10 Tips For New Mac Users

Here are 10 tips for people who are new to using macOS.

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Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. He's some tips for new Mac users.
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So if you're new to Mac here's some things you're going to want to know about right away. The first is the Spotlight Menu. This is a control that you bring up and then type something to get some quick results. You can click right here on the little magnifying glass at the upper right hand corner of your Mac's Menu Bar or you can simply use Command and Spacebar to bring it up. Now you can, of course, search for Files but whatever you search for you're going to get a lot more than just files. For instance here I can go in and do quick web searches. I can go to Wikipedia. I can see images. I can go to suggested websites. I get files like this. I see different photos that I have on my Mac. Documents with that name. All sorts of things. In addition Spotlight search can do math. So just type a math equation like that and you get a result. You can even use parentheses to get more complex results.
When you're looking at files in the Finder, particularly images, you may want to be able to see it before you open it in an app. You can do that using Quick Look. Just select a file and press the Spacebar. This brings up the Quick Look window. Also notice that while you're in the Finder you can use the arrow keys to get around. But when you're using Quick Look you can also use the arrow keys to get around and Quick Look is going to show you whatever it is that's selected. You can move this window around, resize it to your needs. It will show you a lot more than images. Just about any file you select is going to show you a Preview of what's inside, even giving you the ability to playback video and audio.
Now when you have lots of apps open you can click on the different windows to jump to a different app or use the Dock below to be able to go to that app. But you can also just use the App Switcher. Command and Tab will bring up all the apps. Continue to hold the Command Key down and tap Tab over and over again and you'll get to the app that you want. Release Command and you'll bring that app to the front.
Now when you have several windows open in an app, like I've got 3 Pages documents here, you can switch to them using the Command and then the Backtick Key, which on US keyboards is right above the Tab. Just hold the Command key down and continue to tap that and it will go through all of the open windows. If you want to see all the open windows so you can pick one use Control down arrow and this brings up App Expose. Here I can see I have three different windows to choose from and even some recently opened documents here at the bottom that I could choose. Just click on the one you want to go to and it brings that one to the front.
Now if you want to quickly get the app you're working on out of the way without quitting it, don't use the yellow button here to minimize the window. That will just minimize that one window and other windows for the app will still be opened. Instead use the Hide Command, which is Command H. Use that and it will hide all the windows, hide it completely and you can get to other apps that you want. Then use Command Tab and go back to that app. It will bring all the windows back.
An even more powerful way to control the windows and apps you have on your Mac is to use Mission Control. The default keyboard shortcut is Control and then Up Arrow. It brings up Mission Control and you can see which windows you've got on your current Desktop. But you could also go up here to the Plus button and add a second Desktop. So I can drag, say, this Pages document to it. So now I've got Desktop 1 with Reminders and Photos, and Desktop 2 with Pages. I can click on one of these Desktops and go to it. Notice that this is the only window here on the Desktop. Control Left Arrow and Control Right Arrow to go between these. Control Up Arrow takes you back here where you can jump to anyone you want. You can add as many Desktops as you need.
You can also take an app full screen by clicking on the Green Button here. Notice that this appears here with the Desktops. These are all called Spaces. These are two Desktop Spaces where you can have multiple windows and this is a full screen window as a Space. You can use those Control Left and Right Arrows to move between all of them. The third type you can have is Split View. So if I move my pointer over the Green Button here I can tile this to the right side of the screen. Then select another window here on this Desktop for the left side of the screen. Now you could see it's like Full Screen but with two apps instead of one. I can even drag the middle. If I go to Mission Control now you can see I've got a Desktop, another Desktop, I've got this Split View here, and I've got a full screen app here. So there are lots of different ways to arrange the windows that you're working on.
Now when you're typing in an app and want to use an emoji or special symbol sometimes you'll find a little button like this that you can click and use that to do it. But in just about any app that you're typing text you can use the simple keyboard command Control Command Space and it brings up the Emoji & Special Character viewer. You can choose an emoji there or search for it by name. So search for what you want. It will show you matches and then you can select it and it inserts it. On the newer Macs you can also hold down the Globe Key and press E to bring this up.
If you're looking to take a Screenshot you don't need a third party app for that. There's a very powerful Screenshot Tool built-into your Mac. Use Shift Command 5 and it will bring up the controls here at the bottom. You can capture the entire screen. You can capture just a window. You can capture a selected area. You can also record the entire screen or an area to make a video and the Options Tool here will allow you to select all sorts of different things. Like where you save the screenshots to, whether or not the mouse pointer is shown, things like that. So here I'll capture an area. I'll drag a box here and I can move it around and adjust it. After I click Capture I get this floating thumbnail at the bottom. I can click that and now the Screenshot Tool goes into Markup Mode. I can click here and I can mark it up with drawings, with shapes, with arrows, with text, all sorts of things and then when I'm done I can either trash it or share it in some way or just hit Done and it will Save to its default location.
Your Mac has two powerful dictation modes that you can use. If you go into System Settings and then you look under Keyboard, then go down to Dictation you can turn this On and set the Shortcut. So I've got it set to Press Control Key Twice. But you can do it in a variety of different ways. Then for this all you do is activate it. (The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog period). Then you can hit the Escape key or click that Done button to finish. This is great for dictating short pieces of text. If you need to use dictation all the time and want to even more power then there's a second mode. If you go into System Settings and then under Accessibility go to Motor and there's Voice Control and you could turn Voice Control On and it's not only dictation but also has a variety of different commands and ways to control your Mac.
Another handy thing to know about is Text Replacements. Go into System Settings and then go back to Keyboard and then look here for Text Replacements. Here you can set a pair-up to replace something you type with something else. So you just press the Plus Button to add something here. It can be something really simple like this parenthesis C and a close parenthesis to give a copyright symbol. So you don't have to remember how to type that. Or it can be something more complex. Like I've got exclamation mark reply 1 set to be this long passage to text here. So anytime I type that I just hit the Spacebar or Return you could see it replaces what I typed with this. So you can have common responses to email or messages or things that you type everyday that just too long to type out. Just set them up in Text Replacements and it could help you throughout the day.
One last thing I want to show you, and this is probably the most important, is there is built-in backups software in macOS. You don't need to get anything separate. All you need to do is buy an external hard disc drive. Size is more important than speed. Then get a regular drive, not an SSD and make it as large as possible. Then go to System Settings and then here under General you've got Time Machine. Then this is where you can add new drives by clicking the Plus Button. But when you attach a new drive it often just prompts you as to whether or not you want to use it for Time Machine. Then you can select options here. I recommend that you just keep the Time Machine drive plugged in at all times if it is a Desktop Mac and set it to automatically every hour. If it is a laptop then plug in the Time Machine Drive whenever you're at your desk and let it do the hourly backup as much as it can.
If you want to know anymore about any of these tips I've done many videos on all of these over the years. Just search MacMost.com or my You Tube channel to find them. Thanks for watching. Related Subjects: Finder (272 videos)
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