Owning a Mac might just be one of life’s greatest pleasures; that’s why Apple’s Mac enjoys a 9.45% PC market share as of December 2020.
Most people who end up purchasing a Mac have little to complain about because the Mac is a marvel of modern technology. That’s because Macs boast seamless performance, incredible versatility, and unmatched usability.
For the Mac beginner, using the Mac initially might be a tad intimidating. However, all you need are the right Mac tutorial for beginners to put you up to speed. That way, you can get the full Mac experience without having to break a glass or two in rage.
In this post, we’ll be highlighting a couple of tips and tricks every Mac beginner should know. Regardless of whether you’re completely new to Mac or upgraded to a newer model, this article is for you.
- Right-Clicking on the Mac
If you’ve moved from a Windows PC to a Mac, even doing simple things like right-clicking could be a challenge. Unlike Windows PCs, Mac’s mice don’t have a secondary clicker, which makes right-clicking difficult. So what do you do when you want to get to your contextual menus?
There are plenty of ways to do so, and here are a few:
- Click with your thumb while two fingers make contact with the trackpad
- Click the trackpad with two fingers
- Hold down the control button and click the trackpad
- Lastly, you can assign the bottom-left corner of the trackpad to be the right-click button, but that’s not the best way for beginners
You can pick the easiest one from the above or the one you find most comfortable. You can assign the bottom left corner of the trackpad as the right clicker, but this might take a while.
- Sign in to iCloud
The Apple ecosystem is nothing short of incredible, especially since you can sync all your documents, music, movies, and much more on iCloud.
To use iCloud, you first need an Apple account that you then use to create your iCloud account. You can use the iCloud account to sync all your movies, music, and many more from your other Apple devices.
- Set up the Calendar and Email
You already have a working email, so it makes no sense why you need to set up the email again.
While there are plenty of third-party email apps at your disposal, it would be best to stick to the ones pre-installed on your Mac. The reason being some third-party email apps are just hounding around for your data, so to be on the safe side, set up your email on the Apple app, and don’t forget the calendar too.
- Create Automatic Backups for Your Mac
It would be more than unpleasant if you lost all the data in your Mac because of a hardware failure or malware. Of course, you can always backup your data on iCloud, but it wouldn’t hurt to back up your data on the Mac too. The easiest way to do so is by using Time Machine.
Time Machine is a built-in backup feature for Mac, which automatically backs up your personal data. This includes everything from photos, music, videos, and documents. With Time Machine, you can choose to backup your data on an external disk, a Network-Attached-Storage device that’s compatible with Time Machine, or on the Mac itself.
You can always choose other third-party backup services, but we highly recommend using Time Machine. This is especially true for beginners.
- Use iCloud Keychain
We’ve already talked about iCloud at length, but have you heard about iCloud Keychain? iCloud Keychain is Apple’s official password manager. If you own an iPhone, iPad, and a Mac, you can store all your passwords on iCloud Keychain.
The app can also store details to your wifi, so you don’t have to log on to your wifi again when you use your Mac. If you connected to wifi via your phone, then your Mac will automatically do the same. Plus, if you ever forget one of your passwords, iCloud Keychain will have you covered.
- Screenshotting on Your Mac
If you’re wondering how to screenshot on a Mac, you’ll be glad to know that there are a couple of ways to do so. Here are a few ways to do so.
Press command-shift-3. Doing so takes a screenshot of your entire screen.
Pressing shift, command, and 4 turns your mouse cursor into a crosshair. You can then click and drag this crosshair to select which area of your screen you want to capture. Once you release the trackpad, the Mac takes the screenshot.
If you use the shift-command-4 option, you can also:
- Press spacebar once to turn the crosshair into a camera and screenshot whatever window you want
- Hold the spacebar button to let you reposition the area you want to screenshot
These are just a few ways to take screenshots on your Mac. If you need to trim off some parts, you should consider downloading a Mac or MacBook Snipping tool. You can click on this link https://setapp.com/how-to/snipping-tool-for-mac to find out how to use snipping tools on Mac.
- Download Some Apps for Your MacBook
You need to download a bunch of Apple MacBook applications to get the most out of your new Mac. All you have to do is access the Mac Apple Store and take your pic. In there, you can find the best apps for Mac and even some apps that you had on your previous Windows PC.
You’ll have to pay for most of the apps, but you can still find some good apps for free. Make sure you check the reviews first before downloading any app.
Use This Mac Tutorial for Beginners
With the above Mac tutorial for beginners, getting the hang of your Mac will be a breeze. Remember, you can never learn enough about your Mac, so keep on exploring. Don’t forget to download a couple of apps for your Mac to get the full Mac experience.
For more informative reads, be sure to check out the other pieces on the site.
