Mac 101 Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Getting ready for Mountain Lion: checking for compatibility

by Erica Sadun (Jun 12th, 2012)

Does your Mac qualify for Mountain Lion? Not every system does, although if you're already running OS X Lion, chances are good that you'll be able to upgrade. Still, you'll want to check. The following hardware models will support Mountain Lion, according to Apple's specifications page: iMac ...

Ask TUAW: How do I setup a Mac with both an SSD and a regular hard drive?

by TJ Luoma (Jan 20th, 2012)

Reader Mark R. Friedman wrote in to ask about setting up a Mac Pro with an SSD in the second optical drive, keeping the /Users folder on another drive; he wasn't sure how to do it. Macworld just discussed one method, using the built-in home folder path controls in System Preferences. The magic ...

Mac 101: Create a guest account

by Kelly Guimont (Nov 22nd, 2011)

"Can I use your computer real quick?" Depending on who asks you this question over the next week, reactions may range from nothing to frantic flailing toward your machine to see if you can make it do something that looks like it is unusable, getting you out of having to relinquish it to a ...

Mac 101: Encode media from Automator or the command line in Lion

by Kelly Hodgkins (Nov 22nd, 2011)

There's an easy way in OS X 10.7 Lion to convert video or audio from one format to another, using a fixed suite of conversion settings. One approach uses Automator and can be launched from the Finder. The other uses the Terminal application and the afconvert (for audio) or avconvert (for video) ...

Mac 101: Locating the root path of a Pages document in Pages

by Matt Tinsley (Nov 16th, 2011)

Here is a Mac 101 tip for novice Mac users. Running Pages in Mac OS X Lion means you never have to worry about saving a document, it just happens automatically. While this is wonderful, this new feature has caused me to scratch my head a few times while I acclimatise to this simple, but quite ...

Split large movie files quickly on 10.6 with QuickTime Player 7

by Michael Rose (Nov 15th, 2011)

Updated to clarify that a split clip feature exists in 10.7's version of QuickTime X. Say what you will about the QuickTime X framework and player introduced in Mac OS X 10.6 -- it's crazy speedy on multicore machines, it provides the foundation for next-generation features, it lets you ...

Mac 101: Use web clippings to put a Mickey Mouse clock on your Mac

by Megan Lavey-Heaton (Nov 8th, 2011)

Dashboard has several fantastic features, including the ability to turn any web clipping into a widget. Macworld readers decided to use this feature to grab the functioning Mickey Mouse clock from the iPod nano home page and use it on your desktop. Here's how to recreate it: Visit the iPod ...

Mac 101: Disable automatic uploads to Photo Stream

by Chris Rawson (Oct 17th, 2011)

It seems as though Apple is designing a lot of new Mac and iOS features from the perspective of people whose internet access is the equivalent of an all-you-can-eat buffet. Photo Stream is a perfect example. The feature, built into Apple's new iCloud service, automatically uploads photos taken ...

Mac 101: Reclaiming space by cleaning out the Downloads folder

by Steven Sande (Sep 22nd, 2011)

To new Mac users, the Downloads folder is quite confusing and even "invisible." As a Mac consultant, you wouldn't believe the number of times I've found multiple copies of downloads, updaters, and pictures in the Downloads folder -- all taking up valuable room on your disk. Reader Joe Delk ...

Mac 101: Format choices for USB flash drives

by Chris Rawson (Sep 19th, 2011)

The overwhelming majority of USB flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats: FAT32 or NTFS. The first format, FAT32, is fully compatible with Mac OS X, though with some drawbacks that we'll discuss later. If the drive comes formatted in NTFS, which is the default file system ...

Mac 101: Upgrade your Mac's RAM

by Chris Rawson (Aug 30th, 2011)

Upgrading your Mac's RAM is one of the simplest and cheapest ways to improve its performance, and it might be more necessary than ever if you're running OS X Lion. While Apple states that the minimum required RAM for Lion is 2 GB, in my experience this is nowhere near enough memory to get ...

Mac 101: Don't forget about Hot Corners

by Matt Tinsley (Aug 26th, 2011)

More Mac 101, tips and tricks for novice Mac users. After reading fellow TUAW blogger Dave Caolo's post on Mac OS Lion and Mission Control, and then TUAW blogger Chris Rawson's Additional Tips for OS X Lion's Mission Control, I thought it pertinent to mention a few further words on Hot ...

Mac 101: Easily show the user Library folder in Lion

by Michael Grothaus (Aug 25th, 2011)

More Mac 101, tips and tricks for novice Mac users. Those of you who've explored your Finder a little bit in OS X 10.6 or prior might have noticed a folder in your user folder called "Library." The Library folder houses all sorts of files needed to keep your user account running smoothly. ...

Mac 101: Additional tips for OS X Lion's Mission Control

by Chris Rawson (Aug 12th, 2011)

TUAW's Dave Caolo did an in-depth look at OS X Lion's new window/application manager, Mission Control, the day of OS X Lion's launch. If you're completely confused about Mission Control's features, Dave's post is a good place to get a baseline of knowledge on this new feature. In this post, ...

Mac 101: Capture your signature using OS X Lion's Preview app

by Chris Rawson (Aug 10th, 2011)

OS X Lion has made signing PDFs easier than ever before. It's been possible to scan in your handwritten signature and sign documents in earlier versions of Mac OS X, but it was a complex process and one most people probably never trifled with. More often than not, I found it easier to simply ...