Take Control Of Ventura Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle version is available to download in english. Read online anytime anywhere directly from your device. Click on the download button below to get a free pdf file of Take Control Of Ventura book. This book definitely worth reading, it is an incredibly well-written.
Meet the latest version of macOS Version 1.2, updated May 11, 2023 macOS 13 Ventura brings important new usability, security, and convenience features to your Mac. Learn how to upgrade your Mac from an earlier version of macOS, find your way around the new system, and make use of the interesting new capabilities such as Stage Manager, Passkeys, and even a way to use your iPhone as a webcam. macOS 13 Ventura may look a lot like its predecessor, macOS 12 Monterey, but it packs a lot of useful new features (along with some potentially confusing user interface choices). Joe Kissell once again provides a complete guide to the upgrade process, as well as an in-depth look at what's new. While Stage Manager provides yet another way to manage your windows, apps like Mail and Messages finally offer solutions to longstanding irritations, Continuity Camera learns some fancy new tricks, and macOS offers even more options to manage your privacy and security. Take Control of Ventura walks you through all these changes. This book teaches you things like: • How to tell whether your Mac is compatible with Ventura • Steps you should take before upgrading • How to perform an in-place upgrade—or do a clean install and migrate your old data from a backup • Adapting to the sometimes-confusing new System Settings app, which replaces System Preferences • Managing windows and apps with Stage Manager • New Mail features—undo sending a message, schedule a message, follow up on messages awaiting replies, and more • Editing or unsending messages in the Messages app • Using new Safari 16 features, such as shared tab groups and editable suggested passwords • Understanding passkeys, which promise to replace passwords in many places—eventually • How to share a Photos library with family and friends • Using Continuity Camera to turn your iPhone into a webcam • Small but interesting changes throughout macOS, such as accessibility improvements, new features in Focus and Dictation, and expanded Live Text capabilities • How to use the brand-new Weather app • Improvements to bundled apps, including FaceTime, Maps, Notes, Reminders, and more
Take Control of Preview by Josh Centers,Adam Engst Pdf
Discover Preview’s hidden features for editing images and manipulating PDFs! Version 1.3, updated May 24, 2023 Apple's Preview app is bundled with every Mac and yet many Mac users have only a shallow understanding of what it's capable of. Mac experts Adam Engst and Josh Centers have plumbed Preview's depths to create a cheerful, colorful book that explains dozens of techniques for importing, viewing, editing, and converting images in Preview. It also puts you in control of reading, annotating, manipulating, and encrypting PDFs.n Packed with real-world examples and tips, the book teaches you how to bring files into Preview from a camera, iOS or iPadOS device, or scanner (or just from the Finder). Once you discover Preview's surprisingly capable collection of image-editing tools, you'll soon be editing imported photos by tweaking the exposure, color saturation, sharpness, and more. You can even mark up your images with circles, arrows, and text, plus numerous other shapes. In the second part of the book, Adam and Josh focus on PDFs in Preview, describing how to configure Preview to make reading PDFs as fluid as possible. Since so many paper forms now come in PDF, the book shows you how to fill out PDF-based forms, complete with quick insertion of your digital signature. Those who read digital textbooks or who collaborate on documents will learn to annotate PDFs with highlights, notes, and bookmarks. You'll even learn how to create PDFs from a scanner, the clipboard, and the Print dialog. Finally, Adam and Josh cover various ways protect your PDFs, including encrypting them, restricting permissions, and redacting portions of them. Preview is a veritable Swiss Army Knife. Don't miss out on the many ways it can make your life easier, including these capabilities: • Import photos from your iPhone or iPad. • Scan paper-based documents and images. • Add a scanned page to an existing PDF. • Take a screenshot that includes the pointer. • Open hundreds of images in a single window. • Trash unwanted images with a keystroke. • Duplicate, rename, and move images without leaving Preview. • Play a manually arranged slideshow of images or PDF pages. • Resize and change the resolution of images. • Crop out undesirable content. • Identify people, landmarks, and objects in images. • Mark up screenshots with shapes and text labels. • Magnify a portion of an image with a loupe. • Add text captions and speech bubbles to photos. • Tweak the white point and black point in photos. • Make photos sepia or black-and-white. • Edit a photo while comparing it to its original version. • Export to any of numerous formats, including HEIC. • Put thumbnails, table of contents, notes, or bookmarks in your sidebar. • View search results by rank or page order. • Copy text and images from a PDF, and copy text from any image. • Highlight text just like you would in a college textbook. • Add notes to highlighted text and as freestanding objects. • Review notes in the sidebar or Annotations inspector. • Create bookmarks to pages you want to revisit quickly. • Annotate a PDF with customizable shapes and arrows. • Fill in PDF forms, whether or not they’re interactive. • Create and insert a digital version of your signature into PDF forms. • Add, remove, and rearrange pages in a PDF. • Rotate PDF pages that were scanned at the wrong orientation. • Encrypt PDFs so they can’t be opened without a password. • Set restrictions on who can perform various actions on a PDF document. • Redact sensitive information from a PDF.
Take Control of macOS Media Apps by Kirk McElhearn Pdf
Discover Apple's Music, TV, Podcasts, and Books apps Version 1.9, updated April 12, 2024 Are you bewildered with the apps that replaced iTunes in macOS? Befuddled by Apple Music? Do you want to customize the Music app sidebar? Wish you could organize your podcasts? Wondering what the difference is between loves and stars? In this book, Kirk McElhearn (author of three previous Take Control titles on iTunes, going back to 2010) explains not only how Apple's media apps work, but also how normal people can make the Music, TV, Podcasts, and Books apps do what they want. Starting in macOS 10.15 Catalina, Apple finally did away with iTunes. In its place are three new apps—Music, TV, and Podcasts—with audiobooks now handled by the Books app and syncing of mobile devices handled by the Finder. Where once iTunes was an all-purpose media hub, now you may use up to five apps to accomplish the same things. The new apps also add more features (while, sadly, removing a few things too). Take Control of macOS Media Apps is your guide to the post-iTunes world. Kirk McElhearn, whose earlier books on iTunes 10, 11, and 12 collectively sold nearly 14,000 copies, is back with a new book that shows you how to manage your music, videos, podcasts, and audiobooks in Catalina and later. Whether you just want to play your media, or you want to go deeper with special features like Genius, Shuffle, Playing Next, Apple Music, and iTunes Match, this comprehensive guide has the answers you need. Kirk also looks at various ways of bringing audio and video into Apple's media apps, tagging songs and videos so you can find them more easily later, creating playlists, sharing your library over a home network, and syncing media with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod. The book covers how to: • Play Music: Learn the basics of playing audio (and even music videos) in the Music app. You'll also find tips on making quick playlists with Genius and Playing Next, learn the best ways to search for the music you want to hear, stream music to other devices in your home, and view lyrics while tunes play. • Stream Music: Use Apple Music, a paid service, to listen to any of 100 million tracks. Or listen to live broadcasts from Apple Music Radio (including Apple Music 1). • View Your Music and Other Content: Learn how to use the sidebar, view your music library, and work with contextual menus in the Music app. • Store Your Music Library in the Cloud: What are the pros and cons of using the Sync Library setting to store your music in the cloud? How do Music and iTunes Match figure out whether to upload your music when that setting is enabled? You’ll get answers to these questions and more. • Use the iTunes Store: iTunes may be gone, but the iTunes Store is still open for business! Find tips on shopping in the iTunes Store, and get advice on sharing your purchases with family members and among your various Apple devices. • Tag Your Music: Tags are bits of information (also known as “metadata”) that can describe your media. Learn which tags to bother changing, the best ways to add lyrics and album art, how to rate songs with stars, loves, or both, and more. • Organize Your Music: Make a simple playlist of romantic songs, workout songs, or whatever theme you like. You’ll learn how to create smart playlists that, for example, comprise only your 5-star faves or only tunes you haven’t heard recently, and how to transfer playlists to the Apple Watch. You’ll also find help with operational issues like eliminating duplicates from your music library. • Manage and Share Media Files: Whether you want to casually share a playlist from your laptop when visiting a friend or you want to make all your media available on all your home’s computers, you’ll find out how Media Sharing and Home Sharing make sharing possible. You'll also learn how to manage massive media libraries and store media files on external drives. • Listen to Audiobooks: Discover how to download and play audiobooks in the Books app, and how to manage your audiobook library. • View Movies and TV Shows: Use the TV app (with or without the forthcoming Apple TV+ service) to watch videos, including those purchased or rented from the iTunes Store and those you add yourself. • Listen to and Watch Podcasts: You’ll be sampling and subscribing to podcasts in no time with Kirk’s advice, plus you’ll pick a method of syncing podcast episodes to your iPhone or iPad and even learn about creating your own podcast station. • Sync Media: You’ve put all your media on your Mac…now, how do you transfer it to a mobile Apple device such as an iPhone, an iPad, an old-school iPod, or an Apple Watch? And how do you use an Apple TV to enjoy the media on your Mac? Learn the best approach for your situation. • Rip, Burn, and Print: Add content to your media apps with Kirk’s detailed steps for “ripping” music CDs and audiobooks. Also learn how to burn music from Music onto a CD, and get directions for printing a song list—for example, to include in the jewel case of said CD. • Extend with AppleScript: Mac users can make the Music and TV apps do more with AppleScript. Learn about key AppleScripts that you can download to make your media apps jump through even more hoops.
63 Documents the Government Doesn't Want You to Read by Jesse Ventura,Dick Russell Pdf
Analyzes a series of public domain documents which demonstrate how the government has misled the public, engaging in deception about the objectives and scope of some of its programs and perpetuating wasteful spending and harmful cover-ups.
Manage your information with the powerful tools in DEVONthink 3 Version 1.15, updated December 29, 2023 This book teaches you the basics of DEVONthink 3 and DEVONthink To Go for iOS/iPadOS. You’ll learn how to find your way around, get information into and out of DEVONthink, and make the most of the app's key features.n With the information-management app DEVONthink 3, you no longer have to swim in a sea of web bookmarks, email receipts, RSS feeds, scanned memos, and downloaded bank statements. DEVONthink stores your digital documents and clippings, helps you scan and store paper documents, and serves as home base for organizing and viewing all your information. But mastering all that power can take effort, and this book—created in partnership with DEVONtechnologies—has the real-world advice you need to understand how DEVONthink can bring order to your information. You’ll also learn how to extend your DEVONthink experience beyond your main Mac with detailed coverage of the many ways you can sync DEVONthink databases to other Macs and to iOS/iPadOS devices using the DEVONthink To Go app. After covering essential DEVONthink vocabulary and concepts, including the completely reworked user interface of DEVONthink 3, Joe helps you start using DEVONthink effectively. You'll learn how to: • Decide how many databases you need and set them up • Determine whether to input or index data • Configure where incoming data will go • Import data from many different apps • Import data from a scanner, including OCR options • Use grouping and tagging to organize data • Add and work with DEVONthink 3's expanded metadata capabilities • Use simple (and sophisticated) techniques for searching • Create smart groups that automatically gather newly imported data • Use smart rules and AppleScript to automate countless activities within DEVONthink • Create documents in plain text, HTML, Markdown, and more • Edit documents in DEVONthink (or externally) • Find the best way to sync DEVONthink data with other devices • Work with reminders, smart templates, and other sophisticated tools • Convert documents between formats • Effectively use the DEVONthink To Go iOS/iPadOS app • Share DEVONthink documents with other people • Export documents from DEVONthink • Back up and maintain healthy databases Questions answered in the book include: • What is DEVONthink good for, and what should be left to other apps? • What kinds of data can I import? (Short answer: Nearly everything!) • How can I display my data in a way that works well for me? • When I import documents from different sources, where do they end up, and why? • Is it better to sort imported documents right away, or leave them for later? • Should I group my data, tag it, or both? • What are duplicates and replicants, and how can I tell them apart? • Which types of data can be created or edited within DEVONthink? • How do I make my DEVONthink database accessible via the web using DEVONthink Server? • How do I move documents out of DEVONthink using the Share feature? • How do I use DEVONthink To Go on my iOS/iPadOS device? Plus, we now plan to update this free book approximately four times per year for the foreseeable future to cover ongoing changes in DEVONthink and add new tips and advice!
Take Control of 1Password, 6th Edition by Joe Kissell Pdf
Easily create and enter secure passwords on all your devices! Version 6.2, updated March 20, 2024 Annoyed by having to type hard-to-remember passwords? Let 1Password do the heavy lifting. With coverage of 1Password version 8 for Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS/iPadOS, Android, and Apple Watch, author Joe Kissell shows you how to generate and enter secure passwords, speed up your online shopping, and share and sync web logins and other confidential data. Wrangling your web passwords can be easy and secure, thanks to 1Password, the popular password manager from AgileBits. In this book, Joe Kissell brings years of real-world 1Password experience into play to explain not only how to create, edit, and enter web login data easily, but also how to autofill contact and credit card info when shopping online, audit your passwords and generate better ones, handle two-factor authentication (2FA), sync data across devices using a hosted 1Password account (individual, family, or business), and securely share passwords with family members, coworkers, and friends. This fully revised sixth edition covers 1Password version 8 for Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS/iPadOS, Android, and Apple Watch. It does not include instructions for using earlier versions of 1Password. Topics include: Meet 1Password: Set your master password, explore the various 1Password components, and decide on your ideal usage strategy. What's New in Version 8: 1Password 8 unifies features and interface across platforms and adds important new features—but it also includes some controversial changes. Learn what has changed, how to migrate from older versions, and what new behaviors you must adjust to. Master logins: In 1Password, a typical login contains a set of credentials used to sign in to a website. Find out how to create logins, sort them, search them, tag them, and more. You’ll also find help with editing logins—for example, changing a password or adding further details. Understand password security: Get guidance on what makes for a good password, and read Joe’s important Password Dos and Don’ts. A special topic covers how to perform a security audit in order to improve poor passwords quickly. Go beyond web logins: A primary point of 1Password is to speed up web logins, but 1Password can also store and autofill contact information (for more than one identity, even), along with credit card information. You’ll also find advice on storing SSH keys, passwords for password-protected files and encrypted disk images, confidential files, software licenses, scans of important cards or documents, and more. Sync your passwords: Discover how a hosted 1Password account can sync all your data securely across your devices. Share your passwords: Learn to store passwords within a family or team hosted account, or even with people who don't already use 1Password at all. You’ll also discover the answers to key questions, including: • Should I keep using my web browser’s autofill feature? • What about iCloud Keychain? Should I use that too? • Do I need the full 1Password app, or is the browser extension enough? • How does the Universal Autofill feature for Mac work across browsers and apps? • What are passkeys, and what can 1Password do with them? • How can 1Password help me with sites where I sign in with my Apple, Google, or Facebook account? • What's the easy way to prevent sensitive information from falling into the wrong hands at a border crossing? • What can I do quickly to get better password security? • How can I find and update weak passwords I created long ago? • What should I do about security questions, like the name of my pet? • How can 1Password provide a time-based one-time password (TOTP)?
Take Control of iCloud, 9th Edition by Joe Kissell Pdf
Understand iCloud’s capabilities and limitations, and put its key features to good use! Version 9.1, updated January 16, 2024 Apple’s iCloud service is highly useful, but it can also create headaches for the average user. In this book, Joe Kissell explains how to avoid frustrations and make iCloud work for you across all your devices. iCloud is a simple idea in theory—access to all your data on all your devices, via the cloud—that can become complicated when put into practice. Instead of wasting time fiddling with iCloud, when there are many other more important things to be done with the information it contains, learn how to minimize frustrations with Take Control of iCloud, Ninth Edition! Whether you want a quick tip or a deep dive into the inner workings of iCloud, you’ll find what you need in this best-selling book by Apple expert Joe Kissell. Start by learning what iCloud can do, how it differs from other cloud services, and how best to set it up on Macs, iOS and iPadOS devices, Apple TVs, and Windows PCs. Then, move on to finding out the key aspects—and hidden gotchas—of iCloud’s core features, including: • iCloud+, Apple's paid membership tiers with extra features • Photo features: iCloud Photos, iCloud Photo Sharing, and iCloud Shared Photo Library • Family Sharing • iTunes Match and iCloud Music Library • iCloud Drive • Mail and Mail Drop • Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, and Notes • iCloud Keychain • the iCloud website • Location features: Find My Device, Find My Item, Find My People, and the Find My app • Two-factor authentication • Activation lock • Backing up and recovering data • Managing your privacy and security (including the use of Advanced Data Protection) This edition not only covers the changes to iCloud in macOS 14 Sonoma, iOS 178, and iPadOS 17 but also includes details about recent changes to iCloud that span operating systems, including the iCloud website. It also continues to cover macOS 10.15 Catalina, macOS 11 Big Sur, macOS 12 Monterey, macOS 13 Ventura and iOS 16/iPadOS 16, but drops coverage of earlier operating system versions.
Take Control of Apple Mail, 6th Edition by Joe Kissell Pdf
Master Mail in macOS, iOS, and iPadOS! Version 6.1, updated January 18, 2024 Use Apple Mail more effectively! Email expert Joe Kissell explains what's new with Mail for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS, and how to best set up your Gmail, iCloud, IMAP, and Exchange accounts. He then shows you how to take Mail to the next level with plugins and automation, manage your incoming email, customize Mail, and solve common problems. Take Control of Apple Mail is your complete guide to Apple's Mail app. In this book, Joe explains core concepts like special IMAP mailboxes and email archiving, reveals Mail's hidden interface elements and gestures, and helps with common tasks like addressing and adding attachments. He also offers tips on customizing Mail, including a nifty chapter on how simple plugins and special automation can dramatically improve the way you use Mail. Joe also covers finding that message in the haystack with Mail's natural-language search, improving the messages you send, how digital signatures and encryption work in Mail, and—perhaps most important—an award-winning strategy for avoiding email overload. You’ll quickly find the information that’s most important to you, including: • Key changes in Mail for Sonoma, Ventura, iOS 17/iPadOS 17, and iOS 16/iPadOS 16, such as automated handling of two-factor verification codes, link tracking protection, discontinuation of plugin support in favor of extensions, unsending messages, scheduling messages to send later, following up on messages awaiting replies, reminding yourself about important messages in your Inbox, getting notifications for missing attachments and recipients, and more • How to take advantage of the new Mail privacy features Mail Privacy Protection and Hide My Email • Getting through your email faster with gestures • Using advanced search techniques to find filed messages • Using third-party add-ons to significantly enhance how you use Mail • The whys and hows of sending attachments • Using markup features to embellish, and even sign, outgoing attachments • Defeating spam with the Junk Mail filter—and what to do if you need more firepower • Understanding special mailboxes like Sent, Drafts, and Junk • Using notifications to stay apprised of incoming messages • Taking charge of email organization with rules and other measures • Backing up and restoring email • Importing email from other apps, older versions of Mail, or another Mac • Deciding whether you should encrypt your email, along with detailed, real-world steps for signing and encrypting messages • Taking Mail to the next level with AppleScript and Automator • Key skills for using Mail in iOS and iPadOS, such as working with incoming and outgoing messages, using attachments, and configuring accounts • Fixing problems: receiving, sending, logging in, bad mailboxes, and more Although this book primarily covers Mail in Sonoma, Ventura, Monterey, Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave, iOS 17/iPadOS 17, and iOS 16/iPadOS 16, the majority of it is also applicable to earlier versions.
Take Control of Your Passwords, 4th Edition by Joe Kissell Pdf
Overcome password frustration with Joe Kissell's expert advice! Version 4.1.1, updated March 21, 2024 Password overload has driven many of us to take dangerous shortcuts. If you think ZombieCat12 is a secure password, that you can safely reuse a password, or that no one would try to steal your password, think again! Overcome password frustration with expert advice from Joe Kissell! Passwords have become a truly maddening aspect of modern life, but with this book, you can discover how the experts handle all manner of password situations, including multi-factor authentication that can protect you even if your password is hacked or stolen. The book explains what makes a password secure and helps you create a strategy that includes using a password manager, working with oddball security questions like "What is your pet’s favorite movie?", and making sure your passwords are always available when needed. Joe helps you choose a password manager (or switch to a better one) in a chapter that discusses desirable features and describes nine different apps, with a focus on those that work in macOS, iOS, Windows, and Android. The book also looks at how you can audit your passwords to keep them in tip-top shape, use two-step verification and two-factor authentication, and deal with situations where a password manager can’t help. New in the Fourth Edition is complete coverage of passkeys, which offer a way to log in without passwords and are rapidly gaining popularity—but also come with a new set of challenges and complications. The book also now says more about passcodes for mobile devices. An appendix shows you how to help a friend or relative set up a reasonable password strategy if they're unable or unwilling to follow the recommended security steps, and an extended explanation of password entropy is provided for those who want to consider the math behind passwords. This book shows you exactly why: • 9-character passwords with upper- and lowercase letters, digits, and punctuation are not strong enough. • You cannot turn a so-so password into a great one by tacking a punctuation character and number on the end. • It is not safe to use the same password everywhere, even if it’s a great password. • A password is not immune to automated cracking because there’s a delay between login attempts. • Even if you’re an ordinary person without valuable data, your account may still be hacked, causing you problems. • You cannot manually devise “random” passwords that will defeat potential attackers. • Just because a password doesn’t appear in a dictionary, that does not necessarily mean that it’s adequate. • It is not a smart idea to change your passwords every month. • Truthfully answering security questions like “What is your mother’s maiden name?” does not keep your data more secure. • Adding a character to a 10-character password does not make it 10% stronger. • Easy-to-remember passwords like “correct horse battery staple” will not solve all your password problems. • All password managers are not pretty much the same. • Passkeys are beginning to make inroads, and may one day replace most—but not all!—of your passwords. • Your passwords will not be safest if you never write them down and keep them only in your head. But don’t worry, the book also teaches you a straightforward strategy for handling your passwords that will keep your data safe without driving you batty.
Take Control of Automating Your Mac, 5th Edition by Joe Kissell Pdf
Work faster, increase your efficiency, and have more fun with automation! Version 5.0, updated January 29, 2024 Ever wondered if automation could make your life easier? In Take Control of Automating Your Mac, Fifth Edition, Mac expert Joe Kissell shows you how to save time and aggravation by using numerous built-in macOS tools, as well as helpful third-party apps, to automate routine tasks and procedures.n Looking for ways to work smarter and faster with your Mac? In this updated and expanded fifth edition of his popular guide to Mac automation, Joe Kissell shows how anyone, at any level of experience, can save time and effort, and avoid unnecessary errors, by using automation techniques that range from the simplest keyboard shortcut to the most complicated script. In this book, Joe teaches you how to automate routine tasks in a wide variety of ways. You can begin by making the most of productivity features such as Siri, Spotlight (for launching apps), and text replacement—and then move on to the more sophisticated automation tools built into macOS, such as Shortcuts, Automator, AppleScript, services, and shell scripts. In addition, Joe gives extensive information about third-party automation apps that can make a huge difference to your work efficiency, such as Keyboard Maestro, TextExpander, OmniGraffle, and many more. As an extra bonus, the book includes coupons for discounts on seven automation apps! Whether you’re new to automation, you just need a refresher, or you’re experienced with automation but want to go deeper, this book can teach you the skills you need to automate with ease. Take back your time, work more efficiently, and have more fun with your Mac, with Take Control of Automating Your Mac, Fifth Edition! With this book, you’ll learn how to: • Get started with the built-in macOS automation tools, including Shortcuts, Automator, AppleScript, and shell scripts • Take full advantage of input devices to save clicks and keystrokes • Customize toolbars and your Touch Bar to put hard-to-find controls at your fingertips • Use your voice to control your Mac with Siri and Voice Control/Dictation Commands • Automate text expansion for faster, more consistent typing • Control the Finder with a launcher and by organizing files with Hazel • Supercharge your clipboard to remember and reformat previous copies • Write macros in Microsoft Office and Nisus Writer Pro • Create rules to file email automatically in Apple Mail and Outlook • Log in to websites faster with a password manager • Automate cloud services with IFTTT and Zapier • Set up automatic backup and syncing • Run tasks automatically with Login Items, Calendar events, or launchd • Use Omni Automation for JavaScript-based automation tasks • Control nearly anything on your Mac with Keyboard Maestro
Take Control of Shortcuts, 2nd Edition by Rosemary Orchard Pdf
Automate your iPhone, iPad, or Mac! Version 2.1, updated January 30, 2023 Automation is no longer just for advanced computer users! Apple's Shortcuts app lets anyone with an iPhone, iPad, or Mac automate day-to-day tasks, from the simple to the complex. This book is a complete introduction to Shortcuts, covering every aspect of building, installing, debugging, running, syncing, and sharing shortcuts. It also includes step-by-step recipes for creating numerous useful shortcuts yourself. Apple's Shortcuts app brings extensive automation capabilities to your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, using a drag-and-drop, fill-in-the-blanks interface much like Automator—but much more powerful. It lets you perform sequences of tasks, including ones that span various apps, with just a tap, a click, or a voice command—or even automatically when certain conditions are met. Shortcuts can save you time and effort, help you accomplish previously complicated tasks, and let you customize your device to better meet your needs. Apple finally brought Shortcuts to the Mac in macOS 12 Monterey. (The book now includes coverage of macOS Ventura, iOS 16, and iPadOS 16.) But for all its utility, Shortcuts is not self-explanatory, so it can be challenging to figure out its quirks and create effective, time-saving automations. That's where Take Control of Shortcuts comes in. Written by automation expert Rosemary Orchard, this book opens the world of automation to users at every level. With Rosemary's help, you'll learn how to: • Navigate the Shortcuts app: Understand the user interface (on each platform) and terminology, then install and run your first shortcut. • Run shortcuts: Discover many different ways to run a shortcut, from tapping or clicking an icon to using Personal or Home automations, Siri, and Apple Watch. • Build shortcuts: Start with simple, one-step shortcuts and work your way up to complex shortcuts with input, output, variables, conditionals, loops, and more. Debugging advice is also included. • Install and sync shortcuts: Download and install shortcuts others have written, sync your shortcuts across your devices, and share them with other people. Then, to both illustrate the main principles you've learned and give you practical tools to get you started, Rosemary walks you step by step through the creation of 25 sample shortcuts, most which you can also download and install using links in the book. Examples include: • Event templates • A daily overview • Converting and sharing images • Adding a song to a playlist • Logging expenses • Turning on lights automatically when you get home • Disabling rotation lock just for YouTube on an iPhone • Reminding you about upcoming deadlines 15 minutes after you arrive home • Automatically setting seasonal scenes for HomeKit lights The book also discusses how Shortcuts can use REST APIs to talk to various web services (with detailed examples), and numerous complementary apps that work in conjunction with Shortcuts. Whether you're completely new to automation or already have significant programming experience, you'll find plenty of useful information in this friendly, practical guide.
Take Control of Wi-Fi Networking and Security by Glenn Fleishman Pdf
Get more from your Wi-Fi network Version 1.4, updated November 21, 2022 Setting up and securing a Wi-Fi network can be complicated and confusing. This book helps you over every hurdle involved in picking gateways, setting up a network, adding devices, and securing the network and connected phones, tablets, and computers. It’s useful for those who have set up networks in the past and want to replace them with new gear, as well as people who have never built a Wi-Fi network before.n Perhaps you already have a Wi-Fi network running in your home and office, but you’re dissatisfied with it. Or maybe you’re setting up a new house, apartment, business, or school room with Wi-Fi and need to know the basics about what to get and how to configure it. In either case, this book is for you. After over 16 years of writing regularly about Wi-Fi and answering reader questions, author Glenn Fleishman finds that the same issues still crop up: • How do I spend the least money to the best effect? • What’s the best place to put my Wi-Fi gateways? • How can I get both high throughput (speed) on my network and solid coverage across everywhere I want to use Wi-Fi? • What can I do to secure my network against outsiders near my house and elsewhere on the internet? • How do I add networked hard drives and printers? • Interference is slowing my network; what can I do to reduce it? • What’s the best way to extend my network to a garage, yard, or nearby building? This book answers those questions in depth, as well as many others related to Wi-Fi, including how to set up a personal or mobile hotspot with all major operating systems, how to access computers on your network remotely, and why you should use a VPN (virtual private network). If you have any question about overhauling your network, setting up a new one, or just finally figuring out something that’s never worked, this book has the answer. Covers macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, and Chrome OS.
Take Control of the Mac Command Line with Terminal by Joe Kissell Pdf
Release your inner geek and learn to harness the power of the Unix underpinnings to Mac OS X! This 111-page ebook from Joe Kissell explains everything you need to know to become comfortable working on the command line in Terminal, and provides numerous "recipes" for performing useful tasks that can be tricky in a graphical interface.
Take Control of Apple Home Automation by Josh Centers Pdf
Manage your smart home with Apple’s HomeKit platform Version 1.5, updated February 22, 2023 Thanks to Apple's HomeKit platform, you can easily configure smart home devices (such as light bulbs, outlets, thermostats, sensors, cameras, and door locks) from a variety of manufacturers to behave exactly as you need them to; integrate them with a hub such as a HomePod or Apple TV; and control them with an iOS/iPadOS device, a Mac, an Apple Watch, Siri commands, or automated programming. This book gives you all the information you need to get started. "Smart home" devices are everywhere these days—you can buy internet-connected light bulbs, thermostats, door locks, sensors, and dozens of other products. But these devices aren't very smart on their own. Apple's HomeKit platform offers a way to integrate, monitor, control, and automate smart home devices from a wide variety of manufacturers. Using the built-in Home app on a Mac or iOS/iPadOS device (perhaps along with third-party apps), you can connect to your various smart devices, see what they're up to, control them, and even get them to operate on a schedule or respond to changing conditions in your home automatically. Even with HomeKit, however, home automation can be a daunting prospect. That's why Josh Centers wrote Take Control of Apple Home Automation. The book walks you carefully through every step of the process, showing you how you can start with a basic system that costs less than $50 and work your way up to as much complexity as you want or need. And you don't have to be a computer geek to simplify and improve your life with HomeKit-compatible products. Even if you don't know a wire nut from a macadamia or which end of a screwdriver to stick in a socket (spoiler: neither!), Josh's thorough advice will enable you to work wonders in your home. In this book, you'll learn: • The most common home automation myths (and why you shouldn't worry about them) • How to choose HomeKit-compatible devices that meet your needs, and which products you might want to avoid • Exactly what HomeKit is, what it does, how it works, and what its limitations are • Why you need a hub (in the form of an Apple TV, HomePod, or iPad) and how to set it up • Important safety rules for working with electrical products, especially those that require wiring • How to install advanced accessories such as a smart switch, thermostat, or door/window sensor—including illustrated, step-by-step instructions • What Apple's Home app for Mac and iOS/iPadOS does—and how to configure homes, zones, rooms, accessories, services, and scenes • Tips for controlling your smart home using a Mac, iOS/iPadOS device, Apple Watch, HomePod, or Siri • Ways to automate your smart home using schedules, sensors, geofencing, and other tools (without making your house seem haunted) • The best ways to troubleshoot home automation problems This book was sponsored by Elgato (the original makers of the Eve line of HomeKit devices, which spun off into a separate company in 2018), so many of the examples feature Eve products, although nearly all the advice in the book is applicable to HomeKit products from any manufacturer. (You'll also read about working with Philips Hue bulbs, ecobee thermostats, and numerous other devices.) If you're an Apple user who's interested in joining the smart home revolution—or adding even more smarts to your existing setup—this book is the ideal guide.
Take Control of the Mac Command Line with Terminal, 3rd Edition by Joe Kissell Pdf
Learn how to unleash your inner Unix geek! Version 3.3, updated February 12, 2024 This book introduces you to the Mac’s command line environment, teaching you how to use the Terminal utility to accomplish useful, interesting tasks that are either difficult or impossible to do in the graphical interface.n If you've ever thought you should learn to use the Unix command line that underlies macOS, or felt at sea when typing commands into Terminal, Joe Kissell is here to help! With this book, you'll become comfortable working on the Mac's command line, starting with the fundamentals and adding more advanced topics as your knowledge increases. Now includes complete coverage of Monterey, Big Sur, Catalina, and zsh! Joe includes 67 real-life "recipes" for tasks that are best done from the command line, as well as directions for working with permissions, carrying out grep-based searches, creating shell scripts, and installing Unix software. The book begins by teaching you these core concepts: • The differences among Unix, a command line, a shell, and Terminal • Exactly how commands, arguments, and flags work • The basics of Terminal's interface and how to customize it Next, it's on to the command line, where you'll learn: • How to navigate your Mac's directory structure • Basic file management: creating, copying, moving, renaming, opening, viewing, and deleting files • Creating symbolic links • The types of command-line programs • How to start and stop a command-line program • How to edit a text file in nano • How to customize your prompt and other shell defaults • The importance of your PATH and how to change it, if you need to • How to get help (Joe goes way beyond telling you to read the man pages) You'll extend your skills as you discover how to: • Create basic shell scripts to automate repetitive tasks. • Make shell scripts that have variables, user input, conditional statements, loops, and math. • See which programs are running and what system resources they're consuming. • Quit programs that refuse to quit normally. • Enable the command line to interact with the Finder. • Control another Mac via its command line with ssh. • Understand and change an item's permissions, owner, and group. • Run commands as the root user using sudo. • Handle output with pipe (|) or redirect (> or <). • Use grep to search for text patterns in files and filter output. • Install new command-line software from scratch or with a package manager. • Use handy shortcuts in the Terminal app itself and in zsh. Questions answered include: • What changed on the command line in recent versions of macOS? • What are the differences between the zsh shell and the bash shell? • Which shell am I using, and how can I change my default shell? • How do I quickly figure out the path to an item on my Mac? • How can I customize my Terminal window so I can see man pages behind it? • How can I make a shortcut to avoid retyping the same long command? • Is there a trick for entering a long path quickly? • What should I say when someone asks if I know how to use vi? • How do I change my prompt to suit my mood or needs? • What is Command Line Tools for Xcode? • When it comes to package managers, which one should I use? Finally, to help you put it all together, the book showcases 67 real-world "recipes" that combine commands to perform useful tasks, such as listing users who've logged in recently, manipulating graphics, using a separate FileVault password, creating and editing user accounts, figuring out why a disk won't eject, copying the source code of a webpage, determining which apps have open connections to the internet, flushing the DNS cache, finding out why a Mac won't sleep, sending an SMS message, and deleting stubborn items from the Trash.
