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If you have recently switched to a Mac for the first time and you are not yet quite sure of how to make the most of it, you are not alone. Many people feel this way when they first look at using a Mac computer, and there are likely going to be a range of things that you need to look into if you want to make sure that you are using it to its fullest potential. As it happens, there are a few key things in particular to focus on first, and those are what we are going to take a look at here. In this article, we’ll discuss how you can get the most out of your new Mac, especially if you are a new user and you have never used a Mac before – or only very rarely.
Learn The Touch Bar
One of the first things that you will probably notice when you start to use your Mac is the touch bar. This is something that older Macs did not have, and which other kinds of machines don’t have either, so it is going to be necessary that you try to learn this as best as you can. It’s simple enough, however: it’s really just a replacement of the function buttons of older machines, and basically it shows you what it feels are the most important things for you to access, depending on your usage and what you are doing at the time. You will probably find that in time it becomes more and more intuitive to use, but for now just spend a little time trying to get used to it as best as you can.
Back Up With Time Machine
One great thing about the Mac is that it comes with its own in-built backup service in the form of Time Machine. This is a foolproof backup software that you will find already in the Mac, and it is absolutely worth using if you want to make sure that you are keeping your data as safe as possible. It really does make recovering from those big problems very easy, and it is something that you should get into the habit of using early on. You will soon see that it is very easy to use and that you don’t need to worry about it, so make sure that you start backing up everything that you need to straight away. That way, no matter what happens you won’t have to worry about your data going missing.
Resize The Dock To Suit You
Remember that much of the desktop and other parts of the Mac are customisable, and especially including the dock. You should make sure that you are keeping the dock at a size that works for you – a simple enough thing to do as the resizing process is a matter of dragging and dropping. Play around with it a little and see where you happen to like it – you should find that this really makes a difference to your overall enjoyment of the Mac and to how you are able to use it, so it’s worth it for that alone.
Find A Good Media Player
If you are moving over from Windows or Linux to Mac, then you are going to have to make sure that you are getting used to the change in software. The proprietary software on Mac is very different to Windows, and even more different to Linux, and you need to make sure that you are doing whatever you can to find software that you are going to make good use of and which you find easy enough to use for your purposes. One example you might want to look into is finding a good media player, as you might want to upgrade or change the in-built one to something like VLC media player for Mac or something else entirely. Just make sure that you have a media player which you feel is suitable, and which you enjoy using.
Connect To iCloud
If you want to really make the most of the Mac you have in your hands, you will want to think about connecting to and making good use of the iCloud. This is a cloud server service through which you can ensure that you are sharing files across all of your devices, which is something that you are going to find makes a huge difference to your usage of your new Mac, and your life in general. If you already have an iPhone, iPad or similar, then you are going to find that using the iCloud is very useful indeed, as it is the easiest way to share files across all of those. It’s best to connect early on – at the very start of your time with your Mac – so that all files can be shared easily and swiftly between all of your devices. But remember it’s up to you which files you share, and you can keep some local in one place if you prefer – for instance, if you are concerned about private or sensitive data going to the cloud.
Familiarise Yourself With The Help Menu
Luckily for any newcomers to the world of Mac, it does also come with an in-built help menu, which is going to be able to offer you advice and help for many kinds of issues that you might potentially run into. If you find yourself stuck at any point, you can always go to the help menu for some ideas on how you can get out of the situation you are stuck in. it is certainly worth familiarising yourself with the help menu early on, so that you can use it more effectively if you ever have to do that later on. You will find that it is a very useful part of the Mac, and one that you are going to get a lot of use out of in the long run.
As long as you bear these things in mind, you should be getting much more out of your new Mac.