Mac 101 Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Mac 101: Upgrade to SSD

by Shawn "Doc" Boyd (May 14th, 2013)

If you are looking for a way to get more out of your MacBook or MacBook Pro, consider a solid-state drive (SSD). SSDs offer faster data read and write speeds, fast file transfers, speedier boot times and will save you some battery life. In the past, SSDs were considered somewhat pricey upgrades ...

Mac 101: Beef up your spam filters in Mail (video)

by Shawn "Doc" Boyd (Apr 16th, 2013)

Nobody likes spam, but if you use Apple's Mail on Mountain Lion, at least you have some tools to deal with it. Plenty of Mac users rely on Mail to read, manage and process their emails... and spam messages. If you use email, you have spam -- that's just the way it works. Following up on ...

Mac 101: Checking your Mac's warranty status

by Matt Tinsley (Apr 15th, 2013)

More Mac 101, tips and tricks for novice Mac users. Every newly purchased Mac comes with a one-year limited warranty and 90 days of complimentary telephone technical support from Apple. Of course, by purchasing AppleCare with your new Mac, you can extend this warranty and telephone technical ...

Mac 101: How to backup your Google Reader account

by Kelly Hodgkins (Mar 14th, 2013)

Google is sunsetting its Reader service in July and you may be on the hunt for a new RSS service and client to use. Before you fire up that new client, you should take a few minutes to backup your current Google Reader feeds as you may need to import them into your new app. Importing your feeds ...

Mac 101: Schedule event details in the event title with Calendar

by Matt Tinsley (Feb 12th, 2013)

More Mac 101, tips and tricks for novice Mac users. Let's say you've just got off the phone with a friend. You've arranged to meet later for coffee, but you don't want to forget, so you go to Calendar on your Mac to schedule the event. You double click the date you're going to meet, enter a ...

Mac 101: Use Automator to extract text from PDFs

by Matt Tinsley (Feb 11th, 2013)

More Mac 101, tips and tricks for novice (and expert) Mac users. Have you every tried to copy and paste text from a PDF into a word processor document like Pages or Microsoft Word? Most of the time the text loses all its formatting from the PDF, which can be a real pain. Too often I've spent ...

iTunes 101: Making playlists in iTunes 11

by Megan Lavey-Heaton (Feb 7th, 2013)

If you've messed around with iTunes 11 in default view, you'll notice that creating a playlist has changed. If you have the sidebar turned on to make iTunes 11 look like earlier versions, creating a playlist is much the same as it was. But, if you have the sidebar turned off, Apple's Inside ...

Mac 101: dealing with iCloud email spam

by Kelly Hodgkins (Jan 31st, 2013)

Dealing with an email inbox filled with spam can be a tedious process. Some spam emails, like those saying you have an inheritance overseas, are easy to spot, while others are cleverly crafted to appear legitimate. If you use an iCloud email account, here are some tips to help you curb your ...

Mac 101: Use Finder's item arrangement to sort your files

by Megan Lavey-Heaton (Jan 25th, 2013)

One of the really neat things about OS X is that it's easy to sort your files in Finder. If you're downloading a lot of files, there are several ways to corral them by using the item arrangement (the button that looks like it has a lot of tiny boxes in it). Here's how to use it.: Name: ...

Mac 101: Mountain Lion's Magic Trackpad triple-finger tap dictionary lookup

by Steven Sande (Jan 22nd, 2013)

Let's say you're reading TUAW and you see that I've used the word "peripatetic" in a post. While some of you would know the meaning of the word, others might be doing a bit of head-scratching and fire up the Dictionary app on your Mac. If you have a MacBook with a multi-touch trackpad or a ...

Mac 101: Safari bookmark shortcuts

by Kelly Hodgkins (Oct 12th, 2012)

Once you memorize the patterns, keyboard shortcuts can be huge time savers. Some easy-to-remember keystrokes are available in Safari and give you quick access to your bookmarked URLs. In this Mac 101, we will show you how to organize your bookmarks bar and use the keyboard shortcuts to maximize ...

Mac 101: Restricting Web Access

by TJ Luoma (Sep 17th, 2012)

TUAW reader Adam wrote in with the following question: Today, I am in the process of upgrading our iMac for another product, likely a MacBook Pro with external display this time. I am wrestling with the idea of putting the old iMac in my daughter's study area for use. My question is this: ...

Mac 101: Use Image Capture to clear off old iPhone pictures

by Megan Lavey-Heaton (Aug 29th, 2012)

Last year, Macworld posted an update of an old trick from blogger Colin Devroe, which allows you to use your Mac to selectively remove photos from an iPhone or iPad without having to sync the device or download images. To do this, just launch Image Capture. Image Capture sees your iPhone or ...

Mac 101: Use Spotlight for quick review of Calendar events

by Dave Caolo (Aug 10th, 2012)

Here's a quick way to browse Calendar events (I still want to say "iCal") in the Finder with Spotlight. Simply enter your search keyword into Spotlight. The results are sorted by type, as usual. Move your cursor over a matching Calendar result and a pop-up appears, showing the event's ...

Mountain Lion 101: Power Nap

by Steven Sande (Jul 25th, 2012)

One of OS X Mountain Lion's lesser-known features is the curiously named Power Nap. It's roughly analogous to an actual sleeping mountain lion; while he's catching some Zs in a tree, his brain is constantly aware of what's going on around him, monitoring sounds and scents that might spell danger ...