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.
In this episode, Tyler shows us how to automatically delete messages on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.
By default, the Messages app on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS retains messages and conversations until you delete them. However, particularly if you receive a large number of attachments, messages can occupy a significant portion of space on your device. To automatically delete messages after a set amount of time after they've been received on iOS and iPadOS, go to Settings > Messages > Keep messages, and choose an option. To do the same on macOS, open Messages, choose Messages > Settings, (or press Command-Comma) click the General button in the toolbar, and choose an option from the "Keep messages" popup menu.
In this episode, Tyler demonstrates how to change Safari's default search engine on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.
To do this on iOS and iPadOS, go to Settings > Safari and double-tap "Search engine" to specify the search engine for standard browsing windows, or "private search engine" if you want to specify a different search engine to be used in private browsing windows. On macOS, in Safari, choose Safari > Settings (or press Command-Comma) click the Search button in the toolbar, and choose from the "Search engine" or "private browsing search engine" popup menus.
In this episode, Alex Hall shows us how to change the default app for opening a certain type of file on macOS.
This may be useful if, for example, you'd rather RTF documents opened with Pages instead of TextEdit by default. To make this change:
In Finder, navigate to and select a file of the type you want opened with a different app, and choose File > Get info (or press Command-I.)
Press VO-Space to expand the "Open with" disclosure triangle if it isn't expanded already, and choose the app you want to open the file with from the popup menu. If the app you want is not in the menu, you can choose "Other" and manually locate the app; note that your results will vary depending on that app's compatibility with the given filetype.
Click the "Change all" button to open all files of this type with the app you chose, then click Continue to confirm the change.
In this quick tip, Jamie Pauls takes us through the various options for how VoiceOver reports rows added in a table on macOS. These options, found in VoiceOver Utility > Verbosity > Announcements, allow you to choose whether VoiceOver speaks the number of rows added to a table in focus, plays a tone when a row is added, or provides no feedback at all.
By default, VoiceOver does not start automatically at the macOS login prompt. In this episode, Tyler demonstrates how to change this. The steps to do so are as follows:
Choose Apple > System Settings, and select Lock Screen in the table.
Click accessibility options and toggle the “VoiceOver” switch on.
Click done.
On some older Mac models, if FileVault disk encryption is turned on, which is the default, VoiceOver should start when the Mac boots and prompt for the username, and then prompt for the password if the username is entered correctly. However, if you’d rather not have to manually enter your username or be able to navigate other elements in the window, you must turn FileVault off. To do this, open System Settings, select Privacy & Security in the table, and click “FileVault turn off.”
In this episode, Tyler demonstrates how to configure your Mac to announce the time automatically.
To do this in macOS Ventura and later, open System Settings > Control Center > Clock options, and enable the "Announce the time" toggle. You can then choose how often the announcement will play, as well as the voice, rate, and volume macOS will use for the announcement.
In this episode, Tyler demonstrates how to disable predictive text suggestions on macOS.
As you type on your Mac, macOS by default attempts to finish words and phrases it thinks you're trying to type. If you find that hearing these suggestions spoken by VoiceOver is more distracting than helpful, you can turn them off by going to System Settings > Keyboard, clicking the Edit button under the "Text input" heading, and toggling the "show inline predictive text" switch off.
transcription:
Disclaimer: This transcript is generated by AIKO, an automated transcription service. It is not edited or formatted, and it may not accurately capture the speakers’ names, voices, or content.
Hey, Apple vissers, Tyler here, with a quick tip for how to disable predictive text suggestions on macOS.
By default, as you type on your Mac, macOS attempts to finish words and phrases that it thinks you're trying to type.
In this episode, Tyler demonstrates how to enable audio descriptions for the TV app, as well as for videos on supported websites in Safari on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. Note that not all apps and websites that offer audio described content detect this setting, meaning you'll have to manually enable audio descriptions through the playback interfaces of such services.
To enable automatic playing of audio descriptions for the TV app and Safari on iOS and iPadOS, go to settings > Accessibility > Audio descriptions, and enable the "Audio descriptions" toggle. To do the same on macOS, go to System Settings > Accessibility > Descriptions, and enable the "Play audio descriptions when available" toggle.
In this episode, Tyler demonstrates how to encrypt an external disk on macOS for improved security of the disk's contents.
To encrypt a disk formatted as Apple File System, (APFS) connect it to your Mac, focus on it on the Desktop or Finder sidebar, and choose "Encrypt [disk name]" from the context menu (accessed by pressing VO-Shift-M). You'll then be prompted to create a password for the disk, which will be required to access its contents. As this password is the only way to access the disk's contents, it should be reasonably difficult for others to guess, but easy enough for you to remember.
In this episode, Tyler demonstrates how to get weather information in your Mac's menu bar, useful if you, for example, want to be able to quickly access such information but don't want to deal with widgets or the Weather app.
To add weather information to your Mac's menu bar, go to System Settings > Control Center, and choose "Show in menu bar" from the "Weather" popup menu. The temperature for your current location, if the Weather app has previously been granted access to it, should then appear in the status menus. Clicking the temperature should reveal a dialog with the current temperature, other applicable information about current conditions, an "Hourly forecast" group showing the expected conditions for the next four hours, and a button to open the Weather app.
In this episode, Alex Hall shows us how to look up the definition of a word using Spotlight in macOS.
To do this, press Command-Space from anywhere in macOS to open Spotlight, and type the word you want defined. Then press Command-L, followed by Return, and a window with the definition of the word you searched for will be displayed.
In this episode, Crayton shows us how to move files and folders in Finder using the keyboard.
To do this, navigate to and select the file or folder you want to move, and choose Edit > Copy (or press Command-C.) Then, open the destination folder and press Command-Option-V to place it in that location.
In this quick tip, Chris Wright shows us how to permanently delete files and folders on macOS.
To do this, in Finder, navigate to and select the item you want to delete, and press Command-Option-Delete. Click Delete in the confirmation dialog, and the item will be deleted immediately, bypassing the Trash.
In this episode, Tyler demonstrates how to schedule an email to send later using the Mail app in macOS.
Have you ever needed to send an email but didn't want to interrupt someone's work or personal time? With the Send Later feature, you can schedule emails to be sent at a specific date and time, making sure your message arrives at the most appropriate moment.
To do this, compose an email in the Mail app, interact with the "Send" group in the toolbar, and choose an option from the "schedule to send message" menu button. If you choose the "Send later" option, a dialog will appear allowing you to choose a date and time. After the message has been scheduled, it can be found in the "Send later" mailbox, and you can change the scheduled time by opening the message and clicking the Edit button within the "send later banner" group.
In this podcast, Tyler Stephen shows us how to share folders in iCloud Drive on a Mac running macOS Catalina 10.15.4 or later.
More information on sharing folders with iCloud Drive is available on this Apple Support page.
With folder sharing in iCloud Drive, you can share entire folders of files with friends, family, or colleagues. Then, you can work together on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, or iCloud.com.
When you create and share a folder in iCloud Drive, participants can access all the files in that folder. If you add a file to a shared folder, it's automatically shared with all participants, too. You can also add or remove participants, edit sharing permissions, or stop sharing a folder anytime.
In this episode, Siddarth B walks you through the process of checking your MacBook's battery capacity—an indicator of how well the battery retains a charge compared to when it was new. He also explains how to determine the cycle count, which tracks the number of times the battery has been completely drained and recharged.
Battery capacity can be viewed by going to System Settings > Battery and clicking the "Show detail" button. Cycle count can be viewed by opening System Information (located in the Utilities folder), selecting "power" in the table, and pressing VO-J to jump to the information pane.
Transcript
Disclaimer: This transcript was generated by AI Note Taker – VoicePen, an AI-powered transcription app. It is not edited or formatted, and it may not accurately capture the speakers’ names, voices, or content.
If you have multiple Apple devices, you may know that there are many features that allow them to integrate with each other to keep content up-to-date across all of them. In this guide, I will give an overview of how iCloud, the service that facilitates this interconnection, can help you manage and sync your content, as well as how it can help protect your privacy and security. The good thing about it is once you have a few things set up, features largely work automatically with very little additional interaction required from you, the user.
Terminology
iCloud is the Apple service that allows Macs and iOS devices to keep content in sync between them. By default, you get 5GB of free storage space, upgradable up to 12TB, to store data such as documents, photos, emails, contacts, calendars, and more. With any paid storage plan, you get several additional features marketed collectively as iCloud+.
In this episode, Tyler demonstrates the VoiceOver Text Checker on macOS, a feature that identifies common errors in typed text such as misspellings, repeated spaces, and misplaced capital letters.
This feature can be accessed via Keyboard Commander, and by default is mapped to the letter D. When in a text field, pressing this command should present menus for the types of errors identified in the text, such as misspellings, white space, etc.
If you’re coming to macOS from Windows, you’re probably used to either downloading apps from the Microsoft Store, or downloading an app package from a website and running its included installer. On macOS, there are several ways apps can be installed and uninstalled, which I will give an overview of in this guide. The good news is that whatever methods the developer has employed, the installation and uninstallation processes should seem very straightforward to you, the user.