iMacs Articles

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 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 02-20-2019

Here, you walk through a should-be-patented Troubleshooting Tree, as well as the macOS built-in troubleshooting application, Disk Utility. You also discover several keystrokes that can make your Mac jump through hoops. The number-one rule: Reboot! The simple fact is that rebooting your iMac can often solve many problems. If you’re encountering these types of strange behavior with your iMac, a reboot might be all you need: Intermittent problems communicating over a network A garbled screen, strange colors, or screwed-up fonts The swirling Beach Ball of Doom that won’t go away after several minutes An application that locks up An external device that seems to disappear or can’t be opened Always try a reboot before beginning to worry. Always. If you’re in the middle of a program, try to save all your open documents before you reboot. That might be impossible, but try to save what you can. As your first (and best) option for shutting down, click the Apple menu and choose Shut Down. If you need to force a locked application (one that’s not responding) to quit so that you can reboot, follow these steps to quash that locked application: Click the Apple menu, and choose Force Quit. The dialog shown here appears. Click the offending application and then click the Force Quit button. When you get everything to quit, you should be able to click the Apple menu and choose Shut Down (not Restart) without a problem. If your iMac simply won’t shut down (or you can’t get the offending application to quit), do what must be done: Press and hold your iMac’s Power button until it shuts itself off. You have to wait about five seconds for your Mac to turn itself off. If holding the Power button down on your iMac doesn’t do the trick, press the Power button and the Left Option+Left Shift+Left Control keyboard shortcut at the same time; then release them all at the same time. (This method also resets some of your iMac’s internal hardware settings, which is often A Good Thing.) Wait about ten seconds. Press the Power button again to restart the computer. After everything is back up, check whether the problem is still apparent. If you use your iMac for an hour or two and the problem doesn’t reoccur, you likely fixed it! Special keys that can come in handy Several keys have special powers over your iMac. I’m not kidding! These keys affect how your computer starts up, and they can really come in handy while troubleshooting. Using Safe mode You can use Safe mode to force macOS to run a directory check of your boot drive and disable any login items that might be interfering with your system. Follow these steps: Choose the Shut Down menu item from the Apple menu to turn off your iMac. Press the Power button to restart the computer. Immediately after you hear the start-up tone, press and hold down the Shift key (and keep holding it down until you see the boot progress indicator). After macOS boots, you’re in Safe mode, and you can check the operation of your iMac by using Disk Utility (or a commercial utility application). When you’re ready to return to normal operation, restart your iMac again (this time, without pressing the Shift key). Start-up keys The table provides the lowdown on start-up keys. Hold down the indicated key either when you push the Power button or immediately after the screen goes blank during a restart. (The Shift key shortcut to Safe mode is the exception; you should press it and hold it down after you hear the start-up tone.) Start-Up Keys and Their Tricks Key Effect on Your iMac C Boots from the CD or DVD that’s loaded in your optical drive (if you have one) Media Eject Ejects the CD or DVD in your optical drive (if you have one) Option Displays a system boot menu, allowing you to choose any bootable operating system on your iMac Shift Boots in Safe mode T Starts your iMac in Target Disk mode (using your Thunderbolt port) Command  +V Shows macOS Console messages Command  +R Boots from the macOS Recovery HD volume Command  +S Starts your iMac in Single User mode Command  +Option+P+R Resets Parameter RAM (PRAM) Some of the keys and combinations in the table might never be necessary for your machine, but an Apple technician might instruct you to use them. All hail Disk Utility, the troubleshooter’s friend The macOS Disk Utility is a handy tool for troubleshooting and repairing your iMac’s drive — you can use it to check the format and health of both drives and volumes (and automatically correct any problems). You can find Disk Utility in the Utilities folder in Launchpad. Fire up Disk Utility to open the rather powerful-looking window shown here. Click the View drop-down list at the left corner of the window, and choose Show All Devices. In the left column of the Disk Utility window, you can now see: The physical drives in your system (the actual hardware). The volumes (the data stored on the drives). You can always tell a volume, because it’s indented below the physical drive entry. Any CD or DVD loaded on your iMac. USB or Thunderbolt external drives. The preceding figure shows that I have one internal drive (the ST3100 entry) and one USB 3.0 external drive (the TOSHIBA USB entry). The hard drive has three volumes (Wolfgang, Ludwig and Johann), and the external drive has one volume (Time Machine). The information in the bottom section of the Disk Utility window is the specifications for the selected drive or volume. This info includes information like the capacity and available space. Using Disk Utility to repair your hard drive carries a couple of caveats: You may not be able to immediately repair problems on your boot drive or boot volume. This limitation actually makes sense, because you’re actually using that drive and volume right now. If First Aid finds a problem on your boot drive but reports it can’t fix that error, boot your iMac from the macOS Recovery HD volume. Reboot and then hold down the Command  +R keyboard shortcut immediately after you hear the start-up chord. Then run Disk Utility from the window that appears. Because you’ve booted your iMac from the Recovery HD volume, you can repair those problems with your start-up drive. (You should be able to select your boot hard drive or volume and click the First Aid button.) You can’t repair CDs and DVDs. CDs and DVDs are read-only media and thus can’t be repaired (at least by Disk Utility). If your iMac is having trouble reading a CD or DVD, wipe the disc with a soft cloth to remove dust, oil, and fingerprints. Should that fail, invest in a disc-cleaning contrivance of some sort. To check and repair problems using First Aid, follow these steps: Click the Go menu and choose Utilities; then double-click the Disk Utility icon. In the list at the left side of the Disk Utility window, click the drive or volume you want to check. Click the First Aid button, and click the Run button that appears. Click Done to exit First Aid. If changes were made (or if you had to boot from the macOS Recovery HD volume), Disk Utility may prompt you to reboot after repairs have been made. The following figure illustrates the details you see if you click Show Details to expand the display. Although some of the messages might include cryptic Linux details, you can still tell from the figure that the operation is successful (and you get that snazzy green check mark). All is well! iMac Troubleshooting Tree As hip-hop artists say, “All right, kick it.” And that’s just what my iMac Troubleshooting Tree is here for. If rebooting your aluminum supercomputer didn’t solve the problem, follow these steps in order until you either find the solution or run out of steps. If you’re not sure quite what’s producing the error, this process is designed to be linear — followed in order — but if you already know that you’re having a problem with one specific peripheral or one specific application, feel free to jump to the steps that concern only hardware or software. Step 1: Investigate recent changes The first step is a simple one that many novice iMac owners forget. Simply retrace your steps and consider what changes you made to your system recently. Here are the most common culprits: Did you just finish installing a new application? Try uninstalling it by removing the application directory and any support files it might have added to your system. (And keep your applications current with the most recent patches and updates from the developers’ websites.) Did you just apply an update or patch to an application? Uninstall the application, and reinstall it without applying the patch. If your iMac suddenly works again, check the developer’s website, or contact the application’s technical support department to report the problem. Did you just update macOS? Updating Mojave can introduce problems in your applications that depend on specific routines and system files. Contact the developer of the application, and look for updated patches that bring your software in line with the latest Mojave updates. Did you just make a change in System Preferences? Return the options you changed to their original settings. (Consider searching the macOS Help system or the Apple support website for more clues.) Did you just connect (or reconnect) an external device? Try unplugging the device and then rebooting to see if the problem disappears. Remember that many peripherals need software drivers to run; without those drivers installed, they don’t work correctly. Check the device’s manual or visit the company’s website to search for software you might need. If you didn’t make any significant changes to your system before you encountered the problem, proceed to the next step. Step 2: Run Disk Utility The next step is to run Disk Utility and use First Aid. The earlier section “Repairing permissions and disks” shows how to complete this task on your macOS boot drive. Step 3: Check your cables Cables can work themselves loose, and sometimes they fail. Check all the cables to your external devices — make sure that they’re snug — and verify that everything’s plugged in and turned on. (Oh, and don’t forget to check for crimps in your cables or even Fluffy’s teeth marks.) If a Thunderbolt or USB device acts up, swap cables around to find whether you have a bad one. A faulty cable can have you pulling your hair out in no time. Step 4: Check your Trash Check the contents of the Trash to see whether you recently deleted files or folders by accident. Click the Trash icon on the Dock to display the contents. If you deleted something by mistake, right-click the item in the Trash and choose Put Back from the contextual menu. I know this one from personal experience. A slight miscalculation while selecting files to delete made an application freeze every time I launched it. Step 5: Check your Internet and network connections Now that always-on DSL and cable modem connections to the Internet are the norm, don’t forget an obvious problem: Your iMac can’t reach the Internet if your ISP is down or your network is no longer working! When you’re at home, a quick visual check of your DSL or cable modem usually indicates whether a connection problem exists between your modem and your ISP. My modem has a set of informative activity lights that I always glance at first. If your iMac is connected to the Internet through a larger home or office network, however, and you can’t check the modem visually, you can check your Internet connection by pinging Apple.com, as follows: Click the Spotlight icon at the right side of the Finder menu bar, and type Network Utility in the search box. Click the Network Utility entry. Click the Ping button. Enter www.apple.com in the Address box. Click Ping. You should see successful ping messages. If you don’t get a successful ping and you can still reach other computers on your network, your cable modem, DSL modem, or ISP is likely experiencing problems. If you can’t reach your network at all, the problem lies in your network hardware or configuration. (In an office environment, your network system administrator will be happy to help you at this point, especially if you’re blood relatives.) Step 6: Think virus If you’ve made it to this point, it’s time to run a full virus scan. Make sure that your antivirus application has the latest updated data files. My antivirus application of choice is Avast Security for Mac from Avast Software. It’s both excellent and free! If a virus is detected, and your antivirus application can’t remove it, try quarantining it instead. This basically disables the virus-ridden application and prevents it from infecting other files. Step 7: Check your login items macOS might encounter problems with applications you’ve marked as login items in System Preferences. Your account’s login items are applications that run automatically every time you log in to your iMac. If one of these login items is to blame for your problems, your iMac will encounter some type of trouble every time you log in. (This is usually the case when you receive an application error message each time you start the computer.) To check the boot process, it’s time to use that fancy Safe Boot mode. Restart your iMac, and press and hold down the Shift key after you hear the start-up tone. Login items are disabled when you’re running in Safe mode, so if your computer starts up without any errors, you know that one or more login items are probably to blame. If your computer starts without problems in Safe mode, the next step is to check your login items. Restart your iMac and then follow this procedure for each item in the login list: Open System Preferences, click Users & Groups, and then click the Login Items button. Select the first item from the list, and remove it. You can delete the selected item by clicking the Delete button, which bears a minus sign. (If a recurring error message mentions a specific application that appears in the Login Items list, that’s your likely culprit, so start by deleting that item.) Restart your iMac. If your iMac is still misbehaving, repeat Steps 2 and 3, and disable a new login item. When your Mac starts up normally, you have discovered the perpetrator. Delete that application, and reinstall it. Don’t forget to add back each of the working login items to the Login Items list using the Add button (which carries a plus sign)! Step 8: Turn off your screen saver The next step is to turn off your screen saver. This remedy is a long shot, but it isn’t unheard of to discover that a faulty, bug-ridden screen saver has locked up your iMac. If you are running a screen saver other than one from Apple, and your computer never wakes up from Sleep mode or hangs while displaying the screen saver, you’ve found your prime suspect. Reboot your iMac (if necessary), open System Preferences, click Desktop & Screen Saver, and click the Screen Saver button. Then do one of the following: Switch to an Apple screen saver. Click the Start After pop-up menu and choose Never. Step 9: Run System Information Ouch. You’ve reached the final step, and you still haven’t uncovered the culprit. At this point, you’ve narrowed the possibilities to a serious problem, such as bad hardware or corrupted files in your macOS System folder. Fortunately, macOS includes the System Information utility, which displays real-time information on the hardware in your system. To start System Information, follow these steps: Choose About This Mac from the Apple menu. Click the System Report button. Click each of the Hardware categories in turn, double-checking to make sure everything looks okay. You don’t have to understand all the technical hieroglyphics. If a Hardware category doesn’t return what you expect or displays an error message, though, that’s suspicious. (If your iMac doesn’t have a specific type of hardware onboard — such as an optical drive — you won’t see information in that category.) The Diagnostics category shows whether your iMac passed the Power On self-test.

Article / Updated 02-01-2019

After you start your iMac for the first time — or if you just upgraded from an earlier version of macOS — your iMac will likely automatically launch the Mojave setup procedure. The setup process takes care of several tasks: Setup provides Mojave your personal information. Your iMac ships with a bathtub full of applications, and many of those use your personal data (like your address and telephone number) to automatically fill out your documents. Apple has recently strengthened its efforts to guard your privacy online. If personal stored information starts you worrying about identity theft, I congratulate you. If you’re using your common sense, it should. However, Apple doesn’t disseminate this information anywhere else, and the applications that use your personal data won’t send it anywhere, either. And the Safari web browser fills out forms on a web page automatically only if you give your permission — and security-conscious iMac owners like me prefer to enter things manually. Setup configures your language and keyboard choices. macOS Mojave is a truly international operating system, so Setup offers you a chance to configure your iMac to use a specific language and keyboard layout. Setup configures your email accounts within Apple Mail. If you already have an email account set up with your Internet service provider (ISP), keep that email account information handy to answer these questions. (The list should include the incoming POP3/IMAP and outgoing SMTP mail servers you’ll be using, your email address, and your login name and password. Don’t worry about those crazy acronyms, though, because your ISP will know exactly what you mean when you ask for this information.) Mojave can even automatically configure many email accounts for you — including web-based services such as Google Mail, Yahoo! Mail, and AOL Mail — if you supply your account ID and password. Sweet. Setup allows you to sign up for an iCloud ID and Apple’s iCloud service. iCloud makes it easy to share data automatically between your iMac and devices like an iPhone or iPad, along with Apple email accounts (through both web mail and the Apple Mail application). Create your iCloud ID (also often called an Apple ID), sign up for iCloud, and take the opportunity to feel smug about owning an Apple computer. Setup sends your registration information to Apple. As a proud owner of an iMac, take advantage of the year of hardware warranty support and the free 90 days of telephone support. You have to register to use ’em, but rest assured that all this info is confidential. Setup launches Migration Assistant. This assistant guides you through the process of migrating (an engineer’s term for copying) your existing user data from your old Mac or PC to your new iMac. Naturally, if your iMac is your first computer, you can skip this step with a song in your heart!

Article / Updated 02-01-2019

If you've just purchased a new iMac, don’t forget an important step: a quick preliminary check to make sure that your iMac survived shipment intact and happy. Although the shipping box that Apple uses for the iMac series is one of the best, your computer could still have met with foul play from its shipping travels. If you can answer yes to each of these questions, your iMac likely made the trip without serious damage: 1. Does the computer’s chassis appear undamaged? It’s pretty easy to spot damage to your iMac Pro’s svelte metal and glass design. Look for scratches, puncture damage, and misalignment of the screen. 2. Does the LED screen work, and is it undamaged? I’m talking about obvious scratches or puncture damage to your screen. Additionally, you should check whether any individual dots (or pixels) on your LED monitor are obviously malfunctioning. Bad pixels either appear black or in a different color from everything surrounding them. Techs call these irritating anarchists dead pixels. Unfortunately, many new LED screens include one or two. After all, even the low-end 21.5” iMac screen sports more than 1 million pixels. 3. Can you feel a flow of air from the vent on the back? Your iMac’s Intel processor, internal drive, and power supply generate quite a bit of heat, so the fan system never turns off completely. If you don’t feel warm air from the fan system after your iMac has been on for a minute or two, you might have a problem. 4. Do the keyboard and mouse work? Check your iMac’s Bluetooth connection by moving the mouse (or running your finger across the trackpad); the cursor should move on your screen. To check the keyboard, press the Caps Lock key and observe whether the green Caps Lock light turns on and off. (Don’t forget to check for good batteries in all your wireless input devices and make sure they’re turned on.) If your iMac reports that there’s no Bluetooth keyboard, mouse, or trackpad present, remember that you can always connect a standard Mac USB keyboard and pointing device to help you troubleshoot the problem. If you do notice a problem with your iMac (and you can still use your Safari browser and reach the web), you can make the connection to an Apple support technician. If your iMac is lying on its back with its foot in the air and you can’t get to the Internet, you can check your phone book for a local Apple service center, or call the AppleCare toll-free number at (800) 275-2273.

Article / Updated 02-01-2019

Cutting-edge presentation software like Keynote makes slide creation on your iMac easy and — believe it or not — fun! This is the application Steve Jobs once used for his Macworld keynotes every year. So much visual candy is available that you’ll never need to shout to wake your audience again. Even better, this jewel of an application is a free download from the App Store! How to create a new Keynote project Like the other applications in Apple’s productivity suite, Keynote begins the document creation process with a Theme Chooser window. To create a new presentation project, follow these steps: Click the Launchpad icon on the Dock. Click the Keynote icon, which looks like a lectern. The familiar visage of the Open dialog appears. Click the New Document button at the lower-left corner of the Open dialog. The Theme Chooser window, shown here, appears. (I have to say that these are probably the most stunning visual building blocks I’ve seen in a presentation application.) Choose the aspect ratio, using either the Standard or Wide button at the top of the window. Although you don’t necessarily need to select an exact match for your iMac’s screen resolution, it’s a good idea to select the value closest to your projector’s maximum resolution. If someone else is providing the projector, the Standard size is the more compatible choice. If you’ll present on a typical high-resolution computer monitor, widescreen provides a better display. (Of course, nothing’s stopping you from creating two documents of the same presentation, one in Standard ratio and one using Wide ratio. As the Scouts say, “Be prepared!”) Click the theme thumbnail that most closely matches your needs. Click the Choose button to open a new document that uses the theme you selected. Opening a Keynote Presentation on your iMac If an existing Keynote presentation file is visible in a Finder window, you can double-click the document icon to open the project. If Keynote is already running, follow these steps to load a project from within the application: Press Command  +O to display the Open dialog. Click the desired drive in the Devices list at the left of the dialog; then click folders and subfolders until you locate the Keynote project. If the project is stored in your iCloud Drive, click the Keynote item under the iCloud heading in the sidebar at the left of the dialog, and then double-click the desired project thumbnail. If the project is stored on your hard drive, the All My Files location can quickly display all your documents. You can jump directly to any location or folder under the Favorites heading by simply clicking on the entry. Oh, and don’t forget that you can use the Search box at the top of the Open dialog to locate the document by name or by some of the text it contains. Double-click the filename to load it. If you want to open a Keynote document you’ve edited in the recent past, things get even easier — just choose File→ Open Recent, and you can open the document with a single click from the submenu that appears. Saving Your Presentation Because Keynote provides full support for the macOS Auto-Save feature, saving your work often isn’t as critical as it used to be. To safeguard your work in a world of power failures, though, follow these steps: Press Command  +S. If you’re saving a document that hasn’t yet been saved, the familiar Save As sheet appears. Enter a filename for your new document. From the Where pop-up menu, choose a location in which to save the document. By default, Keynote saves the project directly to your iCloud Drive (iCloud appears in the Where pop-up menu), making it available to other Macs and iOS devices using the same Apple ID. To select a location not available from the Where pop-up menu, click the button with the down-arrow symbol to expand the sheet. You can also create a new folder from the expanded sheet. Click Save. You can create a version of a Keynote presentation by choosing File→   Save. To revert the current presentation to an older version, choose File →Revert To. Keynote gives you the option of reverting to the last saved version, or you can click Browse All Versions to browse multiple versions of the presentation and revert to any saved version. Putting Keynote to Work Ready for the 5-cent tour of the Keynote window? Launch the application and create or load a project, and you see the tourist attractions shown in the following figure: Slides list: Use this thumbnail list of all the slides in your project to navigate quickly. Click a thumbnail to switch instantly to that slide. The Slides list can also display your project in outline format, allowing you to check all your discussion points. (This is a great way to ferret out any “holes” in your presentation’s flow.) While in outline mode, you can still jump directly to any slide by clicking the slide’s title in the outline. To display the outline, choose View→   Outline. You can switch back to the default Navigator Slides list by choosing View→   Navigator. Layout pane: Your slide appears in its entirety in this pane. You can add elements to and edit the content of the slide from the Layout pane. Toolbar: As does the toolbar in Pages and Numbers, the Keynote toolbar makes it easy to find the most common controls you’ll use while designing and editing your slides. Clicking an icon on the toolbar performs an action, just as selecting a menu item does. Presenter Notes pane: You might decide to add notes to one or more slides — either for your own use or to print as additional information for your audience. Click the View icon on the toolbar, and select Show Presenter Notes (or choose View→   Show Presenter Notes) to open the Presenter Notes pane. This text box appears under the Layout pane. Inspector: Keynote displays this pane on the right side of the window when you click the Format button, allowing you to format selected text and images on the fly. Adding Slides Keynote creates a single Title slide when you first create a project. However, not many presentations are complete with just a single slide! To add more slides to your project, use one of these methods: Click the Add Slide button on the toolbar. Choose Slide→New Slide. Press Command  +Shift+N. Right-click an existing slide in the Slides list, and choose New Slide from the menu that appears. Keynote adds the new slide to your Slides list and automatically switches to the new slide in the Layout pane. Need a slide that’s very similar to an existing slide you’ve already designed? Right-click the existing slide, and choose Duplicate to create a new slide just like it. (Consider this cloning without the science.) To move slides to different positions in the Slides list (that is, to change the order in your Keynote presentation), drag each slide thumbnail to the desired spot in the list. Working with Text, Shapes, and Graphics Boxes All the text, shapes, and graphics placeholders on your first Title slide appear within boxes. Keynote uses these boxes to manipulate text, shapes, and graphics. You can resize a box (and its contents) by clicking the box and dragging one of the handles that appear around the edges of the box. (The cursor changes into a double-sided arrow when you’re “in the zone.”) Side selection handles drag only the edge of the frame, whereas corner selection handles resize both adjoining edges of the selection frame. To keep the proportions of a box constrained, hold down Shift while dragging the box’s corner handles. Boxes make it easy to move text, shapes, and graphics together (as a single unit) to another location within the Layout pane. Click inside the box, and drag the box to the desired spot. Keynote displays alignment lines to help you align the box with other elements around it (or with regular divisions of the slide, like horizontal center). To select a box, click it. To select text, shapes, or graphics within a box (see the next section), double-click the box. When you’re resizing a photo in a box, hold down the Shift key while you drag the frame. Doing so tells Keynote to preserve the image’s aspect ratio so that the vertical and horizontal proportions remain fixed. You can also flip images horizontally or vertically from the Arrange menu.To delete an image, just click it to select it and press Delete. Adding and Editing Slide Text As with Pages, which also uses boxes for text layout, you can add or edit text in Keynote with ease. For example, say you have a box with the placeholder text Double-click to edit. Just double-click in that box, and the placeholder text disappears, leaving the field ready to accept new text. Any new text you type appears at the blinking cursor within the box. Here are some additional ways to work with slide text: Add a new text box: Just click the Text button in the Keynote toolbar, and click one of the sample styles that appear. Your new text box appears in the middle of the slide. Edit existing text: Click — using the bar-shaped cursor to select just the right spot in the text — and drag the insertion cursor across the characters to highlight them. Type the replacement text, and Keynote obligingly replaces the old text with the new text you type. Delete text: Click and drag across the characters to highlight them; then press Delete. You can also delete an entire box and all its contents: Right-click the offending box, and choose Delete from the menu that appears. When a box’s contents are just right, and you’re finished entering or editing text, click anywhere outside the box to hide it from view. You can always click the text again to display the box later. Formatting Slide Text for the Perfect Look Keynote doesn’t restrict you to the default fonts for the theme you choose. It’s easy to format the text in your slides — a different font family, font color, text alignment, and text attributes (such as bolding and italicizing) — on the fly. Select the desired text by double-clicking a box and dragging the text cursor to highlight the characters. Now apply your formatting using one of two methods: The Inspector: The font controls in the Inspector work in one of two ways: After you’ve selected text, either click a font control to display a pop-up menu, or click a button to immediately perform an action. Opening the Font Size pop-up menu, for example, displays a range of sizes for the selected text. With a single click of the B (bold) button, add the bold attribute to the highlighted characters. To create bullets and lists, click the Text tab at the top of the Inspector. The Format menu: When you select text, the controls on the Keynote Format menu generally mirror those in the Inspector. To change the alignment from the Format menu, click Format and hover the cursor over the Text menu item. To change text attributes, click Format and hover the cursor over the Font menu. Using Presenter’s Notes in Your Project As mentioned earlier, you can type presenter’s text notes in the Presenter Notes pane. I use them to display related topic points while presenting my slideshow. However, you can also print the notes for a project along with the slides, so presenter’s notes are also great for including reminders and To Do points for your audience in handouts. To type your notes, just click within the Presenter Notes pane. If that pane is hidden, choose View -->   Show Presenter Notes, or click the View button at the far left of the Keynote toolbar and choose Show Presenter Notes. When you’re finished adding notes, click in the Slides list or the Layout pane to return to editing mode. To display your notes while practicing, use the Keynote Rehearsal feature. Click the Play menu at the top of the Keynote window, choose Rehearse Slideshow, click the Tools icon at the top right, and select the Presenter Notes check box to enable it. Now you can scroll through the notes while the slideshow runs.(More on slideshows in a second.) Every Good Presentation Needs Media Adding audio, photos, and movies to a slide is drag-and-drop easy in Keynote. Simply drag an image, audio, or movie file from a Finder window, and place it at the spot you want within your document. You can also use the Media Browser. To do so, follow these steps: Click the Media button on the toolbar, and then click the Photos, Music, or Movies tab to select the desired type. Keynote displays the contents of your various media collections (such as your Photos, iMovie and iTunes libraries). When you find the file you want to add, drag it to the spot you want in the document. The figure shows the Media Browser in action. Having trouble finding that specific photo or movie? Click the Search icon (which looks like a magnifying glass) at the top-right corner of the Media Browser, and you can specify a particular filename or keyword. Adding a Background Shape Text often stands out on a slide when it sits on top of a background shape. To add a shape (such as a rectangle or circle) as a background for your text, follow these steps: Click the insertion cursor in the location you want. Click the Shape button on the Keynote toolbar, and choose a shape. The shape appears in your document. Click the center of the shape, and drag it to a new spot. As with image boxes, you can resize or move shapes. You can read about how to do just that in the earlier section “Working with Text, Shapes and Graphics Boxes.” When the shape is properly positioned and sized, select it, and choose Arrange →   Send to Back. You want to “send the shape to the back” so that any text you enter sits in front of the shape, not hidden behind it. Of course, you’re not limited to creating shapes and graphics within Keynote; consider using an application like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator to create graphics that you can import into your slides. As mentioned earlier, you can easily drag and drop your new graphic into a slide from a Finder window. Creating Your Keynote Slideshow The heart of a Keynote presentation is the slideshow you build from the slides you’ve created. A Keynote slideshow is typically presented as a full-screen presentation, with slides appearing in linear order as they are sorted in the Slides list. You run a Keynote slideshow simply by clicking the Play button on the toolbar or by choosing Play→  Play Slideshow. You can advance to the next slide by clicking, or by pressing the right bracket key, which looks like this: ]. Of course, other controls are available besides just the ones that advance to the next slide. The table lists the key shortcuts you’ll use most often during a slideshow. Keynote Slideshow Shortcut Keys Key Action ] (right bracket) Next slide [ (left bracket) Previous slide Home Jump to first slide End Jump to last slide C Show or hide the pointer number Jump to the corresponding slide in the Slides list U Scroll notes up D Scroll notes down N Show current slide number H Hide the slideshow and display the last application used (the presentation appears as a minimized icon on the Dock) B Pause the slideshow and display a black screen (press any key to resume the slideshow) Esc Quit Keynote offers a number of settings you can tweak to fine-tune your slideshow. To display these settings, choose Keynote→Preferences, and click the Slideshow button in the Preferences window. If you have an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch handy, and you’ve installed the iOS version of Keynote on your device, choose Keynote →   Preferences to display the Preferences window. Click the Remotes tab to link your device to your iMac and Keynote. Now you can use your handheld device as a remote during your slideshow. Sweet! Printing Your Slides and Notes I’ll be honest: I don’t print handouts for every presentation I give. However, if you’re presenting a lengthy slideshow with plenty of information you want your audience to remember or refer to later, nothing beats handouts that include scaled-down images of your slides (and, optionally, your presenter’s notes). You’re not limited to paper, though. You can also use Keynote to create an electronic PDF (Portable Document Format) file instead of a printed handout, which your audience members can download from your website. Or, if you’re an educator with access to an interactive whiteboard (such as a SMART Board), you can use this cutting-edge technology with Keynote. To print your slides and notes, follow these steps: 1. Within Keynote, choose File→   Print or press Command  +P. Keynote displays the Print sheet, shown in the following figure. (Note that some printer-specific features may be different on your screen.) If necessary, expand the Print sheet to show all the settings by clicking the Show Details button at the bottom of the sheet. 2. Click one of the following formats (each format displays a different set of Layout options): Slide: Print each slide on a separate page at full size. You can optionally choose to print the presenter notes for each slide as well. Grid: Print multiple slides on a page at a reduced size. From the Slides per Page pop-up menu, specify how many slides Keynote should print on each page. Handout: Print a handout with multiple slides per page (and, optionally, with presenter’s notes). Again, you can choose how many slides appear on each page. Outline: Print the contents of your Slides list in Outline view. 3. Select the pages to print: To print the entire document, select the All radio button. To print a range of selected slides, select the From radio button, and then enter the starting and ending pages. 4. Select or deselect additional options from the Options section. 5. Click the Print button to send the job to your printer. You can also send a copy of your finished presentation as an attachment within Mail or Messages, or you can provide others with a copy through Twitter or Facebook. Click Share→Send a Copy to explore your options. To share your presentation with others (allowing them to view or edit your work), click the Collaborate button on the toolbar and specify who should receive a sharing invitation!

Article / Updated 02-01-2019

The Numbers spreadsheet program, which is a free download from the App Store, can help you organize data and analyze important financial decisions for home and business — everything from a household budget to your company’s sales statistics! Numbers can open, edit, and save spreadsheets created with Microsoft Excel. Note, however, that not all Excel features are supported within Numbers. How to create a new Numbers document Like Pages, Numbers ships with a selection of templates you can modify quickly to create a new spreadsheet. For example, after a few modifications, you can easily use the Budget, Loan Comparison, and Mortgage templates to create your own spreadsheets. To create a spreadsheet project file, follow these steps: Click the Launchpad icon on the Dock. Click the Numbers icon. Click the New Document button at the lower-left corner of the Open dialog that appears. Numbers displays the Choose a Template window, shown in the figure. (To display the Choose a Template window and start a new Numbers project at any time, just choose File →   New.) From the list on the left, click the type of document you want to create. The document thumbnails in the center are updated with templates that match your choice. Click the template that most closely matches your needs. Click the Choose button to open a new document using the template you selected. How to open an existing spreadsheet file If you see an existing Numbers document in a Finder window or the All My Files location (or you find it using Spotlight), just double-click the Numbers document icon to open it. Numbers automatically loads and displays the spreadsheet. It’s equally easy to open a Numbers document from within the program. Follow these steps: If Numbers isn’t already running, click the Numbers icon from the Launchpad to run the program. Press Command  +O to display the Open dialog. If the spreadsheet is stored in your iCloud Drive, click the Numbers item under the iCloud heading in the sidebar at the left of the dialog and then double-click the desired document thumbnail to load the spreadsheet. All three of Apple’s productivity applications — Pages, Numbers, and Keynote — feature an Open dialog that can display the contents of your iCloud Drive as well as your iMac’s internal drive. If the document is stored on your iMac’s internal drive, your network, or one of your Favorites locations, click the desired drive or folder in the sidebar at the left of the dialog. Drill down through folders and subfolders until you locate the desired Numbers document, and double-click the document thumbnail to load the spreadsheet. If you’re unsure where the document is, click in the Search box at the top of the Open dialog and type a portion of the document name or even a word or two of text it contains. Note that you can choose to search your drive, your iCloud Drive, or both. If you want to open a spreadsheet you’ve been working on over the last few days, choose File→   Open Recent to display Numbers documents that you’ve worked with recently. Save those spreadsheets! Thanks to the macOS Auto-Save feature, you no longer have to fear losing a significant chunk of work because of a waning battery or a coworker’s mistake. However, if you’re not a huge fan of retyping data, period, you can also save your spreadsheets manually after making a major change. Follow these steps to save your spreadsheet to a specific drive or folder on your iMac: 1. Press Command  +S. If you’re saving a document that hasn’t yet been saved, the Save As sheet appears. 2. Type a filename for your new spreadsheet. 3. Open the Where pop-up menu and choose a location in which to save the file. Common locations are your iCloud Drive, Desktop, Documents folder, and Home folder. If the location you want isn’t listed in the Where pop-up menu, click the down-arrow button next to the Save As text box to display the full Save As dialog. Click the desired drive in the Devices list at the left of the dialog, and then click folders and subfolders until you reach the desired location. Alternatively, type the folder name in the Spotlight search box at the top right, and double-click the desired folder in the list of matching names. (As a bonus, you can also create a new folder in the full Save As dialog.) 4. Click Save. After you save a Numbers document for the first time, you can create a version of that document by choosing File →  Save. To revert the current document to an older version, choose File→   Revert To. You can choose to revert to the last saved version, or you can click Browse All Versions to look through multiple versions of the document and choose one of those to revert to. Exploring the Numbers window Apple has done a great job of minimizing the complexity of the Numbers window. Figure 18-2 illustrates these major points of interest: Sheets tabs: When a project contains multiple spreadsheets, Numbers indicates the spreadsheets in the Sheets tabbed bar at the top of the window. To switch among spreadsheets in a project, click the desired tab. Sheet canvas: Numbers displays the rows and columns of your spreadsheet in this section of the window; you enter and edit cell values within the sheet canvas. Toolbar: The Numbers toolbar keeps the most common commands you’ll use within easy reach. Inspector: Located at the right side of the Numbers window, the Inspector displays editing controls for the object that’s currently selected, regardless of whether it’s a selection of text, a table, or a single cell. (If you enter an equal sign [=] into a cell to create a formula, the Inspector displays the Function list, where you can specify a calculation that Numbers should perform.) Navigating and Selecting Cells in a Numbers Spreadsheet You can use the scrollbars to move around your spreadsheet, but when you enter data into cells, moving your fingers from the keyboard is a hassle. Numbers has various handy navigation shortcut keys you can employ, as shown. After you commit these keys to memory, your productivity level will shoot straight to the top. Movement Shortcut Keys in Numbers Key or Key Combination Where the Cursor Moves Left arrow (←) One cell to the left Right arrow (→) One cell to the right Up arrow (↑) One cell up Down arrow (↓) One cell down Home To the beginning of the active worksheet End To the end of the active worksheet Page Down Down one screen Page Up Up one screen Return One cell down (also works within a selection) Tab One cell to the right (also works within a selection) Shift+Enter One cell up (also works within a selection) Shift+Tab One cell to the left (also works within a selection) You can also use the mouse or trackpad to select cells in a spreadsheet: To select a single cell, click it. To select a range of adjacent cells, click a cell at any corner of the range you want and drag in the direction you want. To select a column of cells, click the alphabetic heading button at the top of the column. To select a row of cells, click the numeric heading button at the far left of the row. Entering and Editing Data in a Numbers Spreadsheet After you navigate to the cell in which you want to enter data, you’re ready to type your data. Follow these steps to enter That Important Stuff: Either click the cell or press the spacebar. A cursor appears, indicating that the cell is ready to hold any data you type. Enter your data. Spreadsheets can use both numbers and alphabetic characters within a cell; either type of information is considered data in the Spreadsheet World. When you’re ready to move on, press Return (to save the data and move one cell down) or press Tab (to save the data and move one cell to the right). Make a mistake? No big deal: To edit data: Click within the cell that contains the data error (to select the cell), and then click the cell again to display the insertion cursor. Drag the insertion cursor across the characters to highlight them, and then type the replacement data. To delete characters: Select the cell, and then highlight the characters and press Delete. Selecting the Correct Number Format in Numbers After you enter your data (in a cell, row, or column), you might need to format it so that it appears correctly. For example, say you want certain cells to display a specific type of number, such as a dollar amount, percentage, or date. Numbers gives you a healthy selection of number-formatting possibilities. Characters and formatting rules — such as decimal places, commas, and dollar and percentage notation — are part of number formatting. If your spreadsheet contains units of currency, such as dollars, format it as such. Then all you need to do is type the numbers, and the currency formatting is applied automatically. To specify a number format, follow these steps: Select the cells, rows, or columns you want to format. Click the Format toolbar button. Click the Cell tab in the Inspector. From the Data Format pop-up menu, choose the type of formatting you want to apply, as shown here. Aligning cell text in Numbers You can also change the alignment of text in the selected cells. The default alignment is flush left for text and flush right for numeric data. Follow these steps: Select the cells, rows, or columns you want to format. Click the Format toolbar button. Click the Text tab of the Inspector to display the settings shown here. Click the corresponding Alignment button to choose the type of formatting you want to apply. You can choose left, right, center, and justified (as well as the defaults of text left and numbers right). You also can format text to be aligned at the top, center, or bottom of a cell. Do you need to set apart the contents of some cells? For example, you might need to create text headings for some columns and rows or to highlight the totals in a spreadsheet. To change such formatting, select the cells, rows, or columns you want to format, and then open the Font Family, Font Size, or Font Color buttons on the Text tab. Formatting Numbers with shading Shading the contents of a cell, row, or column is helpful when your spreadsheet contains subtotals or logical divisions. Follow these steps to shade cells, rows, or columns: Select the cells, rows, or columns you want to format. Click the Format toolbar button. Click the Cell tab of the Inspector. Click the triangle next to the Fill heading, and choose a shading option from the Fill pop-up menu. The following figure shows the controls for a gradient fill. Click the color box to select a color for your shading. Numbers displays a color picker (also shown). Click to select a color. After you achieve the effect you want, click the color box again to close the color picker. You can also add a custom border to selected cells, rows, and columns from the Cell tab. Click the triangle next to the Border heading to select just the right border. Inserting and deleting rows and columns in Numbers What’s that? You forgot to add a row, and now you’re three pages into your data entry? No problem. You can easily add — or delete — rows and columns. First, select the row or column adjacent to where you want to insert (or delete) a row or column, and do one of the following: For a row: Right-click and choose Add Row Above, Add Row Below, or Delete Row from the shortcut menu that appears. For a column: Right-click and choose Add Column Before, Add Column After, or Delete Column from the shortcut menu that appears. If you select multiple rows or columns, right-click and choose Add. Numbers inserts the same number of new rows or columns you selected. You can also insert rows and columns via the Table menu at the top of the Numbers window. The Formula Is Your Friend It’s time to talk about formulas, which are equations that calculate values based on the contents of cells you specify in your spreadsheet. For example, if you designate cell A1 (the cell in column A at row 1) to hold your yearly salary and cell B1 to hold the number 12, you can divide the contents of cell A1 by cell B1 (to calculate your monthly salary) by typing this formula into any other cell: = A1 / B1 Formulas in Numbers always start with an equal sign, and they may include one or more functions as well. A function is a preset mathematical, statistical, or engineering calculation that will be performed, like figuring the sum or average of a series of cells. “So what's the big deal, Mark? Why not use a calculator?” Sure, you could. But maybe you want to calculate your weekly salary. Rather than grab a pencil and paper, you can simply change the contents of cell B1 to 52, and — boom! — the spreadsheet is updated to display your weekly salary. That’s a simple example, of course, but it demonstrates the basics of using formulas (and the reason why spreadsheets are often used to predict trends and forecast budgets). It’s the what-if tool of choice for everyone who works with numeric data. To add a simple formula within a spreadsheet, follow these steps: 1. Select the cell that will hold the result of your calculation. 2. Type = (the equal sign). The Formula Box appears within the confines of the cell. 3. Click the Format button on the Numbers toolbar to display the available functions in the Inspector, as shown. 4. Click the category of calculation you want from the left column of the Inspector. Instead of scrolling through the entire function library, it’s easier to choose a category — such as Financial for your budget spreadsheet — to filter the selection. (Alternatively, you can click in the Search box and type a function name or keyword.) To display more information about a specific function, click it in the right column of the Inspector. Choosing the SUM function brings up a description at the bottom of the Inspector. 5. After you select the perfect function in the right column, click the Insert Function button. The function appears in the Formula box, along with any arguments it requires. In case you’re unfamiliar with the term argument, it refers to a value specified in a cell that a formula uses. For example, the SUM formula adds the contents of each cell you specify to produce a total; each of those cell values is an argument. 6. Click an argument button in the formula, and click the cell that contains the corresponding data. Numbers automatically adds the cell you indicated to the formula. Repeat this step for each argument in the formula. 7. After you finish, click the Accept button — the green checkmark — to add the formula to the cell. That’s it! Your formula is now ready to work behind the scenes, doing math for you so the correct numbers appear in the cell you specified. Adding Visual Punch with a Chart Sometimes, you just have to see something to believe it, so it can help to use the data you’ve added to a spreadsheet to generate a professional-looking chart. After you’ve entered the data you want to chart, follow these steps: 1. Select the adjacent cells you want to chart by dragging. To choose individual cells that aren’t adjacent, you can hold down the Command  key as you click. 2. Click the Chart button on the Numbers toolbar. The Chart button bears the symbol of a bar graph. Numbers displays the thumbnail menu shown. Note that you can display different categories of charts by clicking one of the three tabs at the top (2D/3D/Interactive), and you can scroll the menu to reveal additional thumbnails by using the left- and right-arrow buttons. 3. Click the thumbnail for the chart type you want. Numbers inserts the chart as an object within your spreadsheet so you can move the chart. You can drag using the handles that appear on the outside of the object box to resize your chart. With your chart selected, click the Format toolbar button to display your old friend the Inspector, complete with the controls you can use to customize your chart’s appearance. For example, you can change the colors and add (or remove) the title and legend. 4. To change the default title, click the title box to select it; click it again to edit the text. How to print your Numbers spreadsheet You can easily send a Numbers spreadsheet to a USB or shared network printer — or, if you’d rather create an electronic copy of the document as an Adobe PDF, you can click the PDF button that appears on the Numbers Print dialog and select a location where the file will be saved. To print a Numbers spreadsheet on your default printer, follow these steps: 1. Choose File→   Print from the Numbers menu bar to display the Print Setup window. Because a Numbers document can contain multiple spreadsheets, you can select a specific spreadsheet to print (by clicking it in the grid and clicking the Print This Sheet radio button at the bottom of the window), or you can print all spreadsheets in the document (by clicking the Print All Sheets radio button). 2. Click the desired page orientation. Spreadsheets with a large number of columns are often printed in landscape orientation to ensure that everything fits on the page. You can also scale the spreadsheet so it automatically fits on the page by clicking the Fit button (next to the Content Scale slider). 3. Click Print at the bottom of the window. Numbers displays the Print dialog shown. To display additional settings, click the Show Details button at the bottom of the sheet. 4. Click in the Copies field, and enter the number of copies you need. 5. Select the pages to print: To print the entire spreadsheet, select All. To print a range of selected pages, select the From radio button, and enter the starting and ending pages. 6. Click the Print button to send the document to your printer. Click the Share menu item to send a copy of your spreadsheet masterpiece to others. Click the Collaborate button on the toolbar to allow others to view or edit your spreadsheet from your iCloud Drive as a shared document.

Article / Updated 01-31-2019

Whether you need a simple letter, a stunning brochure, or a multipage newsletter, Pages can handle the job with ease — and you’ll be surprised at how simple it is to use. Plus, Pages is a free download for any iMac model of recent vintage (and free Apple software is always A Good Thing). What’s the difference between word processing and desktop publishing? In a nutshell, it’s in how you design your document. Most folks use a word processor like an old-fashioned typewriter. A desktop publishing application allows far more creativity in choosing where to place text, how to align graphics, and how to edit formats. Desktop publishing is more visual and intuitive, allowing your imagination a free hand at creating a document. How to create a new Pages document To create a new Pages document, follow these steps: 1. Click the Pages icon on the Dock. If the Pages icon doesn’t appear on your Dock, click the Launchpad icon and then click the Pages icon (which looks like a document and pen). If you haven’t installed the three Apple productivity applications yet — Pages, Numbers, and Keynote — click the App Store icon in your Dock and download them for free! 2. Click the New Document button at the lower-left corner of the Open dialog. Pages displays the Template Chooser window, shown in the following figure. You can also create a new Pages document at any time from the File menu. Just choose File→ New to display the Template Chooser window. 3. In the list to the left, click the type of document you want to create. The thumbnails on the right are updated with templates that match your choice. 4. Click the template that most closely matches your needs. To start with a blank page, choose the Blank template from the Basic group. 5. Click the Choose button to open a new document in the template you selected. How to open an existing Pages document Of course, you can always open a Pages document from a Finder window. Just double-click the document icon. (The All My Files location in the Finder window sidebar makes it easy to track down a document.) You can also open a Pages document from within the program. Follow these steps: 1. Launch Pages as described in the preceding section. 2. Press Command  +O to display the Open dialog. The Open dialog operates much the same as a Finder window in Icon, List, or Column view mode. To open a document you’ve already saved in your iCloud Drive, click the Pages item under the iCloud heading in the sidebar at the left of the dialog and double-click the desired document thumbnail in the display at the right side of the dialog. To open a document on your internal drive or network, click the desired location in the Open dialog sidebar. (If you’re into convenience like I am, click one of the locations under the Favorites heading to jump immediately to common folders such as your Downloads or Documents folders.) 3. Click the desired drive in the Devices list at the left of the dialog, and then click folders and subfolders until you locate the Pages document. You can also click in the Search box at the top of the Open dialog and type in a portion of the document name or its contents. If you’re using Icon view mode (or you’re displaying the Preview column in Column view mode), you can hover the pointer over a document thumbnail and quickly flip through the different pages by clicking on the left and right arrows that appear. This “find” feature can help you identify a particular Pages document without even opening it. 4. Double-click the thumbnail (or filename) to load it. If you want to open a Pages document you’ve edited in the recent past, things get even easier. Just choose File → Open Recent, and you can open the document with a single click from the submenu that appears. Pages can open, edit, and save documents created with the Mac version of Microsoft Word. However, Pages doesn’t support every feature within a Word document – for the full list of what Pages supports, visit the webpage. How to save your work in Pages Pages fully supports the macOS Auto-Save feature, but you may feel the need to manually save your work after you finish a significant edit (or if you need to take a break while designing). If you’re editing a document that has already been saved at least once, press Command  +S. A new version of the document is saved to its current location — and you can continue with your work. However, if you’re working on a new document that hasn’t previously been saved, follow these steps to save it: With the Pages document open, press Command  +S. Type a filename for your new document. Open the Where pop-up menu, and choose a location in which to save the document. Note that Pages defaults to your iCloud Drive as the target location. This way, you can open and edit your Pages document on any Mac or iOS device that shares the same Apple ID. Alternatively, click the button sporting the down arrow to expand the Save As sheet. This allows you to navigate to a different location on your hard drive or network, or to create a new folder to store this Pages project. Click Save. You can create a version of a Pages document by choosing File→ Save. To revert the current document to an older version, choose File→ Revert To. Pages gives you the option of reverting to the last saved version, or you can click Browse All Versions to choose from multiple versions of the document. Tour the Pages Window Before you dive into any real work, let me show you around the Pages window. You’ll find the following major components and controls, as shown in the following figure: Pages list: This thumbnail list displays all the pages you’ve created within your document. (For a single-page document, of course, the Page list contains only a single thumbnail.) You can switch instantly between different pages in your document by clicking the desired thumbnail in the list. If the list isn’t visible, click the View button at the left side of the Pages toolbar and click Show Page Thumbnails. Layout pane: This section takes up most of the Pages window. It’s where you design and edit each page in your document. Toolbar: Yep, Pages has its own toolbar. It keeps all the most common application controls within easy, one-click reach. Inspector: This window extension allows you to quickly switch the appearance of selected paragraphs, characters, and lists (in Format mode) or specify settings that affect the entire document (in Document Setup mode). You can hide and display the Inspector from the View menu, or by clicking the Format or Document buttons on the toolbar. How to enter and edit text in Pages If you’ve used a modern word processing program, you’ll feel right at home typing within Pages. The bar-shaped text cursor, which looks like a capital letter I, indicates where the text you enter will appear in a Pages document. To enter text, simply begin typing. To edit existing text in your Pages document, select and highlight the text. As you type, Pages replaces the existing text. You can delete text by clicking and dragging across the characters to highlight them and then pressing Delete. How to use text, shapes, and graphics boxes in Pages Within Pages, you’ll quickly learn that text, shapes, and graphics appear in boxes, which can be resized by clicking and dragging one of the handles that appear around the edges of the box. (Click the box to select it and hover the mouse cursor over one of the square handles; you’ll see that it changes to a double-sided arrow, indicating that Pages is ready to resize the box.) You can also move a box, including all the stuff it contains, to another location within the Layout pane. Click inside the box, and drag the box to the desired spot. Note that Pages displays yellow alignment lines to help you align the box with other elements around it (or with regular divisions of the page, such as the vertical center of a poster or flyer). To select text or graphics within a box, you must first click the box to select it and then double-click the line of text or the graphic you want to change. Cut, copy, and paste in Pages “Hang on, Mark. You’ve covered moving stuff, but what if you want to copy a block of text or a photo to a second location? Or how about cutting something from a document open in another application?” Good questions. That’s when you can call on the power of the cut, copy, and paste features within Pages. The next few sections explain these actions. Cutting stuff Cutting selected text, shapes or graphics removes them from your Pages document and places that material on the Clipboard. (Think of the Clipboard as a holding area for snippets of text and graphics you want to manipulate.) To cut, select some material and choose Edit → Cut or press Command  +X. Copying text and images When you copy text, shapes, or graphics, the original selection remains untouched, and a copy of the selection is placed on the Clipboard. Select some material and choose Edit → Copy or press Command  +C. To copy selected items by dragging, hold down the Option key while you drag the items to their destination. If you cut or copy a new selection to the Clipboard, it erases what was there. In other words, the Clipboard holds only the latest material you cut or copied. Pasting from the Clipboard Wondering what you can do with the stuff that’s stored on the Clipboard? Pasting the contents of the Clipboard places the material at the current location of the insertion cursor. You must paste the contents before you cut or copy again to avoid losing what’s on the Clipboard. To paste the Clipboard contents, click to place the insertion cursor at the location you want and choose Edit→Paste or press Command  +V. How to format text the easy way If you feel that some (or all) of the text in your Pages document needs a facelift, you can format that text any way you like. Formatting lets you change the color, font family, character size, and attributes as necessary. After the text is selected, you can apply basic formatting in two ways: Use the Inspector. The Inspector appears at the right side of the Pages window (refer to the figure). The controls it displays vary according to the selection you’ve made. (Click the Format button on the right side of the toolbar, which looks like a tiny paintbrush, to display and hide the Inspector.) Click to select a font control to display a pop-up menu, and then click your choice. For example, select a portion of text and open the Font Family pop-up menu to change the font family from vanilla Arial to something more daring. You can also select characteristics, such as the text’s paragraph style, or choose italic or bold. The Inspector also provides buttons for both vertical and horizontal text alignment. Use the Format menu. Most controls displayed within the Format section of the Inspector are also available from the Format menu. Click Format and hover the mouse cursor over the Font menu item, and you can then apply bold, italic, and underlining to the selected text. You can also make the text bigger or smaller. To change the alignment from the Format menu, click Format and hover the mouse cursor over the Text menu item. How to add tables in Pages In the world of word processing, a table is a grid that holds text, shapes and graphics for easy comparison. You can create a custom table layout within Pages with a few simple clicks. Follow these steps: 1. Click to place the insertion cursor where you want the table to appear. 2. Click the Table button on the Pages toolbar. Pages displays thumbnail images of different table styles. You have a selection of colors. Some tables also include highlighted rows and columns. Use the left and right buttons to display different styles of thumbnails until you find the one that’s closest to the table you need. Don’t worry if the style isn’t exactly right. You can always change the layout by selecting the table and displaying the Format Inspector, where you can fine-tune all sorts of font, color, grid, and border options. 3. Click the style thumbnail to insert the table. If you need to change the number of rows or columns in your table, Pages makes it easy. To add or delete rows or columns directly from the table, select it and click the row and column buttons that appear. (Each bears two horizontal or vertical lines, as shown.) 4. Click within a cell in the table to enter text. The table cell automatically resizes and wraps the text you enter to fit. You can paste material from the Clipboard into a table. Here are a few pointers on how to dress up your table and make its data more attractive and readable: Change the borders on a selected cell. Click the Format icon on the toolbar to open the Inspector, click the Cell tab, and then click the desired button in the Border section. Select a range of cells in a table by holding down Shift as you click. Hold down Command   and click to select multiple cells that aren’t contiguous. Add a background color to selected cells, or fill them with an image for a background. Click the Cell tab, and then click the Fill section in the Inspector and choose a type of background. How to add photos in Pages You can choose between two methods of adding a picture within your Pages document: As a floating object: You place the image in a particular spot, and it doesn’t move even if you make changes to the text. To add a floating object, drag an image file from a Finder window and place it at the spot you want within your document. Alternatively, you can click the Media button on the toolbar, click Photos, navigate to the location where the file is saved, and click the image thumbnail. The figure shows the Media Browser in action. Click the magnifying glass icon within the Media Browser to search for a specific item using keywords or by filename. Note that a floating object (such as a shape or image) can be sent to the background, where text does not wrap around it. To bring back a background object as a regular floating object, click the object to select it and choose Arrange→ Bring to Front. As an inline object: The image flows with the surrounding text as you make layout changes. To add an inline object, hold down the Command   key as you drag an image file from a Finder window and place it where you want within your document. You can also click the Media toolbar button and click Photos to display the Media Browser. Navigate to the location where the file is saved, hold down the Command   key, and drag the image thumbnail to the spot where you want it in the document. To resize an image object, click the image to select it and drag one of the selection handles that appear along its border. (The handles look like tiny squares.) The side-selection handles drag only that edge of the frame. The corner-selection handles resize both adjoining edges of the selection frame. Hold down the Shift key to make the vertical and horizontal proportions remain fixed. Adding a shape as a background in Pages To add a shape (such as a rectangle or circle) as a background for existing text, follow these steps: Click to place the insertion cursor anywhere on the page where you want the shape to appear. Click the Shape button on the Pages toolbar and choose a shape. The shape appears in your document. Click inside the shape and drag it to a new spot. Shapes can be resized or moved in the same manner as image boxes. You can type over a shape set as a background. Before you do, though, select the shape, and choose Arrange→ Send to Back. Are you sure about that spelling? Pages can check spelling as you type (the default setting) or after you complete your document. If you find automatic spell-checking distracting, you should pick the latter method. Spell-checking only confirms that a word matches an entry in the Pages dictionary, not that it’s the right word for the job! If you’ve ever “red” a document that someone else “rote,” you understand. To check spelling as you type, follow these steps: Click the Edit menu, and hover the pointer over the Spelling and Grammar menu item. Choose Check Spelling While Typing from the submenu that appears. If a possible misspelling is found, Pages underlines the word with a red dashed line. Right-click the word to choose a possible correct spelling from the list, or choose Ignore Spelling if it’s spelled correctly. To turn off automatic spell-checking, click the Check Spelling While Typing menu item again to deselect it. To check spelling manually, follow these steps: Click within the document to place the insertion cursor where the spell check should begin. Click Edit, hover the pointer over the Spelling and Grammar menu item, and choose Check Document Now from the submenu that appears. Right-click any possible misspellings, and choose the correct spelling, or choose Ignore Spelling if the word is spelled correctly. Printing Your Pages Documents Ready to start the presses? You can print your Pages document on real paper, of course, but don’t forget that you can also save a tree by creating an electronic PDF instead of a printout. You’ll find the PDF dropdown menu at the bottom of the standard Mojave Print dialog. To print your Pages document on old-fashioned paper, follow these steps: Within Pages, choose File →Print. Pages displays the Print sheet. Click in the Copies field, and enter the number of copies you need. Select the pages to print: To print the entire document, select All. To print a range of selected pages, select the From radio button and enter the starting and ending pages. Click the Print button to send the document to your printer. Sharing That Poster with Others Besides printing — which is, after all, so very passé these days — you can choose to share your Pages document electronically via the Internet or your network: Send a Copy: To send a copy of the actual document (which the recipient can open using Pages on his or her own Mac or iOS device), click Share on the Pages menu, and hover the pointer over the Send a Copy item. You can send the document via Mail, Notes or Messages, or you can make it available through AirDrop (if the recipient is within range of your iMac’s Wi-Fi signal). If you decide to send your Pages document as an email attachment, don’t forget that most ISPs have a maximum message size. If your document is too large, your mail server probably will reject it. Export: You’re not limited to sharing over that Internet thing! Pages can also export your work directly to your drive in one of six formats: a PDF file, a Microsoft Word document, an ePub file (for use with electronic book apps like iBooks), a document compatible with the previous version of Pages, a Rich Text Format document, or even plain text. (Remember when everything was in plain text?) Choose File→ Export To, and pick your format; Pages displays any options you can set for that format. When you’re ready, click Next and select the location where Pages should save the file. Click Export, and sit back while your favorite desktop publishing application does all the work. If the recipient of your document doesn’t need to edit your work, create a PDF file, which keeps your document as close as possible to how it appears in Pages. Collaborate: You can choose to share your document with others — and optionally allow them to edit it — using the Collaborate toolbar button. (You determine their access from the Sharing Options that appear when you click the Collaborate toolbar button.) Pages stores your document on your iCloud Drive, and sends a link to the individuals you choose via Mail, Messages, Facebook, or Twitter. Once that lucky person clicks the link, Pages opens your document in all its glory, ready for them to view or edit. Your iCloud Drive must be active and you must be signed in to send the Collaborate sharing invitation, and the recipients you specify must be signed in using their Apple ID to receive it.

Article / Updated 01-31-2019

If you enable backups via the macOS Time Machine feature, you can literally move backward through the contents of your iMac’s internal drive, selecting and restoring all sorts of data. Files and folders are ridiculously easy to restore — and I mean easier than any restore you’ve ever performed, no matter what the operating system or backup program. Time Machine can even handle some deleted items, like Contacts cards! To sum it up, Time Machine should be an important and integral part of every Mac owner’s existence. Apple’s Time Capsule device (which has been discontinued) is designed as a wireless storage drive for your Time Machine backup files. If you’re interested in a single Time Machine backup location for multiple Macs across your wireless network, a Time Capsule is a great addition to your home or office. Before you can use Time Machine, you must have it enabled within the Time Machine pane in System Preferences. You’ll also need an external drive that provides considerably more storage capacity than the drive you’re backing up. I recommend that your external Time Machine backup drive be at least twice the capacity of the drive you’re backing up. (To check on the size of a drive displayed on your desktop, right-click the drive and choose Get Info from the contextual menu.) Here’s how you can turn back time, step by step, to restore a file that you deleted or replaced in a folder: Open a Finder window and navigate to the folder that contained the file you want to restore. Click the Time Machine icon on the Finder menu bar (which bears a clock with a counterclockwise arrow) and then click Enter Time Machine. The oh-so-ultra-cool Time Machine background appears behind your folder, complete with its own set of buttons at the bottom of the screen (as shown). On the right, you see a timeline that corresponds to the different days and months included in the backups that macOS has made. Click within the timeline to jump directly to a date (displaying the folder’s contents on that date). Alternatively, use the Forward and Back arrows at the right to move through the folder’s contents through time. (You should see the faces of Windows users when you riffle through your folders to locate something you deleted several weeks ago!) Remember: The backup date of the items you’re viewing appears in the button bar at the bottom of the screen. After you locate the file you want to restore, click it to select it. Click the Restore button at the right side of the Time Machine button bar. If you want to restore all the contents of the current folder, click the Restore All button instead. Time Machine returns you to the Finder, with the newly restored file now appearing in the folder. Outstanding! To restore specific data from your Contacts database, launch the Contacts application first and then launch Time Machine. Instead of riffling through a Finder window, you can move through time within the application window. You can easily restore the entire contents of your iMac’s internal drive from your Time Machine backup, too. Reboot your iMac and hold down the Command  +R startup key sequence to boot using the macOS Recovery HD volume, then use the Restore function. For robust backup and restore protection, Time Machine is all that a typical Mac owner at home is likely to ever need. Therefore, a very easy Mark’s Maxim to predict: Get an external drive, connect it, and turn on Time Machine. Do it now. Don’t make a humongous mistake.

Article / Updated 10-18-2018

Anyone can troubleshoot, so if you run into a problem with your iMac, don't be dismayed! Follow these troubleshooting steps to get your iMac back up and running. Reboot. Check all cables. Investigate recent changes you made to your hardware or software. Run Disk Utility and repair your volume(s). Check the contents of your Trash for files you might have deleted accidentally. Check your Internet, wireless, and network connections to make sure they're still working. Run a virus scan, using your antivirus application. Disable your account's Login Items and reboot. Turn off your screen saver. Run System Information and check the status of your hardware.