MacBook For Dummies

Mark L. Chambers has been an author, computer consultant, BBS sysop, programmer, and hardware technician for over 30 years. Mark has written more than thirty computer books including Macs For Seniors For Dummies, 3rd Edition, and iMac For Dummies, 9th Edition .

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: Tie Myself Down with a Desktop? Preposterous! 5


Chapter 1: Hey, It Really Does Have Everything I Need 7


An Overview of Your Mac Laptop 8


Meet the MacBooks 15


Location, Location, Location! 20


Unpacking and Connecting Your Laptop 21


Great, a Lecture about Handling My Laptop 23


An Overview of Mac Software Goodness 23


Other Stuff That Nearly Everyone Wants 26


Chapter 2: Turning On Your Portable Powerhouse 29


Tales of the On Button 30


Mark’s Favorite Signs of a Healthy Laptop 31


You Won’t Lecture Me about Batteries, Will You? 32


Setting Up and Registering Your Laptop 34


Importing Stuff from Another Mac 37


Importing Stuff from Windows (If You Must) 39


Chapter 3: The MacBook Owner’s Introduction to macOS High Sierra 41


Your Own Personal Operating System 42


Wait a Second: Where the Heck Are the Mouse Buttons? 47


Launching and Quitting Applications with Aplomb 50


Performing Tricks with Finder Windows 54


Juggling Folders and Icons 58


Keys and Keyboard Shortcuts to Fame and Fortune 65


Home, Sweet Home Folder 67


Working with Mission Control, Spaces, and Dashboard 69


Personalizing Your Desktop 72


Customizing the Dock 74


What’s with the Trash? 77


All You Really Need to Know about Printing 78


And Just in Case You Need Help 80


Part 2: Shaking Hands with macOS High Sierra 83


Chapter 4: What’s New in macOS High Sierra? 85


Under the Hood: The New Apple File System 86


Under the Hood: Better Video 87


Under the Hood: Improved Graphics and Virtual Reality 87


Adding Functionality to Photos 87


Improved Siri to the Rescue 88


Banish Scams and Advertisements! 89


Sharing the Joy of iCloud Drive 89


Away with Autoplay Videos! 90


Chapter 5: A Nerd’s Guide to System Preferences 91


An Explanation — without Jargon, No Less 92


Locating That Certain Special Setting 94


Popular Preferences Panes Explained 95


Chapter 6: Sifting Through Your Stuff 111


Doing a Basic Search 112


How Cool Is That? Discovering What Spotlight Can Do 114


Expanding Your Search Horizons 116


Customizing Spotlight to Your Taste 118


Chapter 7: Using Reminders, Notes, Notifications, and Maps 121


Remind Me to Use Reminders 122


Taking Notes the High Sierra Way 125


Staying Current with Notification Center 126


Introducing the Maps Application 129


Switching Views in Maps 131


Getting Directions Over Yonder 132


Part 3: Connecting and Communicating 135


Chapter 8: Let’s Go on Safari! 137


Pretend You’ve Never Used This Thing 138


Visiting Websites 139


Navigating the Web 141


Setting Up Your Home Page 144


Adding and Using Bookmarks 145


Working with the Reading List 147


Downloading Files 148


Using History 149


Tabs Are Your Browsing Friends 150


Printing Web Pages 152


Protecting Your Privacy 153


Chapter 9: iCloud Is Made for MacBooks 157


So How Does iCloud Work, Anyway? 158


Moving, Saving, and Opening iCloud Documents 159


Putting Handoff to Work 160


Configuring iCloud 161


Managing Your iCloud Storage 163


Chapter 10: Your Laptop Goes Multiuser 165


Once Upon a Time (An Access Fairy Tale) 166


Big-Shot Administrator Stuff 167


Mundane Chores for the Multiuser Laptop 180


Chapter 11: Working Well with Networks 187


What Exactly Is the Network Advantage? 188


Should You Go Wired or Wireless? 189


Be a Pal: Share Your Internet! 191


What Do I Need to Connect? 192


Connecting to the Network 201


USE YOUR FIREWALL! 205


Part 4: Living the iLife 209


Chapter 12: The Multimedia Joy of iTunes 211


What Can I Play on iTunes? 212


Playing an Audio CD 213


Playing Digital Audio Files 214


Watching Video 219


Keeping Slim Whitman and Slim Shady Apart: Organizing with Playlists 220


Know Your Songs 222


Ripping Audio Files 224


Tweaking the Audio for Your Ears 225


A New Kind of Radio Station 226


iTunes and iCloud Together 228


iSending iStuff to iPod, iPhone, and iPad 229


Sharing Your Media Across Your Network 230


Burning Music to Shiny Plastic Circles 231


Feasting on iTunes Visuals 233


Exercising Parental Authority 233


Buying Digital Media the Apple Way 235


Chapter 13: Focusing on Photos 237


Delving into Photos 237


Working with Images in Photos 240


Producing Your Own Coffee-Table Masterpiece 253


Exploring iCloud Photo Library 257


Putting My Photo Stream and iCloud Photo Sharing to Work 258


Chapter 14: Making Film History with iMovie 261


Shaking Hands with the iMovie Window 262


A Bird’s-Eye View of Moviemaking 265


Importing the Building Blocks 265


Building the Cinematic Basics 271


Creating an Honest-to-Goodness Movie Trailer 277


Sharing Your Finished Classic with Others 279


Chapter 15: Recording Your Hits with GarageBand 281


Shaking Hands with Your Band 282


Composing Made Easy 284


Sharing Your Songs 295


Part 5: Getting Productive and Maintaining Your Macbook 299


Chapter 16: Desktop Publishing with Pages 301


Creating a New Pages Document 302


Open an Existing Pages Document 303


Saving Your Work 303


Touring the Pages Window 304


Entering and Editing Text 305


Using Text, Shapes, and Graphics Boxes 305


The Three Amigos: Cut, Copy, and Paste 306


Formatting Text the Easy Way 307


Adding a Spiffy Table 308


Adding Alluring Photos 309


Adding a Background Shape 310


Are You Sure about That Spelling? 311


Printing Your Pages Documents 311


Sharing That Poster with Others 312


Chapter 17: Creating Spreadsheets with Numbers 313


Before You Launch Numbers 314


Creating a New Numbers Document 314


Opening an Existing Spreadsheet File 315


Save Those Spreadsheets! 316


Exploring the Numbers Window 317


Navigating and Selecting Cells in a Spreadsheet 318


Entering and Editing Data in a Spreadsheet 319


Selecting the Correct Number Format 320


Aligning Cell Text Just So 321


Formatting with Shading 322


Inserting and Deleting Rows and Columns 323


The Formula Is Your Friend 323


Adding Visual Punch with a Chart 325


Printing Your Spreadsheet 326


Chapter 18: Building Presentations with Keynote 329


Creating a New Keynote Project 330


Opening a Keynote Presentation 331


Saving Your Presentation 332


Putting Keynote to Work 332


Adding Slides 334


Working with Text, Shapes and Graphics Boxes 334


Adding and Editing Slide Text 335


Formatting Slide Text for the Perfect Look 336


Using Presenter’s Notes in Your Project 336


Every Good Presentation Needs Media 337


Adding a Background Shape 338


Creating Your Keynote Slideshow 338


Printing Your Slides and Notes 339


Chapter 19: When Good Mac Laptops Go Bad 343


Repeat after Me: Yes, I Am a Tech! 344


Step-by-Step Laptop Troubleshooting 345


Okay, I Kicked It, and It Still Won’t Work 356


And Now. . . Windows? 357


Chapter 20: Adding New Stuff to Your Laptop 361


More Memory Will Help 362


Considering a Hard Drive Upgrade? 367


A List of Dreamy Laptop Add-Ons 370


Chapter 21: Tackling the Housekeeping 373


Cleaning Unseemly Data Deposits 374


Backing Up Your Treasure 378


Maintaining Hard Drive Health 382


Automating Those Mundane Chores 382


Updating macOS Automatically 385


Part 6: The Part of Tens 387


Chapter 22: Ten Laptop Rules to Follow 389


Keep Your Laptop in a Bag 390


Maximize Your RAM 390


Install a Tracker Application 391


Keepeth Thy Drive Encrypted 391


Brand Your MacBook 392


Disable Your Wireless 392


Take a Surge Protector with You 393


Use Power-Saving Features 394


Use an External Keyboard and Mouse 394


Not Again! What Is It with You and Backing Up? 395


Chapter 23: Ten Things to Avoid Like the Plague 397


USB 1.1 Storage Devices 398


Phishing Operations 398


Oddly Shaped Optical Discs 399


Submerged Keyboards 400


Antiquated Utility Software 400


Software Piracy 401


The Forbidden Account 401


Unsecured Wireless Connections 402


Refurbished Hardware 403


Dirty Laptops 403


Index 405