Mac OS

Mac OS, Mac OS X, or macOS, is the operating system that resides on Apple’s desktop and portable computer lineup. Built upon a Unix core, it is easy to use yet highly advanced, extremely stable, and an excellent OS for productivity and creation. Browse through our articles or use the search feature to look for something specific that is pertinent to the Mac operating system.

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How to Change a Live Photo to Still on Mac Photos

Jan 30, 2017 - 5 Comments

If you use the Mac Photos app for managing your pictures and you have a modern iPhone, you’ll likely have some (or many) Live Photos stored in your photo library. You can easily change any Live Photo on the Mac from the video picture form back into a still photo, and it’s fairly easy as … Read More

How to Send Read Receipts to Specific Contact in Messages for Mac

Jan 29, 2017 - 1 Comment
Send read receipts to specific contact in Mac Messages

Read Receipts in iMessage allow the sender of a message to know when a recipient has received it, and both the Mac OS and iOS Messages apps support this feature when communicating with other iMessage users. But many Mac users don’t want to send Read Receipts to everyone, and with the latest versions of Mac … Read More

How to Unlock Mac with Apple Watch

Jan 27, 2017 - 16 Comments
Unlock Mac with Apple Watch

Mac users with an Apple Watch can unlock their Mac by simply wearing their watch, thereby bypassing the need to enter a password at the boot and login screens. This great feature makes logging onto and unlocking a Mac remarkably easy and quite fast for Apple Watch wearers, but you’ll have to enable it first.

How to Play Live Photos in Photos for Mac

Jan 26, 2017 - 7 Comments

Wondering how to play Live Photos in the Photos app on Mac? Fortunately it’s quite simple, and there’s no use of 3D Touch or any funky tricks necessary. In fact, in some ways it’s actually easier to play a Live Photo picture video in Photos for Mac than it is when viewing Live Photos in … Read More

How to Record a Movie Directly Into iMovie on Mac

Jan 25, 2017 - 2 Comments
Stop recording the movie intoiMovie

Have you ever wanted to record a movie directly into iMovie on Mac? It’s easy to capture live video from a Mac built-in camera and have it instantly imported into iMovie, from there you can edit it with the iMovie tools, incorporate it into another video project, or export the recorded movie as a file … Read More

Using TextEdit Tabs on Mac

Jan 24, 2017 - 10 Comments
TextEdit tabs on Mac

If you use TextEdit on Mac for your simple word processing and quick plain text editing needs like a Notepad equivalent from the Windows world, you’ll likely appreciate that the latest versions of Mac OS support tabbed windows in TextEdit. This can dramatically reduce window clutter in the TextEdit app, just like tabs work elsewhere.

MacOS Sierra 10.12.3 Update Released

Jan 23, 2017 - 48 Comments
MacOS 10.12.3 update

Apple has released MacOS Sierra 10.12.3 update for all Mac users running the Sierra operating system. The system software update is said to improve stability and security on the mac and is therefore recommended for all users to install on their compatible hardware. Separately, Apple has also released software updates to iOS 10.2.1, tvOS 10.1.1,and … Read More

Where Do AirDrop Files Go? Locating AirDrop Files on Mac and iOS

Jan 20, 2017 - 36 Comments
AirDrop

AirDrop is the excellent wireless file transfer feature available to Mac, iPhone, and iPad, and with it you can easily and quickly transfer pictures, movies, documents, and whatever else between any iOS or Mac OS device. Being on the receiving end of AirDrop, have you ever wondered where AirDrop files go on a Mac or … Read More

How to Disable Boot on Lid Open on MacBook Pro (2016 & Later Intel Models)

Jan 19, 2017 - 33 Comments
New MacBook Pro boots automatically when lid is opened

The newest MacBook Pro models default to automatically powering on when the laptops lid is opened, or when the Mac is connected to power. This may be desirable to some users, but not everyone may be pleased with an automatically booting MacBook just when the display lid is lifted open. With a visit to the … Read More

How to Highlight in Pages for Mac

Jan 18, 2017 - 14 Comments
How to highlight in Pages for Mac

Frequent Pages users may find it helpful to know how to highlight selections, words, sentences, and paragraphs of documents opened within the app. Highlighting is particularly useful for students, writers, editors, educators, and office workers, but it’s valuable to nearly anyone who spends a fair amount of time in the word processing application on a … Read More

Get Info on Anything from Spotlight in Mac OS

Jan 17, 2017 - 11 Comments

You can quickly access “Get Info” for any file or application from within Spotlight search results in Mac OS and Mac OS X. Getting file info from Spotlight requires a set of two simple keystrokes, first to get into Spotlight, then the next is to Get Info on the selected or found item in question. … Read More

How to Kill a Process by Name Instead of PID via Command Line

Jan 12, 2017 - 1 Comment
Terminal in macOS

Command line users rely on the ‘kill’ command to terminate a process as defined by the appropriate process identifier (PID). While there’s nothing wrong with targeting processes by their PID, another approach which is often easier is to target a process by name, rather than its unique identifier. There are a few ways to kill … Read More

Use Tabs in Maps for Mac

Jan 11, 2017 - Leave a Comment
Show tab bar in Maps

Tabs offer an excellent way to manage multiple windows without overly cluttering the screen of a Mac, a feature which is particularly valuable for smaller screen displays. Like many other apps in new Mac OS releases, the Apple Maps app for Mac now includes the ability to have multiple tabs of maps open concurrently, either … Read More

How to Manually Refresh Touch Bar on MacBook Pro

Jan 11, 2017 - 58 Comments
Refresh the Touch Bar on Mac

The Touch Bar on MacBook Pro changes dynamically depending on what application is open and what action is going on within Mac OS. Or at least, that’s what’s supposed to happen. Rarely, the Touch Bar stops working, will get stuck and become unresponsive, maybe even display an erroneous button, or show a blank button that … Read More

How to Disable Automatic GPU Switching on MacBook Pro

Jan 8, 2017 - 20 Comments
Disable automatic graphics switching on MacBook Pro

For those MacBook Pro owners with higher end models that include dual video cards (integrated and discrete GPU), you’re likely aware that Mac OS and certain apps will switch between the two graphics cards as is determined necessary. The idea behind this is for apps to use the integrated GPU when attempting to conserve power … Read More

Ignoring Built-in Trackpad Input When Using External Mouse with MacBook

Jan 5, 2017 - 19 Comments
Disable trackpad when external mouse or trackpad connected to Mac

The built-in trackpad on MacBook Pro and MacBook functions as the primary input method of the Apple laptops, but if you primarily use an external mouse or external trackpad you may occasionally find the built-in trackpad receives input you’d rather the Mac ignore. With a simple settings adjustment you can do exactly that, ignoring any … Read More

How to Delete Large Apps from Mac to Free Up Storage

Jan 4, 2017 - 14 Comments
Delete Mac Apps with Storage Management

Many Mac users have apps installed on their Mac which take up considerable storage space but generally go unused. Accordingly, Mac users can free up storage space on their computer by tracking down large Mac apps and deleting them. The latest versions of MacOS offer a very easy way to track down large applications, see … Read More

How to Reply to Messages on Mac from Notifications

Jan 1, 2017 - 1 Comment
Reply to messages from Notifications on Mac

Mac users can respond to Messages faster than ever by replying directly from a message notification, without ever having to open the Messages app. This effectively means that you can have an entire conversation through the message pop-ups in Mac OS without using the Messages app, though keep in mind the experience will be limited … Read More

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