​Just yesterday I was working on an email that had different formatting in different places (due to some copying and pasting I was doing). 

But I wanted it to have the same formatting throughout.  So how could I copy the formatting from one area of text to another?

Find out how this can be easily achieved on your Mac in this hand hint for iTandCoffee Club members.  (If you are not yet a member, find out more about the iTandCoffee Club here »)

• How to copy formatting from one area of text to another on a Mac

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If you see the login screen after clicking the above link, but do not yet have an iTandCoffee Club login, find out how you can Join The Club here for all sorts of great tips like this.

Why not come along to an iTandCoffee Class to learn about your Mac

iTandCoffee regularly runs the Getting to Know your Mac series of classes - focused on those who are new to (or relatively new to) the Mac computer, and those who want do more than just the very basics with their Mac.

Related Mac handy hints (for iTandCoffee Club members only)

• Some keyboard shortcuts I use frequently on my Mac
• Some more great Mac Keyboard Shortcuts
• Finding those hidden symbols on your Mac keyboard
• Finding the Emoji keyboard on your Mac
  

Blog Articles (no membership required)

• How to type the cent symbol on your Mac
• How to type the 'Apple' symbol on your iPad or iPhone  
• A new lot of Keyboard Shortcuts for your Mac
• How to copy text formatting from one area of text to another on a Mac
• Ever wonder where the Home and End buttons are on a Mac? Wonder no more…
• Finding those missing symbols on your Mac keyboard
• Have you discovered the wonderful 'Undo' function on your Mac?
• Do you have 'right-click' enabled on your Mac?
• I have just discovered my new favourite Mac keyboard shortcuts!
• How to get back those Typing Shortcuts when they disappear from your Mac

Many Mac users that we see at iTandCoffee have a Dock that is full of apps that they don't use.  

The Dock is supposed to just show your 'favourite' apps - those that you will be using on a regular basis.

It is easy to customise your Dock to include the apps that you want to see, and exclude those that you don't.  

​Excluded Apps are not removed from your Dock.  They are still accessible from your Launchpad (or from the Applications folder in Finder). 

Here's a quick video showing how easy it is to put new apps in your Mac Dock, and how to take out any that you don't want to keep there.

iTandCoffee has a great set of user guides that will help you to get to know, and to get more from your Mac.  They are available as PDF downloads, or in hardcopy.  Find out more about these guides here »

Also available on the iTandCoffee website are videos of out 'Getting to know your Mac' classes and the 'Photos on the Mac' classes - for those who want to learn more about their Mac, but can't get to us in Glen Iris (or prefer to learn from home).  Find out more about these videos here »

This week, we have included a section from one of our user guides, providing lots of great tips about using the Mail app on the Mac.  

This set of tips is for members the iTandCoffee Club - below is what we cover.  (Not a member?  Find out more about The Club here.)

• View or hide the 'mailbox' list
• Understanding 'conversations' and how to stop email grouping
• 'Send Again' - a handy way of sending the same email more than once
• Different ways of sharing web page via email (as a link, PDF, or page)
• Organising mail into folders
• Setting up a mail 'signature
• Working with multiple messages - when deleting, moving, etc
• Searching your emails
• How to ensure your email contacts are in your Contacts
• Emailing a 'group' of recipients
• Setting up mailboxes that are based on rules
• and more.

We also have a long list of other tips that we have published about Mail.  Here are just some.

When you want to sent a hyperlink to a web page as part of an email, it is nice to be able to put some text like "Click here to view the article" instead of what might be a very long-winded URL (i.e. the address of the web page).

Let me explain what mean.  As an example, I have an link to a web page that has an interesting article about Women in Technology, and I want to send this article to a friend.

I could just copy and paste the following link into the email.

https://timeline.com/women-pioneered-computer-programming-then-men-took-their-industry-over-c2959b822523?gi=e05845aed6d7.

Alternatively, I can type the "Here is a good article about women in technology" and add a link behind the text so that it looks like this

Here is how to add the link to text in the email.

A visitor to iTandCoffee last week had been finding herself very frustrated in using the Photos App on her MacBook.  

In particular, when making a Photo Book, she had been struggling with scrolling up and down through her photos, and through various other 'lists'.  

She was using the 'scroll bar' to scroll - dragging the bar up and down, but finding it frustrating that this bar constantly disappeared or was not visible at all.

She was THRILLED to find out that there is a MUCH easier way to scroll up and down on her MacBook.

Simply slide TWO FINGERS up and down on the trackpad to scroll.  See the video below which demonstrates this gesture.

By default, the Dock appears across the bottom of the screen – but you have control over where it appears – it can appear at the left or right side as well.

Whenever an app is currently running, it will appear in the Dock.  Whether it stays in the Dock or not when you 'Quit' that app is up to you.

Find how to make Apps appear in the Dock, or disappear from the Dock in this week's iTandCoffee Club Handy Hint for Mac users.  (Note yet a member?  Find out about The iTandCoffee Club here ›)

Over the holiday break, I finally took some time to attempt to tidy up my Photos library, which is currently sitting at around 28,000 videos and photos.

When doing a clean out, the first area I look at is my Videos album - and get rid of anything that I don't need to keep.

But another area that can contain a large amount of wasted storage is the Bursts album - showing the sets of photos that were taken on your iPad or iPhone by holding down (instead of tapping) the white button in the Camera app.

By simply clearing out all the additional photos hidden by these bursts, I managed to claw back about 1GB of storage!

If you are not sure how to sort out all these hidden space wasters in Bursts, check out these members-only Handy Hints for iTandCoffee Club members:

• Clearing out Bursts of Photos that are not needed on the iPhone and iPad
• Cleaning out Bursts of Photos on your Mac

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Not yet a member of the iTandCoffee Club?  Find out more here ›

After update to MacOS Sierra on my iMac, I was really disappointed to find that my very long list of text replacements (or typing shortcuts) that I have built up over many years had DISAPPEARED!

I do so love my text replacements, which normally sync across all my devices via iCloud.  

For example, when I type litc, lynette@itandcoffee.com.au replaces this code - saving a lot of typing!

It seemed that nothing I did would bring back my list of replacements in System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Text.

I tried turning off iCloud Drive and turning it back on.  I tried the same on my iPhone. But nothing brought them back to my iMac.

The only way I could get back my list was to export them from my Macbook Air (by selected all in System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Text and dragging this list to my desktop. This created a file that I could then transfer to my Mac, and the 'drag in' to the same preferences area on my iMac.

Lo and behold, my text replacements were back!

Here is an article that covers this problem and solution - for anyone who wants to read more.

• How to restore your text replacements (typing shortcuts) when they disappear    
  

If I only had a single Mac, I would have created a new User account on that Mac, sign in to my iCloud and only turn on iCloud Drive, to sync the iCloud text replacements to that new user account.  

Hopefully that would have allowed me to export the text replacements in the same way as described above - saving the exported file the 'Shared' area that I could then access from my main user account.  I hope that makes sense!  Let me know if that works for you!

Since updating my iMac to MacOS Sierra, I have suffered constant freezes and crashes - which have gotten worse and worse, to the point where I have had to restart my Mac several times a day.

I have been nearly tearing my hair out - something that I can't afford to do!

I had tried everything I could think of to diagnose the problem.  The hard drive is fine, there is no hardware issue, no sneaky malware hijacking my computer, and I have been monitoring ingoing and outgoing network traffic using a handy app called Little Snitch.  

Nothing I tried seem to help resolve my problem.

I was on the verge of wiping my Mac and re-installing Sierra when I decided to try one last thing.

I haven't had much time recently to have a close look at the new features of MacOS Sierra on my Mac, but one in particular really stood out to me when I was organising my photos.  

It is a feature of the Photos app that allows you to search for 'things' in your photos.  And the best thing is that is works in Photos on the iPhone and iPad too (in iOS 10).

I wanted to put together an Album of photos, one of photos of our cat and the other of our dog.  

I found that I can now type dog into the search field to find all photos in my library that have a dog in them.  Similarly, typing cat gives me all photos that have cats in them.

I found photos that I had so many forgotten photos existed in amongst my 30,000 photos!

I can look for animal, tree, water, house and all sorts of other 'things'.  

Very handy!

Do you want to learn more about Photos on your iPad, iPhone or Mac?

For anyone who is interested in finding out more about the Photos app on the iPad, iPhone or Mac, we have some great classes coming up in November at iTandCoffee.  Details of these classes can be found by selecting the below links.

• Taking, Viewing and Managing Photos  on your iPad and iPhone     
• Photos on your Mac
• Make your own Digital Photo Book - using either a computer OR an iPad    

Videos of these classes can be viewed on the iTandCoffee Website

For those who have already attended any of the above classes, a video of the class is be available on this website - to help you revise and refresh all the things you learned at the class/es.  

If you are an iTandCoffee Club member, you can gain access to these videos FOR FREE - just email videos@itandcoffee.com.au to request your access. 

Those of you who not iTandCoffee Club members can also gain access to any of the class videos that are available on the iTandCoffee website.  Find out how here››

Find out more about The iTandCoffee Club here››

It didn't feature much in the press, but an upgraded operating system for our Macs will also be released in September - and will hail a major change to the naming convention for the Mac's operating system.

OS X has been the name for the Operating System for Mac for many many years, with a version number and name further identifying each upgrade of OS X.  

On September 20th, Apple will release MacOS Sierra to replace OS X El Capitan, and its features will include

• Siri will finally come to Mac
• Your Apple Watch can unlock your Mac automatically
• iCloud Drive improvements, including the ability to sync your Desktop and Documents folders
• A new feature called Optimise Storage that can free up space on the hard drive
• A new feature called Universal Clipboard, which allows you to copy and paste between devices!
• and more

Here is an article from Macworld with more information about this upcoming upgrade:

• Apple quietly announces macOS Sierra's release date                                                                

As usual, iTandCoffee recommends that, unless you are super-keen the grab the 'latest and greatest', it is best to hold off for at least a couple of weeks (or perhaps longer) before downloading and installing the upgrade.  

Quite often, the initial versions of an upgrade have teething problem - and you may prefer to allow other people to discover these problems and wait until Apple has released its subsequent 'update' release (or releases).

The fortnightly iTandCoffee newsletter will keep you updated on news of the stability (or otherwise) of the MacOS Sierra, and will provide a recommendation on when it is safe to go ahead and upgrade.​

This question comes up very regularly from Mac users.  If you have a set of photos that you wish to put onto a USB stick or external drive - or even just pull out of Photos and put into a folder on your Mac - how do you do this?

This week's Mac Handy Hint provides an easy-to-follow short video with step by step directions 

This hint is for iTandCoffee Club members only.  

​Have you joined The iTandCoffee Club yet, to gain access to great tips like this, as well as a huge range of other tips, content and regular members-only offers?

​Join the club today for only $30 per year.

• Do you wish you still had a sidebar in the Mac Photos app?  Well, you do!             
• ​Learning how to use the new Photos app on Mac                 
  
• ​Storage issues on my Macbook Air after migrating from iPhoto to Photos  
• How to delete your iPhoto library after migration to the new Photos app on Mac             
• Getting edited iPhone (or iPad) photos across to your computer using iCloud Shared Streams    
• Are you wondering whether to upgrade from iPhoto to the new Photos app on your Mac?    
• Why  can I no longer import my iPhone photos to my computer?             ​                 ​           ​           

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Oh dear.  My poor 3.5 year old iMac (the 28in variety) suffered a major, major failure this past week!

After suffering frequent and persistent 'spinning beachballs of death' last week, I worried that something was amiss and, between other work, started the process of diagnosing what was wrong with it.

It seemed that the hard drive passed all checks, and tests showed that the RAM and other hardware were fine.

But, my poor Mac was certainly still unwell, so I tried a couple of other resets - all to no avail.

After I had exhaused nearly all the tests and reset my login preferences, I decided to start up my Mac in something called Safe Mode - at which point, I got the dreaded black screen of death.

From that point on, any attempt to start the iMac up failed - it would look like it was starting but just give up and shut off after a few seconds.

At this point, I thought I had better admit defeat and booked a Genius Bar appointment at Chadstone's Apple Store - dreading the prospect of lugging my massive iMac through Chaddy for an inspection by a young Genius.

I decided that I would try one final thing before my appointment - pre-empting what I thought that the Genius would, most likely, suggest.  

Given that a successful Time Machine backup had been completed 5 days before it 'died' (thank goodness), I decided to do a full restore from that backup.   (Unfortunately, I would lose a couple of days' of work - the Time Machine had, without me realising, stopped working over a weekend when I did a lot of movie editing. Drat!)

I then waited the 40 hours it took to restore my iMac from the Time Machine backup, holding very little hope that my problem would be resolved.

Well, the good news is ....

It worked!!  And I am writing this article from my Lazarus iMac.  No more prolonged spinning beachballs, no black screen of death, and (thank goodness), no visit to the Geniuses!

I am just kicking myself I didn't take heed of the warning signs before it stopped functioning - I should have checked the backup was working.  This would have prompted me to separately back up the movies I was working on, to Dropbox or an external drive.

Hindsight is such a wonderful thing, isn't it.

The key message for everyone is - make sure you are backing up your Mac!  You never know when something could go wrong and, without a backup, you may lose EVERyTHING.

I have lost count of how many times recentlyI have seen clients who have Macs and are running Chrome as their web browser.

Most of the time, when I ask them why they are using Chrome, they tell me it is because their kids told them that it is so much better than Apple's built-in web browser, Safari.

These clients have no real reason to prefer Chrome over Safari - the are just taking the advice of the supposedly tech-savvy younger generation.

Well, guess what?!  The younger generation don't always know best on technology matters.

I do not use Chrome on my Mac.  I use Safari. 

Why?

My Mac is an Apple device, and Apple has built Safari to work on my Mac - so I am happy to use Safari.  

I have never found Safari limiting and, since it closely matches the Safari App on the iPad and iPhone, it offers a consistent 'experience' between the Mac and the iPad/iPhone.

Chrome is a very 'power hungry' app and can drain you Macbook battery more rapidly than Safari.  As an intensive user of my web-browser on my Macbook, I do not want to see my battery usage wasted.

Quite often, IT suipport people who are not familiar with Mac will blame Safari for issues that they can't resolve - and recommend the Mac owner download and use Chrome instead of Safari.  Personally, I have never found a website that does not work with Safari.

For the majority of iTandCoffee clients, I would recommend sticking with Apple's standard Apps for Mac, and therefore sticking with Safari - despite what the kids (or Grandkids) and 'Windows-only' people say.

For those interested in reading more, here are some articles comparing web browsers.

• 10 Reasons You Shouldn’t Use Chrome on a MacBook
• Find the Best Web Browser for Your Devices: A Review of Chrome, Safari and Edge                                                                

Managing the storage on your Mac can be a real challenge, especially for those of us who have MacBooks with only 128 or 256GB storage - or on a family Mac that several people use.

When you check out the storage availability on your Mac, and try to work out just what it is that is using up all your space, you may find that a large amount of space is dedicated to 'Other'.

What is taking up this 'Other' space?  And how do you find all those 'storage hogs' on your Mac?

Find out in this week's Handy Hint for Mac just how you can easily you can determine what  is taking up all the space on your Mac, including discovering what 'Other' contains.  

Then you'll be able to do a big cleanup on the basis of this information!   I managed to regain over 30GB of space on my Macbook Air in just a few minutes, dramatically improving its performance (since it was previously down to around 1GB of free storage).

iTandCoffee Club members can view this hint by clicking on the below button.  

Not yet a member?  Gain access to great tips like this and other Members Only content (slideshows and videos of classes, free guides and other special offers) by joining the club.  It's only $30 per year!

This weekend, my second daughter will be celebrating her 21st birthday.  

As the 'tech-wizz' of the household, it falls to me to prepare the slideshow of photos of her life to date, for presenting on the TV screen during the party.

This is something that is SO easy to do in the Photos app on the Mac.  

Included below is a brief snippet of the start of this slideshow, which took no time to create - so that you can see the sort of slideshow that can be prepared with virtually no effort.  (PS. I did not choose the first photo - my daughter did!)

The most time-consuming part was scanning in old photos (which I did really quickly using the Scannable app on my iPhone), then selecting which digital photos to include from the thousands that have been accumulated over the years.

​If you are interested coming along to a class about the Photos app on the Mac, please register your interest by filling in the below form.

We will then be in touch to discuss what date/s and time/s suit you.

Related Handy Hints and Tips about Photos and Camera

• Quick photos on your iPhone 
• Take a photo of your screen
• Take photos while you video
• How can I delete photos in bulk from my iPad/iPhone using Mac!
• Is there a way to quickly delete all photos from my iPhone or iPad (iOS 6 only)?  
• How can I delete photos from iPad & iPhone in bulk from Windows
• Importing iPad and iPhone photos to a Windows computer
• Sending an individual photo from the Photos app
• Sending several photos from the Photos app
• Making sure your email with photos is not too large
• Taking better photos with your iPhone and iPad
• How to see your iPad and iPhone photos presented on a map
• Getting edited iPhone (or iPad) photos across to your computer using iCloud Shared Streams
• Now your deleted photos aren't deleted straight away!
•  Easily track your Favourite photos!
• View your photo's date and location information
• You can now search for photos
• More advanced photo editing features
• Hide certain photos!
• Separately control focus and light in Camera App
• A scanner that scans straight to your iPad and iPhone!
• Who's got my iPhone?!!  Why are there strangers in my Photo Stream?
• When your photos are clogging up your iPhone or iPad
• Transfer files to your iPad using Camera Connection kit
• Is your iPhone cover stopping your iPhone's flash from working properly?
• A couple of apps I love (including a Photo Transfer app)
• Client Question:  I can't see the photos on my iPad when I plug it in to my computer!
• Why  can I no longer import my iPhone photos to my computer?
• iCloud Photo Library - should you turn it on yet?
• Editing can turn ordinary photos into something really special