New Theme
I’ve released the macintoshhowto theme to wordpress for others to use. You can check it out on wordpress.org here.
Can I zoom the MacBook Pro camera in a Zoom meeting?
Sometimes when I’m in a Zoom meeting I am a little far from my camera and wish that I could zoom in closer to my face without having to move the computer. I haven’t found a way to zoom or pan the built-in MacBook camera when you are using it as a camera in the…
How to sync your iPad without using your iCloud data
If you are on a free iCloud plan, you may be looking to save space. I found that my iPad backup took 2 GB of iCloud space that I didn’t want to waste. Thankfully it’s possible to back up your iPad directly to your laptop without using iCloud. You can do it directly in the…
New Mac won’t boot into safe mode!
I was trying to boot my 2021 MacBook Pro into safe mode. (This is like a checkup that can fix some minor issues). For years the way to boot into safe mode was to hold down the shift key while the computer starts up. This has changed with the newer silicon Macs. Here’s the new…
How to merge 2 pdf docs in Ventura
Here’s how to merge 2 PDF files in MacOS Ventura. You don’t need any extra software, it’s built right in to Preview as in previous versions of macOS.
How to find the large files in your photo library.
My Apple photo library was way bigger than it should be. It turned out I had some very large videos in it. There’s no way of arranging your photos by size from within the Apple photos app. There is a way to browse these files outside of Apple Photos and arrange them by size. Here’s…
How to spot a fake website
Spam emails can be so convincing. How to you know if the link to a website is real or fake? Here is a short video showing the main difference between a real and fake website is the URL. You cannot rely on the logo or how real the website looks.
How to add a new file to a folder in OSX with a right click.
If you right click (option click) in the finder there’s a contextual menu that gives you some options. Here’s how to add an option under ‘Quick Actions’ to make a new text file.
How to extract an image from a Pages document
Installing Home Assistant on a raspberry pi from a Mac
I recently purchases a Raspberry Pi 4 to run Home Assistant. It’s an open source home automation solution. All the instructions are here: https://www.home-assistant.io/installation/raspberrypi It worked fine doing it from a Mac. The process was exactly as described.
How to fix your stained MacBook screen
The MacBooks from the 2015 era have a design fault where the anti-glare coating rubs off, leaving a very messy display. It’s most obvious when the screen is dim. It look terrible! Flaky. Dinted. Stained. Scratched. The glass screen is actually still in tact. It’s just the anti-glare coating that has rubbed off.
I would not recommend Freelancer.
I quite like the theme here at macintoshhowto.com. Last year I decided to make the theme of available as a free theme for any other websites to use. I went to freelancer.com and I paid for my theme to be updated so as to allow me to offer it for free at wordpress.org. It’s now…
Why can’t I drag a contact into a group in Apple address book?
In Apple Contacts you can drag any contact into a group to add them to that group. Sometimes dragging the contact into a group does not work. The way to fix this is to quit Apple Contacts and re-open it and the problem should be resolved.
Help – my pdf file is printing a blank page.
If you get a protected pdf file, it’s possible that ‘printing’ is turned off. If you try to print this page the printer will print our a blank page with no error! If you have the password to the document you can turn printing back on. This can happen if a bank or other institution…
Integrating Google Drive into OSX
The normal way to access your Google drive is to go into your browser, login to Google, then browse the files. Thus is a bit clunky. Thanks to a macOS app from Google, you can incorporate Google drive directly into the Finder to make it easy to access. Here’s how.
How to fix the iTunes podcast login problem
I was locked out of my Apple podcast creator account. It was an endless loop of entering name and password, then entering verification code, then back to name and password. At times I could catch a glimpse of my personal information, so it was logging me in, but the page was then disappearing and throwing…
Dropbox Update 2022
Some changes in the latest release of dropbox have created a lot of noise in the forums. The summary is that Apple have made some changes in their macOS that gives less flexibility to how Dropbox can operate, and Dropbox have made changes accordingly.
Which iPod has the best quality audio?
This article discusses the reasons for the difference in quality of the sound output of the various models of Apple iPod.
How to get a free Apple TV+ Subscription
Apple sometimes offer a free 3 month or 1 year Apple TV+ subscription when you buy a new device (phone or computer). Here’s the catch, it’s only available once in your lifetime per family. I was on support with Apple today and they confirmed this. If one family member uses the free subscription, it doesn’t…
How to get a DUNS number from Australia
Our Church is developing a phone app and as part of the process we needed to get a DUNS number. We were taken to a site called “dun&bradstreet” but there was no place to get a DUNS number if you are not from the USA or Canada. Do you need a DUNS number? Chances are,…
How to edit the name of a WhatsApp contact in OSX
You can’t directly edit the details of a contact in the WhatsApp application. You need to make any changes in your ‘Contacts’ app on OSX and Whatsapp automatically syncs any changes that are made. But sometimes it takes a while to sync across. To speed it up you can change the contact details on your…