Thanks for taking the Going Further With Your Mac Class. I hope you find this outline helpful to you as a reference to the material we covered. I have included videos and links to various things I think you may find helpful. If you have any further questions don't hestiate to contact Mike.
Accessories
There are numerous accessories available to use with the Mac.
- Airport Express (Apple wireless router for home use)
- Airport Extreme (Apple wireless router for larger homes or business use)
- Time Capsule (Apple wireless router w/ built-in hard drive for Time Machine backup)
- iKlear (to clean screen and keyboard)
- External Hard Drive (Time Machine backup or extra storage)
- USB Flash Drive (Use to save and transfer files from computer to computer)
- Mini Display Port to VGA adapter (hook Alumnium MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pros to projector)
- Mini DVI to VGA adapter (hook white & black Macbooks to projector)
Ports On Your Mac
There are numerous ports on the sides or back of your Mac. I have tried my best to include images of recent Mac models.
Safari
Safari is Apple's web browser. Apple has done a great job on their website of showing people how to use Safari. You can learn more about Safari on Apple's website.
Here are a couple things that were brought up when we were discussing Safari that I thought I would elaborate on a bit further.
Top Sites
Safari identifies your favorite sites and displays previews of them on the Top Sites page. Safari chooses Top Sites based on how often and how recently you’ve visited each site. As you explore the web and discover new websites, the Top Sites page changes to match your interests.
Macworld has a great guide on their website on how to use Top Sites.
Extensions
During the class I mentioned a couple tools that I use to block ads and to prevent people from tracking my movements across the internet. These are called extensions.
To learn how to block ads on websites check out my blog post 30 Second Tips - Block Ads On The Internet
To learn how to prevent advertisers and companies from tracking your movements check out my blog post 30 Second Tips - Do Not Track.
Mail is an application that allows you to send & receive emails. I prefer this to logging into a website to check my email. You can learn more about Mail on Apple's website.
iCloud
The cloud-based system allows users to store:
- Music (iTunes Match)
- Photos (Photo Stream)
- Purchased Content (iTunes in the Cloud]
- Documents
- Bookmarks
- Reminders
- Backups
- Notes
- iBooks
- Calendar, Contact, and Mail
Apple has great instructions on how to setup iCloud on your Mac on their website.
Menu Symbols
These are the most common symbols you will see in various menus. You can use combinations of menu symbols and other keys to perform actions on your Mac.
Keyboard Shortcuts
You can significantly speed up your navigation of the Mac by using Keyboard Shortcuts. I have included a few of the most used ones below. I have also attached a PDF to this outline that you can download with a more comprehensive list.
⌘A = Select All
⌘B = Bold
⌘C = Copy
⌘H = Hide
⌘I = Italics
⌘M = Minimize
⌘N = New
⌘O = Open
⌘P = Print
⌘Q = Quit
⌘S = Save
⌘U = Underline
⌘X = Cut
⌘V = Paste
⌘Y = Redo
⌘Z = Undo
⌘SpaceBar = Spotlight
⌘⌥⎋ = Force Quit
⌘Tab = Application Switcher
⌘⇧3 = Take Screenshot of entire screen
⌘⇧4 = Take screenshot of selection
You can see a list of more keyboard shortcuts on Apple's website.
Multi-Touch Gestures
Any Mac laptop that has a glass trackpad has numerous Multi-Touch Gestures. Apple has a great breakdown of the various gestures that you can do on their website.
If you want to have the ability to use Multi-Touch Gestures on a desktop Mac or an older laptop you can purchase a stand alone Multi-Touch trackpad.
Quick Look
Quick Look is a feature built into the Mac that allows you to take a peek at a file without first having to open the file. This comes in really handy and I find myself doing it all the time.
To use Quick Look all you have to do is click once on a file and then click on the space bar on your keyboard. The Mac will show you a preview of the file.
Smart Folders
You can use Smart Folders to create a folder that displays files based on criteria that you set. You might create a Smart Folder that shows you all the Word files that you have created in the past 3 months regardless of where they are on the Mac.
Macworld has a great article explaining the ins and outs of Smart Folders on their website.
Learn How To Get More Out of Your Mac On On Mike's Blog
You can find numerous tips and tricks for the Mac on Mike's blog.
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