Table of contents for Volume 8 Revised in Mac Tips, Tricks, Apps & Hacks

Whether it’s an iMac, a brand new MacBook or a killer Mac Pro, Apple’s computers are pretty incredible machines. They're capable of almost anything right out of the box, but because everyday tasks like browsing the web and watching videos are made completely effortless, sometimes it can be easy to forget what a powerful piece of hardware you're running. Enter Mac Tips, Tricks, Apps & Hacks, which promises to reinvigorate your user experience. We'll start by taking you through some of the lesser-known features of Apple's core apps – from Mail and Safari to Finder and Calendar – before moving on to advanced tricks for the more creative among you. For the power users out there, our Hacks section offers some quick solutions for simplifying tiresome problems and processes. Then…

Photographs of a landscape are often disappointing to look at when compared with our memory of the photo’s subject. On location we can look left and right to take in the splendour of the scene. However, a typical photo’s aspect ratio is much narrower, so only a section of the scene is recorded. Fortunately, thanks to your Camera app’s Pano mode, you can capture a much wider panoramic view. This can be a challenge though – if the location has contrasting light and dark areas then some sections will be under or overexposed, or if you fail to keep the camera panning horizontally you’ll notice ugly black edges with missing data. Here’s how to use the Photos app to overcome these problems. Photos Edit panoramas using Photos 1 Find Panoramas…

Love or loathe them, emojis are here to stay. The text language was created in the Nineties by Japanese mobile operators, and has become a much-loved part of mobile messaging. The word emoji comes from the Japanese words for ‘picture’ and ‘character’ and depicts a series of facial expressions, and plenty more. They do say a picture speaks a thousand words, right? Emojis took off in popularity when they were added to iOS, but did you know that emojis have been part of macOS since OS X 10.7 Lion? That’s right, you can use emojis when you’re typing on your Mac, and it’s not even a hidden setting. It’s best not to litter an important email or document with emojis, but if you feel like you need a modern language…

How good is your internet connection? Is your broadband quick and responsive? A poor connection causes slow software downloads and macOS updates, and it can cause movies and other streaming content to stutter. Measure your home broadband speed at websites like fast.com and speedof.me and then compare the results with friends to see if there is a problem, or if you need to speak to your ISP about an upgrade. Download speed, upload speed and responsiveness can be tested too. A high download speed means that several people in your home can watch movies, play games and work online at the same time. Here we cover the tools you need to effectively monitor your broadband. Safari Test and monitor the internet 1 Assess performance Open Safari and go to speedof.me.…

Find My Friends is the iOS app that enables you to keep track of a friend’s location via their iOS device. It might sound like stalking, but it does have its uses. For example, if your child cycles home from school every day and you want to keep an eye on them, this is a good way of doing it. Likewise if you’ve got friends coming over and want to know how their road trip is progressing, then Find My Friends is ideal. To follow someone you need to send an invitation and have it accepted before they appear in your Friends list. Now you can track friends on any Mac running OS X El Capitan or macOS Sierra from your Notification Center via the new Find My Friends widget.…

Encouraging the viewer’s eyes to be drawn to the focal point of your image can be a tough task for a photographer. It’s vital to frame the photo in such a way so that the subject of your shot is the first thing your viewer is drawn to, but there are many ways to achieve this outside of framing too. Of course you can crop your photo to get your subject in exactly the right spot, but you can also add a vignette effect to draw the eye towards the middle of your shot. Combine this with some first-class framing and you’ll have an image that says exactly what you want it to say. Here’s how to add a vignette effect to a photograph using nothing but your Mac’s Photos…

The menu bar at the top of the screen has been there forever and is a constant feature of the Mac’s operating system. Using it is obvious, but there are hidden features and settings that you might not be aware of that can make using the menu bar quicker and easier. For example, you can access many menu commands using keyboard shortcuts, hidden menus can be exposed by holding down a key, the menu can be set to hide when it is not being used, its colour can be changed and so on. We cover the best ways to use and configure the menu bar here, but don’t forget that there are some great apps in the Mac App Store that are able to add amazing features to it too.…

Use Parallels Desktop to run another operating system in macOS Some people need Windows to run software that is not available for macOS and others just like to explore new operating systems and software. Whatever the reason for wanting to run it on your Mac, you can be assured that it runs well. Windows applications can run in macOS using Parallels Desktop (parallels.com), which enables you to install Microsoft’s OS in a window like an app. Parallels lets you download a free trial of Windows 10, but in this tutorial we look at the full OS, which is available as a download from microsoftstore.com. Click the Software menu and select Windows. Click Windows 10 Home and then Buy Windows 10 (download). Save the .iso file to the Downloads folder and…

The Mac doesn’t get viruses, but what it is increasingly vulnerable to are a lot of other types of malware, such as pop-ups, browser hijackers that redirect searches, phishing attempts, malicious adverts, bad extensions and so on. Fortunately, you don’t need a separate app to detect each type of malware out there, and most security software will scan for all of them. The free 360 Total Security app for Mac adds an extra layer of protection to macOS, helping to prevent malware from getting into the system and causing problems. It runs in the background and provides a security boost for browsers, as well as tools to scan the disk for malware. 360 Total Security Boost your Mac’s protection 1 Get the app Go to www.360totalsecurity.com and download the 360…

WhatsApp currently has more than one billion users connected to the service, and as such it is one of the most popular communication tools on the planet. The interface is perfect for mobile and this has made it ideal for sending photos, documents and for chatting with friends when you have a few spare minutes, but when used on a Mac you can take the service even further. We will show you how to install the Mac app, and you may be surprised at how easy it is to set up, as well as the clever way it works with your phone to ensure consistency over every device you own. Potentially, you may find yourself using it as often as you do the phone app, which highlights how effective it…

The ability to take screenshots on your iPhone has long been a useful feature that has been enjoyed by millions of people every day. But until recently, there has been no easy way to record your iPhone’s screen and save the video to play elsewhere. Since iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan, that’s possible – all you need is a Lightning cable. Apple has added the function to enable developers to record preview videos for the iOS App Store, but thankfully it’s not exclusive to those with a developer account. Simply plug in your iPhone or iPad and you can shoot a video directly from your device’s screen. It’s surprisingly easy to do, so begin by double-checking that all of your software is up to date and let’s get…

Facebook is great for keeping in touch with friends but if there’s one concern associated with the social network, it’s privacy. Contrary to popular opinion, not everything you do has to be shared publicly. In fact, if you spend enough time digging around its settings, you’ll find a range of privacy preferences that do everything from limiting the audience of your posts to hiding your profile from search engines. We’ll guide you through some of the most relevant privacy settings on Facebook here. We haven’t covered everything, but picked most of the essentials. It’s definitely worth having a search around Facebook’s settings and experimenting with options. For now, though, let’s get started. Facebook How to use Facebook’s privacy settings 1 Check you out To get started, take a look at…

If you send an email, can you be sure that no-one will be able to read it except the person you sent it to? No. Someone could intercept it and read it, because it lacks any security. This problem can be solved by encrypting the messages sent from Mail. To do this you need a free email certificate from Comodo (bit.ly/1TzS5SH), which acts like a lock and key. Send a friend an email and Mail includes a key (the certificate). They reply to your email and that includes their key. Now that you both have keys to unlock each other’s emails, you can exchange encrypted messages with them. Mail automatically unlocks emails so you can read them. For this to work, both you and the recipient need to follow this…

Every year Apple updates the operating system on the Mac and treats us to a bevy of exciting new features and improved ways of working. In 2016, the changes were even more extensive than usual, and there have been some fantastic additions. With a new name, macOS, and new ways of working, you are going to love this latest update. Buy a new Mac and it will come with Sierra pre-installed, but for the rest of us, we need to upgrade. If you bought a Mac in the last six years you are okay, but before you go ahead with the install, there are some essential tasks to perform to make sure that the upgrade proceeds smoothly. In this feature we detail the steps necessary to aptly prepare for Sierra,…

There is no doubt that Apple products are becoming closer to each other as time passes and Apple is gradually introducing new features that will make you more productive if you have bought into the ecosystem. Universal Clipboard is so obvious that it’s surprising it is only becoming available now, and even more surprisingly you will never actually see it when it is being used. The entire process is as simple as copying text or an image on one device and then using the paste command on another. The data will be available on the second device in short order and you can then paste it as if you had copied it on the same device a second before. It will save you time on a daily basis. Universal Clipboard…

To create a lighter, more shareable movie file you need to understand how a clip’s resolution and compression settings relate to its file size. Let’s start with resolution. A GoPro Hero 4 Silver’s biggest clip measures 3840 pixels by 2160 pixels. This high resolution qualifies such a clip for the 4K label (as it’s almost 4000 pixels wide). Unless you have a 21.5-inch 4K iMac, you’ll have to scale down your video footage to make it fit on your display (or HD TV). Fortunately iMovie enables you to resize large files to a smaller resolution that’s compatible with common displays. A smaller resolution also produces a lighter, more shareable file that’s easier and quicker to upload. iMovie Get to grips with resolution and compression 1 Find a start file Here…

Pages is the most beautiful word processor out there. Not only is it an excellent piece of software, it also enables you to make your documents look incredible with loads of advanced options for turning your typing into art. One of the simplest ways to do this is to use ligatures, where you join two letters together to create an elegant typeface. You can also customise the spacing between characters to make your documents as tight or easily readable as you want, giving you full control over how your documents look. This tutorial will show you how to set ligatures and alter the spacing between characters, as well as turn your quotation marks into ‘smart’ quotation marks. Pages Alter ligatures and spacing in Pages 1 Select text Open up a…

The transition from mechanical disk drive to solid state disk (SSD) has boosted the performance of Macs and they are amazingly fast, but space is often limited. If you are struggling for disk space, a new feature in macOS Sierra called Optimised Storage solves the problem. It makes use of iCloud and files can be stored online instead of on the Mac’s disk. If the disk is short of space then files are moved online, but if there is lots of space they will stay on the Mac. You no longer need to worry about disk space and macOS handles everything. When you need a file, you just access it in the usual way and macOS opens it whether it is on the disk or online. Here’s how to set…

Playlists are a great way of keeping the contents of your iTunes library organised, without having to spend anything on expensive add-ons that look to clean up your library for you. Up until now, playlists have solely been created by users based on their tastes and needs, but iTunes 12 now includes a whole new way to construct them. Smart Playlists, as the name suggests, are curated by iTunes based on a set of specified rules. When a rule is met, the playlist is updated. Rules can be heavily customised based on what you require, and it’s when you start to combine rules to make heavily-tailored playlists, that the new Smart Playlists feature comes into a league of its own. Understand playlist rules Learn the ins and outs of creating…

Do you get along with your Mac’s trackpad? Does it do everything you want? Do you know all the tricks it is capable of performing? The default settings for the Mac’s trackpad might suit some people, but not everyone. Some users simply like their Mac set up one way, whereas others like it slightly different. If you head to the Trackpad settings in System Preferences there are numerous options and three tabs of gestures. Configuring them is easy – the hard part is remembering them! You might want to disable some gestures if there are too many, and you may find that a simpler trackpad is more useable. Some options are turned off by default and turning them on can be useful too. Set your favourite settings Choose the best…

Because your iPhone has an incredible camera inside it, chances are you’re going to be taking lots of wonderful photographs. However, the more photos you take, the bigger risk that you might lose them if you haven’t backed them up properly. One of the simplest and safest ways to do this is by using Apple’s in-built Time Machine app. This securely saves your files to your Mac, so even if your phone gets lost or stolen, your pictures can be safely stored for free. It’s essentially a secondary backup in case you run into iCloud Photo Library troubles. This tutorial will take you through the steps required to load up Time Machine and back up your iPhone pictures for the safest of safekeeping. Enter the Time Machine How to get…

When files are deleted they are moved to the Trash, and when the Trash is emptied the space they occupied is made free again. However, the files are still on the disk and could be recovered. This is a security worry if you have any personal files or private documents. So how do you delete files permanently? OS X had an option to securely empty the Trash, which overwrote files before deleting them, but it was removed in El Capitan. Why? The problem is that securely deleting files only works on mechanical disk drives and not on SSDs, which the newest MacBooks use. We’ll show how to securely delete files for those with iMacs and MacBooks with mechanical disk drives. Trash Delete files from the Terminal 1 Enter Terminal Click…

Are you using two-factor authentication (2FA) to protect your Apple ID? You should be because it offers extra security that helps prevent hackers and thieves accessing your iTunes Store account, iCloud and other Apple services. Two-factor authentication makes use of your Mac and phone (iPhone or Android), and it creates a trusted device. When any new computer, phone or tablet tries to log in to an Apple service using your ID, a six-digit code is required. This is displayed on your trusted device. So even if a hacker got hold of your username and password, they still couldn’t get into your account because they wouldn’t have access to the code. You’d also be alerted and could then block them. Authentication settings Configure your iCloud account details Two-step verification Two-step authentication…

The Mac App Store is a safe and easy way to download apps for your Mac. However, your Mac isn’t locked down like your iPhone or iPad – you can download apps from anywhere, which can make your Mac vulnerable if you download an app from a malicious source. This is where Gatekeeper comes in. Gatekeeper has been around since the days of OS X Mountain Lion and is Apple’s defence against malware. It checks downloads for a digitally signed certificate, which confirms the app developer is registered with Apple. If it isn’t, depending on your settings, Gatekeeper will block the app or simply warn you that the app might not be safe to install and use. Read on, and learn how to help protect your Mac. Mac security and…

There is no denying that a brand new Mac is fast and a joy to use, but many older computers are struggling under the weight of software installed on them. Does your Mac start up as fast as it used to? Probably not, and the cause is apps that load in the background when booting. It takes longer to get to the desktop and for everything to finish loading. This is especially true of Macs with mechanical disk drives. In this guide we show how to find out which apps are auto-starting with macOS. Once you know the cause of the problem, you can set about fixing it and speeding up the Mac’s start-up time. Also watch out for adware and other malware in these start-up locations, too. System Preferences…

Your photographs may look great when viewed on your iPhone’s screen, however your device’s relatively small display isn’t the most effective place to indulge in some quality control, even if you can zoom in for a closer look by simply pinching. What may look nice and sharp on a phone’s display may turn out to be soft when viewed in Photos. The Zoom tool enables you to view a photograph’s pixels at actual size, and this is the only way that you can actually tell if they are indeed sharp or soft. It’s also important to fix pictures at full magnification, so that you can avoid over or under-sharpening, and the Zoom tool can also help you to spot and fix problems such as excessive noise. Zoom options Use the…

Whether you use your Mac as a creative tool, for running a business or just for entertainment, there are thousands of apps to choose from, many of which compete with each other and do more or less the same job. So how do you decide which ones to use? You might think, for example, that if you’re a creative professional, the likes of Photoshop, Illustrator and Dreamweaver are a no-brainer. But that’s not the case any more. While all are great tools, they’re being challenged by upstarts like Pixelmator, Affinity Designer and Hype. What’s more, the new kids on the block are hipper and cheaper than the de facto standard applications in their respective fields. The advent of the Mac App Store over the last few years means that it’s…

Ever since Steve Jobs introduced the Macintosh for the first time in 1984, the dream of being able to talk to your Mac and have it answer back has lived in the minds of Apple fans. With the release of macOS Sierra, that dream has become a real and powerful reality. When Sierra launched as a free download late in 2016, you could begin using Siri on your Mac. But that wasn’t the only exciting prospect for those upgrading, because the recent update is packed with new features, tricks and technology to make your life easier, faster and far more fun. There are changes from the moment you wake up your Mac from sleep thanks to Auto Unlock, which allows your Apple Watch to automatically log you back in to…

Mail benefited from an intelligence boost in El Capitan – it now spots certain items from messages in your inbox and makes clever suggestions. It scans the text of messages for mentions of meetings and appointments. It looks for days of the week, dates and times and when these are found, it enables you to add them as Calendar events. The trick is that you don’t need to leave Mail. Brilliant! It is common for people to include contact details at the end of an email and Mail recognises this and lets you add the sender to your contacts with minimal effort. The contact information is highlighted and a click of the mouse displays a card that enables you to quickly add the person to the Contacts app. Mail’s smartest…

If you’re not after the complexity of TweetDeck, using Twitter’s other dedicated desktop app hasn’t always been easy. The company has been slow to release updates (even for seemingly essential things like Retina display support) and its lack of support for third-party developers means that apps like Tweetbot for Mac are pricey. Still, the major update that was released at the end of 2015 was a step in the right direction. Along with a slicker UI, there are features to explore (including the arguably essential animated GIF support) and enough of an update to restore faith in the company’s OS X and macOS efforts. If you haven’t already, now’s the time to grab the official Twitter app. Twitter Explore the app’s new features 1 Sign in or up Chances are,…

When you shoot multiple photos in the same location (using the same camera settings), then you may end up with a batch of shots that have a similar set of problems. In our example snaps of St Paul’s Cathedral and the Millennium Bridge in London, the images are overexposed and the colours look rather drab. Fortunately this doesn’t mean that we need to spend the same amount of time fixing each image. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to take one shot into Photos’ Edit mode, summon a host of fixing tools to produce a shot with more colour and contrast and copy the adjustments. You can then paste the adjustments onto the other problem shots in the series to fix them in a click. Copy and paste Make…

Notes is a great app for storing text, images, checklists and even documents and files. However, one thing may bother you, and this is that they can be accessed by anyone that can get their hands on your computer. To prevent anyone but you from seeing private or personal information stored in a note, you should lock them with a password. Locked notes do not display unless the password is entered, but other notes are unaffected. Not only would someone need access to your Mac, which should be password protected of course, they would also need your Notes password too. Now notes are super secure and only you know how to access them. Notes Lock your notes securely 1 Click the lock Any of the notes in the Notes app…

One of the great new features in macOS Sierra is the ability to access files on your Mac’s desktop or the Documents folder from any computer, iPhone or iPad. This is useful in many scenarios, such as when you are at work and need to access a file on your Mac at home, or if you are at home and need to access a work computer. When you are out of the home or office, you can still access your files by using your iPhone, and if you are sitting on the sofa with your iPad and need to view a file on your Mac, there’s no need to get up, as it’s right there in front of you. This is a very useful and convenient feature, but you do…

Whether you’re lucky enough to spend your time in different countries or simply work with colleagues overseas, setting your Mac up to work with other languages and regions has never been easier. Tucked away in System Preferences is the Language & Region preferences pane. In here you’ll find everything you need to switch time zones, work with different currencies or type in an entirely different language on your keyboard. For a quick change, you can add a new country to your preferred languages or change the region setting, which will update almost every other detail for you. If you’d rather, though, you can dig down into the more granular settings in the Language & Region preferences pane. Language & Region Edit your Language & Region preferences 1 Locate the pane…

Pretty much the biggest bane of online life has to be pop-up ads. You’re happily browsing the web and all of a sudden you’re bombarded with offers to buy everything from an iPhone case to a car. Many websites rely on adverts for their revenue but there is a fine line between discreet, targeted adverts and giant banners that dominate your screen. Apple includes some pop-up blocking wizardry of its own to keep its users safe from having their web browsing experience ruined, but there are also some excellent third-party options that keep the adverts to a minimum. Some will even eradicate them entirely, so not only are you free from seeing them but you also avoid having to wait for the things to load. Safari Block pop-up ads appearing…

Muting tabs isn’t exactly a new idea – it’s been a part of other web browsers such as Chrome for years now. But that’s not to say that it wasn’t a welcome addition to El Capitan’s lineup of features, especially if you have invested time in using Safari and taking advantage of its seamless ability to sync between all your devices. The Mute Tabs feature in Safari puts more control in your hands, and that’s great for those distracting, auto-play adverts that are the scourge of the web. The implementation of it is extremely simple (there’s no menu to activate, for example) but the feature runs a bit deeper than you might expect. In this tutorial we’ll show you all the different ways you can mute your tabs, individually and…

Generally speaking, your Mac’s OS is very good at keeping things ticking. Behind the scenes, thousands of processes are running to keep your machine from slowing down, and we’ve even seen a few made a big deal of in recent years (think App Nap at WWDC). However, there’s still a place for great third-party apps to help make your Mac feel even snappier, and Memory Clean 2 is a great example. It keeps a close eye on your Mac’s RAM and how much of it is used, breaking down used RAM into its different components so you can see exactly what’s going on. Memory Clean 2 isn’t just a monitoring tool, though – with a click of the button it’ll free up even more RAM. Here’s how it works. Explore…

The App Store is a great feature of the Mac and it makes it really easy to find software for your work or personal use. Some apps require payment and because money is involved, there are some pretty good security systems in place to protect you. You must sign in to the App Store with your Apple ID. Once signed in, there is an option for the store to remember your password, so if you make another purchase soon after, you do not need to re-enter it. This is a convenient function, but it is also a less secure option than requiring a password every time you make a purchase. You have a choice of saving the password for 15 minutes or not. It is up to you, but we…

Creating an admin account that is hidden from other users is very useful for a number of reasons. The obvious one is that people cannot attempt to make use of it and, although it is not necessarily a sophisticated security measure, it will be more than enough to stop most people knowing that it is even there. The other reason is more generic, but having a second admin account makes sense just in case you lose access to the main account, at which point it can be used to recover from major problems that you may otherwise be locked out of. The process is fairly straightforward, but you need to be precise to ensure that you do not lock yourself out of your Mac. System Preferences Hide a second admin…

One of Safari’s more handy features is its ability to save credit card information within the app itself, so that whenever you need to buy something online, you don’t have to spend a lifetime locating your card and then typing in all the same old information. Of course, this feature doesn’t save every piece of info that you need to buy something – you’ll still need to enter at least the security code on the back of the card before you can make a purchase. However, there are obviously some safety concerns associate with this, so remember that if you plan on saving credit cards, you should definitely add a password to your user space on your Mac. Here’s how to get set up and manage your credit cards through…

I’m trying to delete a blank page from Pages but it remains even after removing the text. How can I delete it? When I add a comment in Pages, it displays my brother’s name instead of mine. How can I change it to my name? 1 Open document Open the Pages document with the incorrectly named comments and navigate to the Pages menu. Select Preferences. 2 Find author’s name Next, click on General. Locate Author towards the bottom of the pane. Your brother’s name should be displayed there. 3 Change name Delete the incorrect name from the Author field and type in your name. This will be the name displayed with future comments. I recently bought a new Mac but it’s already getting pretty grubby. What’s the best way to…