Course material - e-booklet

Mac essentials

applecoursesonline.com
This booklet goes through the main
parts from “The Ultimate Mac
course”
“Print this booklet and have it easily accessible. That way you’ll learn
faster and learn how to use your Mac properly!”
- Henrik Ruud, technology teacher and founder


 Understand the basics of the Mac -
must knows:
The Dock, Desktop and Menu bar:

The Dock
The Dock is a shortcut to all your favourite Apps, Files and Folders. You
should customize the Dock to fit your usage.

Quitting Apps properly

Every App with a tiny dot is active. You should not hide, but quit all apps as
quickly as you can when you’re not using them

NB! Finder is ”The Heart of the Mac” and can’t be quit.

The Desktop
Is a nice picture, but also a folder. It’s nice to
think about the desktop as a temporary place
to put files and folders, but they should not
stay there forever as it makes your Mac messy
and slow.

The Secondary click

Try to this on the desktop and click “Change
Desktop Background”
The Secondary click is the equivalent of a
right click on a PC and gives you more
options.

! [email protected]
The Menu bar
Consisting of a left and a right side, the Menu Bar gives you several
different options, teaches you keyboard shortcuts and gives you access to
the help menu where you can search for help.



The Menu bar is extremely useful
and gives you access to
preferences in different Apps and
services.

PS! The Menu Bar changes based

on what App you’re in

PPS! There is a big difference

between preferences in an App
and System Preferences

Search for items of full text

searches. Try it yourself!

The Apple Icon  in the top-left

corner gives you access to
important things. Check it out,
and don’t remember to turn your
Mac on and off once a week to
give it a proper break!
Finder
- the heart of the Mac

Facts about the Finder:

• Every file, app and setting can be found in Finder
• It is extremely complex, but also simple and fun
• It can’t be quit

You should know how to use Finder properly to

understand how your Mac works. Try to do the
following:
• Create a folder
• Move files to the folder
• Remove files from the folder
• Rename a file
• Search for a file
• Go to settings
Apps
- installing, uninstalling,
updating and recommended

Installing Apps is preferably done through the App Store.

If not, make sure you trust the developer so you’re not attacked by a virus.

Uninstalling Apps can be tricky

When installed from outside the App Store, you might struggle to remove
every bit of an app - see how to remove apps properly with “AppTrap”:

Updating Apps should be done as often as possible

This can be done through App Store or might be done in the app itself.

Recommended Apps
See list below.

 4

Updating your Mac

NB! Remember there are different types of updates.
Some small and some big. Some more important than others.

The types of updates and their importance:

1. Big updates like macOS Sierra (10.12) and macOS High-Sierra (10.13) are
completely different from
2. minor updates like macOS Sierra version 10.12.1 to
version 10.12.2.

Type #1 is a lot more important as it’s a completely

new operating system.

Having updated software provides a high degree of protection to virus attacks.

This is especially true of the bigger macOS system updates. Most of the available
updates for your Mac are in the App Store except, for example, Java, Flash, and
some others). When updates are available App Store icon will be displayed with a
red notification dot - like illustrated above.

To have a stable machine it is important to have all programs

updated. This is how you update:
1. Go to the App Store
2. Click Updates in the top bar
3. Then click Update All

Protip: You can have AppStore automatically update Apps:

1. Open System Preferences and
go to “App Store”
2. Click on the App Store and
check as below.

NB! This can cause problems in special

cases, so be aware of this before
activating this feature.
Installing and using AppTrap
Download here: http://onnati.net/apptrap/

1. Download the app from the AppTrap website, then open it from
your chosen destination for downloads. This will open the app in your System
Preferences, but before doing so will ask which accounts you want it loaded
on – only yours or all the accounts on the computer. You will then be asked for
an administrator name and password to completely install it.


2. At this point you may be asked to install an update. If there is one available, it
should be downloaded to make sure it’s up to date with your current OS
version. Click the box in the pop-up that says, “Start automatically on login.”
This will make AppTrap start up and run behind the scenes so that you never
have to do anything after this initial startup. It will also say that the app is
“Inactive”. Click the radio button to start the app and change it to “Active”.
You won’t need to do this again unless you have a need to turn it off at some
point.
3. 3. If you stay in this same pop-up, but click on the “About” tab, it will give you
a list of instructions on how to install and uninstall AppTrap. Ironically, you
have to go though a few more steps to uninstall this app, but this is because
it’s an app running in the background. Remember that you’ll have to do this
for all apps that run in the background.
Using AppTrap
1. To delete an app, you won’t be able to do it from the LaunchPad; you will have
to do it from the regular file menu. Open the apps folder and find the app you
want to delete (usually in the Applications folder). Drag it to the Trash.
2. AppTrap will display a pop-up asking you if you want to delete the associated
system files as well. If you click the small arrow on the bottom left, it will show
you a listing of all the system files that are associated with the file you just
dragged into the trash. If you want all of them gone, click “Move files,”
otherwise click “Leave files.”
3. Unless you delete the files permanently, everything is still on your hard drive
until you empty the Trash. Pull up on “Empty the Trash” in the File menu and
the items you just threw in the trash, along with all other files that were sitting
in the trash can from earlier, are now deleted.

Recommended Apps
AppTrap

Memory Cleaner

Disk Cleaner

Dropbox


 Avast Antivirus

Moom

Flux

MacKeeper is highly unrecommended

Hola is highly unrecommended

 Efficiency
In this part we’ll go through:

The trackpad and gestures

Hot corners
Mission Control & Spaces
Spotlight search

Keyboard shortcuts

You need to know these
⌘+C Copy Text
⌘+V Paste
⌘+A Select all
⌘+X Cut
⌘+S Save

⌘+B Bold Text

⌘+I Italic Text
⌘+U Underline Text

⌘+F Find / Search in any document, folder

etc.
⌘+O Open file
⌘+P Print document 


Screenshot on the Mac

Screenshot the whole screen Screenshot a selected portion

⌘
+ ⇧ + 3 + ⇧ + 4
cmd cmd ⌘

All screenshots are placed on your desktop on Click, hold, drag and let go to take
your Mac. screenshot of a selected area.
Efficiency Mission Control & Spaces
Take control over programs and windows
"At work I’ll have many programs and hundreds of windows open at the same time.
Mission Control gives you a birds eye view over all of your open windows."
- Martin Fossedal, Head of Communications

With Mission Control you have an overview over all of the apps and windows you are
currently using. To open Mission Control, push F3 or Mission Control in the Dock.



OR





All open programs and windows are displayed and organized.

By pressing F3 you’ll also see a row of desktops (depending on how many are in use) on
the top part of the screen. These are called Spaces.





Drag one of the open applications to the top of the screen, and you’ll make a new Space

(Desktop) with the application in fullscreen.

Press F3 and jump between desktops and important fullscreen applications.

This is an effective tool to get clear overview of your Mac, and allows you to work more

efficiently.

Split view

If an application is already in fullscreen, you can press F3, drag another application onto

that same space to activate Split View. This allows you to have two fullscreen

applications running side by side.


Gestures
- Use your Trackpad for everything it’s worth.
The area you use to control the mouse pointer is the Trackpad. It has tons of functions
that not everyone knows about. You can personalize the Trackpad in many ways with
gestures that make it easier to navigate on your Mac.

You can find the setting for the Trackpad by going into Settings - Trackpad - More
Gestures.

1. Mission Control
If you check Mission Control in this window,
you can activate Mission Control at any time
by swiping four fingers upwards. This can be
a faster alternative than pressing F3.

2. Program-Exposé
Program Exposé is a smart function that
displays all of the windows within the
application that you are currently using. It
can be activated with the Trackpad by swiping downwards with four fingers.

3. Zoom in and out

If you’re reading a news article and the text is too small, you can easily pinch with two
fingers to zoom in and out like you would on a smartphone. This can be done with
photos and most application.

4. Swiping between pages and fullscreen apps


You can easily swipe between pages in your web browser and Spaces. In Safari,
you can scroll left or right with two fingers. If you scroll left or right with four
fingers, you’ll swipe between fullscreen applications and Spaces.
Hot Corners
- Use the corners for something efficient!

Hot Corners is a great way to speed up productivity on your Mac. By applying certain
functions to your display’s four corners, you can easily get to your desktop, notification
center or Mission Control. When Hot Corners is activated, you simply drag your mouse to
any of the four corners.


To activate and assign your corners, follow these instructions:


1. Open System Preferences

2. Click Mission Control
3. Click Hot Corners in the bottom-left corner on the window
4. A new window will pop up with four drop down menus, assigned to different corners
5. Click OK


These are the different functions:

• Mission Control – open Mission Control
• Programvinduer – view all open windows of a program
• Desktop – takes you directly to the desktop
• Dashbord – takes you directly to the Dashboard
• Notification Center: opens the Notification Center on the right side of the 

Spotlight search
- A magical search engine filled with secrets

Spotlight is the Mac’s great desktop search utility. You can open programs, find files and
do pretty much anything with this powerful search engine. You can open Spotlight with
CMD + Spacebar, or by clicking on the magnifying glass in the top-right corner. 


1. Calculator
No point in opening the Calculator application when you can just type out numerical
tasks into Spotlight. Spotlight will solve the equations right away.. Example:
12*13*14*15+(13/2)

2. Units of mass
Not all countries follow the metric system. Luckily, Apple has a simple solution that
makes it easy to convert units of mass. Just type any measurement and Spotlight will
show you several units. Example: 10 kg

3. Distance
Wonder how far you just ran? Or perhaps you’d like to convert a measurement to one of
our metric system following friends so you’re on the same wavelength? Spotlight has
your back. Example: 5 miles

4. Temperature
Wonder how hot it actually is in Texas? Get an answer from Spotlight! Example: 102 f

5. Currency
Ordering something from a Norwegian online store and you’re unsure what the exchange
rate is at? Spotlight stays updated.. Example: 340 NOK
Photos
Organize your photos better to get more out of
them

1. Use iCloud

Your iCloud settings should look like this:

… depending on your usage of course.

Learn more about this in our Photos course here:

http://applecoursesonline.com/ultimate-photos-course/

NB! Remember iCloud is not a full backup of any of your content.

You should always backup to an external hard drive, preferably done through the
Time Machine function on the Mac. 

Use the Sidebar in Photos on the Mac

The sidebar makes it much easier to navigate and use Photos. Go to the menu
bar and Show Sidebar.

Learn more about this and much more in our

premium Photos course:

http://applecoursesonline.com/ultimate-photos-
course/

Have your images all over your Mac
- Photos should be the being the boss

Not using Photos as the boss creates many problems. First, you’ll have a hard
time knowing where your photos are. Secondly, it becomes more difficult to
make backups and you won’t be able to use iCloud.

❌ ✅

❌ ✅

✅



❌ ❌ & other cloud services are partial

backups, but not complete

Having all images

in Photos =
BETTER!
Back up your photos properly
Backup to an external hard drive via Time Machine
Remember! iCloud or Dropbox is not a complete backup of your Mac.
1. Connect an external hard drive or Time Capsule to your Mac
2. Open System Preferences
3. Click Time Machine
4. Select Backup Disk
5. Choose your external hard drive
NB! Make sure the hard drive is formatted correctly.

Structure your Photos in albums ONE library

This is a pretty complex one - but the essence is:
• To have total control over your images and videos (and to keep them
organized) it is critical that you gather them all into one library.
• As states above, fragmented images are not recommended, so once you’ve
imported everything into Photos, sort out everything with albums and events.
• Try to import everything into Photos and create albums and folders from
there.

Take the time to get total control over your images, and what
happened after iPhoto
People often don’t take the time to sit down and
do all this. Especially after iPhoto was
discontinued. Thousands of images takes time, so
sit down for a weekend and do the work. It pays of.

iCloud
The illustration used in the course: http://applecoursesonline.com/course/
icloud-course/



Security
Viruses on the Mac and how to backup
your Mac

The 3 types of viruses:

1. MalWare
Malicious files that control your computer without you knowing it. This usually
leads to a slower machine.
2. AdWare
Viruses in the form of advertising on web pages. This causes the browser to open
undesired windows uncontrollably. The number of unwanted windows will
increase over time and eventually it will be impossible to use the browser.
3. Spyware
Makes files on your machine available to hackers and other actors on the internet,
even if you do not want it yourself.

How to protect yourself

1. Turn on the native firewall in Mac OS X

Here's how to turn on the firewall:
1. Open System Preferences and access the Security and Privacy
tab
2. Click Firewall
3. Click the padlock at the bottom left of System Preferences and enter the
password of an administrator user on your machine to allow changes
4. Turn on firewall
2. Update your Mac
NB! Remember there are different types of updates.
Some are small, some are big, and some are more
important than others.

There is a huge difference between a big and a small update.

1. Big updates like macOS Sierra (10.12) and macOS High-Sierra (10.13) are
completely different from
2. minor updates like macOS Sierra version 10.12.1 to version 10.12.2.

To have a stable machine it is important to have all programs updated.

1. Go to the App Store
2. Click Updates in the top bar
3. Then click Update All

This option automatically updates the required software.

3. Install an antivirus App

We recommend Avast, Bitdefender og Intego.

Backing up your Mac

Backup to an external hard drive via Time Machine

Remember! iCloud or Dropbox is not a complete backup of your Mac.

1. Connect an external hard drive or Time Capsule to your Mac

2. Open System Preferences
3. Click Time Machine
4. Select Backup Disk
5. Choose your external hard drive

NB! Make sure the hard drive is formatted correctly.


Other things to remember
1. Quit apps regularly
2. Turn your Mac on and off every week
3. Have at least 10GB or 10% free hard drive space
4. Update your apps at least once a month and make sure
you have the newest operating system
5. Backup to an external hard drive via Time Machine
6. Empty the trash

1. Quit your apps regularly

You have two alternatives: Right-click on the app in the Dock and hit
“Quit”.
Or use the shortcut CMD + Q.

Download our e-book with keyboard shortcuts here:

OPSOPS LINK

2. Turn your Mac on and off every week

1. Click the Apple icon in the top-left corner.

2. Shut Down…
3. Wait for it to shut down
4. Wait about 5 seconds
5. Turn it back on and log in
3. Have at least 10GB or 10% free hard drive space

To see how much space you have, do this:

1. Click the  in the top-left corner
2. Click “About this Mac”
3. Click “Storage”
4. See how much space you have left and feel free to analyze the rest of
the disk space

If “System” or “Other” is taking up a lot of space, this might indicate that you
have unnecessary files or that your system is corrupted. It could also be files like
backup files and mail containers.

If you’re struggling with disk space and would like to learn how to clean your Mac
properly, check out our premium course “Clean and speed up your Mac”. We’ll
teach you how to do it in no time.

Clean and speed up your Mac can be found here: http://applecoursesonline.com/

course/clean-tidy-mac/
4. Update your apps at least once a month and make sure
you have the newest operating system

You do not have to update everything all the time and be

first in line, but updating your operating system and apps
will protect you from viruses and bugs. In addition, it often
improves performance, gives you more features etc.

NB! Remember there are different types of updates.

Some are small, some are big, and some are more important than others.

The type of updates and their importance:

Big updates like macOS Sierra (10.12) and macOS High-Sierra (10.13) are
completely different from minor updates like macOS Sierra version 10.12.1 to
version 10.12.2.

Type #1 is a lot more important as it’s a completely new operating system.

This is how you update:

1. Go to the App Store
2. Click Updates in the top bar
3. Then click Update All



5. Backup to an external hard drive via Time Machine
Remember! iCloud or Dropbox is not a complete backup of your Mac.
1. Connect an external hard drive or Time Capsule to your Mac
2. Open System Preferences
3. Click Time Machine
4. Select Backup Disk
5. Choose your external hard drive
NB! Make sure the hard drive is formatted correctly.

6. Empty your trash

The trash is often full of unnecessary files that take up
space. Remember to empty it regularly.

There are many ways to empty the trash. This is the

most common:

Bonus tip from Henrik!

Don’t forget to do the following:
1. Change passwords regularly

On the Mac and other accounts

2. Empty the trash

3. Remove duplicates
4. Clean the Mac (see our course on this topic)
5. Tidy their Desktop for files and folders