Title Page
Copyright Page
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
That magnificent screen
The keyboard and trackpad
Food for your ears
The power cable
The power button
The FaceTime HD camera
The battery
The holes called ports
Don’t forget the parts you can’t see
Meet the MacBooks
Comparing the MacBooks
What are the similarities?
So what’s so flippin’ radical?
Look, Ma, no moving parts!
Whoa! Where’s my familiar USB port?
Adding a DVD drive
Location, Location, Location!
Unpacking and Connecting Your MacBook
Unpacking for the road warrior
Connecting Cables 101
The absolutely essential connection
Adding the internet to the mix
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
Other Stuff That Nearly Everyone Wants
Chapter 2 Turning On Your Portable Powerhouse
Throwing the Big Leaf Switch
Mark’s Favorite Signs of a Healthy Laptop
You Won’t Lecture Me about Batteries, Will You?
Harriet, It’s Already Asking Me Questions!
Setting up macOS Sonoma
Registering your MacBook
Importing Documents and Data from Your Old Mac
Manually Importing Documents and Data from Windows
Chapter 3 The MacBook Owner’s Introduction to macOS Sonoma
Your Own Personal Operating System
The Sonoma Desktop
Meet me at the Dock
Check out that Control Center
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
Widgets on parade
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
Selecting one thing
Selecting a whole bunch of things
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
Hiring a Stage Manager
Switching Desktops with Spaces
Personalizing Your Desktop
Taking Control of Your MacBook
Customizing the Dock
Adding applications and extras to the Dock
Using Desktop widgets
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 Sonoma built-in Help system
The Apple web-based support center
Online resources
Local Mac user groups
Part 2 Shaking Hands with macOS Sonoma
Chapter 4 What’s New in Sonoma?
Widgets Invade Your Desktop
Safari Profiles Keep You Organized
Ramp Up Your Gaming
Put Your MacBook on Lockdown
Screen Savers Go Hollywood
Chapter 5 A Nerd’s Guide to System Settings
An Explanation — without Jargon, No Less
Locating That Certain Special Setting
Popular System Settings Panes Explained
The Displays pane
The Desktop & Dock pane
Dock settings
Desktop & Stage Manager settings
Widgets settings
Windows settings
Mission Control settings
The Screen Saver pane
The General pane
The Battery pane
The Control Center pane
The Wallpaper pane
iCloud settings
Appearance pane
Notifications settings
Chapter 6 Searching Amidst MacBook 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 Using Reminders, Notes, Notifications, Maps, and News
Remind Me to Use Reminders
Taking Notes the Sonoma Way
Staying Current with Notification Center
Introducing the Maps Application
Switching Views in Maps
Getting Directions Over Yonder
Creating and Using Guides
Catching Up on News
Using Favorites and Channels
Part 3 Connecting and Communicating
Chapter 8 Let’s Go on Safari!
Pretend You’ve Never Used This Thing
Visiting Websites
Navigating the Web
Organizing with Profiles
Configuring Your Home Page and Start 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 Expanding Your Horizons with iCloud
So How Does iCloud Work, Anyway?
Moving, Saving, and Opening iCloud Documents
Putting Handoff to Work
Expanding Your Horizons with Sidecar
Configuring iCloud
Managing Your iCloud Storage
Chapter 10 Creating a Multiuser MacBook
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
Automating with login items
Managing an account’s access settings
Tackling Mundane Chores for the Multiuser MacBook
Logging in and out of Sonoma For Dummies
Exploring your login options
Logging out
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
Connecting a MacBook to an existing wireless network
Using a base station to go wireless
Joining a wireless network
Wired connections
Making a connection to a wired network
Wired network hardware
Joining a wired Ethernet network
Connecting to the Network
Sharing stuff nicely with others
Network internet connections
Network file sharing
Sharing a network printer
Use Your Firewall!
Chapter 12 Hooking Up with Your World
Using Photo Booth
Conversing with FaceTime
Sending and Receiving Instant Messages
Sharing Your Screen
Using Continuity Camera
Part 4 Living the iLife
Chapter 13 The Multimedia Joys of Music and TV
What Can I Play in Music?
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 iPhone and iPad
Feasting on Music Visuals
Exercising Parental Authority
Watching Video with TV
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
A new kind of photo album
Working with People & Pets
Organizing with keywords
Digging through your library with keywords
Searching by locations where photos were taken
Edit mode: Removing and fixing stuff the right way
Rotating tipped-over shots
Crop ’til you drop (and a whole lot more)
Enhancing images to add pizzazz
Removing rampant red-eye
Retouching like the pros
Using filters and adjustments to add a mood
Exploring iCloud Photos
Putting iCloud Shared Albums to Work
Creating an iCloud Link on the Web
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
Importing iOS iMovie projects
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
Browsing Your Video Library
Sharing Your Finished Classic
Chapter 16 Recording Your Hits with GarageBand
Shaking Hands with Your Band
Composing Made Easy
Adding tracks
Choosing loops
Looking for just the right loop
Second verse, same as the first
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 17 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
Adding 3D Objects
Are You Sure about That Spelling?
Setting Your Font Defaults to Speed Things Up
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
Adding Images and 3D Objects
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
Creating Your Own Themes
Using Presenter’s Notes in Your Project
Every Good Presentation Needs Media
Adding a Background Shape
Adding 3D Objects
Creating Your Keynote Slideshow
Printing Your Slides and Notes
Chapter 20 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
Using Safe mode
Start-up keys
All hail Disk Utility, the troubleshooter’s friend
Disk repair made easy
Mark’s MacBook Troubleshooting Tree
Step 1: Investigate recent changes
Step 2: Run Disk Utility
Step 3: Check your cables
Step 4: Check your Trash
Step 5: Check your internet and network connections
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 macOS Help Center
Apple Help Online
Hardware manufacturers
Chapter 21 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)
Unnecessary files and unneeded folders
Associated files in other folders
Using a commercial cleanup tool
Backing Up Your Treasure
Saving Files
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 6 The Part of Tens
Chapter 22 Ten (Plus) 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
Consider Adding Memory
Don’t Consider an Internal Drive Upgrade!
Add Storage Space Externally
Putting a port to work
Connecting an external drive
Not Again! What Is It with You and Backing Up?
Chapter 23 Ten Things to Avoid Like the Plague
USB 2.0 Storage Devices
Phishing Operations
The Twin Terrors: Viruses and Malware
Submerged Keyboards
Antiquated Utility Software
Software Piracy
The Forbidden Account
Unsecured Wireless Connections
Refurbished Hardware
Dirty Laptops
Index
EULA