Use This Hidden Setting to Stop Triggering Caps Lock Accidentally

There’s little more annoying than accidentally touching the Caps Lock key while typing and having your text suddenly TURN INTO CAPITAL LETTERS, which we all know is seen as shouting. Unless you have some reason to type in capital letters regularly, you can prevent this mistake by disabling the Caps Lock key or remapping [...]

By |2023-12-18T14:09:26-04:00June 25th, 2024|Mac Tips|Comments Off on Use This Hidden Setting to Stop Triggering Caps Lock Accidentally

Keep a USB Keyboard and Mouse for Troubleshooting

Steve Jobs famously railed against cable clutter, and it’s now easy to use a desktop Mac with a wireless keyboard and mouse, either from Apple or another manufacturer. That’s fine for regular usage, but Bluetooth keyboards and mice aren’t always sufficient. Batteries wear out, pairing can fail, and wireless interference can cause lags or [...]

By |2023-12-18T13:57:24-04:00April 2nd, 2024|Mac Tips|Comments Off on Keep a USB Keyboard and Mouse for Troubleshooting

Clean Up Your Mac’s Desktop with Sort Options

When we help someone with their Mac for the first time, we often notice that their desktop is a disaster. Icons are scattered willy-nilly and often piled on top of one another, making it hard to locate anything. For most people, the solution is easy—sort the contents of the desktop. In the Finder, choose [...]

By |2023-08-04T11:13:47-04:00November 28th, 2023|Mac Tips|Comments Off on Clean Up Your Mac’s Desktop with Sort Options

Reveal Your Desktop Quickly with a Keyboard Shortcut

The Mac’s Desktop is a remarkably useful place. It’s a good spot for in-progress documents, screenshots, images dragged out of Web pages, and more. However, app windows tend to obscure the Desktop, making it harder to use. There are two quick ways you can temporarily hide windows, making it easy to access icons on [...]

By |2023-04-04T11:09:38-04:00May 16th, 2023|Mac Tips|Comments Off on Reveal Your Desktop Quickly with a Keyboard Shortcut

Block Malicious and Adult Web Sites with DNS Filtering

One of the best ways to keep malware from infecting your computers is to avoid visiting websites designed to do just that. No one intentionally visits loadmetogetinfected.com, but malware authors employ all sorts of tricks to lure unsuspecting users into viewing malicious sites. Various tools can help, but the easiest free technique is called [...]

By |2022-05-04T17:12:36-04:00June 3rd, 2022|iOS Tips, Mac Tips|Comments Off on Block Malicious and Adult Web Sites with DNS Filtering

Put Files in the Mac’s Trash Using the Keyboard

You know that you can drag files or folders to the Trash icon in the Dock for later deletion. And you probably know that you can select multiple items on the Desktop or in a Finder window by Command-clicking each one in turn (Shift-click to select a sequential range of items in a list [...]

By |2022-05-04T17:06:50-04:00May 24th, 2022|Mac Tips|Comments Off on Put Files in the Mac’s Trash Using the Keyboard

Copy and Paste Like a Pro with a Clipboard Utility

For our money, perhaps the most unheralded innovation of the computer age is Copy and Paste. No one thinks about the clipboard—that virtual shelf where copied text and images sit—because it just works. We all use Command-C to copy something and Command-V to paste it without having to retype the text, reimport the graphic, [...]

By |2022-05-04T17:05:19-04:00May 20th, 2022|Mac Tips|Comments Off on Copy and Paste Like a Pro with a Clipboard Utility

Beware the Bulging Battery! (And What to Do If Yours Expands)

We’ve been seeing a spate of bulging batteries of late, both in Mac laptops and iPhones. A bulging battery is a Very Bad Thing and must be dealt with immediately because it could catch fire or even explode. As lithium-ion batteries age, the chemical reactions that produce power no longer complete fully, resulting in [...]

By |2021-10-03T12:29:46-04:00November 12th, 2021|iOS Tips, Mac Tips|Comments Off on Beware the Bulging Battery! (And What to Do If Yours Expands)

Two Important Tips for External Storage Devices

It’s tempting to think that most external storage devices—whether simple hard drives or more complicated network-attached storage (NAS) units—are relatively similar because they all do roughly the same thing. However, a recent problem with older Western Digital My Book Live NAS devices highlighted that there can be large differences. In that case, hackers figured [...]

By |2021-07-06T11:37:25-04:00August 3rd, 2021|Mac Tips|Comments Off on Two Important Tips for External Storage Devices

Two Tricks for Fixing a Mac That’s Restarting Unexpectedly

Although extremely uncommon, it’s not unheard of for a Mac, particularly an older model, to restart unexpectedly. If it happens once, chalk it up to cosmic rays and move on. But if it happens multiple times, try these two things right off. First, use compressed air to remove dust from cooling vents or the [...]

By |2021-06-07T12:07:01-04:00July 13th, 2021|Mac Tips|Comments Off on Two Tricks for Fixing a Mac That’s Restarting Unexpectedly
Go to Top