Need a little help figuring out your new iMac or MacBook? You’ve come to the right place.
Check out our updated survival guide for the basics on Mac OS X, including details on the latest “Mountain Lion” features, illustrated guides for updating and backing up your Mac, must-know tips, and more.
The basics
What is Mac OS X?
It’s the software that powers all the day-to-day features on your iMac or MacBook. Every time you click a menu at the top of the screen, open a folder on your desktop, or search for a document on your hard drive, you have the Mac operating system (or “OS”) to thank.
OK, so what does the “X” in “Mac OS X” stand for?
It stands for “10,” as in the Roman numeral—and specifically, it means we’re currently using the tenth major version of the Mac OS. Mac OS X first arrived for desktop Macs way back in 2001, and had been preceded by—you guessed it—Mac OS 9.
“Mountain Lion” is the latest version of Mac OS X, the software that powers your iMac or MacBook.
What is “Mountain Lion”?
Over the past dozen years, there have been seven big updates to Mac OS X, and the latest update, 10.8, is nicknamed “Mountain Lion.” Previous updates to Mac OS X have been named “Panther,” “Leopard,” “Snow Leopard,” and plain-old “Lion.” Yes, it’s safe to say that Apple has a thing for felines.
Anyway, Mac OS X “Mountain Lion” (which came out in July 2012) adds more than 200 new features to the Mac operating system, including a “Notification Center” with alerts for incoming e-mail and calendar alerts, voice dictation, text messaging with iPhone, iPad, and other Mac users, and the ability to “mirror” a newer Mac’s display to an Apple TV-connected HDTV.
Check out Apple’s rundown of the 200 new features in Lion right here.
Where to get Mountain Lion
Lion is available for download from the Mac App Store for $20.
The “About This Mac” window will tell you is your Mac is new enough for Mountain Lion.
Can your Mac handle Lion?
Generally speaking, you’ll need an iMac or MacBook Pro that was manufactured no earlier than 2007, or a MacBook circa 2008 or later.
Specific iMac and MacBook models have different requirements, however; click here for more details.
How to install Mountain Lion
The Lion installation process is fairly straightforward, but it will require at least an hour of your time.
Once you purchase Mountain Lion from the Mac App Store, your system will download the update and alert you when it’s ready to begin the installation process. Just follow the prompts (there are only a few), sit back and wait. After a restart or two, your Mac should be all et.
How to back up your Mac
Don’t even thing of updating your Mac’s operating system without backing up your hard drive first. Luckily, backing up your hard drive is easy thanks for a Mac OS X utility called Time Machine; here’s how to use it.
35 must-know Mac tips and tricks
You can pause your Notification Center alerts with a quick swipe and click.
1. How to pause all your Notification Center alerts
Want a break from all the banners and alerts from the Mac’s new Notification Center? You put all your notifications on “pause” with a simple swipe and click.
2. Getting the hang of desktop “spaces” in Mission Control
The Mac’s handy Mission Control feature lets you manage multiple desktop “spaces” at once, each filled with its own assortment of open documents and applications. Sounds confusing, I know. But once you get the hang of it, these additional, virtual desktops can become addicting—and even essential.
3. Why “natural” scrolling feels backwards—and how to turn it off
Does scrolling on your Mac feel backwards to you? Blame Apple’s new “natural” scrolling feature. Luckily, turning it off is a cinch.
Wish you could get your scroll bars back? All you have to do is tweak the right setting.
4. How to get your missing scroll bars back
Hey, what happened to the scroll bars on your windows? Don’t worry—you can get them back in a few clicks.
5. 12 handy trackpad gestures you need to try
Want to zoom in on a web page, twirl a snapshot in iPhoto, sneak a peek at the desktop, or look up the definition of a head-scratching word? You can do all that and more with a simple swipe, “pinch,” or tap on your Mac’s trackpad.
6. Turn on your Mac’s speaking clock
Your Mac has a built-in speaking clock that will read you the time every hour, on the hour—or the half hour, or even quarter hour. Here’s how to turn it on.
You can add a new Mission Control desktop with a little help from your mouse.
7. Create a new desktop in Mission Control
Making a new “space” in Mission Control, the Lion feature that gives you a bird’s eye view of all your virtual desktops, is easy—if you know where to look.
8. Pin an app to a specific Mission Control desktop
There’s a way to assign an app to a specific desktop in Mission Control, perfect for keeping your programs in their proper “spaces.”
9. How to paste your signature into a PDF, no scanner or printer required
Got a contract or some other document that you need to sign and return via email? Just snap a photo of your John Hancock with your Mac’s iSight camera (just about any recent iMac or MacBook should have one), then paste it into the document you need to sign.
10. 8 ways to make the most of the Mac desktop dock
Thanks to the handy Dock at the bottom of your Mac desktop, your favorite programs, files, and folders are never more than a click away—and if you know where to look, you can make the Dock behave practically any way you want.
“Sticky Keys” make for a clever alternative to playing “Twister” with your fingers.
11. How to enable “sticky keys”
Having a tough time maneuvering your fingertips around multi-key combos like SHIFT + ALT + DELETE? The “sticky keys” feature in Mac OS X can help.
12. 5 ways to take a “Quick Look” at almost any file
Meet “Quick Look,” a handy, built-in Mac tool that lets you take a quick glance at almost any file or folder without committing to firing up a program.
13. 12 Mac keyboard shortcuts you need to know
Switch applications, take a “quick look” at a file, get help, and more, all without touching your Mac’s mouse or trackpad.
14. 6 ways to give your Mac desktop icons a makeover
Got a jumble of icons cluttering your Mac’s desktop? Are you desktop icons too big—or too small? Wish they would just arrange themselves? Help is here!
15. 5 ways to make the most of the sidebar
Looking to add your own folders to the Mac sidebar? Or perhaps you’d rather make the sidebar bigger, smaller, or just plain gone. Help is here!
Just dip into your Mac’s system settings to make the mouse pointer bigger.
16. How to boost the size of the mouse pointer
Want to save both your eyesight and your sanity? Here’s an easy way: by dipping into your system settings and boosting the size of the mouse pointer.
17. How to control your desktop with “Hot Corners”
Turn on the Mac’s hot-corner feature to jump to Mission Control, clear your desktop, and more, all with a simple flick of your fingertip.
18. How to “unthread” your e-mail conversations
It’s easy to “unthread” the mail conversations in your Mac’s Mail inbox messages—or at least it is once you know the setting you need to tweak.
19. How to disable the Caps Lock key
Sick of striking the Caps Lock key by mistake? The good news is that turning off Caps Lock for good on a Mac is easy.
20. How to stop programs from launching automatically
How long does it take for your Mac to start up? Too long? Maybe your Mac is trying to launch too many apps when it’s first starting up.
You can zoom your Mac’s display with a few keyboard combinations.
21. How to zoom the display
Squinting at your computer screen? You can zoom the entire display on your PC or Mac, a handy trick for anyone with iffy eyesight. Here’s how.
22. Choose your default web browser
Sick of having Safari pop up when you really wanted another browser, like Chrome or Firefox? There’s single, centralized place on your Mac where you can set your default web browser once and for all.
23. Create a “recent files” folder on your desktop
It’s easy to create a folder on your desktop that’ll display only the files you’ve created or worked with in the past day, week, month … you name it.
24. Set your Mac to automatically start up (or shut down) each day
Want to wake up each morning to a freshly brewed pot of coffee and a fully powered-on Mac? It’s easier than you might think.
25. 16 Mac keyboard shortcuts you need to know
Want to switch applications, empty the trash, search your hard drive, or put your Mac to sleep, all without touching your mouse? Read on for 16 keyboard shortcuts that’ll let you zip around your Mac like a pro.
By tweaking a single setting, you can use your Mac’s function keys without having to press and hold the “Fn” key.
26. Use the function keys without pressing “Fn”
On most Mac keyboards, the function keys—you know, those keys along the top of the keyboard marked “F1,” “F2,” “F3,” and so on—don’t get the luxury of having an entire key to themselves. Want to switch things around so you don’t need to press and hold “fn” to use a function key? No problem.
27. Set multiple “home” or “start” pages for your web browser
Want more than just a single home page to appear when you fire up your web browser in the morning? No problem.
28. Cram a bunch of files into a single “zip” archive
Got a bunch of little files that you want to send to a friend? Well, you could always drag them all into an email and send them as attachments, but talk about messy. A cleaner, tidier alternative is to take all those little (or not-so-little) files and compress them into an archive—or, to be more specific, a “zip” archive.
29. Turn any printable document or web page into a PDF
It’s actually quite easy to convert a Word document into a PDF, and you won’t have to pay a dime to do it. In fact, here’s the rule of thumb when it comes to turning documents or even web pages into PDFs: if you can print ‘em, you can convert ‘em.
Tapping to click takes getting used to, but it’s surprisingly addicting, not to mention easier on your fingers.
30. How to “click” the trackpad with a tap
Having a hard time clicking the MacBook’s squishy trackpad? If so, here’s an alternative: setting the Mac trackpad to “click” with a simple tap rather than an actual click.
31. Share files between nearby Macs with AirDrop
Got a file on one Mac that you’d like to send to another Mac just a few feet away? A built-in Mac feature called AirDrop lets you…well, “drop” a file from one Mac onto another.
32. Change the default programs for your files
Annoyed that the Mac’s Preview app, and not Adobe Reader, always gets to open your PDF files? There’s a way to permanently change the “default” program that opens a given type of document.
33. Customize the buttons in program toolbars
Ever wish there were a Print button next to the Reply and Forward buttons in the Mac’s Mail app, or a pair of Zoom buttons on the top of every Safari browser window? Well, here’s the thing: you can add, remove, and rearrange the buttons in the “toolbar” of several familiar Mac programs.
You can set your wallpaper to change at any interval you choose, from once a day to once every 5 seconds.
34. Put your desktop wallpaper on shuffle
Getting tired of the same old wallpaper on your Mac desktop? If so, try this: just set your Mac to shuffle some or all of your favorite desktop wallpaper (or “background”) photos, at any interval you choose.
35. 4 ways to right-click on a Mac trackpad
There are actually several different ways to right-click on the MacBook’s trackpad, which (nowadays, at least) is essentially one big button.
35 Basics tips for Mac Xs You must know
Ever tried typing on your iPad’s keyboard with your thumbs while holding the iPad in your hands? Talk about awkward.
