Listed below is a selection of posts from across the AppleVis website which have been especially selected to help you setup and get to know your first Mac.
If you use a Mac, at some point or another, you will need to drag an item from one place to another. You could be, among other things, trying to move a file, reorder a list, or attach photos and other files to a document.
While there is no, “Magic solution,” to drag and drop with VoiceOver, there are several methods you can employ that just might work to accomplish the task at hand. These tips come predominantly from my own personal use, as literature on how to do this is rather scarce. Therefore, if you know of additional tips and tricks, sound off in the comments.
In my first Pages guide, I described what certain typographic elements looked like such as bold text and underlining. In my second guide, I provided a crash course in how you can quickly apply styles in your Pages documents. In this guide, let’s tackle some more complex concepts. You can apply these to the test document available in my second guide, or use one of yours as a playground.
In this episode, Jonathan Simeone discusses and demonstrates the autosave and versioning features of macOS. These provide the peace of mind of knowing that your work is being automatically saved as you type, and that it’s quick and easy to revert to a previous version of a document. While TextEdit is demonstrated in this tutorial, these features work in a variety of macOS apps.
I've always used Audacity for digital recording projects, including ripping my vinyl collection for use in iTunes. A 64-bit Audacity build for Mac exists, but it doesn't work with VoiceOver. As a result, Audacity is no longer a viable option for blind Mac users.
GarageBand makes it amazingly easy to create music. In this blog, I'll show you how to create the following blues-based rock jam. You don't need an instrument. You won't have to play a single note.
In this episode of the AppleVis Podcast, Gaurav returns with the second lesson in his series on mastering spreadsheets using Apple’s free app,Numbersfor Mac.
This session dives into working with row and column headers and navigating the formatter pane to make your data more accessible and structured. Gaurav shares practical tips to boost your spreadsheet skills and improve your workflow. Can’t wait for the next lesson on autofill!
In this episode of the AppleVis Podcast, Gaurav is back with Lesson 3 in his series on mastering spreadsheets with Numbers, Apple’s free spreadsheet app for Mac.
Today, he’ll continue working with our monthly budget spreadsheet and dive into two powerful time-saving tools: Autofill and the Quick Calculation Bar.
First, we’ve already completed the budget for January and February. Now, instead of re-entering all the data for March, we’ll use Autofill to do the work for us. Just head over to the March column, open the Autofill menu, and like magic, your February values are copied into March in a flash.
Next up is the Quick Calculation Bar – a handy feature that gives you instant stats just by selecting your data. Whether you need a total, average, or want to find the highest or lowest value in a range, this tool has you covered with zero extra steps.
In this episode of the AppleVis Podcast, Gaurav returns with Lesson 4 in the series on mastering Numbers, Apple’s free spreadsheet app for Mac.
In this installment, he dives into two powerful tools for organizing your data: Sort and Quick Filter. These features help you manage and analyze spreadsheets more efficiently—especially when working with larger datasets.
We’re using a sample budget spreadsheet with categories like Food, Water, Transportation, and Internet, each with amounts listed for January. Here’s how we sorted that data to quickly find the highest expenses:
Gaurav is back with the next installment in our Numbers tutorial series, diving into one of the most essential spreadsheet skills: the SUM function. Whether you're tracking expenses or organizing data, learning to total values quickly is a must.
In this episode of the AppleVis Podcast, Gaurav returns with Lesson 6 in the ongoing series on mastering Numbers, Apple’s free spreadsheet app for Mac.
In the previous lesson, he explored how to insert formulas effectively. This time, the focus is on using the autofill feature to save time and eliminate repetitive tasks.
In this episode of the AppleVis Podcast, Gaurav returns with Lesson 7 in the ongoing series on mastering Numbers, Apple’s free spreadsheet app for Mac.
This lesson focuses on organizing data efficiently in Apple Numbers. Unlike Excel’s single-grid layout, Numbers offers a more flexible, canvas-like approach where multiple tables can coexist on a single sheet. Gaurav demonstrates how to manage tables for different quarters of budget data, making it easier to structure and access your information.
Key Concepts Covered
Understanding Tables in Numbers
Numbers allows multiple tables per sheet, treating each sheet as a flexible workspace
Distinct from Excel’s traditional grid-based format
In this episode, Gaurav begins his journey into mastering spreadsheets with Apple’s free app,Numberson Mac. 📊 Using an insightful AppleVis podcast as his guide, he learns how to open a spreadsheet and navigate it efficiently with VoiceOver.
If you're new to spreadsheets, Numbers is an ideal starting point—especially since it’s bundled with every Mac. It’s highly accessible for VoiceOver users and perfectly suited for basic tasks. While Microsoft Excel is the go-to for complex data analysis and advanced features, Numbers excels at simplicity and even lets you export files to Excel when needed.
Safari is the Mac's default web browser, and it does all the usual web browser things - opens webpages, downloads files, plays audio, all that. It has some neat tricks, too, like the Reader that can show you only the meat of an article.
However, if you are coming to the Mac for the first time, especially from a Windows background, Safari can seem like a clunky app at best, and a totally unusable mess at worst. As with all things on the Mac, though, you just have to understand how and why it does what it does. Eventually, you will be flying through webpages again, and there are even some nice tricks that VoiceOver can pull off to make your life easier.
Finder is the Mac's file browser. With it, you can look at files and folders on internal, external, and network drives; copy, cut, and paste items; tag files for easier locating later; search for files; and more. The problem is that, particularly for those transitioning to the Mac from Windows, Finder is a confusing mess that makes you scared to even go looking for a file. I understand that, because I was there too. Hopefully, in writing down what I've learned over the years, I can save you a lot of time and frustration, and let you get on with your Mac much better.
For Windows Users
If you are switching from Windows to Mac, there are a few things you should know about the Finder.
First, try very hard to get used to pressing command-o to open things. Pressing enter will prompt you to rename them, not open them. If you do accidentally press enter, simply press escape to cancel.
When you first get a Mac, and are learning VoiceOver, it can be hard to remember the myriad commands available. Some are pretty easy, like control-option-w to read the current word. Some are quite complex or seldom used, such as control-option-command-f5 to move the mouse pointer to where VoiceOver is focused. Then there are the core concepts, like interacting, moving around dialogs, getting to menus, and plenty more. So, I wanted to offer a guide that does not explain most of the commands and concepts, but rather tells you where to go if you need help. Mailing lists, books, online resources, and cheat sheets are great, but there are powerful help facilities built right into every Mac, just a keystroke or two away at any time. The trick is knowing how to access them.
As is widely known, a major selling point of Apple devices is the interconnected ecosystem they collectively foster, allowing users to work seamlessly between iPhones, iPads, Macs, and other devices. Some of these features, like iCloud, iMessage, and FaceTime, are facilitated by central servers, whereas others, like the Continuity features discussed in this guide, are largely facilitated by Apple’s proprietary peer-to-peer networking protocols that allow devices to directly communicate with each other.
Keep in mind that this guide is not intended as an exhaustive list or explainer of every feature, but rather an overview of those which I consider to be most useful, and that I feel I have sufficient experience with to comment on their overall utility. Features that involve platforms I don’t personally have experience with, like iPadOS and watchOS, will be mentioned, but not covered in detail.
In this episode, Tyler demonstrates how to assign your own keyboard shortcuts to menu bar commands that lack default shortcuts in macOS.
An example of where this may be useful is in System Settings, where many settings can be quickly accessed from the View menu, however none of these commands have default keyboard shortcuts mapped to them. To create your own shortcut for a command: