Mac101 Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Mac 101: Backup basics with Time Machine and more

by Steven Sande (Dec 28th, 2010)

Did you get a new Mac for Christmas? Before you go too far in loading your Mac with software and files, make sure that you have a backup strategy. As a certified Mac consultant, I can tell you that there are two kinds of computer users: those who have lost data through error, hardware failure, or ...

Mac 101: Securing your passwords after the Gawker breach

by Steven Sande (Dec 14th, 2010)

Thanks to questionable security practices at Gawker Media (publishing parent of many high-profile websites including Gizmodo and Lifehacker), a number of people are busy scrambling to change their passwords on a lot of different sites today. Gawker stored encrypted passwords on its servers instead ...

Mac 101: Changing the default web browser in OS X

by Dave Caolo (Dec 10th, 2010)

Apple introduced the Safari browser in January of 2003. Since then, it's matured to include extensions, an RSS reader and even a Windows counterpart. Still, many users prefer another browser. Since Safari is set as the default on every new Mac, you'll have to make the switch manually. Otherwise, ...

Mac 101: The wonderful magical Shift key

by Erica Sadun (Dec 8th, 2010)

Oh that Shift key. So normal, so overlooked, so simple ... and yet so magical. TUAW reader Karan recently dropped us a note, reminding us about its slow-speed enchantment. "I don't think a lot of Mac users know this," he wrote, "but the Shift key has a very cool (although obviously just for extra ...

Mac 101: Adjusting your mouse and trackpad speed

by Michael Jones (Dec 6th, 2010)

More Mac 101, our series of tips and tricks for novice Mac users. If you've ever used the trackpad on a PC laptop connected to an external monitor and noticed how many times you have to swipe your finger across the pad to get the mouse cursor from one screen to the other, the end result can be ...

Mac 101: The two Applications folders

by TJ Luoma (Dec 3rd, 2010)

Mac users quickly come to know the /Applications/ directory, where you will find all of the default applications that come with OS X (Safari, Mail, iChat, Preview, iCal and so on), as well as the Utilities folder (/Applications/Utilities/), where more advanced users get to know Activity Monitor, ...

Mac 101: In Mail.app, reply with selected text

by Matt Tinsley (Oct 29th, 2010)

More Mac 101, tips and tricks for the novice Mac user. I've been using the Mail app in Mac OS X for a good four or five years now. I thought I pretty much knew most of how to use it, but today I've been pleasantly surprised. I've just stumbled across a nifty little feature that I hadn't known ...

Mac 101: Autocomplete words in TextEdit

by Dave Caolo (Oct 28th, 2010)

More Mac 101, our series of tips and tricks for novice Mac users. For those with modest text-editing needs, Apple's TextEdit is a great choice. Did you know that it's got an autocomplete option? David Mendels points out how it works at Mac OS X Hints. As you're typing a long word, hit the ...

Mac 101: What's happening when your Mac is starting up?

by Steven Sande (Oct 22nd, 2010)

Recently, in the interest of sleeping soundly through the night, I've been turning off my 27" iMac every night. No, I'm not doing this for energy conservation, but the darned thing used to light up at random intervals in the middle of the night. Since I now have to power up the iMac every morning, I ...

Mac 101: Use Archive Utility preferences for control over archives

by TJ Luoma (Oct 21st, 2010)

Most users know that you can easily create .zip files in OS X by selecting a file in Finder and choosing File » Compress "FileNameHere" or by control+clicking the file and choosing the same option from the context menu. You can open .zip (and other archive formats such as gzip, tar, and ...

Mac 101: Making a fancy signature in Mail.app

by Steven Sande (Oct 16th, 2010)

I was leafing through some emails this afternoon and came upon one with an extremely attractive signature block. So attractive, in fact, that I promptly stopped doing the writing I was working on and decided to create my own new signature to replace the ugly one I had been using. I wanted to have ...

Mac 101: Keyboard tricks for Finder navigation

by Brett Terpstra (Oct 14th, 2010)

You may know that you can expand and collapse Finder folders in a tree view using the left and right arrow keys. But did you know that you can expand or collapse all of the root-level folders at once? It's a cool trick that can save you a lot of time when navigating your Mac's files. With the Finder ...

Mac 101: Inserting or typing uncommon characters

by Steven Sande (Oct 11th, 2010)

As a Mac consultant, I'm often asked some pretty bizarre questions. One that I frequently hear is "How do I type <some special character> on my Mac?" A good example of this is people who want to type fractions that look like this -- ½ -- rather than like 1/2, or plop a character like ...

Mac 101: Open new tabs to reveal browsing history in Safari

by TJ Luoma (Sep 26th, 2010)

Safari's Top Sites feature is nifty and all, but what I've really wanted to do is have new Safari tabs open showing me my recent browsing history. I couldn't figure out a way to do this until just now. Maybe if you're an experienced Safari user this is obvious, but I'm still a fairly recent Safari ...

Mac 101: Preparing your old Mac for sale or recycling

by Steven Sande (Sep 24th, 2010)

It happens to all of us eventually (except for the Mac collectors). At some point, we decide that it's time to take that old Mac that we've just replaced and try to get a few bucks out of it. Some of us donate our machines to schools or other worthwhile organizations, and if we have really old ...