• November 7, 2023

    In Your Face App Guarantees That You Notice Appointment Alerts

    It’s easy to get caught up in what you’re doing and miss an alert for a Zoom meeting or a reminder to leave for an appointment. The Mac app In Your Face ensures that will never happen again by taking over the entire screen for notifications and requiring that you click a button to dismiss or snooze it. It can also play sou... Read more
  • August 10, 2023

    Tips for Getting Back to Work Faster After Restarting Your Mac

    All too often, Mac users put off installing updates because of the bother of having to set everything up again afterward. We get it—you’re busy, and it can take time to relaunch apps, reopen documents, and repopulate Web browser tabs. There’s no avoiding some downtime when installing a full macOS update, which is why we recommend starting such updates at the end of the day or before you leav... Read more
  • July 20, 2023

    Convert Image Formats Directly in the Finder

    If you need to convert images to JPEG, PNG, or (unlikely) HEIF, try this hidden Finder feature: Control-click an image in one of those formats or other common image formats like TIFF, GIF, or PSD, and choose Quick Actions > Convert Image. A dialog lets you choose the destination format, the image size, and whether you want to preserve metadata. For straight conversions, stick with Actual Siz... Read more
  • July 18, 2023

    Consider Moving Your Mac’s Dock to the Side of the Screen

    For most of us, our Mac’s screen is wider than it is tall, so longer Web pages and documents often benefit from more room from top to bottom. To maximize the amount of usable vertical space and reduce the need to scroll as much, you can set the Dock to hide automatically and appear only when you move your pointer to the bottom of the screen. A better approach is to position your Dock on the sid... Read more
  • May 11, 2023

    Make Apple Watch Apps Easier to Find with List View

    With the original version of the Apple Watch, Apple introduced “grid” view, which shows tiny icons for each app in a random circular pattern, making them difficult to find for most people. Happily, at some point, Apple relented and gave us the more sensible list view, which shows all the apps—with their names—sorted alphabetically. If your Apple Watch shows apps in grid view when you press the ... Read more
  • May 9, 2023

    Sidestep MacBook Optimized Battery Charging When Necessary

    Have you ever run into a situation where the battery icon in your menu bar is stuck at 80% even though your Mac has been plugged in for hours? Luckily, there are several easy workarounds, but first, let us explain what’s going on. In the past few years, Apple has added optimized battery charging features to many of its battery-powered products, including the Read more
  • April 27, 2023

    How to Turn Mail’s Rich Website Previews into Plain Links

    Sometimes apps can be too helpful. Apple’s Mail on the Mac likes to turn pasted URLs into graphically rich previews, and sometimes that’s OK. But other times, the preview is confusing or takes up too much space. Or you may want to send a plain link so the recipient can see its text. There are three ways to avoid rich link previews:
    • Before pasting a URL into your message, type a spa... Read more
  • April 25, 2023

    Set Your Apple Watch Clock Ahead a Few Minutes to Avoid Being Late

    Those who tend to cut things tight have a time-honored tradition of setting their watches ahead by a few minutes. That way, when you glance at your watch and realize that you need to leave, you actually have a few more minutes. You can do this with your Apple Watch, but only on the watch itself. Press the Digital Crown to see your apps, tap Settings, scroll down to and tap Clock, tap the button... Read more
  • March 14, 2023

    Need to Back Up or Export a Messages Conversation? Try PDF or iMazing

    Occasionally, we hear from a client who needs to document a Messages conversation with timestamps, perhaps as part of a lawsuit. The only way to do that on an iPhone or iPad is to take a series of screenshots, but if you have a Mac, there are additional options. The easiest approach is to select the conversation, choose File > Print, and save it as a PDF. If you need a different format, try ... Read more
  • March 7, 2023

    Quickly Put Lots of Files in a Folder with One Command

    Imagine that you’re working with a bunch of files, and you want to put a set of them in a new folder. You could stop what you’re doing, make a new folder, select all the files, and drag them into the folder, like an animal. Or you could take advantage of a slick Finder command that Apple added in macOS 11 Big Sur. Simply select the files you want to put in a folder, Control-click one of them, a... Read more