Welcome to the ship of the Apple ecosystem. New to Macs? You have come to the right place. Here, I will share all the basic things you need to know as a new Mac user. Ensure you know all the important basics of Macs before you start to use. Also, don’t forget to read the hottest and latest MacBook rumours of 2019 so you stay ahead of the latest trends and happenings of Apple.
I have been a Mac user for many years now and I like sharing my knowledge with new Mac users around the world.
In this article, I have compiled a list of the things every MacBook owner should know.
What are those things?
Let’s get into it.
- Always Back Up Your MacBook
Well, of course, I know what comes to your mind when you hear about data backup on MacBook is in iCloud. And you are not wrong. But to keep your data safe, you must set up back up for your Mac to other devices. The method to back up your Mac is using Time Machine. This ensures your data is backed up as you continue storing it in your MacBook.
- Macs do Not Need Defragmentation
Some of the troubleshooting done on PCs when it starts to load slowly is defragmentation of the hard drive, emptying the recycle bin and running the disk cleanup utility. With a MacBook, you do not need to worry about defragmenting the hard drive. The system does it automatically for you.
A Mac is designed in a way that it fixes things up on its own. For instance, when you are working on a heavily defragmented file the file system does the defragmentation already. It sometimes does this while it is idle, especially if you let the laptop on during the night.
- Create an iCloud Account
One of the greatest things of using a MacBook is that you can sign into iCloud and back up your photos, documents, files, music and more. You can then access your data anywhere at any time when you need it. So, ensure you create an iCloud account using the Apple ID.
- Create iTunes Account
We all love music and entertainment. When you have a MacBook, you get to enjoy the benefits of storing all your music, TV shows and more to iTunes. What you need to do once you get your new MacBook is to create an iTunes account. Usually, a new Mac comes with iTunes installed, but if yours doesn’t have it, you can manually download it from the official Apple website and install it in your Mac. When you have the iTunes App in your Mac, you can then download music from iTunes.
- Some Basic Keyboard Shortcuts
Time is money and everyone wants to save it. We hope you too; will not want to waste a lot of time while working on your Mac computer. Using keyboard shortcuts is the best way to save time.
Here are a few
Command + D– Duplicates the active item
Command + F– Find a particular file or document
Command + H– Hide an application
Command + K- Connect to server
Command + Shift +N- Creates a new folder
Command +Del- Deletes the selected item
Command + N- Opens up a new Finder window
These are just a few but there are many Mac keyboard shortcuts which you need to get familiar with.
- Know Spotlight
Find things in your Mac or on the Web has been made easier by use of Spotlight. Actually, it’s a program you can use to find directions using Maps and find utilities in your Mac. To use the Spotlight program, you click on the search icon located on the screen of your Mac and enter a word to start searching. The spotlight will then comb through a hip of files, documents, and folders and find your searched content. Spotlight also looks on the web. It’s a kind of a sniffer dog.
- System Profiler
When using a Windows XP computer, you can get anything about your computer by going to the Device Manager. With Macs, the System Profiler helps you to find out anything about the device. You can access it via Apple > About This Mac > More Info.