Mac Tips & Lessons
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macOS Classes5 Lessons
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New in macOS Sequoia3 Lessons
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Getting Started with the Mac13 Lessons
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14+ Tips for Getting Started with a New Mac (and older Macs)
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How to tell which macOS you are using
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Getting Around your Mac
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Working with Finder Windows
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Accessing Folders and Navigating Folders
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A Look a the Folder Hierarchy of the Mac
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Using Keyboard Shortcuts
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Notifications and the Notification Center
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Searching with Spotlight Search
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System Preferences Overview
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Mac Quick Look Demystified: Preview Files with Ease!
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Quickly access Mac system settings with Menu Bar or Dock
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Learn Cut, Copy, and Paste on Mac
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14+ Tips for Getting Started with a New Mac (and older Macs)
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Menu Bar Lessons for the Mac4 Lessons
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Dock Lessons for the Mac11 Lessons
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Automatically Hide the Dock
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Open Recent Documents from a Closed app with the Mac's Dock
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Open an App's Recent Documents through the Dock on the Mac
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Change the Position of the Dock
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Working with Applications in the Dock
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Documents and Folders in the Dock
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Customizing the Dock
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Add Printers to the Mac's Dock
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3 Easy Tips for Organizing your Folders in the Mac's Dock
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Unlock Hidden Settings for the Dock
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How to Add Folders to the Mac Dock
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Automatically Hide the Dock
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Finder Lessons for the Mac24 Lessons
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Opening an Enclosing Folder from a Finder Window
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Adding a Folder to the Sidebar in a Finder Window
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Cycle through your Open Finder Windows
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Set What Folder A New Finder Windows Shows
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Finder Window View Options
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View Unopened Documents with Quick Look
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Arranging Files and Folders
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Actions and Tasks
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Finder Windows as Tabs
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Customizing the Sidebar
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Customize the Finder Window Toolbar
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Show the Path Bar in a Finder Window
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Keep Folders on Top
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Show the Status Bar in Finder Windows
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Set what is searched in a Finder Window
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Hide your Hard Drives from the Desktop
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Add Documents to a Finder Window Toolbar
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Resizing Finder Window Columns
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Copy the location of a File or Folder as Pathname
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Set what your Finder Windows Open To
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Show the Mac's Clipboard in a Window
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Create a PDF from Multiple Images with Quick Actions on the Mac
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The ultimate guide to the Mac's Finder: 24+ tips included!
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Need help Organizing Your Mac? Master Smart Folders Today!
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Opening an Enclosing Folder from a Finder Window
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Manage Applications on the Mac24 Lessons
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Easily Open the Applications Folder
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Apps and Significant Energy
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Set which Applications Open at Login
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Add the Applications Folder to the Dock
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Close Windows when Quitting Apps
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5 Ways to Find and Open your Applications on the Mac
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Finding your Applications Folder
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Switching between Open Applications
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Hiding Open Applications
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Launchpad and Applications
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Opening Applications with Spotlight Search
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Installing Applications
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Removing or Uninstalling Applications
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Applications in Full-screen Mode
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Finding an App’s Preferences or Settings
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Open Apps with the Launchpad Icon
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Use Keyboard Shortcuts to Switch between Open Apps
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Shrink Apps to Prevent the MacBook Pro Notch from Obscuring App Controls
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Prevent In-App Rating & Review Notifications
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How to Check App Version History on Your Mac
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How to Use Multiple Desktops with Spaces
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Switch between open apps with the Mac's App Switcher
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Enhance your Mac experience by Installing iOS apps
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Add a Signature to a Document
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Easily Open the Applications Folder
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Manage Files and Folders on the Mac30 Lessons
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Selecting Documents and Folders
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Working with Save Dialog Boxes
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Deleting Files and Folders
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Copying, Moving, and Grouping Files
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Move Selected Files into a New Folder
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Specifying Applications for Documents
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4 Ways to Open a File on the Mac
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3 Ways to Force Quit an App on the Mac
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4 Ways to Edit Finder Window Sidebars on the Mac
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Create A New Folder with Selected Files on the Mac
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Using Spring-loaded Folders
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Compressing Files and Folders
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Convert and Compress Images with Quick Actions
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Viewing Document Information
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Renaming Files in Batches
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Tagging Files and Folders
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Set What App a Document Opens With
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Open Windows Media or WMV Files
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Tips for finding your Downloads Folder
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See Folder Sizes in a Finder Window
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Duplicate Documents with Stationery Pad on the Mac
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Reverse the Print Order of your Document
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Creating PDFs on a Mac: Two Easy Methods
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Save Time and Effort: How to Select Multiple Files on Your Mac
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How to Easily Zip and Unzip Files on Your Mac
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Learn how to use Find and Replace on the Mac
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Rename Multiple Files on the Mac
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How to Manage Storage on Your Mac - Easy Tips & Tricks!
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Ever Wondered How to Rename Mac Files? Top 7 Tips Here!
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11 Easy Ways to Optimize Your Mac's Desktop Experience
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Selecting Documents and Folders
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General macOS Lessons21 Lessons|1 Quiz
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Have your Mac Learn Spelling
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Close Notifications with a Swipe
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Working with the Today View
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Using Siri
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Using Mission Control
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Add Virtual Desktops with Spaces on the Mac
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Sharing Files with AirDrop
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iCloud Options
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Take a Screenshot of your Display
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Add Emojis as Text
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View All Open Windows as Thumbnails
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Copy, and Paste and Match Style
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Type Special Characters with the Keyboard Viewer
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Set where Screenshots are Saved
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Add a Timer to Screenshots
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Hide all your open windows to show the Mac's Desktop
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Turn on Do Not Disturb Temporarily
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Using Split View
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The Mac’s Magic Shortcut to Trashing Files and Photos Quickly
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10 Little Known Tips for the Mac
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Keyboard Navigation on the Mac
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Have your Mac Learn Spelling
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Preferences or Settings for the Mac34 Lessons
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Organize and Hide System Preference Panes
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General Preferences
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Working with Printers and Scanners
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Share Connected Printers with other Macs
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A Quick look at Sound Preferences
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A closer look at Internet Accounts
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Creating User Accounts
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Set an Animated Emoji for your Mac User Profile
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Customize the Date and Time in the Mac's Menu Bar
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Adding Parental Controls
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Change the Cursor Size
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Show the Date in the Menu bar
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Change the Clock in the Menu Bar from Digital to Analog
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Set the Scroll Bar to Always Show in a Window
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Create a New user Account
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Text Replacement
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Quickly Look up Information with the Trackpad
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Shortcuts for opening System Preference Panes
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Rename your Mac
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Searching your System Preferences
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Set the Default Browser on the Mac
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Reduce the Transparency in the Menu Bar and Dock
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Open Preference Panes from the Dock
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A closer look at Wi-fi Settings
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Using Hot Corners
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Select what macOS Updates you want to install
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Create Keyboard Shortcuts for Menu Items
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Use Keyboard Navigation to Move Focus
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Enable Fast User Switching to Switch between User Accounts
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Use Touch ID to Switch between Users on the Mac
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How to Zoom into your Mac's Display for Easier Reading
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How to Extend Your Mac Display to Your iPad
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Disabling Showing the Notification Center from the Trackpad
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Can Force Click Boost Your Productivity on your Mac? Find Out How!
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Organize and Hide System Preference Panes
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Troubleshooting Lessons for the Mac16 Lessons
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Finding Help for your Mac
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Backing Up with Time Machine
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Restoring Files with Time Machine
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Erase a Hard Drive
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Force Quit an App on the Mac
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Restart or Relaunch the Mac's Finder
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Force Quit Apps from the Apple Menu
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Putting it All Together
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Automatically delete items in the Trash after 30 Days
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Troubleshooting Bluetooth Connections
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Manage Storage Space with macOS Monterey and Earlier
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Reclaim Local Mac Storage Space by Removing iCloud Drive Downloads
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Disable Unused Sharing Options on Your Mac If You’re Not Using Them
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Forget Wi-Fi Networks that are Troublesome
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View memory usage in Activity Monitor on Mac
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Erase All Content and Settings on a Mac
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Finding Help for your Mac
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New in macOS Mojave12 Lessons
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Dark Mode Appearance
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Dynamic Desktop Pictures
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View Recent Apps in the Dock
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Gallery View for Files in Finder Windows
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macOS Software Updates in System Preferences
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Desktop Stacks for Files on the Desktop
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Keep Desktop Folders on Top of Files
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View File Metadata
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Quick Actions and Markup Files
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Continuity Camera from your iPhone or iPad
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New Privacy Options
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New Screenshot Options
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Dark Mode Appearance
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New in macOS Catalina19 Lessons
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See which apps will no longer work with macOS Catalina
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See which apps are 32-bit
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Opening Recent Folders from the Dock
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Reorganized System Preferences
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New Window Management Options
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New Screen Time Preferences
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New Music App
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New TV App
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New Podcasts App
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Manage your iOS Devices through the Finder
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What's New in the Photos App
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What's New in the Notes App
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What's New in Safari
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What's New in the Mail app
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New FindMy App
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New Catalyst Apps
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New Security and Privacy Features
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New Redesigned Reminders App
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Use an iPad as a second Display with Sidecar
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See which apps will no longer work with macOS Catalina
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New in macOS Big Sur15 Lessons
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What hasn't changed with macOS Big Sur
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Notification Center
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Allow Wallpaper Tinting in Windows
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Filtering Mail Messages
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New Control Center
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A look at the Finder Window Toolbar
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New with Desktop Pictures
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Play Startup Sound
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Drag and Drop Controls to the Menu Bar
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Battery Usage Preferences
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Change the Date & Time in the Menu Bar
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Do Not Disturb location in macOS Big Sur
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See what is Now Playing
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It’s Time to Consider Upgrading to macOS 11 Big Sur
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How to Reveal the Proxy Icon in Big Sur
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What hasn't changed with macOS Big Sur
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New & Updated in macOS Ventura12 Lessons
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How to Manage your Open Windows with Stage Manager
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New Setup Options and Filters in Focus on the Mac with macOS Ventura
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View Forecasts and More in the New Weather App on the Mac
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Add Multiple Stops to Routes in the Maps App with macOS Ventura
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Create Templates for Reminders Lists with macOS Ventura
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Maximizing Your Storage on macOS Ventura: A Guide to Managing Space
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Discover the New Clock App on MacOS Ventura
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How to Keep Scroll Bars Always Visible on Mac (macOS Ventura)
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Manage App Store and Streaming Services Subscriptions through the Mac
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Save time typing text and Emojis on your Mac with Text Replacement!
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3 Ways to Remove the Background in a Photo
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Stop Apps from Launching when your Mac Starts Up
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How to Manage your Open Windows with Stage Manager
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Favorite Features in macOS Sonoma9 Lessons
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Make Your Favorite Websites Act Like Apps with macOS Sonoma
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macOS Sonoma: Screensavers & Wallpapers
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Click your Wallpaper to Show the Desktop
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Add Widgets to your Mac's Desktop
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My 3 Favorite New Features in Reminders with macOS Sonoma!
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iCloud Passwords for Chrome: Seamless Access to Your Passwords
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Make your next Zoom Presentation stand out with Presenter Overlays
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Turn off Click Wallpaper to Show Desktop
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Build your own Apple Passwords app in 5 minutes! A Step-by-Step Guide
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Make Your Favorite Websites Act Like Apps with macOS Sonoma
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New in macOS Monterey6 Lessons
A Look a the Folder Hierarchy of the Mac
Learn how the Mac’s folders are structured.
In this lesson for macOS on the Mac, I look at the folder hierarchy of macOS Mojave. The better you understand how your Mac is organized, the easier it will be to keep it organized with your files and folders.
Video Transcript (video also has closed captions):
Introduction: Now, let’s take at the folder hierarchy on a Mac. I believe that the better you understand how your Mac is structured and how your folders are structured on your Mac, the easier it’s going to be to keep it organized. Let’s take a look at the folder structure or the folder hierarchy of a mac. Let’s go to my Mac.
Viewing Hard Drives: Now, the first we’re going to do is we’re going to go up to go to the menu bar, and what I am going to do is, I am going to go to my hard drive. I am going to click on ‘Go,’ and now I am going to go to computer. What I am going to be able to do is see all of my hard drives. Let’s go ahead and select it. And here are my hard drives.
What are my hard drives? Well, my hard drives are where my files and folders are stored. Let’s think of an office. When you’re storing papers or folders, you store them in a filing cabinet. Think of a hard drive as a filing cabinet. Now I have multiple hard drives. I have a Drobo; this is an external hard drive. That’s one filing cabinet. I also have my Macintosh HD for my new iMac, which what this computer is here. That’s another filing cabinet in my office, and then I also have my time machine another filing cabinet in my office. Think of each one of these hard drives as a separate filing cabinet. To open up any one of them, all you have to do is just double click on it. Now, let’s open up my hard drive for the mac cause this is what we’re going to focus on, the structure of our Mac. I double click on it, and these are all the files in my filing cabinet.
Applications Folder: Now, this filing cabinet has four draws. We have the first drawer as applications. These are all the different applications on our Mac. This where we want to store our applications.
Library Folder: The next one is our library. This is what Mac OS uses. We want to stay out of the library. We just let the Mac OS manage the library. The same thing with the system; we do not want to get into the system. Mac OS uses the library and the system, we do not want to get into those.
Users Folder: The bottom draw is our users folder. Now, remember how I mentioned that we could have multiple accounts? And the account that you are in is called your home folder Lets go ahead and open up the user folder. Now, the way that I am going to do this is I am going to click on the triangle so we can see how it is structured as I open these up. I click on the triangle, and you’re going to see that I have four different users along with a shared folder.
The user that I am currently logged into is my Mac OS Mojave, this my home folder. I can see that I am in my Mac OS Mojave by going to my menu bar. If I were logged in as Dan Wassink, that would be my current home folder. Now, lets back over to Mac OS Mojave. You saw this in the last video, what folders are in here. When I click on the triangle, what do you think we’re going to see? We’re going to see our applications, desktop, documents, downloads, movies, pictures, and public.
What do you think going to happen when I open up Noteboom Tutorials? What do you think we’re going to see? Well, let’s click on the triangle and find out. Click on it, let’s go on– make this a little larger by clicking on the window. If we look here, we’re going to see I have a lot of the same folders. I have my desktop, my documents, my downloads. If I go over to Dan Wassink, I have my applications; I have my desktop, my documents, and my downloads.
Restricted Folders: But if we look at this, you’re going to see I have a little red circle to the left of the name, it actually on the folder in the lower right-hand corner of the folder. This means that I do not have access to it. Each user has access to their own documents and folders, but they do not have access to other users’ documents and folders. This is why we have a shared folder, anything I want to share I’ll put into this shared folder.
Now I am going to close these. Let’s clean it up a little bit. Now we have our Macintosh HD, which is our filing cabinet. That filing cabinet has four drawers. We have our applications, our library, our system, and our users. In the users folder, we have all of our different users. In most cases, you’re just going to have one user because you’re going to have one account on your Mac.
In that user, the home folder, you will have desktop, documents, download, movies, music, pictures, and public, and we can add other folders to this. When I go and open up my documents, I am going to see my documents. I go on open up my music, am going to see my iTunes. Another way of looking at this, let’s go ahead and open up music here. I double click on it, and now when I go up to music here, I am going to be able to reverse or go back in my folder structure. What do you think we’re going to see when I command-click on music here? I have my music folder, which is in my macOS Mojave folder, which is in my users folder, which is in Macintosh HD, which is on my Mac. That’s the folder structure of our Mac.
What we want to do is, we want to keep everything in our user folder. I am going to double click on my home folder here. What we want to do is keep everything in our user or our home folder.
We do not want to access our library or our system. Any applications are going to be stored in the Applications folder. You’re going to notice that I do have two applications folder. I have an applications folder for the user, and then I also have one, let’s go up to Mac OS Mojave and command-click. I also have one for my hard drive. Anything that is in my hard drive here, these applications are accessible by all users. Anything that is in this application is only accessible by this one user, because it is in this home folder. If I put an application in this folder, when I log in as Dan Wassink, I will not have access to any applications here. We can control access to applications by placing them in the applications folder within our user folder or within our hard drive.
That’s the folder structure of the folder hierarchy of our Mac.