Take a bite out of your iMac with this bestselling guideEven if you're already in love with your iMac, it helps to have a little guidance to really get the most out of this ultimate all-in-one computer. With loads of updated and brand new content, this new edition of iMac For Dummies quickly and easily teaches you the iMac fundamentals, from setting up and personalizing your machine to importing files, using your favorite programs and apps, and everything in between.
Trusted Mac expert and bestselling author Mark L. Chambers guides you through the latest iMac features and the next generation iMac hardware, the newest version of OS X, productivity apps, the latest trends and tools in the market, and so much more. Whether you want to back up your photos and data on iCloud, add apps from the Mac App Store, or get creative with applications, iMac For Dummies shows you how to do it all.
- Set up and personalize your iMac and find your way around OS X
- Surf the web, send Reminders, and make FaceTime video calls
- Store your photos and files on iCloud
- Troubleshoot common issues and keep your iMac happy
Whatever you can dream up, anything's possible with iMac and a little help from this fun and friendly guide!
Table of Contents:
INTRODUCTION 1
Foolish Assumptions 1
About This Book 2
Icons Used in This Book 3
Beyond the Book 4
Where to Go from Here 4
PART 1: GETTING STARTED WITH YOUR iMAC 5
CHAPTER 1: Okay, This Machine Looks Really, Really Weird 7
An Introduction to the Beast 8
Major parts of your major appliance 8
Important hidden stuff 13
Choosing a Home for Your New Pet 14
Picking the right location 14
Considering the convenience factor 15
Unpacking and Connecting 16
Unpacking your iMac For Dummies 16
Connecting cables like a true nerd 17
Discovering All the Cool Things You Can Do 18
What software do I get? 18
Looking forward to fun on the Internet 19
Applications that rock 19
Would you like to play a game? 20
Stuff You Oughta Buy Right Now 21
CHAPTER 2: Life! Give My iMac Life! 23
Throwing the Big Leaf Switch 24
Mark’s Favorite Signs of a Healthy iMac 24
Harriet, It’s Already Asking Me Questions! 25
Setting up OS X El Capitan 26
Registering your iMac 27
Importing Documents and Data from Your Old Mac 27
Manually Importing Documents and Data from Windows 29
CHAPTER 3: The Basics Behind OS X El Capitan 31
Your Own Personal Operating System 32
Wait a Second: Where the Heck Are the Mouse Buttons? 37
Launching and Quitting Applications with Aplomb 40
Performing Tricks with Finder Windows 44
Scrolling in and resizing windows 44
Minimizing and restoring windows 45
Moving and zooming windows 46
Closing windows 47
Juggling Folders and Icons 48
A field observer’s guide to icons 48
Selecting items 51
Copying items 52
Moving things from place to place 53
Duplicating in a jiffy 54
Using Finder tabs 54
Keys and Keyboard Shortcuts to Fame and Fortune 55
Home, Sweet Home Folder 58
Working with Mission Control, Spaces, and Dashboard 60
Personalizing Your Desktop 63
Customizing the Dock 65
Adding applications and extras to the Dock 65
Keeping track with Stacks 66
Resizing the Dock 67
What’s with the Trash? 68
All You Really Need to Know about Printing 69
And Just in Case You Need Help 71
The El Capitan built-in Help system 71
The Apple web-based support center 71
Magazines 72
Mac support websites 72
Local Mac user groups 72
PART 2: SHAKING HANDS WITH OS X 73
CHAPTER 4: What’s New in El Capitan? 75
Hey, Did You Just Split Your View? 76
Lost Your Pointer? Give It a Shake! 77
Adding Functionality to Photos 78
Find My Friends Arrives in OS X 79
Banishing the Menu Bar 80
Browsing Attachments within Notes 81
CHAPTER 5: A Nerd’s Guide to System Preferences 83
An Explanation — without Jargon, No Less 84
Locating That Certain Special Setting 86
Popular Preferences Panes Explained 87
The Displays pane 87
The Desktop & Screen Saver pane 88
Mission Control preferences 90
The General pane 92
The Energy Saver pane 94
The Dock pane 94
The Sharing pane 96
The Time Machine pane 97
iCloud preferences 98
Notifications preferences 99
CHAPTER 6: Searching Amidst iMac Chaos 103
Doing a Basic Search 104
How Cool Is That? Discovering What Spotlight Can Do 106
Expanding Your Search Horizons 108
Customizing Spotlight to Your Taste 110
CHAPTER 7: Using Reminders, Notes, Notifications, and Maps 113
Remind Me to Use Reminders 114
Taking Notes the El Capitan Way 117
Staying Current with Notification Center 118
Introducing the Maps Application 121
Switching Views in Maps 123
Getting Directions Over Yonder 124
PART 3: CONNECTING AND COMMUNICATING 127
CHAPTER 8: Let’s Go on Safari! 129
Pretend You’ve Never Used This Thing 130
Visiting Websites 131
Navigating the Web 133
Setting Up Your Home Page 136
Adding and Using Bookmarks 137
Working with the Reading List and Shared Links 139
Downloading Files 140
Using Subscriptions and History 142
Tabs Are Your Browsing Friends 142
Printing Web Pages 144
Protecting Your Privacy 145
Yes, there are such things as bad cookies 145
Banishing pesky iCloud Keychain passwords 147
Handling ancient history 147
Setting notifications 148
Avoiding those @*!^%$ pop-up ads 148
CHAPTER 9: Expanding Your Horizons with iCloud 149
So How Does iCloud Work, Anyway? 150
Moving, Saving, and Opening iCloud Documents 151
Putting Handoff to Work 152
Configuring iCloud 153
Managing Your iCloud Storage 154
CHAPTER 10: Creating a Multiuser iMac 157
Once Upon a Time (An Access Fairy Tale) 158
Big-Shot Administrator Stuff 159
Deciding who needs what access 159
Adding users 160
Modifying user accounts 162
I banish thee, mischievous user! 164
Setting up login items and parental controls 166
Mundane Chores for the Multiuser Laptop 172
Logging in and out in El Capitan For Dummies 172
Interesting stuff about sharing stuff 175
Encrypting your Home folder can be fun 176
CHAPTER 11: Working Well with Networks 179
What Exactly Is the Network Advantage? 180
Should You Go Wired or Wireless? 181
Be a Pal: Share Your Internet! 183
What Do I Need to Connect? 184
Wireless connections 184
Wired connections 190
Connecting to the Network 193
USE YOUR FIREWALL! 197
CHAPTER 12: Hooking Up with Handy Helpers 201
Connecting Printers 201
USB printers 202
Network printers 204
Connecting Scanners 205
Using Photo Booth 206
Conversing with FaceTime 209
PART 4: LIVING THE DIGITAL LIFE 211
CHAPTER 13: The Multimedia Joy of iTunes 213
What Can I Play on iTunes? 214
Playing an Audio CD 215
Playing Digital Audio Files 217
Browsing the Library 220
Finding songs in your Music Library 221
Removing old music from the Library 221
Watching Video 221
Keeping Slim Whitman and Slim Shady Apart: Organizing with Playlists 222
Know Your Songs 224
Ripping Audio Files 227
Tweaking the Audio for Your Ears 228
A New Kind of Radio Station 229
Internet Radio 229
Tuning in your own stations 230
Radio stations in your playlists 231
Creating a custom iTunes Radio station 231
iTunes and iCloud Together 232
iSending iStuff to iPod, iPhone, and iPad 233
Sharing Your Media across Your Network 234
Burning Music to Shiny Plastic Circles 235
Feasting on iTunes Visuals 236
Exercising Parental Authority 237
Buying Digital Media the Apple Way 239
CHAPTER 14: Focusing on Photos 241
Delving into Photos 241
Working with Images in Photos 244
Import images 101 244
Organize mode: Organizing and sorting your images 246
Edit mode: Removing and fixing stuff the right way 254
Producing Your Own Coffee-Table Masterpiece 258
Introducing iCloud Photo Library 262
Putting My Photo Stream and Shared Albums to Work 263
CHAPTER 15: Making Film History with iMovie 265
Shaking Hands with the iMovie Window 266
A Bird’s-Eye View of Moviemaking 269
Importing the Building Blocks 270
Pulling in video clips 270
Making use of still images 272
Importing and adding audio from all sorts of places 272
Building the Cinematic Basics 275
Adding clips to your movie 276
Marking clips 277
Removing clips from your movie 277
Reordering clips in your movie 278
Editing clips in iMovie 278
Transitions for the masses 279
Even Gone with the Wind had titles 280
Adding maps and backgrounds 281
Creating an Honest-to-Goodness Movie Trailer 282
Sharing Your Finished Classic with Others 284
CHAPTER 16: Recording Your Hits with GarageBand 287
Shaking Hands with Your Band 288
Composing Made Easy 290
Adding tracks 291
Choosing loops 293
Resizing, repeating, and moving loops 296
Using the Arrangement track 298
Tweaking the settings for a track 299
Sharing Your Songs 302
Creating song files and ringtones in iTunes 303
Exporting a project 304
Burning an audio CD 304
PART 5: GETTING PRODUCTIVE WITH YOUR iMAC 305
CHAPTER 17: Desktop Publishing with Pages 307
Creating a New Pages Document 308
Open an Existing Pages Document 309
Saving Your Work 310
Touring the Pages Window 310
Entering and Editing Text 311
Using Text and Graphics Boxes 312
The Three Amigos: Cut, Copy, and Paste 312
Formatting Text the Easy Way 313
Adding a Spiffy Table 314
Adding Alluring Photos 315
Adding a Background Shape 316
Are You Sure about That Spelling? 317
Printing Your Pages Documents 318
Sharing That Poster with Others 318
CHAPTER 18: Creating Spreadsheets with Numbers 321
Before You Launch Numbers 322
Creating a New Numbers Document 322
Opening an Existing Spreadsheet File 323
Save Those Spreadsheets! 324
Exploring the Numbers Window 325
Navigating and Selecting Cells in a Spreadsheet 326
Entering and Editing Data in a Spreadsheet 327
Selecting the Correct Number Format 328
Aligning Cell Text Just So 329
Formatting with Shading 330
Inserting and Deleting Rows and Columns 331
The Formula Is Your Friend 332
Adding Visual Punch with a Chart 334
Printing Your Spreadsheet 335
CHAPTER 19: Building Presentations with Keynote 337
Creating a New Keynote Project 338
Opening a Keynote Presentation 339
Saving Your Presentation 340
Putting Keynote to Work 340
Adding Slides 342
Working with Text and Graphics Boxes 342
Adding and Editing Slide Text 343
Formatting Slide Text for the Perfect Look 344
Using Presenter’s Notes in Your Project 344
Every Good Presentation Needs Media 345
Adding a Background Shape 346
Creating Your Keynote Slideshow 346
Printing Your Slides and Notes 347
PART 6: THE NECESSARY EVILS: TROUBLESHOOTING, UPGRADING, MAINTAINING 351
CHAPTER 20: It Just Sits There 353
Repeat after Me: Yes, I Am a Tech! 354
Step-by-Step iMac Troubleshooting 354
The number-one rule: Reboot! 355
Special keys that can come in handy 356
All hail Disk Utility, the troubleshooter’s friend 358
Mark’s iMac Troubleshooting Tree 361
Okay, I Kicked It, and It Still Won’t Work 365
Local service, at your service 365
The OS X Help Center 365
Apple Help Online 366
CHAPTER 21: I Want to Add Stuff 367
More Memory Will Help 368
Figuring out how much memory you have 368
Installing memory modules 370
Can I Upgrade My Hard Drive? 373
Consider your external options 374
Gotta have internal 376
Weighing Attractive Add-Ons 377
CHAPTER 22: Tackling the Housekeeping 379
Cleaning Unseemly Data Deposits 379
Getting dirty (or cleaning things the manual way) 380
Using a commercial cleanup tool 382
Backing Up Your Treasure 384
Saving Files 384
Putting Things Right with Time Machine 386
Maintaining Hard Drive Health 388
Automating Those Mundane Chores 389
Updating OS X Automatically 391
PART 7: THE PART OF TENS 393
CHAPTER 23: Ten Ways to Speed Up Your iMac 395
Nothing Works Like a Shot of Memory 396
Hold a Conversation with Your iMac 396
Vamoose, Unwanted Fragments! 396
Keep Your Desktop Background Simple 397
Column Mode Is for Power Users 397
Make the Dock Do Your Bidding 398
It All Started with Keyboard Shortcuts 398
Hey, You Tweaked Your Finder! 398
Keep in Touch with Your Recent Past 399
Go Where the Going Is Good 399
CHAPTER 24: Ten Things to Avoid Like the Plague 401
Keep Things Cool 402
Phishing Is No Phun 402
Don’t Rely on a Single Password 403
Do You Really Want a Submerged Keyboard? 403
Don’t Use Antiquated Utility Software 404
Don’t Endorse Software Piracy 404
Call It the Forbidden Account 405
Don’t Settle for a Surge Suppressor 405
Refurbished Hardware Is No Deal at All 406
iMacs Appreciate iCleanliness 406
Index 407
About the Author :
Mark L. Chambers has been a technical author, computer consultant, BBS sysop, programmer, and hardware technician for more than 30 years. One of the world's most productive and bestselling computer book authors, he has written more than 30 books that have been translated into 15 languages. Check out his website at www.mlcbooks.com.
