First off, if you don’t know what Pages.app is, you’re in for a treat! Pages is part of what used to be known as the iWork suite. Pages is an easy to use Word Processor. Similar to Microsoft Word (only in that it is also a word processor) it delivers a great word processor at little to…

Did you know there is a powerful Unix computer sitting right in front of you? That’s right, your Mac is based upon Unix. What your looking at is an interface developed by Apple which hides the text based Unix world. There is no reason to be fearful of Unix and the command line. In fact…

When I’m asked what I do when my Mac has problems, I usually say “It doesn’t”. Which for the most part they don’t. I have a few rituals I perform to help my Macs stay healthy. About once a month I run Cocktail or Onyx. This general purpose utility cleans up cache files and runs maintenance scripts, with…

When you make that jump from Windows to a Mac you may feel a little disorientation. This could be due to euphoria you may have never experienced before, or because it looks different. This month isn’t about moving documents, emails, photos, and videos from your PC to your new Mac, it’s about how to actually use your…

One of the main troubleshooting steps for iPhone and iPad problems is to use the Reset All Settings option located under Settings —> General —> Reset. Do not confuse with Erase All Content and Settings, which will completely erase EVERYTHING on your iDevice. Reset All Settings will place all setting changes you’ve made back to the defaults but keep all of your data…

A popular question that comes up during the Lake Villa District Library events is ‘How do I use Siri?’. Which is then followed up by another question that comes up right afterward ‘What can Siri do?’. So this month I break them both down. How do I use Siri?To start Siri (no matter the device) you press…

Your Mac has the ability to turn your spoken word into text. To use your Mac for dictation you’ll first need to enable it. Click the Apple menu, then System Preferences, Keyboard then click the Dictation tab. The Dictation tab will allow you to turn the dictation feature on and off. Enhanced dictation will allow…

You’ve no doubt seen them on packaging, on the web and a lot of other places. Now learn how to create a registered trademark symbol ®, the trademark symbol ™, copyright symbol © and more. First you’ll need to learn a key on your keyboard that you may never use, or have never noticed, the…

Depending on your setup (desktop or laptop) you may want to take a good look at the Security and Privacy preference pane. Click the Apple menu then System Preferences. When you open it, you’ll see you’re unable to make changes. In order to make changes, you’ll need to click the lock icon then enter an…

This month we delve deep into Message settings (touch Settings, then Messages) to see what they mean and why you’re getting text messages on your Mac or iPad too. At the top you’ll see iMessage (a.). This is Apple’s implementation of text messaging. If this is on and you send a text message to another…