macOS High Sierra For Dummies

Work, play, connect, and share with the ultimate tour to macOS 'X'

macOS 'X' For Dummies is the ultimate tour guide to the Mac operating system, written by Bob "Dr. Mac" LeVitus himself! Whether you're upgrading your trusty old MacBook or venturing into new territory for the very first time, this easy to use guide will get you up and running quickly. It's all here: navigation, preferences, file management, networking, music and movies, and so much more. From the absolute basics to advanced techniques, this book shows you everything you need to know to turn your Mac into an extension of your brain. Concerned about security? Need to troubleshoot an issue? Want to make your Mac perform even better? Let Dr. Mac walk you through it with clear explanations and a little bit of humor. Read this book beginning-to-end for a complete tutorial, or dip in and out as needed when things take an unexpected turn; if you have macOS questions, Dr. Mac has the answers you need.

macOS has powered Macs since 2001. Each free annual update improves the system's functionality, and typically offers a few new tools and fixes old issues. If you need to learn your way around this year's update quickly, easily, and thoroughly, this book is for you.

• Get organized and find your way around the interface

• Customize your Mac's look, "feel," and behavior

• Get connected, get online, and into the cloud

• Access your movies and music, back up your data, and more!

Famous for its reliability and usability, macOS offers the sort of streamlined tools and operations you won't find anywhere else. macOS 'X' For Dummies helps you discover just how much your Mac can do for you.

Auteur

Bob "Dr. Mac" LeVitus is a veteran Mac guru. He is the author of the "Dr. Mac" column for the Houston Chronicle and has been a consistent contributor to a variety of tech publications. Bob has written or co-written more than 80 books on macOS, iPhone, iPad, Office for the Mac, GarageBand, and other related topics.

Résumé
Work, play, connect, and share with the ultimate tour to macOS 'X' macOS 'X' For Dummies is the ultimate tour guide to the Mac operating system, written by Bob "Dr. Mac" LeVitus himself! Whether you're upgrading your trusty old MacBook or venturing into new territory for the very first time, this easy to use guide will get you up and running quickly. It's all here: navigation, preferences, file management, networking, music and movies, and so much more. From the absolute basics to advanced techniques, this book shows you everything you need to know to turn your Mac into an extension of your brain. Concerned about security? Need to troubleshoot an issue? Want to make your Mac perform even better? Let Dr. Mac walk you through it with clear explanations and a little bit of humor. Read this book beginning-to-end for a complete tutorial, or dip in and out as needed when things take an unexpected turn; if you have macOS questions, Dr. Mac has the answers you need. macOS has powered Macs since 2001. Each free annual update improves the system's functionality, and typically offers a few new tools and fixes old issues. If you need to learn your way around this year's update quickly, easily, and thoroughly, this book is for you.

• Get organized and find your way around the interface
• Customize your Mac's look, "feel," and behavior
• Get connected, get online, and into the cloud
• Access your movies and music, back up your data, and more! Famous for its reliability and usability, macOS offers the sort of streamlined tools and operations you won't find anywhere else. macOS 'X' For Dummies helps you discover just how much your Mac can do for you.

Contenu
Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Foolish Assumptions 3

Icons Used in This Book 3

Beyond the Book 4

Where to Go from Here 4

Part 1: macOS Basics 5

Chapter 1: macOS High Sierra 101 (Prerequisites: None) 7

Gnawing to the Core of macOS 8

A Safety Net for the Absolute Beginner (or Any User) 10

Turning the dang thing on 10

What you should see on startup 11

Shutting down properly 13

A few things you should definitely not do with your Mac 15

Point-and-click boot camp 16

Not Just a Beatles Movie: Help and the Help Menu 18

Chapter 2: Desktop and Windows and Menus (Oh My!) 23

Touring Finder and Its Desktop 24

Anatomy of a Window 25

Top o' the window to ya! 27

A scroll new world 29

(Hyper)active windows 30

Dialog Dealie-Boppers 32

Working with Windows 34

Opening and closing windows 34

Resizing windows and window panes 35

Moving windows 35

Shuffling windows 36

Menu Basics 39

The ever-changing menu bar 39

Contextual menus: They're sooo contextual! 40

Recognizing disabled options 41

Navigating submenus 42

Under the Apple menu tree 42

Using keyboard shortcut commands 44

Chapter 3: What's Up, Dock? 45

A Quick Introduction to Your Dock 46

The default icons of the dock 46

Trash talkin' 49

Opening application menus on the dock 51

Reading dock icon body language 53

Opening files from the dock 53

Customizing Your Dock 54

Adding dock icons 54

Removing an icon from the dock 56

Resizing the dock 57

What should you put on your dock? 57

Setting your dock preferences 59

Part 2: How Stuff Works 63

Chapter 4: Delving Deeper into Finder and Its Desktop 65

Introducing Finder and Its Minions: The Desktop and Icons 65

Introducing the desktop 66

Bellying up to the toolbar 68

Figuring out what an icon is 71

Identifying your Finder icons in the wild 72

Aliases Are Awesome! 73

Creating aliases 74

Deleting aliases 75

Hunting down an alias's parent 75

The View(s) from a Window 76

Moving through folders fast in Column view 76

Perusing in Icon view 78

Listless? Try touring folders in List view 78

You gotta go with the flow 80

What's next on the (View) menu? 81

Finder on the Menu 82

The actual Finder menu 82

Like a road map: The current folder's pop-up menu 85

Going places with the Go menu 86

Customizing Finder Windows 88

Adding folders to the sidebar 88

Setting Finder preferences 89

Digging for Icon Data in the Info Window 92

Chapter 5: Having It Your Way 97

Introducing System Preferences 97

Putting a Picture on the Desktop 100

Setting Up a Screen Saver 101

Putting Widgets on the Dashboard 103

Translation 105

Flight Tracker 105

Giving Buttons, Menus, and Windows a Makeover 106

Adjusting the Keyboard, Mouse, Trackpad, and Other Hardware 109

Keyboard 109

Mouse 114

Bluetooth 115

Trackpad (notebooks and desktops with a Magic Trackpad) 116

Styling Your Sound 117

Changing sound effects 118

Choosing output and input options 118

Chapter 6: The Care and Feeding of Files and Folders 119

A Quick Primer on Finding Files 120 &l...