Mojave Articles

Article / Updated 02-20-2019

macOS Mojave comes with a plethora of useful utilities that make using your computer more pleasant or make you more productive when you use your computer or both. The first item, Calculator, is in your Applications folder (Go →  Applications; keyboard shortcut: Command+Shift+A). All other items mentioned in this article are in your Utilities folder (Go→ Utilities; keyboard shortcut: Command +Shift+U), which you’ll find inside your Applications folder. Calculator in macOS Mohave Need to do some quick math? The Calculator application gives you a simple calculator with all the basic number-crunching functions found in a pocket calculator. To use it, you can either click the keys with the mouse or type numbers and operators (math symbols such as +, –, and =) using the number keys on your keyboard (or numeric keypad, if you have one). Calculator also offers a paper tape (Window → Show Paper Tape) to track your computations — and, if you want, provide a printed record. It can even speak numbers aloud (Speech → Speak Button Pressed and Speech → Speak Result). Check out Calculator here. In my humble opinion, the most useful feature in Calculator (after Paper Tape) is the Convert menu — more specifically, the currency-conversion feature. It checks the Internet for the current exchange rate before calculating the conversion for you. That’s very cool. Beyond that, Calculator has three modes: Basic, Scientific, and Programmer. Basic is the default, and you access the other two modes as follows: Pressing Command +2 (View→Scientific) turns the formerly anemic calculator into a powerful scientific calculator. If you prefer Reverse Polish Notation (RPN), press Command + R. Choosing View → Programmer (Command +3) turns Calculator into the programmer’s friend, letting you display your data in binary, octal, hexadecimal, ASCII, and Unicode. It also performs programming operations, such as shifts and byte swaps. (If you’re a programmer, you know what all that means; if you aren’t, it really doesn’t matter.) And that’s about all you need to know to use the Calculator like a pro. Moving right along, the remaining applications in this section can be found in your Utilities folder (Go  →  Utilities; keyboard shortcut: Command +Shift+U): macOS Mojave Activity Monitor In Unix, the underlying operating system that powers macOS, applications and other things going on behind the scenes are called processes. Each application and the operating system itself can run a number of processes at the same time. In this figure, you see 288 different processes running, most of them behind the scenes. Note that when this screenshot was taken, half a dozen or more programs were running, including Finder, Safari, and Activity Monitor itself. To display the two CPU monitor windows on the right side of the Activity Monitor window as shown, choose Window→ CPU Usage (Command +2) and CPU History (Command+3). You also select what appears in the Activity Monitor’s dock icon — CPU Usage, CPU History, Network Usage, Disk Activity, or the Activity Monitor — by choosing View→Dock Icon. All but the Activity Monitor icon appear live, meaning that they update every few seconds to reflect the current state of affairs. Note that you can’t display CPU Usage or CPU History in a window and in the dock icon at the same time — those two items can be displayed in the dock or a window, but not both. To choose how often these updates occur, choose View→Update Frequency. Setting Activity Monitor to update more frequently causes it to use more CPU cycles, which can decrease overall performance slightly. Finally, the bottom portion of the Activity Monitor window displays information for the active tab. Select the CPU, Memory, Energy, Disk, or Network, and the middle and bottom portions of the Activity Monitor window change to reflect that selection. Because all Macs that can run Mojave have at least a dual-core processor, you’ll see at least two, and possibly four or more, CPUs displayed in Activity Monitor: one for each core. Geeks and troubleshooters (and even you) can use Activity Monitor to identify what processes are running, which user owns the process, and how much CPU capacity and memory the process is using. You can even use this feature to quit or force-quit a process that you think might be causing problems for you. Messing around in Activity Monitor isn’t a good idea for most users. If you’re having problems with an application or with macOS, try quitting open applications, force-quitting applications (press Command+Option+Esc — the Mac three-finger salute), or logging out and then logging back in again before you start mucking around with killing processes. Disk Utility in macOS Mojave If you’re having problems with your hard drive or need to make changes to it, Disk Utility is a good place to start. Start by clicking a disk or volume in the column on the left and then click one of the buttons on the toolbar as described in the following sections. Volume +/– The Volume + and Volume – buttons, new in Mojave, make it easier than ever to subdivide your hard or solid-state disk into virtual volumes, which look and act like separate disks but are volumes on a single disk. If you think this sounds a lot like what we used to call partitioning, it is. Although APFS will allow you to create partitions instead of volumes, I can’t think of a good reason for you to do so. One more thing: You can’t currently use an APFS volume as a Time Machine backup disk. If you try, Time Machine will complain that the disk’s file system is incompatible and ask to erase and reformat it as HFS+. Partition button Speaking of partitions, you can use the Partition button to create disk partitions (multiple volumes on a single disk) on disks formatted as HFS+. macOS treats each partition as a separate disk. The Partition button is enabled only when an eligible item is selected in the column on the left. Partitioning a drive lets you create multiple volumes. A volume is a storage space that (from the Mac’s point of view) looks and acts just like a hard drive. A partition is simply a designated volume on a drive, separate from all other partitions (volumes). You can create any number of partitions, but it’s a good idea to limit yourself to no more than a small handful. By the same token, it’s absolutely not necessary to use partitions unless you’re running Boot Camp. Many users never partition a hard drive and get along just fine. If you do choose to partition, you should probably limit the number of partitions you create. An iMac with a 1TB drive will do just fine as shipped (with a single partition); there’s no need to create more. Be careful here. Although some adjustments can be made to partitions without loss of data, not all adjustments can. You’ll be warned if what you’re about to do will permanently erase your data, but I thought I’d give you fair warning first. And, of course, you should always have a backup before mucking with your disk. Finally, if you click the Partition button with an APFS disk selected in the sidebar, you’ll see an explanation that suggests you might be happier with a volume than with a partition, as shown here. First Aid button If you suspect that something’s not quite right with your startup disk (or any other disk connected to your Mac), the First Aid button in Disk Utility should be among your first stops. Use First Aid to verify and (if necessary) repair an ailing drive. To use it, select a volume icon in the list on the left and then click the First Aid button in the upper-left corner of the Disk Utility window. A sheet asks if you’d like to run First Aid on the selected disk; click Run to do it or Cancel to dismiss the sheet. When it’s finished, you’ll get information about any problems that the software finds. If the disk you’re trying to repair is your startup disk, Disk Utility will warn you that it needs to temporarily lock the boot volume and that other apps will be unresponsive until the operation has completed, as shown. Go have a cup of coffee or something — the process takes 15-30 minutes for most disks. If First Aid doesn’t find any problems, you can go on your merry way, secure in the knowledge that that disk is A-okay. If First Aid turns up a problem that it can’t fix, it will advise you what to do next. You can’t use Disk Utility First Aid to fix a CD or DVD, nor can you use it to fix most disk image (.DMG) files. These types of disks are read-only and can’t be altered. Erase button Use Erase to format (completely erase) any disk except the current startup disk. When you format a disk, you erase all information on it permanently. Formatting can’t be undone — so unless you’re absolutely sure this is what you want, don’t do it. Unless you have no use for whatever’s currently on the disk, make a complete backup of the disk before you format it. If the data is critical, you should have at least two (or even three) known-to-be-valid backup copies of that disk before you reformat. After clicking the Erase button, a sheet drops down with a space for you to name the disk you’re about to erase and you see a drop-down Format menu so you can choose the disk format, as shown here. Use Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for rotational and hybrid disks, use APFS for solid-state drives, and don’t try any of the other options unless you have a good reason. Don’t try any of the other options (case-sensitive, encrypted, and other variations) unless you know what you’re doing and have a darn good reason. Formatting a disk using many of these options can cause Mac software to misbehave. Don’t do it. Only choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) or APFS — unless you’re prepared to spend time troubleshooting when your Mac doesn’t work as expected. Mount/Unmount button A drive can be connected but not available to your Mac. For example, when you eject a hard drive or SSD, it’s still connected to the computer but doesn’t appear in Finder. This is called an unmounted disk. The Mount/Unmount button lets you dismount (eject) or mount a connected disk or partition on a disk. For reasons that should be obvious, you can’t eject the disk from which you booted. Info button Click the Info button to see myriad technical details about the selected disk, including its size, capacity, and free and used space. Grapher Grapher is a venerable piece of eye candy that shows off your CPU’s computational power. A quick, visual math instructor, Grapher can graph equations in two or three dimensions and speaks hexadecimal, octal, base ten (decimal), and binary to boot. You can even graph curves, surfaces, inequalities, differential equations, discrete series, and vector and scalar fields … whatever that means. Keychain Access A keychain is a way to consolidate your passwords — your Mac login password, your email password, and passwords required by any websites. Keychain Access is the application you use to manage those passwords. Here’s how it works: You use a single password to unlock your keychain (which holds your various passwords), and then you don’t have to remember all your other passwords. Rest assured that your passwords are secure because only a user who has your keychain password can reach the other password-protected applications. The Keychain Access utility is particularly cool if you have multiple email accounts and each one has a different password. Just add them all to your keychain, and you can get all your mail at the same time with one password. A special master keychain called the Login Keychain is created automatically for every macOS Mojave user and unlocked automatically when you log into your account. Here’s how to add passwords to your login keychain: To add passwords for applications: If the application supports the keychain, the first time you log in with your username and password, a dialog will ask if you want to add this login to the keychain. Click Yes. How do you know which programs support the Keychain Access utility? You don’t, until you’re prompted to save your password in a keychain in that Open dialog, connect window, or so forth. If a program supports Keychain Access, it offers a check box for it in the user ID/password dialog or window. If that doesn’t happen the first time you provide your password, the program doesn’t support macOS keychains and you’re out of luck. You can add the account details manually (see the next bullet), but they won’t be provided automatically when the app requests them — you’ll have to open Keychain Access to look them up. The upside is that your passwords are secure as long as they’re stored in a keychain. If you select the User Names and Passwords check box on the AutoFill tab of Safari’s Preferences window (Safari → Preferences or Command +, [comma]), you don’t have to add sites, accounts, or passwords manually. Instead, the first time you visit a site that requires an account name and a password, Safari asks whether you would like to save your password, and then it does so. To add a website (or other) password to a keychain manually: If your login credentials aren’t being filled in automatically for a website, you can add them manually using the Keychain Access application. Just click the little + (plus) button at the top of the main window and type (or copy and paste) the URL of the page in the Keychain Item Name text field. Then type your username in the Account Name field and your password in the Password field, as shown. (If you’re adding a password for something other than a website, type a descriptive name in the Keychain Item Name field rather than a URL.) Click the little key to the right of the password field to use the Password Assistant window, which can help you select a memorable high-quality password, as shown here. To use the new URL password, use Safari to open the URL. If the account name and password aren’t filled in for you automatically, choose Edit→ AutoFill Form Command+Shift+A) and they will be. iCloud Keychain syncing is a great feature that makes keychains even better. Turn it on (System Preferences →iCloud), and your Safari passwords will be securely synced to (and from) all your Apple devices, including iPhones and iPads. Just remember that this makes all your passwords available on all your devices. That’s handy, but if any of your devices aren’t secured with passwords or passcodes or are shared with others, all your passwords could be at risk. Just think about it before you enable iCloud Keychain. Migration Assistant Migration Assistant is pretty much a one-trick pony, but that pony is a prizewinner. You use Migration Assistant to transfer your account and other user information from another Mac, another volume on the current Mac, or a Time Machine backup. You need to authenticate as an administrator to use it, but it’s a pretty handy way to transfer an entire account without having to re-create your preferences and other settings. When you first installed Mojave (or when you booted your nice, new Mojave–based Mac for the first time), the setup utility asked you whether you wanted to transfer your information from another Mac. If you answered in the affirmative, it ran Migration Assistant. It’s not just for new Mojave installs. You can launch this one-trick-pony anytime to transfer all or some user accounts, applications, settings, and files from another Mac, PC, or Time Machine backup to this one. You can use it also after replacing a hard drive or reinstalling macOS. Last but not least, Migration Assistant can import user accounts, applications, settings, and files from Windows PCs as well as from Macs. System Information System Information (the App Formerly Known as System Profiler) is a little program that is launched when you click the System Report button in the About This Mac window (Apple→ About This Mac) or double-click its icon in the Utilities folder inside your Applications folder. It provides information about your Mac. (What a concept!) If you’re curious about arcane questions such as what processor your Mac has or what devices are stashed inside it or are connected to it, give this baby a try. Click various items in the Contents list on the left side of the window, and information about the item appears on the right side of the window. Feel free to poke around this little puppy as much as you like; it’s benign and can’t hurt anything. If you ever have occasion to call for technical support for your Mac, software, or peripherals, you’re probably going to be asked to provide information from System Information, so don’t get rid of it just because you don’t care about this kind of stuff. Terminal macOS is based on Unix. If you need proof — or if you actually want to operate your Mac as the Unix machine that it is — Terminal is the place to start. Because Unix is a command line–based operating system, you use Terminal to type your commands. You can issue commands that show a directory listing, copy and move files, search for filenames or contents, or establish or change passwords. In short, if you know what you’re doing, you can do everything on the command line that you can do in macOS. For most folks, that’s not a desirable alternative to the windows and icons of the Finder window. But take my word for it; true geeks who are also Mac lovers get all misty-eyed about the combination of a command line and a graphical user interface. You can wreak havoc upon your poor operating system with Terminal. You can harm your Mojave in many ways that just aren’t possible using mere windows and icons and clicks. Before you type a single command in Terminal, think seriously about what I just said. And if you’re not 100 percent certain about the command you just typed, don’t even think about pressing Return.

Article / Updated 01-31-2019

The Home app, new to macOS Mojave, is all about controlling from your Mac smart HomeKit accessories such as smart door locks, lightbulbs, thermostats, garage-door openers, and other devices that lend themselves to being smartened and controlled remotely. The good news is that with Mojave’s new Home app you can turn lights on and off, lock and unlock doors, and do much more, right from your Mac, as long as the accessories are compatible with HomeKit, Apple’s framework for controlling smart devices around your house, and are connected to the same Wi-Fi network as your Mac. For remote control over the Internet, you’ll need a device to act as a hub—an Apple TV, an iPad, or a HomePod speaker—to control devices over the Internet using a Mac (or iDevice). Before you get too excited, if you’re not already using the Home app on an iDevice, you’ll need to start now because you can’t add new HomeKit accessories with the Mac Home app. Unless or until you add your HomeKit-enabled accessories to the Home app on an iPhone or iPad, you’re out of luck. If you do have devices you’ve added to the Home app on your iDevice, you can use the Mojave Home app to turn them on or off. You can also create or edit scenes, which let you control multiple devices simultaneously, such as all the lights in the office. You can also create or edit automations, which control devices or scenes based on the time of day or location of a device (usually an iPhone).

Article / Updated 01-31-2019

Voice Memos is a new addition from iOS to macOS Mojave; it's a simple one-trick-pony of an app that lets you record, play back, and share short audio recordings. Consider all the times you’d find it useful to have an audio recorder in your MacBook — perhaps when you’re attending a lecture or interviewing an important source (a big deal for writers). Or maybe you just want to record a quick reminder (“Pick up milk after work”). Well, you’re in luck. Mojave now includes the same built-in digital voice recorder you know and love on your iPhone (and other iDevices). How to record a voice memo Launch Voice Memos, and you’ll see the simple window displayed here. Recordings use your Mac’s built-in microphone by default. If you prefer to use a different microphone, select it in the Sound System Preferences pane’s Input tab before you begin recording. Click the big red button to start a recording. The waveform that moves across the screen as Voice Memo detects sounds helps you gauge the recording level. You can pause a recording by clicking the red pause button, and then click it again to resume recording. A timer on the screen indicates the length of your recording session (24.36 in the figure). Click Done when you’re finished to save the recording. It’s that easy. To adjust the recording level, visit the Sound System Preferences pane’s Input tab and adjust the Input Volume slider. How to listen to a voice memo After you capture your thoughts or musings, you’ll probably want to play them back. To do so, just click the voice memo you want to hear (Second Recording in the figure), and then click the triangular Play button to listen. You can drag the playhead (the vertical blue line in the middle of the waveform) to move forward or back in the memo. How to name a voice memo When a memo is added to your list of recordings, it shows up with the date and length of the recording and the uninspiring title New Recording. You could have named it something else at that point, but if you didn’t, you may have a tough time remembering which recording was made for which purpose. Fortunately, you can easily create a custom title after the fact: Click any Voice Memo in the sidebar. Click the name Apple assigned (New Recording 1, New Recording 2, and so on). Type your own name for the voice memo. Professor Snookins on Biology, for example. That’s it. Your recording is duly identified. How to trim a voice memo Maybe the professor you were recording rambled on and on. Fortunately, it’s easy to trim the audio. To do so, first click a recording and then click the Edit button in the upper-left corner of the window. Now, click the trim icon (labeled in the figure) and drag the start and end markers to determine the portion of the audio you want to keep. To conclude the process, click the trim icon — but before you do, I recommend that you preview your edit by clicking the Play button. If you’re happy, click the trim icon. If you make a mistake, choose Edit → Undo immediately to restore the audio you trimmed. You may want to share a Voice Memo with others. No problem. Just click a Voice Memo to select it, and then click the share icon. You then have the option to email the memo or send it in a message. Or you can share it instantly with Mac or iDevice users via AirDrop, or add it to the Notes app. Here’s another cool trick you can do with a recording. Email the recording to yourself, download it onto your Mac, change its extension to .m4r, and then add the recording to iTunes. Presto, you’ve added a ringtone. When you have no further use for a recording, you can remove it from the Voice Memos app by selecting it and pressing Delete (or Backspace).

Article / Updated 01-31-2019

The Apple News app in macOS Mojave gathers articles, images, and videos you might be interested in and displays them in a visually appealing fashion. Participating publishers include ESPN, The New York Times, Hearst, Time, Inc., CNN, Condé Nast, Bloomberg, and many more. What are your interests? You can customize what appears in your News app by scrolling down in the sidebar and clicking the Discover Channels & Topics button at its bottom. When the Follow Your Favorites overlay appears, scroll down and click the items you want to follow in the News app. A red heart appears on each item you click to indicate that you’re following this source. Click the item again and the heart turns from red to gray to indicate that you’re not following this source. When you’ve clicked all the sources you want to follow, click Done and they’ll appear in the Following section of your sidebar. To remove items from the sidebar’s Following or Suggested sections, click the Edit button near the top right of the sidebar. Now, click the – (minus sign) in a red circle to the left of the item’s name, and then click the Remove button that appears to the right of the item’s name. To add a suggested source or to remove a source from either section in the sidebar, hover your cursor over the item and click the heart or heart-with-a-slash icon that appears to the right of the item’s name (and shown in the margin). How News works News creates a customized real-time newsfeed based on the sources you’re following, highlighting stories it expects you to be interested in. The more you read, the better its suggestions become, or at least that’s what Apple says. Click a story to read it; click the < (back button) above the sidebar to return to the main News screen. Or use the handy commands and shortcuts in the View menu, including the following: Next Story (Command  + [) Previous Story (Command + ]) Close Story (Command + U) Check for New Stories (Command   + R) Make Text Bigger (Command   + plus sign) Make Text Smaller (Command   + minus sign) Managing your news on macOS Mojave In addition to the useful commands in the View menu, the News app’s File menu also offers myriad commands that help you manage your news. For example, to help News find stories you’ll enjoy, choose File→ Love Story (Command + L) if you love the story you’re reading; choose File→Dislike Story (Command   + D) if you don’t love it, or choose File →Save Story (Command   + S) to save the story for future reading. You’ll find your saved stories in the Saved Stories section near the bottom of the sidebar. A History section at the bottom of the sidebar can help you find that story you read the other day and now want to share. Finally, check out the other commands in the File menu, which can help fine-tune what you see in News, including: Follow Channel Block Channel Subscribe Discover Channels & Topics Manage Notifications Manage Blocked Channels and Topics And that’s about all you need to know to customize and enjoy news in the new News app.

Article / Updated 01-31-2019

If you’re familiar with the Stocks app from your iDevices, you’re in for a treat because the Stocks app has been overhauled to make it easier to view stock quotes, interactive charts, and top business news from Apple News. When you launch Stocks for the first time, it’s populated with a default set of quotes, indexes Apple thinks you might appreciate, as shown. The default stocks, funds, and indexes are listed in the sidebar on the left; news items appear in the pane on the right. The figure only shows a handful of items; scroll down the sidebar and the main pane to see more. When you open the Stocks app, it displays the latest price for the listed stocks, with two provisos: The quotes are provided in near-real time. The quotes are updated only if your Mac can connect to the Internet. Your stocks also appear by default in Notification Center. If you don’t see stocks in yours, click the Today tab at the top of the screen and then scroll to the bottom of Notification Center and click the Edit button. Now click the + (plus sign) in a green circle next to Stocks to enable it in Notification Center or click the – (minus sign) in a red circle to disable it. Adding and deleting stocks, funds, and indexes Your chance of owning the exact group of stocks, funds, and indexes displayed on the screen is slim, so this section shows you how to add your own stocks, funds, or indexes and delete any or all default ones. Here’s how to add a stock, a fund, or an index: Choose Edit→ Edit Watchlist or use its keyboard shortcut, Command  + L. Click the + icon in the top-left corner of the Stocks window. Type the stock symbol or the name of the company, index, or fund. As you type, the list updates with companies, indexes, and funds that match what you’ve typed so far, with items already in your watchlist appearing in a separate section, as shown. Click the + (plus sign) in a green circle for each stock, fund, or index that you want to add to your watchlist. When you’re finished adding stocks, funds, and indexes, click < (back button) above the Search field to return to your watchlist. Here’s how to delete a stock, fund, or index: Choose Edit→Edit Watchlist or use its keyboard shortcut, Command  + L. Click the – (minus sign) in a red circle to the left of the stock’s name. Click the Remove button that appears to the right of the stock’s name. Repeat Steps 2 and 3 until you’ve deleted all unwanted stocks. Click the Done button. That’s all there is to adding and deleting stocks. To change the order of the items on your watchlist, choose Edit → Edit Watchlist (keyboard shortcut Command  + L), and then drag the three horizontal lines icon to the right of the stock’s name up or down to its new place in the list. Click Done at the top of the Manage Watchlist panel when you’re done rearranging. Details, details, details To see the details for an item, click it; the right side of the window will offer additional information on the item. The interactive chart described in the next section appears at the top of the panel; don’t forget to scroll down for additional news. Charting a course In Figure 14-3, check out the bunch of numbers and letters above the chart, namely 1D, 1W, 1M, 3M, 6M, 1Y, 2Y, 5Y, 10Y, and ALL. They stand for 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, and 2, 5, 10, and all recorded years, respectively. Click one and the chart is updated to reflect that period of time. (In the figure, 6M is selected.) You can do the two other very cool things with charts: Hover your cursor over the chart to see the value for that day. Click and drag to see the difference in values between two days. By default, the Stocks app displays the change in a stock’s price in dollars. You can instead see the change expressed as a percentage or as the stock’s market capitalization. Simply click the number next to any stock (green numbers are positive; red numbers are negative) to toggle the display for all stocks from dollar to percent change to market cap. For example, if your stocks, funds, and indexes are currently displayed as dollars, clicking any one of them switches them all to percent, and then clicking again switches them all to market cap (as shown). Another method requires a trip to the View menu, where you can choose Price Change, Percentage Change, or Market Cap. While the View menu is open, check out its other useful commands, which include the following: If this is the complete list of View menu commands, just delete the text after “useful commands” Make Text Bigger (Command   + plus sign) Make Text Smaller (Command + minus sign) Next Story (Command   + [) Previous Story (Command  + ]) Close Story (Command  + U) And that’s about all you need to know to enjoy and be educated by Mojave’s Stocks app.

Article / Updated 01-31-2019

Boot Camp is macOS Mojave’s built-in technology that allows you to run Microsoft Windows 10 and (on some Mac models) Windows 7 or 8 on Mojave–capable Macs. If your Mac meets the following requirements, you can run Windows on your Mac (if you so desire): A Mojave–capable Mac (of course) A hard drive that isn’t already partitioned (Optional) A printer (for printing the instructions) It’s optional ‘cause you could just email them to yourself … . A full install copy of Microsoft Windows 7 or newer (Windows 8 Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate edition or Windows 10) You really do need a full retail copy of Windows: one that was purchased in a retail box. If your copy of Windows came with your PC, you probably can’t install it in Boot Camp. To install Windows on your Mac, here are the basic steps: Launch the Boot Camp Assistant application, which is in your Utilities folder. This step creates a partition on your hard drive for your Windows installation. Install Windows on the new partition. From now on, you can hold down Option during startup and choose to start up from either the macOS Mojave disk partition or the new Windows partition. If running Windows on your Mac appeals to you, you may want to check out Parallels Desktop (around $80) or VirtualBox (free). Both programs allow you to run Windows — even older versions like XP and Vista — as well as Linux on your Mac without partitioning your hard drive or restarting every time you want to use Windows. In fact, you can run Mac and Windows programs simultaneously with these products. One last thing: Apple has a special Boot Camp support page on the web.

Article / Updated 01-31-2019

All Macs are Energy Star–compliant (and have been for years), allowing you to preset your machine to turn itself off at a specific time or after a specified idle period. To manage your Mac’s energy-saving features, open the Energy Saver System Preferences pane by choosing Apple→System Preferences and clicking the Energy Saver icon. If you have a notebook computer, you have two mostly identical tabs — Battery and Power Adapter — in your Energy Saver System Preferences pane. The Battery tab controls your notebook Mac’s behavior when it’s running on battery power (not plugged in); the Power Adapter tab controls its behavior when it is plugged in. If you have a desktop Mac, you won’t have tabs, but you do have most of the same controls, including a pair of sliders that control sleep times for your computer and display. To enable Computer or Display sleep, move the appropriate slider to the desired amount of time. You can choose any number between 1 minute and 3 hours or turn off either type of sleep entirely by moving its slider all the way to the right, to Never. Setting the display to sleep is handy if you want your Mac to keep doing what it’s doing but you don’t need to use the monitor. And if you’re a notebook user, Display Sleep will save you battery power. To wake up your Mac from its sleep, merely move your mouse or press any key. Sometimes moving the mouse or a finger on the trackpad won’t wake a sleeping Mac, but a keystroke will. So try both (or all three) before you give up. Below the Sleep sliders are some check boxes for other useful energy settings, such as the following: Put the Hard Disk(s) to Sleep When Possible: Enabling this option forces your hard drive to sleep after a few minutes of inactivity. It’s not a particularly useful feature on a desktop Mac, but if you have a laptop, letting your hard drive sleep when it’s idle will save you some battery power. Wake for Wi-Fi Network Access: Enable this option if you want your Mac to wake up automatically for Wi-Fi network access. If you have a laptop, you’ll have some additional options, including Slightly Dim the Display While on Battery Power (Battery tab): The display dims slightly and uses less power when running on the battery. Enable Power Nap while on Battery Power (Battery tab): This option allows your Mac to check for new email, calendar, and other iCloud updates while it’s sleeping. Enable Power Nap While Plugged into a Power Adapter (Power Adapter tab): This option allows your Mac to back up to Time Machine as well as check for new email, calendar, and other iCloud updates while it’s sleeping. Prevent Computer from Sleeping Automatically When the Display Is Off (Power Adapter tab): Prevents sleep when the lid is closed and the display is off. Show Battery Status in the Menu Bar: This option adds a little battery-status indicator icon and menu. Finally, to start up, shut down, or put your Mac to sleep at a predetermined time, click the Schedule button and then select the appropriate check box and choose the appropriate options from the pop-up menus.

Article / Updated 01-31-2019

This System Preferences pane in macOS Mojave is mostly designed for users with disabilities or who have difficulty handling the keyboard, mouse, or trackpad. Select the Show Accessibility Status in Menu Bar check box at the bottom of the window on the left to see the status of all Accessibility Preferences in your menu bar. The pane has five sections listed on the left — General, Vision, Media, Hearing, and Interaction — each of which has one or more subsections. The Vision section’s Display subsection lets you alter the behavior of the screen display. Select the Use Grayscale check box to desaturate your screen into a grayscale display (so it looks kind of like a black-and-white TV). Enable the Invert Colors option to reverse what you’d see onscreen. For example, the Accessibility System Preferences pane looks like the following figure with Invert Colors enabled. Enable the Shake Mouse Pointer to Locate check box and the pointer will grow much larger and easier to see when you wiggle the mouse back and forth quickly a couple of times. The Vision section’s Zoom subsection is where you can turn on a terrific feature called hardware zoom, which lets you make things on your screen bigger by zooming in on them. To control it by keyboard, select the Use Keyboard Shortcuts to Zoom check box. Then you can toggle it on and off with the shortcut Command   +Option+8 and zoom in and out using the shortcuts Command  +Option+= (equal sign) and Command    +Option+– (hyphen), respectively. Finally, the More Options button lets you specify minimum and maximum zoom levels, display a preview rectangle when zoomed out, and toggle image smoothing on or off. Try this feature even if you’re not disabled or challenged in any way; it’s actually a great feature for everyone. Explore the remaining sections and subsections of the Accessibility System Preferences pane at your leisure. Until then, you might find the following useful: If you want the screen to flash whenever an alert sound occurs, choose Audio. To treat a sequence of modifier keys as a key combination, choose Keyboard and then enable Sticky Keys. In other words, you don’t have to simultaneously hold down Command while pressing another key. For example, with Sticky Keys enabled, you can do a standard keyboard shortcut by pressing Command, releasing it, and then pressing the other key. You can select check boxes to tell you (with a beep and/or an onscreen display) what modifier keys have been pressed. As useful as Sticky Keys can be, they’re really awkward in applications like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and other applications that toggle a tool’s state when you press a modifier key. So, if you’re a big Photoshop user, you probably don’t want Sticky Keys enabled. To adjust the delay between a keypress and its activation, choose Keyboard and then enable Slow Keys.

Article / Updated 01-31-2019

Speech Recognition enables your Mac running macOS Mojave to recognize and respond to human speech. The only thing you need to use it is a microphone, which most of you have built right into your Mac (unless it’s a Mac Mini or Mac Pro). Speech Recognition lets you issue verbal commands such as “Get my mail!” to your Mac and have it actually get your email. You can also create AppleScripts and Automator workflows, and Finder Quick Actions (a new Mojave feature) and trigger them by voice. In earlier versions of macOS (pre-Yosemite), you had to explicitly turn on Speech Recognition; in later versions including Mojave, if you’ve enabled Dictation, you can use speech commands to instruct your Mac. To see a list of commands your Mac will understand if you speak them, open the Keyboard System Preferences pane, click the Dictation tab, and enable Enhanced Dictation. Now, open the Accessibility System Preferences pane, click Dictation in the list on the left, and then click the Dictation Commands button. A sheet appears, in which you can enable or disable the available dictation commands, as shown. If you have a laptop or an iMac, you may get better results from just about any third-party microphone or (better still) a headset with a microphone. The mic built into your Mac is okay, but it’s not great. To select a third-party microphone, first connect the mic to your Mac. Then open the Sound System Preferences pane and select it from the list of sound input devices in the Input tab. Below the list is an input volume control (not available with some third-party mics) and a level meter, as shown. Adjust the Input Volume so that most of the dots in the Input Level meter darken (11 of 15 in the figure). You can also choose an external mic in the drop-down menu below the microphone in the Dictation tab of the Keyboard System Preferences pane. However, you’ll need to use the Sound System Preferences pane if you want to adjust your input levels. Speech Recognition is enabled along with Dictation. To give it a try, press Fn twice (or whatever shortcut you set earlier) and speak one of the items from the list of Dictation Commands, such as “Open TextEdit.” If the command is recognized, it will appear in text above the microphone icon, as shown. This technology is clever and kind of fun, but it can also be frustrating when it doesn’t recognize what you say, which occurs too often, if you ask me. And it requires a decent microphone even though the mic built into most Macs works okay. The bottom line is that I’ve never been able to get Speech Recognition to work well enough to continue using it beyond a few minutes at best. Still, it’s kind of cool (and it’s a freebie).

Article / Updated 01-31-2019

Continuity Camera may be macOS Mojave’s coolest and most useful new feature. It lets you use your iOS device as a camera or scanner for your Mac. Before you try it, here are the rules: Both devices (Mac and iDevice) must be logged into the same Apple ID. Both devices must be connected to the same Wi-Fi network. Both devices must have Bluetooth enabled. If you meet those criteria, you can use your iDevice as a camera or scanner and have the resulting photo or scan inserted in your document or saved to the Finder (almost) instantly. To make the magic happen, just right- or Control-click anywhere an image or scan can be used (Notes, Stickies, TextEdit or Pages documents, and the Finder, to name a few). Not every app or document supports Continuity Camera, but if it’s available when you right- or Control-click, you’ll see an item called Import from iPhone or iPad in your shortcut menu, as shown. Choose the device you want to use if you have more than one nearby. Now choose Take Photo or Scan Documents. If you choose Take Photo, the Camera app on your iDevice will launch automatically and you’ll see one of two things on your Mac. If you right- or Control-clicked in a document, you’ll see an overlay below the insertion point, as shown here, left. Or if you right- or Control-clicked in the Finder, you’ll see a dialog, as shown here, right. Take the photo on your iDevice by tapping the shutter release button in the usual fashion. After you snap a shot, a preview appears offering two options: Retake or Use Photo. Tap Retake if you’re dissatisfied with the image and want to try again. When you get a shot you’re happy with, tap Use Photo and the shot appears in the document at the insertion point or on the desktop almost immediately. Choosing Scan Documents is similar to taking a photo, with some minor differences. You’ll still see an overlay or a dialog on your Mac, but this time it says Scan a Document rather than Take a Photo. On your iDevice, however, the Camera app works differently. At the top-right corner is a button that toggles between Auto and Manual. In Auto mode, you move the camera up, down, and all around until the yellow box contains the text you want to scan, as shown here. Or if you tap Auto (which switches the camera to Manual mode), you tap the shutter release button to capture text. After you’ve captured a page, a preview of it appears, but in addition to the two buttons at the bottom of the screen — Retake or Keep Scan — a box appears with circles at each of its four corners, as shown here. Drag the circles until the box contains all the text you want to scan, and then tap Keep Scan. After you tap Keep Scan, the camera reappears with a message: Ready for Next Scan. If you have additional pages to scan, continue capturing them as described; when you’re finished, tap Save in the lower-right corner. And that’s all there is to using Continuity Camera to take pictures or scan documents with your Mac!