macOS Catalina^™ For Dummies^®

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2019950140

ISBN 978-1-119-60788-5 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-60799-1 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-119-60790-8 (ebk)

macOS Catalina™ For Dummies®

To view this book's Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and search for “macOS Catalina For Dummies Cheat Sheet” in the Search box.

Table of Contents

Cover

Introduction

About This Book
Foolish Assumptions
Icons Used in This Book
Beyond the Book
Where to Go from Here

Part 1: macOS Basics

Chapter 1: macOS Catalina 101 (Prerequisites: None)
1. Gnawing to the Core of macOS
2. A Safety Net for the Absolute Beginner (or Any User)
3. Not Just a Beatles Movie: Help and the Help Menu
Chapter 2: Desktop and Windows and Menus (Oh My!)
1. Touring Finder and Its Desktop
2. Anatomy of a Window
3. Dialog Dealie-Boppers
4. Working with Windows
5. Menu Basics
Chapter 3: What’s Up, Dock?
1. A Quick Introduction to Your Dock
2. Customizing Your Dock
Chapter 4: Getting to Know Finder and Its Desktop
1. Introducing Finder and Its Minions: The Desktop and Icons
2. Aliases Are Awesome!
3. The View(s) from a Window
4. Finder on the Menu
5. Customizing Finder Windows
6. Digging for Icon Data in the Info Window
Chapter 5: Delving Even Deeper into Catalina’s Desktop and Finder
1. Cleaning Up Your Desktop Automatically with Stacks
2. Quick Actions: Now Playing All Over Catalina
3. Do It Quicker with Finder Quick Actions
4. Four More Cool Catalina Tricks

Part 2: How Stuff Works

Chapter 6: Having It Your Way
1. Introducing System Preferences
2. Putting a Picture on the Desktop
3. Setting Up a Screen Saver
4. Giving Buttons, Menus, and Windows a Makeover
5. Adjusting the Keyboard, Mouse, Trackpad, and Other Hardware
6. Styling Your Sound
Chapter 7: Opening and Saving Files
1. A Quick Primer on Finding Files
2. Understanding the macOS Folder Structure
3. Saving Your Document Before It’s Too Late
4. Open, Sez Me
Chapter 8: File and Folder Management Made Easy
1. Organizing Your Stuff in Folders
2. Shuffling Files and Folders
3. The Incredible iCloud Drive
Chapter 9: Comprehending the macOS Clipboard
1. Introducing the Clipboard
2. Copying Files and Folders
3. Pasting from the Clipboard
4. Catalina’s Universal Clipboard

Part 3: Getting Things Done

Chapter 10: Four Terrific Time-saving Tools
1. With a Quick Look
2. Spotlight on Finding Files and Folders Faster
3. Blast Off with Mission Control
4. Launchpad: The Place for Applications
Chapter 11: Organizing Your Life
1. Keeping Track with Calendar
2. Reminders: Protection Against Forgetting
3. Everything You Need to Know about Notification Center
4. Use Notes for Making Notes
5. Tracking Productivity with Screen Time
Chapter 12: Are You Siri-ous?
1. What Siri Can Do for You
2. Working with Siri
3. Making Siri Your Own
Chapter 13: Maps Are Where It’s At
1. Finding Your Current Location with Maps
2. Finding a Person, Place, or Thing
3. Views, Zooms, and Pans
4. Maps and Contacts
5. Time-saving Map Tools: Favorites, Recents, and Contacts
6. Smart Map Tricks
Chapter 14: Apps Born in iOS
1. Taking Stock of the Market with Stocks
2. Read All about It in News
3. Recording Memos with Voice Memos
4. Controlling Lights, Locks, and More with Home

Part 4: Getting Along with Others

Chapter 15: (Inter)Networking
1. Getting Connected to the Internet
2. Browsing the Web with Safari
3. Audio and Video Calls with FaceTime
Chapter 16: Dealing with People
1. Collecting Your Contacts
Chapter 17: Communicating with Mail and Messages
1. Sending and Receiving Email with Mail
2. Communicating with Messages
Chapter 18: Sharing Your Mac and Liking It
1. Introducing Networks and File Sharing
2. Setting Up File Sharing
3. Access and Permissions: Who Can Do What
4. Connecting to a Shared Disk or Folder on a Remote Mac
5. Changing Your Password
6. More Types of Sharing

Part 5: Getting Creative

Chapter 19: The Musical Mac
1. Apple Music and iTunes Match Rock!
2. Introducing Music (the App Formerly Known as iTunes)
3. Working with Media
4. All about Playlists
Chapter 20: The Multimedia Mac
1. Playing Movies and Music in QuickTime Player
2. Watching TV
3. Using the Books App
4. Finding and Listening to Podcasts with the Podcasts App
5. You’re the Star with Photo Booth
6. Viewing and Converting Images and PDFs in Preview
7. Importing Media from a Camera or Camcorder
Chapter 21: Words and Letters
1. Processing Words with TextEdit
2. Font Mania
Chapter 22: Publish or Perish: The Fail-Safe Guide to Printing
1. Before Diving In …
2. Ready: Connecting and Adding Your Printer
3. Set: Setting Up Your Document with Page Setup
4. Print: Printing with the Print Sheet
5. Preview and PDF Options

Part 6: Care and Feeding

Chapter 23: Features for the Way You Work
1. Finally, a Dark Mode
2. App Shopping, Improved
3. Using Your iPhone as Your Mac's Camera or Scanner
4. Talking and Listening to Your Mac
5. Automatic Automation
6. A Few More Useful Goodies
Chapter 24: Safety First: Backups and Other Security Issues
1. Backing Up Is (Not) Hard to Do
2. Why You Need Two Sets of Backups
3. Non-Backup Security Concerns
4. Protecting Your Data from Prying Eyes
Chapter 25: Utility Chest
1. In the Applications and Utilities Folders
2. Capturing Your Screen
Chapter 26: Troubleshooting macOS
1. About Startup Disks and Booting
2. Recovering with Recovery HD
3. If Your Mac Crashes at Startup
4. Optimizing Storage

Part 7: The Part of Tens

Chapter 27: Ten Ways to Speed Up Your Mac Experience
1. Use Those Keyboard Shortcuts
2. Improve Your Typing Skills
3. Change Your Resolution
4. Purchase a Faster Mac
5. Add RAM
6. Add a Second Display
7. Use Your iPad as a Second Display
8. Upgrade to a Solid-State Drive (SSD)
9. Get More Storage
10. Subscribe to My Free Newsletter
Chapter 28: Ten Great Websites for Mac Freaks
1. The Mac Observer
2. Macworld
3. TidBITS
4. iMore
5. AppleWorld.Today
6. The Wirecutter
7. Apple Support
8. Other World Computing
9. dealmac/dealnews
10. Working Smarter for Mac Users

Index

About the Author

Connect with Dummies

End User License Agreement

List of Illustrations

Chapter 1

FIGURE 1-1: This is what you’ll see if everything is fine and dandy when you tu...
FIGURE 1-2: The desktop after a brand-spanking-new installation of macOS Catali...
FIGURE 1-3: If you’re seeing this, things are definitely not fine and dandy.
FIGURE 1-4: See which version of macOS you’re running.
FIGURE 1-5: Mac Help is nothing if not helpful.
FIGURE 1-6: You have questions? Mac Help has answers.
FIGURE 1-7: If you choose an item with a menu icon, an arrow points to that ite...

Chapter 2

FIGURE 2-1: A typical Finder window in macOS Catalina.
FIGURE 2-2: The same window twice. Use the scroll bars in the front window to s...
FIGURE 2-3: An active window in front of an inactive window.
FIGURE 2-4: This window offers most of the dealie-boppers you’re ever likely to...
FIGURE 2-5: Hover the pointer over any corner or edge; when the double-headed a...
FIGURE 2-6: I can view the contents of my Documents, Applications, or Downloads...
FIGURE 2-7: Menu bars change to reflect the active application.
FIGURE 2-8: Only relevant items appear in a contextual menu.
FIGURE 2-9: File menu with nothing selected (left) and with a document icon sel...
FIGURE 2-10: The Apple menu's Recent Items selection, with its submenu popped o...

Chapter 3

FIGURE 3-1: The dock and all its default icons.
FIGURE 3-2: The Options menu for an application icon (Mac App Store) on the doc...
FIGURE 3-3: Press and hold down or right-click/Control-click an open applicatio...
FIGURE 3-4: The Safari dock icon at rest (left) and caught doing the bouncy dan...
FIGURE 3-5: Adding an icon to the dock is as easy as 1-2-3. Just drag the icon ...
FIGURE 3-6: Drag the icon from the address bar to the right side of the dock (t...
FIGURE 3-7: To remove an icon, drag it off the dock until it says Remove.
FIGURE 3-8: I keep icons for the apps I use most in my dock, which is split int...
FIGURE 3-9: The Dock System Preferences pane (left) and the dock resizer shortc...
FIGURE 3-10: The three apps I used most recently are in the Recent Applications...
FIGURE 3-11: My Documents folder’s dock menu as a fan, list, and grid.
FIGURE 3-12: The Options menu for my Documents folder.

Chapter 4

FIGURE 4-1: A typical Finder and desktop.
FIGURE 4-2: Selected (top) and unselected (bottom) SSD (solid-state drive) icon...
FIGURE 4-3: A Finder window’s default toolbar.
FIGURE 4-4: The View menu and pop-up menu versions of Sort By with my Documents...
FIGURE 4-5: Use the Action pop-up menu to perform common actions on selected it...
FIGURE 4-6: Icons come in many shapes and designs.
FIGURE 4-7: An alias (right) and its parent.
FIGURE 4-8: A Finder window in Column view.
FIGURE 4-9: A window in List view.
FIGURE 4-10: A window in Gallery view.
FIGURE 4-11: The items in this window are grouped by their creation date.
FIGURE 4-12: Services available with nothing selected (top), an icon selected (...
FIGURE 4-13: Traverse folders from this convenient pop-up menu.
FIGURE 4-14: Go to a folder by typing its path.
FIGURE 4-15: Set Finder preferences here.
FIGURE 4-16: A typical Info window for an image (Kiss.jpg).

Chapter 5

FIGURE 5-1: A messy, disorganized desktop.
FIGURE 5-2: Stacks create order out of chaos.
FIGURE 5-3: Single-click a stack (Images) to see its contents.
FIGURE 5-4: Grouping stacks by Date Created gives you a different perspective t...
FIGURE 5-5: Click the Markup button to see the Markup toolbar; click the Rotate...
FIGURE 5-6: The Markup toolbar above an image to which I added text and an arro...
FIGURE 5-7: The shapes drop-down (left) and the loupe in action (right).
FIGURE 5-8: Drag the handles to set the start and end points.
FIGURE 5-9: I’ve selected image files, so the Create PDF Quick Action button ap...
FIGURE 5-10: After you take a screenshot, a thumbnail appears in the lower-righ...
FIGURE 5-11: Click the thumbnail to modify the screenshot with Markup tools.
FIGURE 5-12: The screenshot toolbar appears when you press ⌘ +Shift+5.
FIGURE 5-13: A dynamic desktop at 11:48AM (top) and 11:45PM (bottom).

Chapter 6

FIGURE 6-1: System Preferences is where you change many Catalina options.
FIGURE 6-2: The View menu (left), the System Preferences window organized by ca...
FIGURE 6-3: My beautified desktop.
FIGURE 6-4: The Screen Saver tab (foreground) with a preview of the Shifting Ti...
FIGURE 6-5: The General pane.
FIGURE 6-6: Here’s how I try different scroll bar settings.
FIGURE 6-7: (Clockwise) Keyboard tab, Character Viewer window, Keyboard and Cha...
FIGURE 6-8: The little Character Viewer icon near the Search field toggles the ...
FIGURE 6-9: The Text tab of the Keyboard System Preferences pane (background), ...
FIGURE 6-10: The Mouse System Preferences pane set up for a right-hander.
FIGURE 6-11: The Trackpad System Preferences pane offers controls for one-finge...

Chapter 7

FIGURE 7-1: A bird’s-eye view of key folders on your Mac.
FIGURE 7-2: Nested folders, going four levels deep.
FIGURE 7-3: A guide to which Library folder is which.
FIGURE 7-4: A basic Save sheet looks a lot like this.
FIGURE 7-5: An expanded Save sheet looks similar to this one (shown in List vie...
FIGURE 7-6: Saving a file in the Novels folder (which is in the Documents folde...
FIGURE 7-7: Browse All Versions lets you compare all versions and revert to an ...
FIGURE 7-8: The Open dialog using Column view.
FIGURE 7-9: The Quick Look window showing the contents of an image file.
FIGURE 7-10: Oops! macOS helps you find the correct application.
FIGURE 7-11: Changing the application that opens this document and all others l...
FIGURE 7-12: To open a file with an app other than its default, right-click and...

Chapter 8

FIGURE 8-1: Before (left) and after (right) organizing the Books — Nonfiction a...
FIGURE 8-2: It’s super-convenient to have your Documents folder on the dock.
FIGURE 8-3: A smart folder that displays files created after 1/1/2018 with name...
FIGURE 8-4: Two ways of putting one folder into another.
FIGURE 8-5: Select more than one icon by clicking and dragging with your mouse ...
FIGURE 8-6: Change an icon’s name by typing over the old one.

Chapter 9

FIGURE 9-1: The Show Clipboard command displays whatever is on the Clipboard (i...

Chapter 10

FIGURE 10-1: The Quick Look window (right) displaying an image from one of the ...
FIGURE 10-2: Four selected files displayed as a Quick Look index sheet.
FIGURE 10-3: The Slideshow controls appear automatically in full-screen Slidesh...
FIGURE 10-4: Type one character in the Search box, and the magic begins.
FIGURE 10-5: Search your entire Mac or a specific folder (and its subfolders) a...
FIGURE 10-6: This is Spotlight in Catalina.
FIGURE 10-7: The Mission Control System Preferences pane.
FIGURE 10-8: After invoking Mission Control (Control+↑).
FIGURE 10-9: After invoking Application Windows (Control+↓) when TextEdit was a...
FIGURE 10-10: Mission Control showing off my three spaces (named Desktop 1, 2, ...
FIGURE 10-11: Launchpad, in all its glory.

Chapter 11

FIGURE 11-1: The Calendar main window displaying the view I prefer: Week view.
FIGURE 11-2: The Calendar application’s View menu.
FIGURE 11-3: Creating a Quick Event (upper left) and the resulting event bubble...
FIGURE 11-4: Invite people to your event.
FIGURE 11-5: Alerts on my Mac (left) and iPhone (right).
FIGURE 11-6: When a list (To Do – Sooner) is selected in the List sidebar, its ...
FIGURE 11-7: Reminders are indeed handy.
FIGURE 11-8: A reminder as displayed on a Mac as an alert banner (top left), in...
FIGURE 11-9: Click the green + buttons to add Calculator, Find My Friends, Now ...
FIGURE 11-10: Click the x to close all notifications for the app.
FIGURE 11-11: Notes is for making notes on your Mac.
FIGURE 11-12: Text in a note formatted as title, heading, and body.

Chapter 12

FIGURE 12-1: Siri knows who I am and what to call me.
FIGURE 12-2: Speak now or Siri will bug you … .
FIGURE 12-3: If Siri doesn’t hear you or understand what you said, you’ll see s...
FIGURE 12-4: The Siri System Preferences pane offers these options for customiz...

Chapter 13

FIGURE 13-1: I am here.
FIGURE 13-2: Pushpins indicate matching locations.
FIGURE 13-3: The Info window for Black’s Barbecue.
FIGURE 13-4: A 3D satellite map of Black’s BBQ in Lockhart.
FIGURE 13-5: Click the little blue icon to see this address in Maps.
FIGURE 13-6: Routes from the Texas State Capitol in Austin to Black’s Barbecue ...
FIGURE 13-7: Zoom in far enough and you can even see the entrances.
FIGURE 13-8: See whether traffic is moving very slowly (red), kind of slowly (a...
FIGURE 13-9: Click the Flyover Tour button to watch the 3D flyover tour of the ...

Chapter 14

FIGURE 14-1: The Stocks app comes stocked with a handful of securities and inde...
FIGURE 14-2: The search list updates as you type, and items in your watchlist a...
FIGURE 14-3: The Stocks screen.
FIGURE 14-4: The Follow Your Favorites overlay with Runner’s World and Smithson...
FIGURE 14-5: Click the red button to begin recording.
FIGURE 14-6: Click the red button to begin recording.
FIGURE 14-7: Click the voice memo you want to play, and then click the Play/Pau...
FIGURE 14-8: Drag the start and end markers to trim the recording.

Chapter 15

FIGURE 15-1: Safari first displays a generic Favorites page.
FIGURE 15-2: The Customize Toolbar sheet and my customized toolbar.
FIGURE 15-3: All the buttons in my Favorites bar are actually drop-down menus.
FIGURE 15-4: Creating a bookmark.
FIGURE 15-5: The sidebar in all its glory.
FIGURE 15-6: Adding the current page to the Reading List.
FIGURE 15-7: A Google search for pictures of Vizsla dogs.
FIGURE 15-8: Running a Google advanced search.
FIGURE 15-9: The FaceTime window, ready to make a call.
FIGURE 15-10: A FaceTime call: What I saw on my Mac screen (left) and what Lisa...

Chapter 16

FIGURE 16-1: My address card displayed in the Contacts window.
FIGURE 16-2: Adding five contacts to the Family group.
FIGURE 16-3: Creating a smart group.

Chapter 17

FIGURE 17-1: The main window in Mail.
FIGURE 17-2: Searching for messages containing Working in all mailboxes.
FIGURE 17-3: Choose from seven flags to mark messages.
FIGURE 17-4: Composing an email message.
FIGURE 17-5: Sending email to a contact is as easy as clicking.
FIGURE 17-6: This mailbox is divided into 12 sub-mailboxes.
FIGURE 17-7: Set criteria for a smart mailbox.
FIGURE 17-8: My newly created BL Long signature.
FIGURE 17-9: This menu shows all your signatures so you can choose the one you ...
FIGURE 17-10: Setting a rule.
FIGURE 17-11: Using Quick Look.
FIGURE 17-12: The little chevron, its menu, and the Markup editor after applyin...
FIGURE 17-13: Choose Use Mail Drop in the alert box (top), and your recipient s...
FIGURE 17-14: A chat between my wife and me.

Chapter 18

FIGURE 18-1: Two Macs and a printer make up a simple Mac network.
FIGURE 18-2: Turning file sharing on and off.
FIGURE 18-3: The Users & Groups System Preferences pane is where you manage use...
FIGURE 18-4: Name the new user, and your Mac suggests a shortened name and pass...
FIGURE 18-5: This group, The Outsiders, contains the Bobcat and Miss Kitty acco...
FIGURE 18-6: Changing the privileges of the Recipes folder for the group Everyo...
FIGURE 18-7: Allow everyone access, if you want.
FIGURE 18-8: Allow access for no one but the folder’s owner.
FIGURE 18-9: Allow access for the Staff group and the folder’s owner.
FIGURE 18-10: Everyone can drop files and folders into this folder.
FIGURE 18-11: I am connected to LisaMBP as a guest.
FIGURE 18-12: The Connect dialog needs my password.
FIGURE 18-13: Connecting to LisaMBP as Bob LeVitus (bobl).
FIGURE 18-14: Accessing my Home folder on LisaMBP remotely.
FIGURE 18-15: Sharing my wired (Ethernet) Internet connection with other Macs a...
FIGURE 18-16: Configure items for Bluetooth file transfers between your phone a...

Chapter 19

FIGURE 19-1: Dissecting the Music interface.
FIGURE 19-2: The Music MiniPlayer window (left) and equalizer (right).
FIGURE 19-3: The psychedelic light show that is Music Visualizer.
FIGURE 19-4: Drag and drop songs to the Music content pane or library to add th...
FIGURE 19-5: At the iTunes Store, buying music is as easy as clicking the Buy S...
FIGURE 19-6: Adding songs to a playlist is as easy as dragging them onto the pl...
FIGURE 19-7: Specify the criteria for your smart playlist.
FIGURE 19-8: Genius suggests songs that go nicely with the song the suggestions...

Chapter 20

FIGURE 20-1: QuickTime Player is simple to use.
FIGURE 20-2: The picture-in-picture video (lower right) continues to play and r...
FIGURE 20-3: The Book Store’s Featured tab.
FIGURE 20-4: Buy books from the Books Store and add them to your Books library.
FIGURE 20-5: This is what a book chapter looks like in Books.
FIGURE 20-6: The Mac Geek Gab podcast from The Mac Observer.
FIGURE 20-7: Photo Booth about to take a picture of yours truly.
FIGURE 20-8: Preview makes it easy to convert a graphic file from one format to...
FIGURE 20-9: I told my Mac to open Image Capture when I connect this camera.
FIGURE 20-10: This warning means you forgot to eject your camera’s disk.

Chapter 21

FIGURE 21-1: The third sentence in the first paragraph is selected.
FIGURE 21-2: Only the selected text is affected by these formatting commands.
FIGURE 21-3: The selected paragraph is now indented.
FIGURE 21-4: Right- or Control-click to correct a spelling or grammar error.
FIGURE 21-5: Drag an image into a TextEdit document.
FIGURE 21-6: Click a font in the Font list to display its characters in the rig...

Chapter 22

FIGURE 22-1: The only printer that Catalina recognizes here — Epson ET-4750 Ser...
FIGURE 22-2: The Page Setup sheet in the TextEdit application.
FIGURE 22-3: Your basic Print sheet.
FIGURE 22-4: Your expanded Print sheet.
FIGURE 22-5: A preview of a TextEdit document.
FIGURE 22-6: The Preview app includes this useful Magnifier tool.

Chapter 23

FIGURE 23-1: Three windows, the menu bar, and the dock in Dark mode (top) and L...
FIGURE 23-2: The Categories tab lets you drill down from nearly two dozen categ...
FIGURE 23-3: Hover your pointer over a section to see its Next and Previous but...
FIGURE 23-4: If the app supports Continuity Camera, the Import from iPhone or i...
FIGURE 23-5: What you see after choosing Take Photo in a document (left) and Fi...
FIGURE 23-6: Your iDevice captures the page automatically (left); drag the circ...
FIGURE 23-7: Volume levels for dictation (left to right): Too soft, just right,...
FIGURE 23-8: The Dictation Commands sheet displaying some things your Mac will ...
FIGURE 23-9: This is a good level for Voice Control.
FIGURE 23-10: Open TextEdit above the mic icon means your command was recognize...
FIGURE 23-11: Choose Workflow to start a workflow from scratch.
FIGURE 23-12: This converts text that I select to an audio file.
FIGURE 23-13: The Accessibility System Preferences pane with its colors inverte...
FIGURE 23-14: The AirPlay menu makes life much easier for AirPlay users like me...
FIGURE 23-15: My iPhone is nearby and using the Messages app.

Chapter 24

FIGURE 24-1: The Time Machine System Preferences pane and menu.
FIGURE 24-2: The Time Machine application is ready to restore a folder in Finde...
FIGURE 24-3: What you see when you plug in a new disk suitable for use with Tim...
FIGURE 24-4: Time Machine asks what to do with the file you’re restoring.

Chapter 25

FIGURE 25-1: Calculator (left), Convert menu (middle), and Paper Tape (right).
FIGURE 25-2: The Activity Monitor window, two little CPU monitors, and the Acti...
FIGURE 25-3: If you try to create a partition on an APFS disk, this is what you...
FIGURE 25-4: If you try to run First Aid on your startup disk, you’ll see this ...
FIGURE 25-5: Use APFS for solid-state disks (left); use macOS Extended (Journal...
FIGURE 25-6: Grapher’s Implicit & Explicit Curves example.
FIGURE 25-7: Add a URL to the keychain manually by using Keychain Access.
FIGURE 25-8: Using the Password Assistant to generate a high-quality password.
FIGURE 25-9: Here’s what you’ll see (more or less) when you press ⌘??+Shift+5 i...
FIGURE 25-10: After taking a screenshot, a thumbnail of the screenshot floats i...
FIGURE 25-11: A full selection of annotation and editing tools are available in...
FIGURE 25-12: Right- or Control-click the floating thumbnail and choose from th...
FIGURE 25-13: The Stop Recording button appears in your menu bar while you’re r...

Chapter 26

FIGURE 26-1: Any of these means it’s troubleshooting time.
FIGURE 26-2: If your disk is getting full, use one or more of these Optimize St...

Chapter 27

FIGURE 27-1: Lower resolutions make things larger onscreen.

Introduction

You made the right choice twice: macOS Catalina (version 10.15) and this book. Take a deep breath and get ready to have a rollicking good time. That’s right. This is a computer book, but it’s fun. What a concept! Whether you’re brand spanking new to the Mac or a grizzled Mac vet, I guarantee that reading this book to discover the ins and outs of macOS Catalina will make learning easy. If it weren’t true, I couldn’t say it right on the cover!

About This Book

This book’s roots lie with my international best seller Macintosh System 7.5 For Dummies, an award-winning book so good that long-deceased Mac clone-maker Power Computing gave away a copy with every Mac clone it sold.

macOS Catalina For Dummies is the latest revision and has been, once again, completely and thoroughly updated to include all the tasty goodness in macOS Catalina. In other words, this edition combines all the old, familiar features of dozens of previous editions — but is once again updated to reflect the latest and greatest offering from Apple as well as feedback from readers.

Why write a For Dummies book about Catalina? Well, Catalina is a big, somewhat complicated personal-computer operating system. So, I made macOS Catalina For Dummies a not-so-big, not-too-complicated book that shows you what Catalina is all about without boring you to tears, confusing you, or poking you with sharp objects.

In fact, I think you’ll be so darned comfortable that I wanted the title to be macOS Catalina Made Easy, but the publishers wouldn’t let me. Apparently, we Dummies authors have to follow some rules, and using Dummies in this book’s title is one of them.

And speaking of dummies — remember, that’s just a word. I don’t think you’re a dummy at all — quite the opposite! My second choice for this book’s title was macOS Catalina For People Smart Enough to Know They Need This Book, but you can just imagine what Wiley thought of that.

The book is chock-full of information and advice, explaining everything you need to know about macOS Catalina in language you can understand — along with time-saving tips, tricks, techniques, and step-by-step instructions, all served up in generous quantities.

Another rule we Dummies authors must follow is that our books cannot exceed a certain number of pages. (Brevity is the soul of wit, and all that.) So, while I wish I could have included some things that didn’t fit, I feel confident you’ll find what you need to know about macOS Catalina in this book.

Still, a few things bear further looking into, such as these:

Information about many of the applications (programs) that come with macOS Catalina: An installation of macOS Catalina includes more than 50 applications, mostly located in the Applications and Utilities folders. I’d love to walk you through each one of them, but that would have required a book a whole lot bigger, heavier, and more expensive than this one.

I brief you on the handful of bundled applications essential to using macOS Catalina — namely, Calendar, Contacts, Messages, Mail, Safari, Siri, TextEdit, and the like — as well as several important utilities you may need to know how to use someday.
Information about Microsoft Office, Apple lifestyle and productivity apps (iMovie, Numbers, Pages, and so on), Adobe Photoshop, Quicken, and other third-party applications: Okay, if all the gory details of all the bundled (read: free) macOS Catalina applications don’t fit here, I think you’ll understand why digging into third-party applications that cost extra was out of the question.
Information about programming for the Mac: This book is about using macOS Catalina, not writing code for it. Dozens of books — most of which are two or three times the size of this book — cover programming on the Mac; this one does not.

Within this book, you may note that some web addresses break across two lines of text. If you’re reading this book in print and want to visit one of these web pages, simply key in the web address exactly as it’s noted in the text, pretending as though the line break doesn’t exist. If you’re reading this as an e-book, you’ve got it easy — just click the web address to be taken directly to the web page.

Foolish Assumptions

Although I know what happens when you make assumptions, I’ve made a few anyway.

First, I assume that you, gentle reader, know nothing about using macOS — beyond knowing what a Mac is, that you want to use macOS, that you want to understand macOS without having to digest an incomprehensible technical manual, and that you made the right choice by selecting this particular book. And so I do my best to explain each new concept in full and loving detail. Maybe that’s foolish, but … that’s how I roll.

Oh, and I also assume that you can read. If you can’t, ignore this paragraph.

Icons Used in This Book

Little pictures (icons) appear off to the left side of the text throughout this book. Consider these icons miniature road signs, telling you a little something extra about the topic at hand. Here’s what the different icons look like and what they all mean.

Look for Tip icons to find the juiciest morsels: shortcuts, tips, and undocumented secrets about Catalina. Try them all; impress your friends!

When you see this icon, it means that this particular morsel is something that I think you should memorize (or at least write on your shirt cuff).

Put on your propeller-beanie hat and pocket protector; these parts include the truly geeky stuff. It’s certainly not required reading, but it must be interesting or informative, or I wouldn’t have wasted your time with it.

Read these notes very, very, very carefully. (Did I say very?) Warning icons flag important cautionary information. The author and publisher won’t be responsible if your Mac explodes or spews flaming parts because you ignored a Warning icon. Just kidding. Macs don’t explode or spew (with the exception of a few choice PowerBook 5300s, which won’t run Catalina anyway). But I got your attention, didn’t I?

Well, now, what could this icon possibly be about? Named by famous editorial consultant Mr. Obvious, this icon highlights all things new and different in macOS Catalina.

Beyond the Book

In addition to what you’re reading right now, this product also comes with a free access-anywhere Cheat Sheet that provides handy shortcuts for use with macOS Catalina, offers my backup recommendations, and more. To get this Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and type macOS Catalina For Dummies Cheat Sheet in the search box.

Where to Go from Here

The first few chapters of this book are where I describe the basic things that you need to understand to operate your Mac effectively. If you’re new to Macs and macOS Catalina, start there.

macOS Catalina is only slightly different from previous Mac operating systems, and the first part of the book presents concepts so basic that if you’ve been using a Mac for long, you might think you know it all — and okay, you might know most of it. But remember that not-so-old-timers need a solid foundation, too. So here’s my advice: Skim through stuff you already know and you’ll get to the better stuff sooner.

I would love to hear how this book worked for you. So please send me your thoughts, platitudes, likes and dislikes, and any other comments. Did this book work for you? What did you like? What didn’t you like? What questions were unanswered? Did you want to know more (or less) about something? Tell me! I have received more than 100 suggestions about previous editions, many of which are incorporated here. So please (please!) keep up the good work! Email me at Catalina4Dummies@boblevitus.com. I appreciate your feedback, and I try to respond to all reasonably polite email within a few days.

So what are you waiting for? Go! Enjoy the book!

Part 1

macOS Basics

IN THIS PART …

Find the most basic of basics, including how to turn on your Mac.

Make the dock work harder for you.

Get a gentle introduction to Finder and its desktop.

Find everything you need to know about Catalina’s windows, icons, and menus (oh my)!

Get all the bad puns and wisecracks you’ve come to expect.

Discover a plethora of Finder tips and tricks to make life with Catalina even easier (and more fulfilling).