How-To

Start an Apple Mac and when you get to the desktop, that’s Finder. It is more than the desktop and it enables you to open windows to explore the drive contents. Here's how to improve it.

Do you use the language features of Pages, Apple’s word processor and part of the iWork suite of office applications? If you have been confused, take control and use the language you want.

How fast can you type? How fast can you speak? There is no contest and speech wins every time. So why don't you dictate more on your Apple Mac instead of typing? It saves time and effort.

The Apple Mac makes many sounds when you are using it, but what do they all mean? Why do you get one sound on some occasions and another at others? How can you select the sounds it makes?

What is going on under the surface of the Mac's graphical interface? Is it working hard or idling, downloading or uploading, hot or cool? Monitor the hardware and software with MiniUsage.

Renaming files in macOS has always been easy and you just select a file, press Enter and type in a new name. What about bulk renaming, search and replace in filenames? Yes, it does that too.

If you have just bought a new Apple Mac or installed a fresh copy of macOS, a good way to clean up and speed up, here are the essential tasks to perform to get it running the way you like.

Apple Macs are normally very reliable, but like all computers they do occasionally experience problems. Finding the cause is not always easy but macOS tools and third party utilities help.

Some people have found that after upgrading to the latest version of macOS on their Apple Mac, it runs more slowly than it used to. Why does this happen and what can you do about it?

Preview has had the ability to capture a signature and insert it into documents for some time. Have you added it yet? Here are two ways to create signatures. Use them to sign documents!.

Spotlight is a useful tool for finding apps, documents and other files on the Apple Mac’s drive, but sometimes problems occur. Learn how to solve indexing problems and restart Spotlight.

Apple provides iCloud online storage space for your Apple Mac, iPhone and iPad. How much are you using? You might be surprised at the amount. Check your iCloud storage and delete the junk.

When you open a new Finder window in macOS on the Apple Mac, does it instantly appear or does it take a couple of seconds for the contents to refresh? Speed up Finder with simple tweaks.

How often do you check your email? Probably too often and if there aren’t any new messages, it is a waste of time. With a few tweaks you can get desktop notifications in macOS on your Mac.

Apple introduced tabs to Finder windows several generations of macOS ago and they are useful when working with files and folders, but do you know all of the tab tricks and shortcuts?

It is irritating when you set off on a car journey and get stuck in traffic. You sit there burning petrol, adding to greenhouse gasses, getting more frustrated. Apple Maps has the solution.

The Mac's Photos app has useful editing facilities for enhancing photographs, fixing faults like brightness, saturation, contrast and so on. Here's how to edit multiple photos in batches.

Some tips for macOS involve opening a Terminal window and typing an obscure command starting ‘defaults write blah blah…’ Have you ever wondered what it all means? Here is the answer.

TextEdit is a basic, yet useful word processor and text editor that is bundled with macOS on the Apple Mac, but do you use it for HTML and code editing? It can be used with a few tweaks.

Some applications slow down the Mac by using too much processing power, too much memory or constantly accessing the disk. See how to use Activity Monitor, TOP and XRG to find the problem apps.