Technology

10 Must-Know Mac Tricks and Tips for Complete Beginners

<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Tech-giant Apple has been growing steadily since its inception in 1976&period; But making the switch from PC to Mac can be intimidating at first&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Luckily&comma; there are some simple tips and tricks that can help ease your transition&period; Read on to learn 10 <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;newsforpublic&period;com&sol;top-mac-hacks-make-computing-easier&sol;">Mac tips that will make you an Apple pro<&sol;a> before you know it&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Spotlight<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">One of the best features that MacOS has to offer is Spotlight&comma; a search function that looks through your entire computer&&num;8217&semi;s contents&comma; including apps&comma; documents&comma; and other files&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Using Spotlight&comma; you can search for whatever you might need&comma; including things like &&num;8220&semi;messages from John&&num;8221&semi; or &&num;8220&semi;photos from 2018&period;&&num;8221&semi; Whatever your needs are&comma; Spotlight&&num;8217&semi;s got your back&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">You can also use Spotlight for unit conversions &lpar;like meters to feet&rpar; or some calculations&period; Spotlight is a personal assistant&comma; filing system&comma; and calculator&comma; all rolled into one convenient package&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">To try it today&comma; simply hold down the Command key while hitting the space bar&period; A search bar should show up in the middle of your screen so you can find exactly what you&&num;8217&semi;re looking for&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Time Machine<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Another great thing about Macs is that they include a feature called Time Machine&comma; which is a built-in backup creator&period; That way&comma; you never have to worry about losing your files&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">It&&num;8217&semi;s always a good idea to have a backup&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s easy to forget to back up your machine manually&comma; or even find the time to do so&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s what makes Time Machine so great&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">With Time Machine&comma; all of your backups will be quick and painless&period; Simply connect an external storage device like an external hard drive&comma; open Time Machine&comma; and select that storage device as your default backup&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Once you&&num;8217&semi;ve done that&comma; Time Machine will automatically start backing up your machine every now and then&period; The first backup might be a bit lengthy&comma; but after your files are established&comma; the subsequent updates to your backup should be speedy quick&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>System Updates<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">One of the things that people love about Apple is that they&&num;8217&semi;re always coming up with bug fixes and even new features for your machine&comma; even if you bought it years ago&period; To make sure you&&num;8217&semi;re always ahead of the curve&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s especially important to keep up with the frequent operating system updates that will pop up&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">To update your Mac&comma; just click on the notification in the top right corner of your screen&period; If you don&&num;8217&semi;t see a notification&comma; click the Apple logo in the top left corner of your screen&period; From the dropdown menu&comma; click &&num;8220&semi;System Preferences&comma;&&num;8221&semi; and then click &&num;8220&semi;Software Update&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Sync Up Your Apple Devices<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">With the rise in popularity of other Apple devices like Apple Watches and iPhones&comma; Mac users frequently take advantage of the continuity that Apple provides between its devices&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">For example&comma; if you save your desktop files on your iCloud account&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll be able to access those files on any of your Apple devices&comma; making your files more accessible than ever&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Another great tool that Apple has developed is called Handoff&period; Handoff is a feature that allows you to start an action on one device and finish it on another&period; For example&comma; if you read a text on your phone&comma; you can open your computer and respond on that device instead&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Superior Drag and Drop<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Another important Mac tip to know is how you can use drag and drop to your advantage&period; On a Mac&comma; you can drag or drop things from any app into another app&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">For example&comma; you can select a Word document in Microsoft Word and drag and drop it onto your desktop&period; Talk about convenience&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Hidden Trackpad Gestures<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">If you&&num;8217&semi;re using a Mac that has a trackpad&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll definitely want to learn some of the built-in trackpad shortcuts that Apple has concocted&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">For example&comma; using three fingers to swipe up will show you all your open windows and desktops&period; Three fingers swiping to the left or right will swap between desktops or full-screened apps&period; For even more options&comma; open your System Preferences and enable some extra gestures to streamline your Mac experience&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Ctrl &plus; Alt &plus; Del&quest; Try Cmd &plus; Opt &plus; Esc&excl;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">One of the most popular Windows keyboard shortcuts of all time is the famous <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;mentalfloss&period;com&sol;article&sol;51674&sol;history-ctrl-alt-delete" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">Control &plus; Alt &plus; Delete<&sol;a> combo&period; These three keys&comma; when held down together&comma; open up the Task Manager&comma; where you can manually quit apps that are otherwise frozen&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Macs&comma; luckily&comma; have a similar feature&period; However&comma; every new Mac user should know that the keys you&&num;8217&semi;ll use are a little bit different&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Instead of the traditional three keys&comma; try holding down the Command key and Option key while pressing the Escape key&period; This should yield the same result&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Is one specific application freezing up your Mac&quest; You may need <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;setapp&period;com&sol;how-to&sol;how-to-uninstall-apps-on-macos" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">to uninstall on Mac<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Taking Full Screenshots<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&&num;8220&semi;Screenshot&&num;8221&semi; does exactly what its name says&colon; it takes a shot &lpar;or picture&rpar; of your screen&comma; allowing users to quickly send pictures that appear on their screen&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s also helpful if you need to quickly save data&comma; such as a confirmation number or order receipt&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">To take a screenshot of your entire screen&comma; just press and hold Command &plus; Shift &plus; 3&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Taking Partial Screenshots<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">If you only want to take a photo of part of your screen&comma; Macs can do that too&excl; Just press and hold Command &plus; Shift &plus; 4 and then click and drag to create a box to indicate what your photo will include&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Screen Record in Quicktime<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Sometimes a screenshot just won&&num;8217&semi;t cut it&excl; To take a video recording of your screen&comma; open the Quicktime application to create a screen recording&period; Then&comma; navigate to the &&num;8220&semi;File&&num;8221&semi; tab on your toolbar and select &&num;8220&semi;New Screen Recording&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><strong>Other Mac Tips<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">These ten mac tips are only a sampling of the many&comma; many awesome features that MacOS allows its users&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;re looking for more tech tips&comma; check out our other blog posts to learn more&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

Hardik Patel

Hardik Patel is a Digital Marketing Consultant and professional Blogger. He has 16+ years experience in SEO, SMO, SEM, Online reputation management, Affiliated Marketing and Content Marketing.

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