I’ve recently made a couple of Mac tips videos, links to both of those in the description
of this video, but you can never have enough Mac tips right?
So, in this video, I’m going to share 10 more Mac tips with you, some of which I had
absolutely no idea about before researching for this, and they’ve genuinely blown my
mind.
Stick around until the end of the video, you’re not going to want to miss any of these.
OK, let’s get into it.
Apple make the best trackpads in the game, absolutely no question about it, whether you’re
using one like this on your Mac, one like this on your Magic Keyboard, or one like this
as an external device.
You can do everything on a trackpad, that you can do on a mouse, and in general, it’s
just as easy to use the trackpad as it is to use the mouse, you just have to learn some
new habits.
The one thing that, by default, isn’t easy on a trackpad though, is dragging.
So say here for example, I want to drag this finder window around on the screen.
I have to tap and hold, and then use my thumb to kind of move around on the trackpad, it’s
not ideal.
Thankfully, there are a couple of solutions to this.
Open up system preferences, and you’d think you’d be going to Trackpad right?
Well, you’re wrong, we’re actually going to go into Accessibility, then choose Pointer
Control from this menu here on the left.
Then choose Trackpad Options.
Tick ‘Enable Dragging’, and then choose the option that suits you best.
If you choose ‘With Drag Lock’, that essentially means that you’re going to double-tap, but
hold the second tap down on a window.
This will then allow you to begin dragging around on the screen, and when you tap the
trackpad again, it will end the drag.
I prefer three finger drag.
It’s exactly what it sounds like, select something with three fingers on the trackpad
and keep those three fingers pressed down, then simply move around on the trackpad to
drag the item around.
It takes a little bit of practice and getting used to, but it’s insanely easy once you’ve
got the knack of this, and works extremely well.
In Safari, did you know that by pressing Command, Shift and N, you can open up a private window.
Now, a private window is great, because it means that everything that you do on the web
from that moment on is private, right?
I mean, the clue’s in the name.
Well, actually, no.
A private window simply means that your browser won’t store any information about the sites
you visit whilst you’re using the private window.
I’ll let you use your imagination as to what private windows mainly get used for.
But in terms of privacy while you’re browsing, not so much.
Your ISP, your internet service provider, can see a lot of information about you when
you’re browsing the web, including things like when you go online, the equipment you
use to get online and, more worryingly, everything that you view and do when you’re browsing
the web.
Now you might be saying, well I don’t look at anything I shouldn’t be looking at online,
so I don’t care.
But what about the personal data that’s being collected about you, each and every
time you open a web browser on your computer or your phone, your digital identity, that’s
then being sold to companies, so that they can profit from you, and target you for advertising?
That’s not something I’m particularly happy with, and that’s why I always use
a VPN whenever I’m online, and the VPN that I use is Private Internet Access, or PIA,
the sponsor of today’s video.
A VPN is a virtual private network.
When connected to a VPN, you can still browse the web just like normal, but because your
network activity is being routed via a private server, your digital identity is protected.
Think of it kind of like walking into a physical store wearing a disguise.
Not only that, any data that you transfer while connected is encrypted, so your emails,
pictures, banking details, they’re all kept nice and private, as they should be.
And a VPN gives you bonus features beyond security.
Because of PIA’s vast global network of servers, you can connect to the web via a
country other than your own at the click of a button, meaning you can bypass geographic
restrictions on content like streaming services or news websites.
PIA have been doing this now for more than 10 years, and have more than 15 million satisfied
customers worldwide, as well as offering 24/7 customer support should you need it, although
this was genuinely the easiest VPN setup I’ve ever had, I downloaded the software, input
my credentials and that was it, I was connected and good to go.
The VPN just runs automatically in the background whenever I’m using my computer, and I can
get on with my day knowing that my online activity is private and secure.
It works on all your devices, whether it’s Mac, Windows, iOS, Android plus more, and
the best news is that you, as a viewer of Proper Honest Tech, get exclusive access to
an amazing deal.
Use the link in the description of this video to get an 82% discount on the 2 year plan,
plus 3 months for free.
That’s like a couple of dollars per month to know that your online activity is secure
and private, which feels like a no-brainer to me.
Click the link in the description to find out more, and thanks again to PIA for sponsoring
this video.
You can extract text from within an image on your Mac.
You can do this on your iPhone and iPad also, Apple have been much more vocal about it over
on those platforms in referring to it as Live Text, but the function exists here on the
Mac also, and it’s extremely easy to do.
Here’s a photo that I’ve got on my desktop, and let’s say that I want to copy this street
address from the sign here to paste into a document.
Notice that as I move my cursor over the text, it changes to a text cursor, and I can select
the text, then Command and C to copy it, and I can paste it into a note using Command and
V, or wherever I might want to paste it.
Notice here on the same sign, we’ve got a phone number.
If I hover my cursor over that, my computer recognises that this is a phone number, you
can tell because as well as the cursor changing, we’ve got this little down arrow icon.
If I click on that, I can create a contact from that number, or even make direct contact
by calling them on my iPhone, or FaceTime calling them from my Mac.
If you’re watching this as a Mac owner, I’m almost certain that you’re already
aware that you can change your brightness using these buttons on your keyboard, and
change your volume using these buttons on your keyboard.
Basic stuff right?
But watch what happens if I hold the shift and option key while I’m using those buttons.
You can have much more detailed control over both the brightness and the volume.
This is great if you find that the difference between two of the levels is just too much,
you’ve now got the ability to tune tune these exactly as you like, giving you much
more nuanced control of both the volume and the brightness.
If you’re watching a video on your Mac, say here in YouTube for example, and you decide
that you’d like to have that video playing and visible while you’re working on something
else, Picture in Picture is the most effective and easiest way to do this.
It essentially pulls the picture out of the YouTube tab and places it in it’s own separate
window, and that window can sit on top of another window, like a Word document or a
spreadsheet, so you can work and watch at the same time.
I don’t really use this feature that much on my 32 inch Pro Display, but here on my
laptop, this is a game changer.
To access this function, with a video playing here in Safari, look for either this audio
icon here in the relevant tab, or this icon up here at the address bar, either of them
will do.
Right-click, and choose Picture in Picture.
The video will pop out, and drop to one corner of the screen.
You can change that corner by dragging the video around, and use the corners of the video
to resize it, to get it exactly how you’d like it for your screen.
This is a super-quick tip, but I’m including it anyway as I think some people will find
it really useful.
Tap the F3 button, this one here, to quickly show you everything you’ve got open, which
is handy if you’re working on a smaller screen, you can quickly jump between open
apps.
I’m guessing you knew this already though right?
But what about this?
Hit Command and F3 together, and your open apps sweep to the side, giving you full visibility
of your desktop.
Great if you need to quickly access something there, because then when you tap those same
buttons again, Command and F3, your original apps sweep right back into view.
Helpful right?
How many times have you gone to upload an image to a site, only to get an error message
letting you know that the site only accepts a certain format of image, the format that
you don’t have?
Maybe you’ve got a PNG file, but the site you’re trying to upload to needs a JPEG.
It’s annoying right, and while there are sites online where you can upload and convert
the image for free, that’s risky, because you’re sharing your image with an unknown
third party, and it’s honestly more hassle than you need to go through.
Just do this instead.
In the finder window where your file is located, right click and then scroll down to Quick
Actions.
Here, select Convert Image.
This is currently a JPEG, I can change it to a PNG or HEIF file, and I can choose to
keep the image at it’s original size, or make it a different size, which is obviously
really helpful if you also find that the file you’re trying to upload is too large for
example, you could make it smaller.
Choose whether or not you’d like to preserve the metadata from the original file, and then
press the convert button.
Oh, and this works with multiple images too, even if they’re different formats, which
is extremely useful.
I’ve mentioned in another of my videos that I often get calls from my parents for technical
support help, and I’m always pretty happy to help them out, they’re my parents after
all.
But without a doubt, the hardest part of the entire process is when they say something
like, “this error message on my screen”, and I don’t know what error message they’re
talking about, because I can’t see their screen, and they find it too difficult to
hold their phone to show me.
Now you might be aware that you can use FaceTime to share your screen with someone else.
The problem here, is that the person you’re trying to help needs to know how to setup
a FaceTime call with you and share their screen with you, which some users can find complicated.
Open Spotlight Search on your Mac by pressing Command and Space bar, and search for screen
sharing, which you’ll then hit enter to open.
You’ll then need to input the Apple ID of the person you’re trying to make a connection
with.
If they don’t know their Apple ID, you’ll need to have them go to System Preferences,
and click on Apple ID, and let you know their email address.
Once you’ve input that and connected, the person at the other end will receive a prompt,
and be asked if they’d like to give you connection to view their screen only, or control
their screen.
Once approved, the connection is made, and in my case, as the techy son, I can then administer
whatever help my parents need to resolve their issue.
What I really like about it, is that speakers and microphones are automatically enabled
at each end, so I can hear them, and they can hear me, you can communicate with each
other the entire time.
I can either talk them through resolving the issue themselves, or take control of their
computer and fix it for them.
Oh, and just a reminder, you should NEVER accept a connection request from someone that
you don’t know and trust implicitly.
It’s one thing me connecting to my Dad’s computer to help him out with his printer,
but this kind of connection would also allow a scammer to have full control of your computer,
so please only ever accept connection requests when you’re 100% certain that it’s legitimate.
Here’s a quick but useful typing tip for you.
If you need to access an accent character, like one of the various different ways that
you can type the letter ‘e’ for example, simply press and hold that letter while you’re
typing.
A menu will appear with all of the different variations of that letter, and numbers above
them.
Tap the relevant number, to select that letter accent, and this obviously works with a number
of different letters across the keyboard.
Great if you often have to type in different languages, or even if you just want to be
respectful when replying to someone, by ensuring that you type their name out correctly.
If you click into the Menu bar up here at the top right of the screen, then click into
the sound part of the menu, you can choose your output.
Your Mac speakers are going to be the default, but if you’ve got bluetooth headphones,
or a HomePod, or some other kind of wireless speaker, you could choose that output option
here.
But what if you’re like me, and you’ve got multiple microphone input options?
I’ve got the built in microphone on my MacBook, but also the microphone that’s built into
my Logitech webcam.
Press and hold the Option key when you tap the sound button, and you can choose an input,
as well as an output.
I’m not quite sure why Apple hide this and insist on you using a hack to access it, but
there you go.
This last tip is probably my favourite.
This is System Preferences, you’ll use this a lot and I refer to it in all of my Mac tips
videos.
But some of these options are things that I will simply never need to access.
Language and region for example, or printers and scanners, I don’t use a printer and
I scan with my phone.
So did you know, you can hide these?
Go to View, and choose Customise.
You can then untick anything that you feel that you don’t really need access to, cleaning
up your System Preferences in the process.
And look, if you change your mind, or if you need something later on that you’ve hidden,
just repeat the process, and tick the relevant menu option to put it back.
Simple.
You can even choose whether you’d like to display the options here by category, or alphabetically,
which can make it much easier to find what you’re looking for.
So there you go, 10 more Mac tips.
Like I mentioned at the beginning of this video, I’ve already made 2 more videos like
this, and I’ll link to them in the description of this video, so if you appreciate Mac tips,
be sure to check them out.
I’m also working on another one, so I hope you’re enjoying them.
What about you, any Mac tips that I’ve not included here that you feel warrant a mention?
Drop me a comment, and let me know.
And as ever, if you found this video useful, do please consider leaving me a like, and
subscribing to my channel for more content like this in the future.
See you on the next video.