strip of space on your Desktop for application windows. Click the Apple menu at the left side of the Finder menu bar and then hover your pointer over the Dock item to display these commands. It All Started with Keyboard Shortcuts Heck, keyboard shortcuts have been around since the days of WordStar and VisiCalc, back when a mouse was still just a living rodent. If you add up all those seconds of mouse-handling that you save by using keyboard shortcuts, you’ll see that you can literally save hours of productive time every year. You’re likely already using some keyboard shortcuts, such as the common editing shortcuts Command  +C (Copy) and Command  +V (Paste). When I’m learning a new application, I often search the application’s online help to find a keyboard shortcut table and then print that table as a quick reference. Naturally, you can also view keyboard shortcuts by clicking each of the major menu groups within an application. Shortcuts are usually displayed alongside the corresponding menu items. Hey, You Tweaked Your Finder! Here’s another speed enhancer along the same lines as my earlier tip about customizing your Dock: You can reconfigure your Finder windows to present just the tools and locations that you actually use (rather than what Apple figures you’ll use). You can right-click the toolbar in any Finder window and choose Customize Toolbar, for example. By default, the macOS Finder toolbar includes only the default icon set that you see at the bottom of the sheet, but you can drag and drop all sorts of useful command icons onto the toolbar. You can save space by displaying small icons, too. With Finder tabs, you can even open multiple tabs within a Finder window (making it just about as efficient as it can possibly be for operations such as moving files, quickly navigating between locations, and comparing items in different locations). The Finder sidebar — which hangs out at the left side of the Finder window — is a healthy, no-nonsense repository for those locations that you constantly visit throughout a computing session. I have both a Games folder and a Book Chapters folder that I use countless times every day (it’s important to balance work with pleasure, you know), and I’ve dragged both of those folders to the sidebar. Keep in Touch with Your Recent Past Click that Apple menu and use that Recent Items menu! I know that sounds a little too simple, but I meet many new Apple computer owners every year who either don’t know that the Recent Items menu exists or forget to use it. You can access both applications and documents that you’ve used within the past few days. Consider the Dock and Finder sidebar to be permanent or semi permanent solutions and the Recent Items menu to be more of a temporary solution to finding the stuff that you’re working on Right Now. Go Where the Going Is Good Another little-known (and underappreciated) Finder menu feature (at least among Macintosh novices) is the Go menu, which is located on the Finder menu bar. The Go menu is really a catch-all, combining the most important locations on your system (such as your Home folder) with folders that you’ve used recently. Also, the Go menu is the place where you can connect to servers or shared folders across your local network or across the Internet. Pull down the Go menu today — and don’t forget to try out those spiffy keyboard shortcuts you see listed next to the command names. (Press Command  +Shift+H to go immediately to your Home folder, for example.) And if a Finder window isn’t open at the moment, a new window opens automatically. Such convenience is hard to resist! Hold down the Option key when you click the Go menu, and you’ll be able to choose your personal Library folder (which is normally hidden) from the menu. This comes in handy when you have to troubleshoot problems with applications that save files or store configuration data in your Library folder.

Article / Updated 12-10-2019

With macOS Catalina comes a replacement for iTunes. It’s time to say goodbye to your old music, TV, and podcast source. But fear not! Your content is not gone, it has only taken up residence somewhere else on your MacBook. Introducing Music and TV. What can I play in Music? Simply put, Music is a media player on your MacBook that plays audio files (and music videos). The iTunes replacement puts all your music in one easy-to-manage app. These files can be in any of many different formats. Music supports these common audio formats: MP3: The small size of MP3 files has made them popular for file trading on the Internet. You can reduce MP3 files to a ridiculously small size (albeit at the expense of audio fidelity), but a typical CD-quality, three-minute pop song in MP3 format has a size of 3–5MB. AAC: Advanced Audio Coding is an audio format that’s similar to MP3 but offers offer better recording quality at the same file sizes. However, this format is somewhat less compatible with non-Apple music players and software. (Luckily, you can still burn AAC tracks to an audio CD, just as you can MP3 tracks.) The tracks that you download from the Music Store are in AAC format, and AAC music files are becoming more popular for downloading on the Internet. Apple Lossless: Another format direct from Apple, Apple Lossless format (also known as ALAC) provides the best compromise between file size and sound quality. These tracks are encoded without loss of quality, although Apple Lossless tracks are somewhat larger than AAC. This format is generally the favorite of discerning audiophiles. AIFF: This standard Mac audio format produces sound of the absolute highest quality. This high quality, however, also means that the files are pretty doggone huge. AIFF recordings typically require about 10MB per minute of audio. WAV: Not to be outdone, Microsoft created its own audio file format (WAV) that works much like AIFF. It can reproduce sound at a higher quality than MP3, but the file sizes are very large, similar in size to AIFF files. CD audio: Music can play audio CDs. Because you don’t usually store CD audio anywhere but on an audio CD, file size is no big whoop — but again, 10MB of space per minute of music is a good approximation. MP2: A close cousin of the far more popular MP3 format, MP2 is the preferred format in radio broadcasting and is a standard audio format for HDV camcorders. It produces file sizes similar to MP3 format. Audiobooks: You no longer need cassettes or audio CDs to enjoy your spoken books. Music can play them for you, or you can send them to your iOS device for listening on the go. Streaming Internet radio: You can listen to a continuous broadcast of songs from your favorite Internet radio stations, with quality levels ranging from what you’d expect from FM radio to the full quality of an audio CD. You can’t save the streaming songs within Music, but streaming radio is still great fun. Unlike services like Spotify, Pandora, and Apple Music, these streaming radio stations are free and don’t require a subscription! Watching video with TV Apple has organized all the video you’ve bought from the iTunes Store into the new TV application; full-length movies and TV shows are easy to browse and enjoy on your MacBook. (Or, with an Apple TV unit connected to your home theater system, you can watch those movies and shows on your MacBook from the comfort of your sofa on the other side of your living room, or even from your bedroom on the other side of your house. The following image illustrates the TV window, which is quite similar to the Music window. (Why mess with perfection?) You’ll note the strip of source buttons across the TV toolbar, which make it easy to display all of your films and TV shows, as well as top movies or TV shows that you can rent or purchase. (Even content for kids is included!) Note that the Movies, TV Shows ,and Kids buttons take you to featured video that you haven’t purchased or rented yet. Some selections are free, but most are pay-to-view. The Library button, however, displays only the video content that you’ve already purchased, so it’s always available on your MacBook. Watching video in TV couldn’t be simpler. Click the Library button on the TV toolbar and then select either the Movies or TV Shows entry in the Sidebar. (Music videos appear as a Smart Playlist within the Music sidebar.) From your collection, you can do the following: Double-click a video thumbnail. If you interrupted a video by quitting TV, the application continues the video at the point where the application was closed. Drag a QuickTime–compatible video clip from the Finder window to the TV window. (These clips typically include video files ending in .mov, .mv4, or .mp4.) TV plays video in full-screen mode on your MacBook. Move your pointer to display a control strip at the bottom of the screen, sporting the standard slider bar that you can drag to move through the video (as well as a volume control and Fast Forward/Reverse buttons). You can also pause the video by clicking the Pause button. Icons at the far-right end allow you to jump to specific scenes and select subtitles if desired. To exit the video, press Esc or click the X button in the top-left corner of the screen. Films may display an Extras button, which you can click to view additional content, such as deleted scenes. The iTunes replacement apps will not disappoint.

Article / Updated 12-10-2019

Your MacBook comes packed with neat features and even a few cool tricks, especially with macOS Catalina, most of which you’ll likely want to protect. Use these tips to help safeguard your MacBook privacy. Although it’s diminutive, the padlock icon that appears to the left of the website’s name in the address box when you’re connected to a secure website means a great deal! A secure site encrypts the information that you send and receive, making it much harder for those of unscrupulous ideals to obtain private data, such as credit-card numbers and personal information. You can click the padlock icon (next to the site name) to display the security certificate in use on that particular site. A secure site web address begins with the prefix https: instead of http:. (The extra s stands for secure. A Good Thing.) How to change the cookies acceptance plan on your MacBook First, a definition of this ridiculous term. A cookie— a small file that a website automatically saves on your Mac’s drive — contains information that the site will use on your future visits. A site might save a cookie to preserve your site preferences for the next time or (as with shopping on Amazon.com) to identify you automatically and customize the offerings that you see. In and of themselves, cookies aren’t bad things. Unlike a virus, a cookie file isn’t going to replicate itself or wreak havoc on your system, and only the original site can read the cookie that it creates. But many folks don’t appreciate acting as a gracious host for a slew of snippets of personal information (not to mention that some cookies have highly suggestive names, which can lead to all sorts of conclusions; end of story.) You can opt to disable cookies or set Safari to accept cookies only from the sites you choose to visit. To change the Cookie Acceptance Plan (CAP, for those who absolutely crave acronyms)on your MacBook, follow these steps: Choose Safari→Preferences. Click the Privacy tab of the Preferences dialog. Click Block All Cookies. If a site’s cookies are blocked, you might have to take care of things manually, such as by providing a password on the site that used to be read automatically from the cookie. Feeling nervous about the data stored by the websites you visit? You can always delete all that stored information with a single click. On the Privacy pane of the Safari Preferences dialog, click the Manage Website Data button; then click the Remove All button. You’ll be asked to confirm your draconian decision. The Privacy pane also includes the Prevent Cross-Site Tracking check box, which works . . . sometimes. Unfortunately, it’s up to a particular website whether to honor Safari’s request for privacy. Also, some sites — such as Amazon.com — use tracking legitimately to keep track of your likes and purchases each time you return. Apple includes Intelligent Tracking Prevention to Safari; this feature is automatic and works behind the scenes, helping prevent unwanted intrusion into your browsing history. If you’re especially worried about leaving a trail of breadcrumbs behind you on the web, select this check box. Finally, you can use the websites tab of Safari Preferences to limit websites’ access to your MacBook’s Location Services feature, which can pinpoint your current location. Facebook’s website, for example, uses Location Services if you allow it to do so. Access can be set through prompting, or you can deny access to Location Services for all websites. Banish pesky iCloud Keychain passwords Catalina uses keychains to automatically provide all sorts of login information throughout your MacBook’s system. In Safari, for example, the password information is automatically entered for you whenever a website you’ve approved requires you to log in. To be more specific, many readers will adopt iCloud Keychain, which stores password and credit-card information for Safari and wirelessly distributes that information automatically to other Macs and iOS devices that use the same Apple ID. Apple even says that the passwords generated by iCloud Keychain are more complex and harder to crack, which sounds more secure, right? Security experts would rather keep a pet piranha in a cereal bowl than use this feature! Why? Whenever you’re logged in, anyone who’s using your MacBook gets control of your online persona (in the form of your passwords to secure websites). Safari, like an obedient puppy, automatically provides access to sites with stored keychain passwords. If you’d like to take the far-less-convenient-but-much-safer, old-fashioned route of remembering your passwords yourself, follow this lead: Visit the Apple ID pane in System Preferences, click the iCloud entry on the left side of the dialog, and deselect the Keychain check box to turn the iCloud Keychain feature off. Now that you’ve been warned you thoroughly, it’s time to mention the Passwords tab of Safari’s Preferences dialog for those who do decide to use iCloud Keychain. On the Passwords tab, you can view the iCloud Keychain information that Safari uses and remove a specific password or all passwords from your iCloud Keychain. Handling your MacBook’s history As you might imagine, your MacBook’s History file leaves a very clear set of footprints indicating where you’ve been on the web. To delete the contents of the History menu, choose History→Clear History (at the bottom of the History menu). Safari also allows you to specify an amount of time to retain entries in your History file. Open the Safari Preferences dialog, click the General tab, and then make a choice from the Remove History Items pop-up menu to specify the desired amount of time. Items can be rolled off daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, or yearly. You can also turn off automatic removal. Setting notifications on your MacBook In Catalina, Safari can allow websites you’ve approved to send you messages through your MacBook’s Notification Center. The website tab of Safari’s Preferences dialog controls which sites are given this functionality. To prevent a website from sending notifications, click the Notifications entry in the list on the left side of the dialog, and choose Deny from the drop-down menu next to the offending site. You can also remove a website from the list by clicking it and then clicking the Remove button. Avoiding those annoying pop-up ads on your MacBook Most people hate pop-up ads. To block many of those pop-up windows that advertise everything from low-rate mortgages to “sure-thing” Internet casinos, open the Safari Preferences dialog on your MacBook, click the websites tab, and select the Pop-up Windows entry in the list on the left side. Now you can allow or block pop-up ads for each website you visit!

Article / Updated 12-10-2019

Have you upgraded to Catalina from the previous version of macOS, Mojave? If so, you’ve opened the door to several new features. (And if you’re not rubbing your hands together with gleeful anticipation, you should be.) Here, you’ll find descriptions of the new features that ship with the latest version of macOS. Note that some other new Catalina features are available, such as the new Day, Month, and Year display options for Photos, for example. The new features you find here, however, are the real standouts in macOS Catalina. Let the fun begin! Catalina’s protected system volume For the first time in the long and storied history of our favorite operating system, macOS (and Mac OS X before that, and just plain OS X before that), the critical system files that make up Catalina are now housed in a separate volume from your applications, documents, and data. This separate system volume is marked as read-only, so you can’t change it manually (even using your Administrator account). Neither, of course, can viruses or malicious applications written by hackers, which is the entire point. This new, protected system volume effectively secures Catalina from unwelcome interference and eliminates accidental damage that MacBook owners could inflict upon their own laptops! It’s important to note that the new Catalina system volume is limited only to operating system files. Because your applications and documents are kept in a separate volume on your internal drive, they’re still subject to attacks from viruses and malicious applications. Therefore, it’s strongly recommended that you still install antivirus software on your MacBook! Also, your applications and documents can still be accidentally erased or overwritten as before, so it’s still vitally important for you to back up your important documents and data (preferably with Time Machine). In other words, your stuff is still vulnerable, and you still need to safeguard your system. Catalina’s protected system volume won’t slow the operation of your MacBook (and requires no configuration or maintenance on your part), so if you like, you can promptly forget about it! (Don’t forget to enjoy that feeling of security from time to time, though.) Porting iOS applications to Catalina The arrival of Catalina makes it easier for software developers to port their iPad and iPhone applications to macOS. In other words, it now takes less time and effort to create a version of an iPad or iPhone app that will run on your MacBook. Naturally, this situation results in far more applications in the App Store that will be available for your MacBook in the future (A Very Good Thing indeed). Apple has also enhanced its support for third-party cloud storage providers such as Dropbox and OneDrive, so you’ll likely see more configuration and display options for your third-party online storage within Catalina. Catalina brings the arrival of Music, TV, and Podcasts It’s downright hard for macOS old-timers to believe, but the arrival of Catalina officially marks the retirement of the iTunes application! Naturally, you won’t lose a single song, movie, TV show, or podcast subscription that you’ve collected in your iTunes libraries over the years. iTunes is simply being replaced by three separate applications: Music, TV, and Podcasts. These three applications have been staples of iOS devices such as the iPhone and iPad for some time now. (Consider this move to be part of a continuing effort on Apple’s part to bring successful elements of iOS to the world of Mac computers.) Instead of taking an integrated approach to playing music and video or listening to podcasts, Catalina separates and simplifies the three applications, with each application concentrating on one type of media. (Note, however that Apple’s online media shopping center is still called the iTunes Store. Go figure.) Catalina has a new home for Apple ID Looking for all the specifics on your Apple ID account? In Catalina, your Apple ID account receives its own pane in System Preferences. The Apple ID pane is the clearinghouse for displaying and changing your account information, and you’ll find all the options for iCloud features here as well. You can manage your iCloud use, as well as purchase additional iCloud storage if you need it. Convenience is the key! Catalina extends your MacBook with Sidecar Do you own a late-model iPad running iOS version 13? If so, rejoice! Catalina introduces a new feature called Sidecar, which allows your iPad to act as a secondary display for your MacBook. You can use Sidecar to extend your Catalina Desktop (giving you more screen real estate for applications and Finder windows), or you can use the Apple Pencil input device to turn your iPad into a drawing tablet. To turn Sidecar on, click the AirPlay icon on the Finder window’s menu bar, and choose your compatible iPad from the menu that appears. If you decide on a wired connection, you’ll need a USB-C cable that can connect to your iPad. As long as your iPad is within 30 feet of your MacBook, however, you can connect wirelessly by using Bluetooth. Sidecar can be configured from a new pane within System Preferences. When you’ve made the connection between the two devices, Catalina re-creates the MacBook Pro Touch Bar display at the bottom of the iPad — a genuine boon to owners of older MacBook and MacBook Air models that don’t have a Touch Bar. Catalina tells you about your Screen Time Another new feature inherited from iOS, Catalina’s Screen Time application makes it easy to monitor how you use your MacBook. If you’re interested in controlling access to applications or setting limits on the time you spend surfing, gaming, or chatting, Screen Time is the solution. (Imagine being able to schedule a consistent downtime period every day so that you no longer end up working until the wee hours of the morning.) You can also control your children’s access to Catalina’s applications and features, making Screen Time a powerful parenting tool. The Family Sharing feature has also been moved to Screen Time, allowing you to configure your family’s iOS devices as well. Screen Time is configured from a new pane in System Preferences. Catalina makes unsubscribing easy It may not be a major feature, but it’s Catalina’s answer to some MacBook user prayers: Apple has added an Unsubscribe feature to Mail! If you’re like some other diehard Mac users, you often find yourself added to a company’s email mailing list — without your permission — and desperately desire to be left alone. In the past, you’d have to search the list messages for an Unsubscribe link, or even contact the source of the list directly to demand that you be removed. Within Catalina, if Mail detects that a message is from a mailing list, it displays an Unsubscribe button in the message header, allowing you to unsubscribe from the mailing list quickly and conveniently. Huzzah!