System Preferences Overview

Introduction: In this video, we’re going to take a look at how we customize our Mac through system preferences. Let’s go to my Mac. Now, our system preferences are where we set up all of our different preferences for our Mac. For example, we saw when we looked at Siri if we could change the voice of Siri. We did this through the system preferences through Siri’s ‘Preference Pane.’ If I want to change the desktop picture, I do this through system preferences.

How do we access our system preferences? Well, we have a few different ways. It is just an application. When I go up to go here, I’m in ‘My Finder,’ and I go over to ‘My Applications’ folder, select ‘Applications,’ you’re going to see, I have ‘System Preferences.’ It is just an application. I double click on it, and it’ll open it up, but there are easier ways than going to the application folder. I’m going to close this. It is located in your dock by default. All you have to do is just click on this, and it’ll open up system preferences.

Also, you can always access your system preferences from the Apple menu. When I click on this, you’re going to see we have ‘System Preferences.’ When I select this, what it’s going to do is it’s going to open up that application, ‘System Preferences.’ Let’s open it. Now, we’re looking at ‘My System Preferences.’ Now, within the ‘System Preferences,’ we have different preference panes, that’s what these are called. When I go over to my ‘Desktop and Screensaver,’ this is the desktop and screensaver preference pane. When I go over to ‘iCloud,’ this is the iCloud preference pane.

These panes, or preference panes, are categorized. You’re going to see that they’re grouped. I have four different sections here. We have all of our different preference panes for the Mac. We have our preference panes for our input devices and energy, and then we also have our preference panes for networking, and then we have it for our users and time machine. They’re grouped together by category.

Now, we can also sort these alphabetically. When we do that, it is no longer grouped. To see them alphabetically, what we do is we go up to ‘View’ in the ‘Menu Bar,’ and then you’re going to see ‘Organize alphabetically.’ I select it, and now we can see we no longer have any groups, but they are organized alphabetically. I like to view them by category. I’m going to go back under ‘View,’ and I’m going to select ‘Organize by categories.’

To open up any one of these preference panes, we just click on it. If I want to change the options for my dock, I click on ‘Dock’ here, and it opens up ‘My dock’ preference pane. To get back to all of your preferences, what we do is we click on the left arrow, or click on this icon here with these dots, when I click on this, it brings you back to all of my different preferences.

When I select a preference pane again, let’s go back into ‘Dock.’ I can easily go to another preference pane by going and clicking and holding on this icon here. When I click and hold, I get to see all of my different preference panes. Select any one to open it up. I can also see that going up to ‘View’ and having all of my different preference panes. Then one of my favorite ways to select a preference pane, I’m going to quit out of preferences here, or out of system preferences, I just use ‘Command-Q.’ It is just an application. When we go down to our ‘System Preferences’ in the dock, if I click and hold, I can select a preference pane. Now, I want to go back into my dock. I select ‘Dock,’ it opens up my ‘System Preferences,’ and then it goes immediately over to ‘Dock.’ I want to view all of my system preferences again, I go over and click on this icon here. I can see all of my system preferences.

We can easily search our preferences. Now, let’s say you’re looking for speech, and you’re not sure what it’s called. Maybe you’re coming from Windows, and you’re not sure about the terminology. Well, the nice thing is about the system preferences is we can easily search our preferences. Let’s say you want to change the desktop picture, but the way that you know is through ‘Wallpaper’ because that’s what they call it on Windows, ‘Wallpaper.’ All you have to do is type in here ‘Wallpaper’ and watch what happens. I’m going to type in here ‘Wallpaper.’ You’re going to see that it pulls up ‘Desktop Picture.’ The Mac knows that you’re looking to change the desktop picture. You’re also going to see that it highlights it over on the left here. Now, all I have to do is click on this, and it brings me to ‘My Desktop Picture.’ Again, to go back, we just click on the icon here, and we’re back. To clear your search, all you have to do is click on the ‘X’ here, and it clears it.

Now, depending on what apps you have installed, you may see third-party system preferences. I have them hidden. What we can do is we can also customize this view. I rarely see this happen, but I just want to show you how you can do it if you’re going to hide some of the system preferences. To do that, what we do is we go up to ‘View’ in the ‘Menu Bar’ and then you’re going to see ‘Customize.’ When I select this, we’re going to get a checkmark by each preference pane. If I deselect it, it will no longer show when I’m looking at my ‘System Preferences.’

If we go down to the bottom here, remember I mentioned that I have third party preference panes. I had them all hidden. That’s why you didn’t see them. If we look you’re going to see, we do not have a checkmark there. If I want to show them again, I just select it, and then when I’m finished, I just click on ‘Done,’ and it will show any preferences that I have selected. I’m going to click on ‘Done,’ and now we’re back.

What are these preferences? We’ll take a closer look at some of these in some of the lessons, but basically, what we’re looking at is our ‘General Preferences.’ This is where I can go and set my appearance if I want it to be light and dark, the accent color, and my default web browser. Let’s go back; I have my ‘Desktop and Screensaver.’ This is where I can go and set my desktop picture as well as my screen saver. Just click on the appropriate tab.

I’m going to go back. We also have my ‘Dock Preferences.’ We saw this when we looked at the dock. I have ‘Mission Control Preferences,’ and then I can also set the ‘Language & Region’ of my Mac. We have ‘Security & Privacy’ options. I have ‘Spotlight’ options. When I’m using ‘Spotlight’ to search my Mac, what do I want to search for? Do I want to include context? Do I want to include bookmarks?

I also have different notification settings. This is where I can set what type of alerts I receive from different apps. If you have multiple displays, you can set the different options for your multiple displays, or what you can do is set the resolution of your current display. We have my energy saver. This is where I can set how soon my display goes to sleep and how fast my Mac goes to sleep. We have our different keyboard options. I have ‘Mouse Preferences.’ This will change depending on which mouse I have plugged in my Mac, and then I also have ‘TrackPad Preferences.’ If I have a printer connected to my Mac, this is where I can see the ‘Print’ cue as well as any scan options that the printer may have.

This is where I go and set the sound, which includes both output, your speakers and input, your microphone, and then we have our ‘Startup Desk.’ This option is seldom used, but what you can do is you can set up a startup disc. If you have macOS 10 set up on another hard drive, you can boot your Mac up from that other hard drive. Again, it’s seldom used. We have my ‘iCloud System Preferences,’ my ‘Internet Accounts.’ I have a separate lesson on this. I have ‘Software Update.’ This is where I can see if my Mac has any updates. This is only for macOS, not for any apps from the app store.

I have different network settings. We take a look at this when I look at my ‘Wi-fi.’ I also have ‘Bluetooth settings,’ and then I have different extensions. Some apps from the app store will have extensions, which means that they will extend apps on your Mac with different features. This is where you can go and manage those extensions. We also have our sharing options. If you want to share your Mac on your network, click on it and set up your sharing. We have our different ‘Users & Groups. I have a separate lesson on this, as well as parental controls. Again, I have a separate lesson on this.

We have our ‘Siri Preferences,’ ‘Date and Time,’ and then we have our ‘Time Machine.’ This is where I can set a hard drive for my backup. Then we have ‘Accessibility Options”. There are a lot of options for accessibility. Now, what I recommend doing is taking a look at each one of these. There are going to be many different options throughout this, too many to include in this tutorial. As an example, if I go back over to general, maybe what I want to do is, I want to change the highlight color. I can change the highlight color. I want to go and set how many recent items are underneath the ‘Apple Menu.’ I can set how many recent items are. I’m going to go back.

If we go over to ‘TrackPad,’ I can set what happens when I tap to click. I can set what happens when there’s a secondary click. I’m going to go back. With ‘Date and Time,’ I can set if I want to show an analog clock in the menu bar. Right now, it is digital. We can see it as digital, up as a menu extra. When I go over to analog, it is now analog. I’m going to go back to digital, and let’s go back to all of my system preferences.

With sharing, I click on ‘Sharing,’ and from here, what I can do is I can set what I want to share. Do I want to share my screen, my files, and my printer that’s plugged into my Mac? You just select which one. If I was going to go with ‘Printer Share,’ then I select it, and then I consent which printers I’m sharing and who can use it. With some of these preferences, let’s go back, and now let’s take a look at ‘Users & Groups’. With some of these preferences, what you’re going to see in the bottom left corner is a lock. What is this lock? Well, before you can make any changes to this system preference and my ‘Users & Groups’ here, what I have to do is I have to unlock it. This is for your security. This way, anyone on your Mac is not going to be able to go and create or change the user rights on your Mac.

What they’re going to have to do is click this and then enter the Mac’s password. Once they do that, I’m going to go ahead and enter my password. Once they do that, they can go and make changes to your ‘Users & Groups’. They can go and make changes to other system preferences. If you want to lock again, you click on the lock, and now it is locked again. Now, no one can make any changes to it without knowing the password to the Mac.

When you’re looking at your system preferences and see that lock, let’s go over to all of my system preferences, and let’s take a look at ‘Security and Privacy.’ Again, we’re going to see our lock, and I can’t make any changes to it until I unlock it. With certain preferences, you’re going to see a lock in the lower left-hand corner. You won’t be able to make any changes to it without unlocking it. You do need to have the computer password to unlock it.

Those are our System Preferences on the Mac.