Hello, with the imminent release of macOS Monterey, coming this fall.
And, with so many features and enhancements,
packed in macOS Monterey to cover, in just one episode.
I’ve decided to break it down, and make it into a series.
So, let’s get started with episode 1.
In this first episode, titled: macOS Monterey…Making it personal.
Let’s start off and take a look at just some of the many,
personalization and cool features, in macOS Monterey.
And, in no particular order.
The MOUSE POINTER
It’s now possible, to change the outline and fill color, of the mouse pointer, according to your personal preferences.
Let’s take a look how to do this.
Launch System Preferences, and then click on the “Accessibility” icon.
Select the Display option from the sidebar, and click on the pointer tab, to begin.
Choose, a fill and outline color, and re-size the pointer, if required.
I usually have a test image, to see how different colored pointers will look. As shown.
Incidentally, it’s not just the mouse pointer that’s customized,
insertion point, crosshair, hand or other shapes, are also affected.
As demonstrated.
Moving on…Live Text. Ohhh yes, one of my favorite features.
In macOS Monterey, text is completely interactive, in all your photos.
Use functions like copy and paste, lookup, and translate. Let’s check out these functions, on the following photos.
Let’s check out these functions, on the following photos.
I’ll just translates a few photos, by simply highlighting the text on the photo, then right click,
and choose the translate function.
Let’s do one more.
After opening a photo with some handwritten texts on it.
Hovering over any text links, you have the options.
To have a Quick look of the link and choose to open in Safari. Or, by clicking Open,
to open the link directly in Safari, as shown.
Next, I’ll just copy and paste, the quoted text, to Notes.
Like before, after highlighting some text, right click the mouse button and select the function required.
In our case, copy or Share the text, to Notes, as shown.
As demonstrated, Live Text works pretty well on photos in macOS Monterey.
Another cool feature in macOS Monterey, is…
Automatic Window Resizing
For those of you, like myself, who have different size dual monitors.
It’s now easier than ever before, to use different size monitors.
What I mean is the following.
As shown, one of my pet peeves, in macOS, has to do with using, dual monitors of different sizes.
In earlier macOS versions, when moving a window from one monitor to another, different size monitor.
Resizing of the window, was always necessary and annoying to do, on the larger monitor, every time.
Not anymore.
A welcomed feature, in macOS Monterey, is the Automatic Window Resizing.
As you can see, moving or dragging a window, to a different size monitor screen or visa versa,
the window is resized automatically.
…nice touch.
Now, let’s take look at…Quick Note
As Apple puts it.
Quick Note, is a quick way to capture and organize your thoughts, without interrupting your current workflow.
Let’s take a look, at the different ways, on how to launch Quick Note, in macOS Monterey.
There are 3-Ways to launch Quick Note.
The quickest way, is by executing, the default keyboard shortcut combination.
Function or Fn on your keyboard and Q.
Pressing Fn-Q, at anytime, launches, Quick Note.
To change the keyboard shortcut, launch System Preferences.
Then, click on the Keyboard icon, and then on the Shortcuts tab.
From the left Sidebar, click Mission Control.
Now, scroll down to view or change the default, Quick Note keyboard shortcut.
I’ll leave mine, on the default.
The second way, to launch Quick Note, is to assign Hot Corners.
From System Preferences, Hot Corners can be found in two sections.
By clicking on the Mission Control or Desktop & Screen Saver icons.
From Mission Control, the Hot Corners… button,
can be found on the bottom left hand corner, of the window.
And, from Desktop & Screen Saver, on the bottom right hand corner of the window.
After clicking on the Hot Corners button,
select, the corner of your screen to use, to launch Quick Note.
I’ll choose, the bottom right hand corner of my screen,
and after clicking on the dropdown list, click on Quick Note.
Now, anytime, the mouse pointer, is dragged, to the bottom right hand corner of the screen,
Quick Note, will be launched.
The third option, is by simply highlighting some text, then right click on the mouse button,
and choose to Add to Quick Note, as shown.
The beauty of Quick Note. Is the following: After highlighting and creating a Quick Note, in say Safari.
Quick Note, remembers or preserves, what was highlighted. For example,
launching a Quick Note, from Notes, it goes directly to the highlighted link page.
It should be noted, pardon the pun.
As shown, the default format, that Quick Note creates notes,
is by resuming or appending, onto the last note taken.
If you prefer, to always create new, individual Quick Note instead.
Do the following.
Launch the Notes app,
click on Notes, on the menubar, scroll down, and select, Preferences…
Simply, un-check, Resume Last Quick Note.
Now, when launching Quick Note,
individual Quick Notes, are created.
Moving on…
Memoji
Personalize the login screen, with your own Memoji.
This is one of my favorite features, in macOS Monterey.
Making your login screen personal on your Mac, with your very own custom Memoji,
has never been so simple and easy to do.
Launch System Preferences, and click on the “Users & Groups” icon.
Now, click on your profile icon.
From here, select from a list of default Memoji.
Or create your very own, by clicking on the plus symbol.
Play around with the vast variety of settings,
to truly personalize your Memoji, as shown.
After you’re done, optionally, select a Pose and background color,
And then click, the save button.
To edit your Memoji at anytime, simply click your Memoji and click on the edit button.
Or simply create another. Let’s see how the Memoji looks, on the login screen...Cool.
I’ll just round up this episode, by listing which Macs can run macOS Monterey.
The following Macs listed here, is compatible with macOS Monterey.
I’ve included the links for all Mac models, able to run macOS Monterey,
in the description below.
I’ve also included a Table of Contents, in the description below.
To help you quickly find topics of interest to watch,
that was mentioned in this episode.
And that’s all there is to it,
Thanks for watching…
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from our macOS Monterey, series. Peace