Imac for Dummies

The perfect companion for iMac users

You've got a great iMac, but now it's time to take things to the next level. This easy-to-use guide shows you how to do stuff like setting up and configuring your iMac along with fun stuff like using the Photos, Messages, and iMovie apps.

You'll also discover how to get down to business with productivity apps like Numbers, Pages, and Keynote. Finally, you'll find help on how to sync everything to iCloud and stay organized with Family Sharing.

• Personalize your iMac and find your way around macOS X
• Surf the web, send Reminders, and make FaceTime video calls
• Store your photos and files with iCloud
• Discover tricks to become more efficient

iMac newbies won't want to be without this easy-to-follow companion guide!

Mark L. Chambers has been a technical author, computer consultant, BBS sysop, programmer, and hardware technician for more than 30 years. An unabashed Mac enthusiast, he has written more than 30 computer books, most about the Mac. They include MacBook All-in-One For Dummies 2nd Edition and Macs For Seniors For Dummies, 3rd Edition.

Introduction 1

Foolish Assumptions 1

About This Book 2

Icons Used in This Book 3

Beyond the Book 4

Where to Go from Here 4

Part 1: Getting Started with Your iMac 5

Chapter 1: Okay, This Machine Looks Really, Really Weird 7

iMac or iMac Pro – That Is the Question 8

An Introduction to the Beast 9

Major parts of your major appliance 9

Important hidden stuff 14

Choosing a Home for Your New Pet 15

Picking the right location 15

Considering the convenience factor 16

Unpacking and Connecting 17

Unpacking your iMac For Dummies 17

Connecting cables like a true nerd 18

Discovering All the Cool Things You Can Do 19

What software do I get? 19

Looking forward to fun on the Internet 20

Applications that rock 20

Would you like to play a game? 21

Stuff You Oughta Buy Right Now 21

Chapter 2: Life! Give My iMac Life! 23

Throwing the Big Leaf Switch 23

Mark’s Favorite Signs of a Healthy iMac 24

Harriet, It’s Already Asking Me Questions! 25

Setting up macOS Mojave 26

Registering your iMac 27

Importing Documents and Data from Your Old Mac 27

Manually Importing Documents and Data from Windows 29

Chapter 3: The Basics Behind macOS Mojave 31

Your Own Personal Operating System 32

The Mojave Desktop 33

Wait a Second: Where the Heck Are the Mouse Buttons? 37

Launching and Quitting Applications with Aplomb 40

Performing Tricks with Finder Windows 43

Viewing your stuff 43

Scrolling in and resizing windows 44

Minimizing and restoring windows 45

Moving and zooming windows 46

Closing windows 47

Juggling Folders and Icons 48

A field observer’s guide to icons 48

Selecting items 50

Copying items 52

Moving things from place to place 53

Duplicating in a jiffy 53

Using Finder Tabs 54

Keys and Keyboard Shortcuts to Fame and Fortune 55

Special keys on the keyboard 55

Using the Finder and application keyboard shortcuts 56

Home, Sweet Home Folder 57

Working with Mission Control, Spaces, and Dashboard 59

Switching Desktops with Spaces 60

Stick it on the Dashboard 61

Personalizing Your Desktop 62

Customizing the Dock 64

Adding applications and extras to the Dock 64

Keeping track with Stacks 65

Using Desktop Stacks 65

Using Dock Stacks 66

Resizing the Dock 67

What’s with the Trash? 68

All You Really Need to Know about Printing 69

And Just in Case You Need Help 70

The Mojave built-in Help system 71

The Apple web-based support center 71

Magazines 71

Local Mac user groups 71

Part 2: Shaking Hands with macOS 73

Chapter 4: What’s New in Mojave? 75

Come to the Dark Mode 76

Showing Off Gallery View 77

Welcome New iOS Apps 78

Quick Actions Are the Cat’s Meow 78

Strolling Through the Improved App Store 79

Chapter 5: A Nerd’s Guide to System Preferences 81

An Explanation — without Jargon, No Less 82

Locating That Certain Special Setting 84

Popular Preferences Panes Explained 85

The Displays pane 85

The Desktop & Screen Saver pane 87

Mission Control preferences 89

The General pane 91

The Energy Saver pane 92

The Dock pane 93

The Sharing pane 95

The Time Machine pane 96

iCloud preferences 97

Notifications preferences 99

Chapter 6: Searching Amidst iMac Chaos 101

Doing a Basic Search 102

How Cool Is That? Discovering What Spotlight Can Do 105

Expanding Your Search Horizons 106

Customizing Spotlight to Your Taste 108

Chapter 7: Putting Common Apps to Work 111

Remind Me to Use Reminders 112

Taking Notes the Mojave Way 115

Staying Current with Notification Center 117

Introducing the Maps Application 118

Switching Views in Maps 120

Getting Directions Over Yonder 122

Catching Up on News 123

Using Favorites and Channels 124

Part 3: Connecting and Communicating 127

Chapter 8: Let’s Go on Safari! 129

Pretending You’ve Never Used This Thing 130

Visiting Websites 131

Navigating the Web 133

Setting Up Your Home Page 136

Adding and Using Bookmarks 138

Working with the Reading List 139

Downloading Files 140

Using History 141

Tabs Are Your Browsing Friends 142

Printing Web Pages 144

Protecting Your Privacy 145

Yes, there are such things as bad cookies 145

Banishing pesky iCloud Keychain passwords 147

Handling ancient history 147

Setting notifications 148

Chapter 9: Expanding Your Horizons With Icloud 149

So How Does iCloud Work, Anyway? 150

Moving, Saving, and Opening iCloud Documents 151

Putting Handoff to Work 152

Configuring iCloud 153

Managing Your iCloud Storage 155

Chapter 10: Creating A Multiuser Imac 157

Once Upon a Time (An Access Fairy Tale) 158

Big-Shot Administrator Stuff 159

Deciding who needs what access 159

Adding users 160

Modifying user accounts 162

I banish thee, mischievous user! 163

Setting up login items and parental controls 165

Mundane Chores for the Multiuser Laptop 172

Logging in and out in Mojave For Dummies 172

Interesting stuff about sharing stuff 175

Encrypting your Home folder can be fun 176

Chapter 11: Working Well with Networks 179

What Exactly Is the Network Advantage? 180

Should You Go Wired or Wireless? 181

Be a Pal: Share Your Internet! 183

Using your iMac as a sharing device 183

Using a dedicated Internet-sharing device 183

What Do I Need to Connect? 184

Wireless connections 184

Wired connections 190

Connecting to the Network 193

Verifying that the contraption works 193

Sharing stuff nicely with others 195

Use Your Firewall! 197

Chapter 12: Hooking Up with Handy Helpers 201

Connecting Printers 201

USB printers 202

Network printers 204

Connecting Scanners 205

Using Photo Booth 206

Conversing with FaceTime 209

Part 4: Living the Digital Life 211

Chapter 13: The Multimedia Joy of iTunes 213

What Can I Play on iTunes? 214

Playing an Audio CD 215

Playing Digital Audio Files 216

Browsing the Library 219

Finding songs in your Music Library 220

Removing old music from the Library 221

Watching Video 221

Keeping Slim Whitman and Slim Shady Apart:

Organizing with Playlists 222

Know Your Songs 224

Setting the song information automatically 225

Setting or changing the song information manually 225

Ripping Audio Files 226

Tweaking the Audio for Your Ears 227

A New Kind of Radio Station 228

Internet Radio 228

Tuning in your own stations 229

Radio stations in your playlists 229

Creating a custom iTunes Radio station 230

iTunes and iCloud Together 230

iSending iStuff to iPod, iPhone, and iPad 231

Sharing Your Media across Your Network 232

Burning Music to Shiny Plastic Circles 233

Feasting on iTunes Visuals 235

Exercising Parental Authority 235

Buying Digital Media the Apple Way 237

Chapter 14: Focusing on Photos 239

Delving into Photos 239

Working with Images in Photos 242

Import images 101 243

Organize mode: Organizing and sorting your images 244

Edit mode: Removing and fixing stuff the right way 251

Exploring iCloud Photo Library 256

Putting My Photo Stream and iCloud Photo Sharing to Work 257

Chapter 15: Making Film History with iMovie 259

Shaking Hands with the iMovie Window 260

A Bird’s-Eye View of Moviemaking 263

Importing the Building Blocks 264

Pulling in video clips 264

Making use of still images 266

Importing and adding audio from all sorts of places 267

Building the Cinematic Basics 269

Adding clips to your movie 270

Marking clips 271

Removing clips from your movie 271

Reordering clips in your movie 272

Editing clips in iMovie 272

Transitions for the masses 273

Even Gone With the Wind had titles 274

Adding maps and backgrounds 275

Creating an Honest-to-Goodness Movie Trailer 276

Sharing Your Finished Classic with Others 278

Chapter 16: Recording Your Hits with GarageBand 279

Shaking Hands with Your Band 280

Composing Made Easy 282

Adding tracks 283

Choosing loops 285

Resizing, repeating, and moving loops 288

Using the Arrangement track 290

Tweaking the settings for a track 291

Sharing Your Songs 293

Creating song files in iTunes 294

Exporting a project 295

Burning an audio CD 296

Part 5: Getting Productive with Your iMac 297

Chapter 17: Desktop Publishing with Pages 299

Creating a New Pages Document 300

Open an Existing Pages Document 301

Saving Your Work 302

Touring the Pages Window 302

Entering and Editing Text 303

Using Text, Shapes, and Graphics Boxes 304

The Three Amigos: Cut, Copy, and Paste 304

Cutting stuff 304

Copying text and images 304

Pasting from the Clipboard 305

Formatting Text the Easy Way 305

Adding a Spiffy Table 306

Adding Alluring Photos 307

Adding a Shape as a Background 308

Are You Sure about That Spelling? 309

Printing Your Pages Documents 310

Sharing That Poster with Others 310

Chapter 18: Creating Spreadsheets with Numbers 313

Before You Launch Numbers 314

Creating a New Numbers Document 314

Opening an Existing Spreadsheet File 315

Save Those Spreadsheets! 316

Exploring the Numbers Window 317

Navigating and Selecting Cells in a Spreadsheet 318

Entering and Editing Data in a Spreadsheet 319

Selecting the Correct Number Format 320

Aligning Cell Text Just So 321

Formatting with Shading 322

Inserting and Deleting Rows and Columns 323

The Formula Is Your Friend 323

Adding Visual Punch with a Chart 325

Printing Your Spreadsheet 326

Chapter 19: Building Presentations with Keynote 329

Creating a New Keynote Project 330

Opening a Keynote Presentation 331

Saving Your Presentation 331

Putting Keynote to Work 332

Adding Slides 333

Working with Text, Shapes, and Graphics Boxes 334

Adding and Editing Slide Text 335

Formatting Slide Text for the Perfect Look 335

Using Presenter’s Notes in Your Project 336

Every Good Presentation Needs Media 336

Adding a Background Shape 337

Creating Your Keynote Slideshow 338

Printing Your Slides and Notes 339

Part 6: The Necessary Evils: Troubleshooting, Upgrading, and Maintaining 341

Chapter 20: It Just Sits There 343

Repeat after Me: Yes, I Am a Tech! 343

Step-by-Step iMac Troubleshooting 344

The number-one rule: Reboot! 344

Special keys that can come in handy 346

All hail Disk Utility, the troubleshooter’s friend 348

Mark’s iMac Troubleshooting Tree 351

Okay, I Kicked It, and It Still Won’t Work 355

Local service, at your service 355

The macOS Help Center 355

Apple Help Online 356

Chapter 21: I Want to Add Stuff 357

More Memory Will Help 358

Figuring out how much memory you have 358

Installing memory modules 360

Can I Upgrade My Internal Drive? 363

Consider your external options 364

Gotta have internal 366

Weighing Attractive Add-Ons 367

Game controllers 367

External drive arrays 367

Video controllers 367

Audio hardware and MIDI controllers 367

Chapter 22: Tackling the Housekeeping 369

Cleaning Unseemly Data Deposits 369

Managing your storage in macOS (or cleaning things the elegant way) 370

Getting dirty (or cleaning things the manual way) 371

Using a commercial cleanup tool 374

Backing Up Your Treasure 375

Saving Files 375

Backing up to an external drive 375

Backing up to CD and DVD 376

Putting Things Right with Time Machine 377

Maintaining Drive Health 379

Automating Those Mundane Chores 380

Creating an application in Automator 381

Creating an Automator login item 382

Updating macOS Automatically 382

Part 7: The Part of Tens 385

Chapter 23: Ten Ways to Speed Up Your iMac 387

Nothing Works Like a Shot of Memory 388

Hold a Conversation with Your iMac 388

Vamoose, Unwanted Fragments! 388

Keep Your Desktop Background Simple 389

Column Mode Is for Power Users 389

Make the Dock Do Your Bidding 390

It All Started with Keyboard Shortcuts 390

Hey, You Tweaked Your Finder! 390

Keep in Touch with Your Recent Past 391

Go Where the Going Is Good 391

Chapter 24: Ten Things to Avoid Like the Plague 393

Keep Things Cool 394

Phishing Is No Phun 394

Don’t Rely on a Single Password 395

Do You Really Want a Submerged Keyboard? 395

Don’t Use Antiquated Utility Software 396

Don’t Endorse Software Piracy 396

Call It the Forbidden Account 397

Don’t Settle for a Surge Suppressor 397

Refurbished Hardware Is No Deal at All 398

iMacs Appreciate iCleanliness 398

Index 399

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