Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com.
In this episode let's check out ten small
but useful features of macOS Catalina that
you should try right away.
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So there are a lot of big new changes in macOS
Catalina.
But like every macOS update there are also
all these small little useful things that
you should know about.
So let's take a look at ten features that
I think you'll find very useful.
So let's start off by looking at something
that's rarely mentioned but you're bound to
notice it pretty quickly when you upgrade
to Catalina.
The green button on all windows you can use
that to go full screen and you can also use
that to go to split screen view.
But now with Catalina it's a little more obvious
what it does because if you hover your cursor
over it you get a little menu here that gives
you all the options.
So instead of having to kind of guess and
remember how it works you can just hover over
it and select one of these.
Go full screen or tile to one side and then
select another app there for the other side.
Likewise when you're in full screen mode if
you hover over it you'll see Exit full screen.
Also if you have an iPad near by that's using
iOS 13 and the same Apple ID as your Mac you
get the option here to use the new SIdecar
feature.
Now Dark Mode isn't new for Catalina but there
is a new feature.
If you go to System Preferences and General
you have not only Light and Dark modes that
you can switch between but a new Auto mode.
If you use that then at night is will switch
to Dark mode automatically and then back to
Light mode in the morning.
There are also minor new things in the Mail
app.
But the one that I like the most is the ability
to easily block a sender.
So if you're getting something from a company
and they just won't stop, even if you unsubscribe,
you can click on their email address here
and then there's a Block Contact.
You'll see this message is blocked from the
sender up here and a shortcut to the preferences.
You can also just go to Mail Preferences and
then look under Junk Mail.
There's a tab here for Blocked.
Here you can see that it's enabled.
There's that email address in the list and
you can add some manually and remove any that
you want and determine what happens when you
get an email message from someone in this
list.
This really isn't useful for spam because
spam is always going to come from some random
address, and sometimes from a legitimate address
that they're faking.
So this really can't be used for junk mail
filtering but it is useful when you want to
block a real person or a real company from
sending you email because they just won't
stop.
Let's go back into System Preferences here
and there are a lot of new options under Accessibility.
But a couple small ones that haven't been
talked about much are Zoom style and Hover
Text.
Zoom style isn't new.
You were always able to go to Split Screen
and Picture in Picture for it.
What's new is Full Screen.
This works is you have more than one screen
attached to your Mac.
So a second screen attached to your MacBook
or you just have multiple screens attached
to your Desktop.
If you choose Full Screen then you Choose
Display and the second display acts as a Zoom
for the primary display.
Hover Text is really cool.
If you turn it on then hold the Command key
down as you move over text the text will enlarge.
Just about any text will enlarge.
So you can be in the Finder here now and you
can look at all the different text.
You can be in all sorts of different apps
and read the text in all sorts of different
places just by holding the Command key down
when you have this option turned on.
You can also go to Options here.
Change the modifier, change the location of
the text, the size of it, and what font is
used.
Also in Accessibility under Display you now
have the option to use color filters and tint
your entire display.
So you can enable these color filters, decide
what you want to use here, use Color Tint
and pick a color and the intensity for it
and it will tint the display.
It's something you actually see live on your
physical display.
Now one of the new things in QuickTime Player
is the ability to go Picture in Picture with
QuickTime Player.
You're watching any video that you opened
in the Quicktime Player.
You've got this Picture in Picture button
here and now you can be viewing it in any
corner of the screen.
You can stretch it a little bit to make it
bigger or smaller and then you can Exit and
go back to the regular view in QuickTime like
that.
In addition you've got Picture in Picture
in Safari.
Now you had it before but the problem was
it worked differently for different types
of videos.
For YouTube, for QuickTime video embedded
in a page, for all sorts of different things
it worked in different ways.
Now if you're playing video in a page and
you actually get the little speaker icon there
you can click and hold that speaker icon and
use that for Picture in Picture in a consistent
way.
So now you can see I've got it here and I
can exit and go back to the webpage like that.
Now while we're in Safari there's a cool new
feature in the Address Bar here.
Of course you can search the web, you can
enter webpage addresses, and do all sorts
of things here.
But a new thing is to be able to find Tabs.
So if you've got like thirty tabs open this
will be really useful for you because you
can type something and one of the results
you get is Switch to Tab.
So you can do this all with the keyboard.
You can Command L to go to the address bar,
type something, arrow down, and hit Return
and it jumps to that tab.
So not a big deal for these four tabs but
if you're one of those people who have tons
of tabs open it will be easy to switch to
it.
You kind of get reminded that you have this
opened as well.
So you go to a site like this and you'll see
Switch to Tab here.
You'll be like, oh yeah I've got a tab for
that website already opened.
So one last little tip here that not many
people are mentioning.
If you're using iCloud Drive and you have
Optimized turned on you may have some documents
that have been downloaded to your Mac, like
these here, and then some that aren't.
You can see this little cloud icon there saying
this one is in the cloud.
Now if you have a large file and you want
to get it off your drive you can Control click
on it and there's a new option called Remove
Download.
What this does is it forces the file off your
drive so it restores that space.
Because it's in the cloud you'll still see
it here and when you open you'll be able to
just load it automatically and see it.
You can, of course, Control click on it and
use Download Now to grab it without even opening
it.
So really useful for those that are using
the Optimize feature for iCloud drive.
Here's a bonus tip.
In System Preferences if you go to your Apple
ID then you can now see a list here at the
bottom left of all the devices that have been
setup with your Apple ID.
Then you can select a device and get information
about it and remove it from the account if
you no longer have it.
Now remember there are a lot of big new changes
as well.
We've looked at some in previous episodes
and we'll be looking at more, like all the
new features of Notes and Reminders, in episodes
to come.
