macOS Big Sur For Dummies

Bob LeVitus

• Publisher: For Dummies
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781119730132
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Operating Systems
• Index: Computer Science

Your "get-started" guide to the world of macOS Big Sur

Wherever you like to Mac—at home in front of your trusty iMac or over a coffee with your portable MacBook Air—macOS provides you with the seamless, efficient, and reliable user experience that makes these devices so famously a pleasure to use. macOS Big Sur For Dummies is here to heighten the experience for new users and upgraders alike by providing the very latest on the ways macOS Big Sur can enhance how you work and play.

Written in a no-jargon style by Bob LeVitus—the Houston Chronicle's much-loved "Dr. Mac" since 1996—this guide starts with the basics, like getting set up, and explains more advanced uses, like making music and movies, exploring the expanding universe of apps and giving tips on how to save time and enhance productivity along the way. With this book, you'll learn to

• Set up and connect your Mac
• Get friendly with Siri
• Enhance your world with apps
• Work better and faster

Use the comprehensive capabilities of macOS Big Sur to do anything and everything you would like to do—and do it even better. For beginners and experts alike, macOS Big Sur For Dummies is the best way to step into the magical world of getting things done with Mac.

Part 1

macOS Basics

IN THIS PART …

Find the most basic of basics, including how to turn on your Mac.

Make the dock work harder for you.

Get a gentle introduction to Finder and its desktop.

Find everything you need to know about Big Sur’s windows, icons, and menus (oh my)!

Get all the bad puns and wisecracks you’ve come to expect.

Discover a plethora of Finder tips and tricks to make life with Big Sur even easier (and more fulfilling).

Chapter 1

macOS Big Sur 101 (Prerequisites: None)

IN THIS CHAPTER

Understanding what an operating system is and is not

Turning on your Mac

Getting to know the start-up process

Turning off your Mac

Avoiding major Mac mistakes

Pointing, clicking, dragging, and other uses for your mouse

Getting help from your Mac

Congratulate yourself on choosing macOS Big Sur version 11.0, the 17th release of the venerable operating system (OS) formerly known as OS X (pronounced “oh-ess-ten”). Congratulate yourself for scoring more than just an OS upgrade. See, macOS Big Sur includes a few new features that make using your Mac even easier, hundreds of tweaks to help you do more work in less time, plus a user interface overhaul that affects almost every pixel on the screen.

In this chapter, I start at the very beginning and talk about macOS in mostly abstract terms; then I move on to explain what you need to know to use macOS Big Sur successfully. A number of features I describe haven’t changed in years (other than adopting updated Big Sur graphics), so if you’ve been using macOS (the operating system formerly known as Mac OS X) for a while, most of the information in this chapter may seem hauntingly familiar.

But if you decide to skip this chapter because you think you have all the new stuff figured out, I assure you that you’ll miss at least a couple of things that Apple didn’t bother to tell you (as if you read every word in macOS Help — the only user manual Apple provides in the box — anyway!).

Tantalized? Let’s rock.

Gnawing to the Core of macOS

The operating system (that is, the OS part of macOS) is what makes your Mac a Mac. Without it, your Mac is nothing but a pile of silicon and circuits — no smarter than a toaster.

“So what does an operating system do?” you ask. Good question. The short answer is that an OS controls the basic and most important functions of your computer. In the case of macOS and your Mac, the operating system

• Manages memory
• Controls how windows, icons, and menus work
• Keeps track of files
• Manages networking and security
• Does housekeeping (No kidding!)

Other forms of software, such as word processors and web browsers, rely on the OS to create and maintain the environment in which they work their magic. When you create a memo, for example, the word processor provides the tools for you to type and format the information and save it in a file. In the background, the OS is the muscle for the word processor, performing the following crucial functions:

• Providing the mechanism for drawing and moving the onscreen window in which you write the memo
• Keeping track of the file when you save it
• Helping the word processor create drop-down menus and dialogs for you to interact with
• Communicating with other programs
• And much, much more (stuff that only geeks could care about)

So, armed with a little background in operating systems, take a gander at the next section before you do anything else with your Mac.

One last thing: As I mention in this book’s Introduction (I’m repeating it here in case you normally don’t read introductions), macOS Big Sur comes with more than 50 applications in its Applications and Utilities folders. Although I’d love to tell you all about each and every one, I have only so many pages at my disposal.

THE MAC ADVANTAGE

Most of the world’s personal computers use Microsoft Windows (although more and more people are switching to the Mac). But you’re among the lucky ones who have a computer with an OS that’s intuitive, easy to use, and (dare I say?) fun. If you don’t believe me, try using Windows for a day or two. Go ahead. You probably won’t suffer any permanent damage. In fact, you’ll really begin to appreciate how good you have it. Feel free to hug your Mac. Or give it a peck on the mouse or trackpad.

As someone once told me, “Claiming that macOS is inferior to Windows because more people use Windows is like saying that all other restaurants serve food that’s inferior to McDonald’s.”

We might be a minority, but Mac users have the best, most stable, most modern all-purpose operating system in the world, and here’s why: Unix, on which macOS is based, is widely regarded as the best industrial-strength operating system on the planet. For now, just know that being based on Unix means that a Mac running macOS benefits from more than three decades of UNIX development, which means less downtime. Being Unix-based also means getting far fewer viruses and encounters with malicious software. But perhaps the biggest advantage macOS has is that when an application crashes, it doesn’t crash your entire computer, and you don’t usually have to restart the computer to continue working.

By the way, since the advent of Intel-powered Macs more than a decade ago, you can run Windows natively also on any Mac powered by an Intel processor, as I describe in Chapter 23. Note that the opposite isn’t true: You can run Windows on your Mac if you care to, but you cannot run macOS on a Dell or HP or any other computer not made by Apple (at least not without serious hacking, which is probably illegal anyway).

And don’t let that Unix or Windows stuff scare you. It’s there if you want it, but if you don’t want it or don’t care (like most users), you’ll rarely even know it’s there. In fact, you’ll rarely (if ever) see the word Unix or Windows again in this book. As far as you’re concerned, Unix under the hood means your Mac will just run and run and run without crashing and crashing and crashing. As for Windows, your Mac can run it if you need it; otherwise, it’s just another checklist item on the list of reasons Macs are better than PCs.

In June 2020, Apple announced that the Mac will transition from Intel processors to Apple’s custom silicon “to deliver...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Part 1: macOS Basics
• Part 2: How Stuff Works
• Part 3: Getting Things Done
• Part 4: Getting Along with Others
• Part 5: Getting Creative
• Part 6: Care and Feeding
• Part 7: The Part of Tens
• Index
• About the Author
• Advertisement Page
• Connect with Dummies
• End User License Agreement