MacBook For Dummies (For Dummies: Learning Made Easy)

Discover the best tips and tricks for using your new Mac laptop For years, MacBook For Dummies has been making it easy to learn new technology. This new edition keeps the easy-to-follow instructions coming. Learn the basics of customizing your Dock and using desktop widgets. Then, figure out how to go on the internet, stream music, send instant messages, and more. Expert author Mark Chambers will show you how to navigate the macOS operating system and personalize your MacBook to your liking. And you'll learn your way around features like Stage Manager, Continuity Camera, SharePlay, and Handoff. Is this your first new computer in a while? MacBook For Dummies gives you the rundown on how to exist without an internal DVD drive. Whether you're a newbie or a Mac veteran looking for insider tips, this is the quick start guide for you. Learn the features and productivity tools from macOS Stay protected by making the most of the built-in Mac security features Organize your life with Mac's multitasking feature, Stage Manager Discover how to stream music, edit videos, and share media content online MacBook beginners and upgraders alike will graduate to power users of the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models, thanks to this trusted Dummies title. Title Page Copyright Page Introduction Foolish Assumptions About This Book Icons Used in This Book Beyond the Book Where to Go from Here Part 1 Tie Myself Down with a Desktop? Preposterous! Chapter 1 Hey, It Really Does Have Everything I Need An Overview of Your Mac Laptop The parts you probably recognize That magnificent screen The keyboard and trackpad Food for your ears The power cable The power button The FaceTime HD camera The battery The holes called ports Don’t forget the parts you can’t see Meet the MacBooks Comparing the MacBooks What are the similarities? So what’s so flippin’ radical? Look, Ma, no moving parts! Whoa! Where’s my familiar USB port? Adding a DVD drive Location, Location, Location! Unpacking and Connecting Your MacBook Unpacking for the road warrior Connecting Cables 101 The absolutely essential connection Adding the internet to the mix Great — a Lecture about Handling My Laptop An Overview of Mac Software Goodness What comes with my laptop? Connecting to the internet from your lap Applications that rock Other Stuff That Nearly Everyone Wants Chapter 2 Turning On Your Portable Powerhouse Throwing the Big Leaf Switch Mark’s Favorite Signs of a Healthy Laptop You Won’t Lecture Me about Batteries, Will You? Harriet, It’s Already Asking Me Questions! Setting up macOS Sonoma Registering your MacBook Importing Documents and Data from Your Old Mac Manually Importing Documents and Data from Windows Chapter 3 The MacBook Owner’s Introduction to macOS Sonoma Your Own Personal Operating System The Sonoma Desktop Meet me at the Dock Check out that Control Center Dig those crazy icons There’s no food on this menu The Finder menu bar is your friend There’s always room for one more window Widgets on parade Wait a Second: Where the Heck Are the Mouse Buttons? Launching and Quitting Applications with Aplomb Performing Tricks with Finder Windows Scrolling in and resizing windows Minimizing and restoring windows Moving and zooming windows Closing windows Juggling Folders and Icons A field observer’s guide to icons Selecting items Selecting one thing Selecting a whole bunch of things Copying items Moving things from place to place Duplicating in a jiffy Using Finder Tabs Keys and Keyboard Shortcuts to Fame and Fortune Special keys on the keyboard Using the Finder and application keyboard shortcuts Home, Sweet Home Folder Working with Mission Control Hiring a Stage Manager Switching Desktops with Spaces Personalizing Your Desktop Taking Control of Your MacBook Customizing the Dock Adding applications and extras to the Dock Using Desktop widgets Keeping track with Stacks Resizing the Dock What’s with the Trash? All You Really Need to Know about Printing And Just in Case You Need Help . . . The Sonoma built-in Help system The Apple web-based support center Online resources Local Mac user groups Part 2 Shaking Hands with macOS Sonoma Chapter 4 What’s New in Sonoma? Widgets Invade Your Desktop Safari Profiles Keep You Organized Ramp Up Your Gaming Put Your MacBook on Lockdown Screen Savers Go Hollywood Chapter 5 A Nerd’s Guide to System Settings An Explanation — without Jargon, No Less Locating That Certain Special Setting Popular System Settings Panes Explained The Displays pane The Desktop & Dock pane Dock settings Desktop & Stage Manager settings Widgets settings Windows settings Mission Control settings The Screen Saver pane The General pane The Battery pane The Control Center pane The Wallpaper pane iCloud settings Appearance pane Notifications settings Chapter 6 Searching Amidst MacBook Chaos Doing a Basic Search How Cool Is That? Discovering What Spotlight Can Do Expanding Your Search Horizons Customizing Spotlight to Your Taste Chapter 7 Using Reminders, Notes, Notifications, Maps, and News Remind Me to Use Reminders Taking Notes the Sonoma Way Staying Current with Notification Center Introducing the Maps Application Switching Views in Maps Getting Directions Over Yonder Creating and Using Guides Catching Up on News Using Favorites and Channels Part 3 Connecting and Communicating Chapter 8 Let’s Go on Safari! Pretend You’ve Never Used This Thing Visiting Websites Navigating the Web Organizing with Profiles Configuring Your Home Page and Start Page Adding and Using Bookmarks Working with the Reading List Downloading Files Using History Tabs Are Your Browsing Friends Printing Web Pages Protecting Your Privacy Yes, there are such things as bad cookies Banishing pesky iCloud Keychain passwords Handling ancient history Setting notifications Avoiding those @*!^%$ pop-up ads Chapter 9 Expanding Your Horizons with iCloud So How Does iCloud Work, Anyway? Moving, Saving, and Opening iCloud Documents Putting Handoff to Work Expanding Your Horizons with Sidecar Configuring iCloud Managing Your iCloud Storage Chapter 10 Creating a Multiuser MacBook Once Upon a Time (an Access Fairy Tale) Big-Shot Administrator Stuff Deciding who needs what access Adding users Modifying user accounts I banish thee, mischievous user! Setting up login items and managing access Automating with login items Managing an account’s access settings Tackling Mundane Chores for the Multiuser MacBook Logging in and out of Sonoma For Dummies Exploring your login options Logging out Interesting stuff about sharing stuff Encrypting your Home folder can be fun Chapter 11 Working Well with Networks What Exactly Is the Network Advantage? Should You Go Wired or Wireless? Be a Pal: Share Your Internet! Using your MacBook as a sharing device Using a dedicated internet-sharing device What Do I Need to Connect? Wireless connections Connecting a MacBook to an existing wireless network Using a base station to go wireless Joining a wireless network Wired connections Making a connection to a wired network Wired network hardware Joining a wired Ethernet network Connecting to the Network Sharing stuff nicely with others Network internet connections Network file sharing Sharing a network printer Use Your Firewall! Chapter 12 Hooking Up with Your World Using Photo Booth Conversing with FaceTime Sending and Receiving Instant Messages Sharing Your Screen Using Continuity Camera Part 4 Living the iLife Chapter 13 The Multimedia Joys of Music and TV What Can I Play in Music? Playing Digital Audio Files Finding songs in your Music library Removing old music from the library Keeping Slim Whitman and Slim Shady Apart: Organizing with Playlists Know Your Songs Setting the song information automatically Setting or changing the song information manually Ripping Audio Files Tweaking the Audio for Your Ears A New Kind of Radio Station Tuning in your own stations Radio stations in your playlists Creating a custom Music Radio station iSending iStuff to iPhone and iPad Feasting on Music Visuals Exercising Parental Authority Watching Video with TV Buying Digital Media the Apple Way Chapter 14 Focusing on Photos Delving into Photos Working with Images in Photos Import images 101 Organize mode: Organizing and sorting your images A new kind of photo album Working with People & Pets Organizing with keywords Digging through your library with keywords Searching by locations where photos were taken Edit mode: Removing and fixing stuff the right way Rotating tipped-over shots Crop ’til you drop (and a whole lot more) Enhancing images to add pizzazz Removing rampant red-eye Retouching like the pros Using filters and adjustments to add a mood Exploring iCloud Photos Putting iCloud Shared Albums to Work Creating an iCloud Link on the Web Chapter 15 Making Film History with iMovie Shaking Hands with the iMovie Window A Bird’s-Eye View of Moviemaking Importing the Building Blocks Pulling in video clips Making use of still images Importing and adding audio from all sorts of places Importing iOS iMovie projects Building the Cinematic Basics Adding clips to your movie Marking clips Removing clips from your movie Reordering clips in your movie Editing clips in iMovie Transitions for the masses Even Gone with the Wind had titles Adding maps and backgrounds Creating an Honest-to-Goodness Movie Trailer Browsing Your Video Library Sharing Your Finished Classic Chapter 16 Recording Your Hits with GarageBand Shaking Hands with Your Band Composing Made Easy Adding tracks Choosing loops Looking for just the right loop Second verse, same as the first Resizing, repeating, and moving loops Using the Arrangement track Tweaking the settings for a track Sharing Your Songs Creating song files in Music Exporting a project Burning an audio CD Part 5 Getting Productive and Maintaining Your MacBook Chapter 17 Desktop Publishing with Pages Creating a New Pages Document Opening an Existing Pages Document Saving Your Work Touring the Pages Window Entering and Editing Text Using Text, Shapes, and Graphics Boxes The Three Amigos: Cut, Copy, and Paste Cutting stuff Copying text and images Pasting from the Clipboard Formatting Text the Easy Way Adding a Spiffy Table Adding Alluring Photos Adding a Background Shape Adding 3D Objects Are You Sure about That Spelling? Setting Your Font Defaults to Speed Things Up Printing Your Pages Documents Sharing That Poster with Others Chapter 18 Creating Spreadsheets with Numbers Before You Launch Numbers . . . Creating a New Numbers Document Opening an Existing Spreadsheet File Save Those Spreadsheets! Exploring the Numbers Window Navigating and Selecting Cells in a Spreadsheet Entering and Editing Data in a Spreadsheet Selecting the Correct Number Format Aligning Cell Text Just So Formatting with Shading Inserting and Deleting Rows and Columns The Formula Is Your Friend Adding Visual Punch with a Chart Adding Images and 3D Objects Printing Your Spreadsheet Chapter 19 Building Presentations with Keynote Creating a New Keynote Project Opening a Keynote Presentation Saving Your Presentation Putting Keynote to Work Adding Slides Working with Text, Shapes, and Graphics Boxes Adding and Editing Slide Text Formatting Slide Text for the Perfect Look Creating Your Own Themes Using Presenter’s Notes in Your Project Every Good Presentation Needs Media Adding a Background Shape Adding 3D Objects Creating Your Keynote Slideshow Printing Your Slides and Notes Chapter 20 When Good Mac Laptops Go Bad Repeat after Me: Yes, I Am a Tech! Step-by-Step Laptop Troubleshooting The number-one rule: Reboot! Special keys that can come in handy Using Safe mode Start-up keys All hail Disk Utility, the troubleshooter’s friend Disk repair made easy Mark’s MacBook Troubleshooting Tree Step 1: Investigate recent changes Step 2: Run Disk Utility Step 3: Check your cables Step 4: Check your Trash Step 5: Check your internet and network connections Step 6: Think virus Step 7: Check your login items Step 8: Turn off your screen saver Step 9: Run System Information Okay, I Kicked It, and It Still Won’t Work Local service, at your service The macOS Help Center Apple Help Online Hardware manufacturers Chapter 21 Tackling the Housekeeping Cleaning Unseemly Data Deposits Managing your storage in macOS (or cleaning things the elegant way) Getting dirty (or cleaning things the manual way) Unnecessary files and unneeded folders Associated files in other folders Using a commercial cleanup tool Backing Up Your Treasure Saving Files Putting Things Right with Time Machine Maintaining Drive Health Automating Those Mundane Chores Creating an application in Automator Creating an Automator login item Updating macOS Automatically Part 6 The Part of Tens Chapter 22 Ten (Plus) Laptop Rules to Follow Keep Your Laptop in a Bag Maximize Your RAM Keep Tabs on Your MacBook Keepeth Thy Drive Encrypted Brand Your MacBook Disable Your Wireless Take a Surge Protector with You Use Power-Saving Features Use an External Keyboard and Mouse Consider Adding Memory Don’t Consider an Internal Drive Upgrade! Add Storage Space Externally Putting a port to work Connecting an external drive Not Again! What Is It with You and Backing Up? Chapter 23 Ten Things to Avoid Like the Plague USB 2.0 Storage Devices Phishing Operations The Twin Terrors: Viruses and Malware Submerged Keyboards Antiquated Utility Software Software Piracy The Forbidden Account Unsecured Wireless Connections Refurbished Hardware Dirty Laptops Index EULA