iMac For Dummies

Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Introduction
Foolish Assumptions
About This Book
Icons Used in This Book
Beyond the Book
Where to Go from Here
Part 1 Getting Started with Your iMac
Chapter 1 Okay, This Machine Looks Really, Really Weird
iMac or iMac Pro – That Is the Question
An Introduction to the Beast
Major parts of your major appliance
Important hidden stuff
Choosing a Home for Your New Pet
Picking the right location
Considering the convenience factor
Unpacking and Connecting
Unpacking your iMac For Dummies
Connecting cables like a true nerd
Discovering All the Cool Things You Can Do
What software do I get?
Looking forward to fun on the Internet
Applications that rock
Would you like to play a game?
Stuff You Oughta Buy Right Now
Chapter 2 Life! Give My iMac Life!
Throwing the Big Leaf Switch
Mark’s Favorite Signs of a Healthy iMac
Harriet, It’s Already Asking Me Questions!
Setting up macOS Mojave
Registering your iMac
Importing Documents and Data from Your Old Mac
Manually Importing Documents and Data from Windows
Chapter 3 The Basics Behind macOS Mojave
Your Own Personal Operating System
The Mojave Desktop
Wait a Second: Where the Heck Are the Mouse Buttons?
Launching and Quitting Applications with Aplomb
Performing Tricks with Finder Windows
Viewing your stuff
Scrolling in and resizing windows
Minimizing and restoring windows
Moving and zooming windows
Closing windows
Juggling Folders and Icons
A field observer’s guide to icons
Selecting items
Copying items
Moving things from place to place
Duplicating in a jiffy
Using Finder Tabs
Keys and Keyboard Shortcuts to Fame and Fortune
Special keys on the keyboard
Using the Finder and application keyboard shortcuts
Home, Sweet Home Folder
Working with Mission Control, Spaces, and Dashboard
Switching Desktops with Spaces
Stick it on the Dashboard
Personalizing Your Desktop
Customizing the Dock
Adding applications and extras to the Dock
Keeping track with Stacks
Using Desktop Stacks
Using Dock Stacks
Resizing the Dock
What’s with the Trash?
All You Really Need to Know about Printing
And Just in Case You Need Help . . .
The Mojave built-in Help system
The Apple web-based support center
Magazines
Local Mac user groups
Part 2 Shaking Hands with macOS
Chapter 4 What’s New in Mojave?
Come to the Dark Mode
Showing Off Gallery View
Welcome New iOS Apps
Quick Actions Are the Cat’s Meow
Strolling Through the Improved App Store
Chapter 5 A Nerd’s Guide to System Preferences
An Explanation — without Jargon, No Less
Locating That Certain Special Setting
Popular Preferences Panes Explained
The Displays pane
The Desktop & Screen Saver pane
Mission Control preferences
The General pane
The Energy Saver pane
The Dock pane
The Sharing pane
The Time Machine pane
iCloud preferences
Notifications preferences
Chapter 6 Searching Amidst iMac Chaos
Doing a Basic Search
How Cool Is That? Discovering What Spotlight Can Do
Expanding Your Search Horizons
Customizing Spotlight to Your Taste
Chapter 7 Putting Common Apps to Work
Remind Me to Use Reminders
Taking Notes the Mojave Way
Staying Current with Notification Center
Introducing the Maps Application
Switching Views in Maps
Getting Directions Over Yonder
Catching Up on News
Using Favorites and Channels
Part 3 Connecting and Communicating
Chapter 8 Let’s Go on Safari!
Pretending You’ve Never Used This Thing
Visiting Websites
Navigating the Web
Setting Up Your Home Page
Adding and Using Bookmarks
Working with the Reading List
Downloading Files
Using History
Tabs Are Your Browsing Friends
Printing Web Pages
Protecting Your Privacy
Yes, there are such things as bad cookies
Banishing pesky iCloud Keychain passwords
Handling ancient history
Setting notifications
Chapter 9 Expanding Your Horizons with iCloud
So How Does iCloud Work, Anyway?
Moving, Saving, and Opening iCloud Documents
Putting Handoff to Work
Configuring iCloud
Managing Your iCloud Storage
Chapter 10 Creating a Multiuser iMac
Once Upon a Time (An Access Fairy Tale)
Big-Shot Administrator Stuff
Deciding who needs what access
Adding users
Modifying user accounts
I banish thee, mischievous user!
Setting up login items and parental controls
Mundane Chores for the Multiuser Laptop
Logging in and out in Mojave For Dummies
Interesting stuff about sharing stuff
Encrypting your Home folder can be fun
Chapter 11 Working Well with Networks
What Exactly Is the Network Advantage?
Should You Go Wired or Wireless?
Be a Pal: Share Your Internet!
Using your iMac as a sharing device
Using a dedicated Internet-sharing device
What Do I Need to Connect?
Wireless connections
Wired connections
Connecting to the Network
Verifying that the contraption works
Sharing stuff nicely with others
Use Your Firewall!
Chapter 12 Hooking Up with Handy Helpers
Connecting Printers
USB printers
Network printers
Connecting Scanners
Using Photo Booth
Conversing with FaceTime
Part 4 Living the Digital Life
Chapter 13 The Multimedia Joy of iTunes
What Can I Play on iTunes?
Playing an Audio CD
Playing Digital Audio Files
Browsing the Library
Finding songs in your Music Library
Removing old music from the Library
Watching Video
Keeping Slim Whitman and Slim Shady Apart: Organizing with Playlists
Know Your Songs
Setting the song information automatically
Setting or changing the song information manually
Ripping Audio Files
Tweaking the Audio for Your Ears
A New Kind of Radio Station
Internet Radio
Tuning in your own stations
Radio stations in your playlists
Creating a custom iTunes Radio station
iTunes and iCloud Together
iSending iStuff to iPod, iPhone, and iPad
Sharing Your Media across Your Network
Burning Music to Shiny Plastic Circles
Feasting on iTunes Visuals
Exercising Parental Authority
Buying Digital Media the Apple Way
Chapter 14 Focusing on Photos
Delving into Photos
Working with Images in Photos
Import images 101
Organize mode: Organizing and sorting your images
Edit mode: Removing and fixing stuff the right way
Exploring iCloud Photo Library
Putting My Photo Stream and iCloud Photo Sharing to Work
Chapter 15 Making Film History with iMovie
Shaking Hands with the iMovie Window
A Bird’s-Eye View of Moviemaking
Importing the Building Blocks
Pulling in video clips
Making use of still images
Importing and adding audio from all sorts of places
Building the Cinematic Basics
Adding clips to your movie
Marking clips
Removing clips from your movie
Reordering clips in your movie
Editing clips in iMovie
Transitions for the masses
Even Gone With the Wind had titles
Adding maps and backgrounds
Creating an Honest-to-Goodness Movie Trailer
Sharing Your Finished Classic with Others
Chapter 16 Recording Your Hits with GarageBand
Shaking Hands with Your Band
Composing Made Easy
Adding tracks
Choosing loops
Resizing, repeating, and moving loops
Using the Arrangement track
Tweaking the settings for a track
Sharing Your Songs
Creating song files in iTunes
Exporting a project
Burning an audio CD
Part 5 Getting Productive with Your iMac
Chapter 17 Desktop Publishing with Pages
Creating a New Pages Document
Open an Existing Pages Document
Saving Your Work
Touring the Pages Window
Entering and Editing Text
Using Text, Shapes, and Graphics Boxes
The Three Amigos: Cut, Copy, and Paste
Cutting stuff
Copying text and images
Pasting from the Clipboard
Formatting Text the Easy Way
Adding a Spiffy Table
Adding Alluring Photos
Adding a Shape as a Background
Are You Sure about That Spelling?
Printing Your Pages Documents
Sharing That Poster with Others
Chapter 18 Creating Spreadsheets with Numbers
Before You Launch Numbers . . .
Creating a New Numbers Document
Opening an Existing Spreadsheet File
Save Those Spreadsheets!
Exploring the Numbers Window
Navigating and Selecting Cells in a Spreadsheet
Entering and Editing Data in a Spreadsheet
Selecting the Correct Number Format
Aligning Cell Text Just So
Formatting with Shading
Inserting and Deleting Rows and Columns
The Formula Is Your Friend
Adding Visual Punch with a Chart
Printing Your Spreadsheet
Chapter 19 Building Presentations with Keynote
Creating a New Keynote Project
Opening a Keynote Presentation
Saving Your Presentation
Putting Keynote to Work
Adding Slides
Working with Text, Shapes, and Graphics Boxes
Adding and Editing Slide Text
Formatting Slide Text for the Perfect Look
Using Presenter’s Notes in Your Project
Every Good Presentation Needs Media
Adding a Background Shape
Creating Your Keynote Slideshow
Printing Your Slides and Notes
Part 6 The Necessary Evils: Troubleshooting, Upgrading, and Maintaining
Chapter 20 It Just . . . Sits . . .There
Repeat after Me: Yes, I Am a Tech!
Step-by-Step iMac Troubleshooting
The number-one rule: Reboot!
Special keys that can come in handy
All hail Disk Utility, the troubleshooter’s friend
Mark’s iMac Troubleshooting Tree
Okay, I Kicked It, and It Still Won’t Work
Local service, at your service
The macOS Help Center
Apple Help Online
Chapter 21 I Want to Add Stuff
More Memory Will Help
Figuring out how much memory you have
Installing memory modules
Can I Upgrade My Internal Drive?
Consider your external options
Gotta have internal
Weighing Attractive Add-Ons
Game controllers
External drive arrays
Video controllers
Audio hardware and MIDI controllers
Chapter 22 Tackling the Housekeeping
Cleaning Unseemly Data Deposits
Managing your storage in macOS (or cleaning things the elegant way)
Getting dirty (or cleaning things the manual way)
Using a commercial cleanup tool
Backing Up Your Treasure
Saving Files
Backing up to an external drive
Backing up to CD and DVD
Putting Things Right with Time Machine
Maintaining Drive Health
Automating Those Mundane Chores
Creating an application in Automator
Creating an Automator login item
Updating macOS Automatically
Part 7 The Part of Tens
Chapter 23 Ten Ways to Speed Up Your iMac
Nothing Works Like a Shot of Memory
Hold a Conversation with Your iMac
Vamoose, Unwanted Fragments!
Keep Your Desktop Background Simple
Column Mode Is for Power Users
Make the Dock Do Your Bidding
It All Started with Keyboard Shortcuts
Hey, You Tweaked Your Finder!
Keep in Touch with Your Recent Past
Go Where the Going Is Good
Chapter 24 Ten Things to Avoid Like the Plague
Keep Things Cool
Phishing Is No Phun
Don’t Rely on a Single Password
Do You Really Want a Submerged Keyboard?
Don’t Use Antiquated Utility Software
Don’t Endorse Software Piracy
Call It the Forbidden Account
Don’t Settle for a Surge Suppressor
Refurbished Hardware Is No Deal at All
iMacs Appreciate iCleanliness
Index
EULA