The Option key on your Mac keyboard is a clever little thing. Represented in menus by ⌥, it often provides access to functions and commands that are not readily accessible. Read on to learn some of these secrets. Copy When Dragging Normally, when you drag an item in the Finder between two folders, the [...]

Here are a few capabilities of the Mac that make me feel flexible for my own sake and efficient for the sake of others. Embed Links in Text When I compose email messages that reference websites for clients, I prefer to embed the addresses in the text of the message. This gives a [...]

Mousing around again? Did you know that “mouse” is appropriate as a verb? There are several common actions that involve moving a pointer cursor but not necessarily clicking the item underneath. Mouse Over Mousing over an element on a screen means moving the cursor on top of it. Sometimes this results in the [...]

If your iPhone supports Touch ID, how many fingerprints have you stored? If you have more than one Apple device, have you copied content from one to another? If you link to a lot of websites, how do you keep your tabs under control? Add More Fingerprints Does your iPhone or iPad have a [...]

There are a number of tools that can help you recall past events, identify availability, notify people about an event, and engage participation in shared activities. Below is a quick review of all of these. Total Recall If you’re an avid mobile calendar user, you may have noticed that the stock iOS Calendar app [...]

Last Tuesday, right in front of my house, my bike and I were suddenly not moving, and keeled over. Responding to one too many obstacles, including the rough pavement beneath me, and already clipped into my pedals, instead of achieving forward momentum, I broke my elbow. I’m grateful that one of my housemates was home [...]

Recently, several friends or clients have wanted to pay me with Venmo, one of the payment methods I accept. Each thought they had to look up my Venmo handle or profile name, become friends with me, and then would be able to pay. Not so, I revealed. All you need to make a payment on most [...]

Embarrassingly, shortly after posting last week’s edition, I was reconfiguring my local backup system and inadvertently cleared out 50GB of archived audio and video content I’d saved over the years. Ouch! I went to sleep last Tuesday feeling the effects of this grief moment and thinking that in this new year, I was also [...]

Since April 2018, I have been listening to the Mac Geek Gab podcast. This excellent weekly show, formerly from The Mac Observer, aims for every participant—listener and host alike—to learn at least five new things about the Mac “every time we get together.” This week, the show’s hosts are at the annual Consumer Electronics Show, exploring [...]

Here are some tips for getting started with a new Mac and be instantly flexible. Migrate Data from Backup Even if all your files are stored in one or another cloud like iCloud, Dropbox, or Google Drive, your Mac applications, system and app preferences, and a handful of other things are not backed [...]