News — tip

Did You Know You Can Close a Mac Laptop When It Has an External Display?

Posted by Laurie Berg on

Did You Know You Can Close a Mac Laptop When It Has an External Display?

We wanted to make sure that those of you who work on a Mac laptop with an external display know that you can close your laptop’s screen and keep working. Apple calls this closed-clamshell or closed-display mode.

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Use This New Setting to Prevent iOS Updates from Consuming Precious Space

Posted by Laurie Berg on

Use This New Setting to Prevent iOS Updates from Consuming Precious Space

People whose iPhones or iPads have relatively little free space have long struggled with the fact that iOS likes to download updates so they’ll be ready for installation. “Who wants to wait for a long download?” Apple thought. 

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Find Files in the Finder Better by Specifying a Search Scope

Posted by Laurie Berg on

Find Files in the Finder Better by Specifying a Search Scope

This isn’t about periscopes or mouthwash—when it comes to searching, a scope is the area in which a search takes place. When you use the Search field in a Finder window to look for files and folders, you have the choice of two scopes: This Mac or the current folder. You can always switch the scope after starting the search by clicking the other choice near the top of the window, but it’s easier to set the default search scope in Finder > Preferences > Advanced so it’s set right to start. From the “When performing a search” pop-up menu,...

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How to Ask for Tech Support So You Get Good Answers Quickly

Posted by Laurie Berg on

How to Ask for Tech Support So You Get Good Answers Quickly

​Need help with something? On occasion, we all need tech support. Speaking as the people who are sometimes on the other end of those requests for help, we have some suggestions on how to get the support you need as quickly as possible. For instance, think about what we have to do if we receive an email message along the lines of “I keep getting a note that my backups aren’t working.” All we can tell from that message is that something may be wrong with the user’s backups. But without knowing what app they’re using and what the specific...

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Here’s How to Set a Default Printer on the Mac

Posted by Laurie Berg on

Here’s How to Set a Default Printer on the Mac

If you have access to multiple printers, you probably know that you can choose one from the Printer pop-up menu at the top of the Print dialog. But macOS has a feature that should make it so you don’t have to switch printers manually as often. Open System Preferences > Printers & Scanners, and look at the bottom of the Print view. The Default Printer pop-up menu lists all your installed printers, plus an option for Last Printer Used. That last one makes sense if you print a number of documents to the big office Canon, switch to printing images...

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