MacBook 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 Tie Myself Down with a Desktop? Preposterous!
Chapter 1 Hey, It Really Does Have Everything I Need
An Overview of Your Mac Laptop
The parts you probably recognize
The holes called ports
Don’t forget the parts you can’t see
Meet the MacBooks
Comparing the MacBooks
Look, Ma, no moving parts!
What if I need that pesky optical drive?
Location, Location, Location!
Unpacking and Connecting Your Laptop
Unpacking for the road warrior
Connecting Cables 101
Great — a Lecture about Handling My Laptop
An Overview of Mac Software Goodness
What comes with my laptop?
Connecting to the Internet from your lap
Applications that rock
Boot Camp For Dummies
Other Stuff That Nearly Everyone Wants
Chapter 2 Turning On Your Portable Powerhouse
Tales of the On Button
Mark’s Favorite Signs of a Healthy Laptop
You Won’t Lecture Me about Batteries, Will You?
Setting Up and Registering Your Laptop
Your iCloud account is your friend
Setting up macOS Catalina
Registering your MacBook
Importing Stuff from Another Mac
Importing Stuff from Windows (If You Must)
Chapter 3 The MacBook Owner’s Introduction to macOS Catalina
Your Own Personal Operating System
The Catalina Desktop
Meet me at the Dock
Dig those crazy icons
There’s no food on this menu
The Finder menu bar is your friend
There’s always room for one more window
Wait a Second: Where the Heck Are the Mouse Buttons?
Launching and Quitting Applications with Aplomb
Performing Tricks with Finder Windows
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
Switching Desktops with Spaces
Personalizing Your Desktop
Customizing the Dock
Adding applications and extras to the Dock
Keeping track with 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 Catalina built-in Help system
The Apple web-based support center
Magazines
Local Mac user groups
Part 2 Shaking Hands with macOS Catalina
Chapter 4 What’s New in macOS Catalina?
The Protected System Volume
Porting iOS Applications to Catalina
The Arrival of Music, TV, and Podcasts
A New Home for Apple ID
Extending Your MacBook with Sidecar
Using Screen Time
Make Unsubscribing Easy
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
Apple ID preferences
Notifications preferences
Chapter 6 Sifting Through Your Stuff
Doing a Basic Search
How Cool Is That? Discovering What Spotlight Can Do
Expanding Your Search Horizons
Customizing Spotlight to Your Taste
Chapter 7 Using Reminders, Notes, Notifications, and Maps
Remind Me to Use Reminders
Taking Notes the Catalina Way
Staying Current with Notification Center
Introducing the Maps Application
Switching Views in Maps
Getting Directions Over Yonder
Part 3 Connecting and Communicating
Chapter 8 Let’s Go on Safari!
Pretend 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
Avoiding those @*!^%$ pop-up ads
Chapter 9 iCloud Is Made for MacBooks
So How Does iCloud Work, Anyway?
Moving, Saving, and Opening iCloud Documents
Putting Handoff to Work
Configuring iCloud
Managing Your iCloud Storage
Chapter 10 Your Laptop Goes Multiuser
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 managing access
Tackling Mundane Chores for the Multiuser Laptop
Logging in and out of Catalina 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 MacBook 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!
Part 4 Living the iLife
Chapter 12 The Multimedia Joys of Music and TV
What Can I Play in Music?
Playing an Audio CD
Playing Digital Audio Files
Finding songs in your Music library
Removing old music from the library
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
Tuning in your own stations
Radio stations in your playlists
Creating a custom Music Radio station
iSending iStuff to iPod touch, iPhone, and iPad
Burning Music to Shiny Plastic Circles
Feasting on Music Visuals
Exercising Parental Authority
Watching Video with TV
Buying Digital Media the Apple Way
Chapter 13 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 Photos
Putting My Photo Stream and iCloud Photo Sharing to Work
Chapter 14 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
Chapter 15 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 Music
Exporting a project
Burning an audio CD
Part 5 Getting Productive and Maintaining Your MacBook
Chapter 16 Desktop Publishing with Pages
Creating a New Pages Document
Opening 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 Background Shape
Are You Sure About That Spelling?
Printing Your Pages Documents
Sharing That Poster with Others
Chapter 17 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 18 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
Chapter 19 When Good Mac Laptops Go Bad
Repeat after Me: Yes, I Am a Tech!
Step-by-Step Laptop Troubleshooting
The number-one rule: Reboot!
Special keys that can come in handy
All hail Disk Utility, the troubleshooter’s friend
Permissions and disk repair
Using Mark’s MacBook Troubleshooting Tree
Step 1: Investigate recent changes
Step 2: Run Disk Utility
Step 3: Check your cables
Step 4: Check your Internet and network connections
Step 5: Check your Trash
Step 6: Think virus
Step 7: Check your login items
Step 8: Turn off your screen saver
Step 9: Run System Information
Okay, I Kicked It, and It Still Won’t Work
Local service, at your service
The Apple Help Center
Apple Help online
And Now . . . Windows?
Figuring out how Boot Camp works
Configuring Boot Camp
Switching to Windows
Chapter 20 Adding New Stuff to Your Laptop
More Memory Will Help
Figuring out how much memory you have
Installing memory modules
Considering an Internal Drive Upgrade?
Ponder your external options
Gotta have internal
A List of Dreamy Laptop Add-Ons
Game controllers
Video controllers
Music hardware
Chapter 21 Tackling the Housekeeping
Cleaning Unseemly Data Deposits
Getting dirty (cleaning things the manual way)
Using a commercial cleanup tool
Backing Up Your Treasure
Saving files
Putting things right with Time Machine
Maintaining Drive Health
Automating Those Mundane Chores
Updating macOS Automatically
Part 6 The Part of Tens
Chapter 22 Ten Laptop Rules to Follow
Keep Your Laptop in a Bag
Maximize Your RAM
Keep Tabs on Your MacBook
Keepeth Thy Drive Encrypted
Brand Your MacBook
Disable Your Wireless
Take a Surge Protector with You
Use Power-Saving Features
Use an External Keyboard and Mouse
Not Again! What Is It with You and Backing Up?
Chapter 23 Ten Things to Avoid Like the Plague
USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 Storage Devices
Phishing Operations
Oddly Shaped Optical Discs
Submerged Keyboards
Antiquated Utility Software
Software Piracy
The Forbidden Account
Unsecured Wireless Connections
Refurbished Hardware
Dirty Laptops
Index
EULA