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  • Always Proper Passwords

    Creating a strong, memorable password is easy—let Apple’s built-in tools do the heavy lifting, and your brain will adapt quickly.

    The best way now uses the dedicated Passwords app (replaces scattered Keychain tools):

    1. Open the Passwords app (search Spotlight or find it in Applications).
    2. Authenticate with Touch ID, Face ID, or your Mac password.
    3. Click the + button (bottom left) > New Password (or File > New Password).
    4. Fill in the website/app name and username.
    5. Click the Password field — it suggests a strong, random password (often in the memorable “word-word-word” format).
      • Choose it, or click options for variations (e.g., without special characters).
    6. Save — it’s stored securely and syncs via iCloud.

    Bonus: When signing up or changing a password in Safari (or supported apps), it auto-suggests a strong one — tap/click Use Strong Password to save it instantly to the Passwords app.

    You’ll be surprised: after typing it 3–5 times, your brain locks it in. That initial frustration? The adrenaline actually helps glue it to your memory!

    (Pro tip: Enable Suggest Strong Passwords in System Settings > Passwords > Password Options for automatic help everywhere.)

  • A Helpful Startup Key

    A Helpful Startup Key When your Mac’s feeling a bit off (garbled fonts, weird glitches?), give it a gentle “spring cleaning” with Safe Mode — it clears caches and loads only essentials.

    On Apple Silicon Macs:

    1. Shut down completely (Apple menu > Shut Down).
    2. Press and hold the power button until you see “Loading startup options.”
    3. Select your startup disk (usually Macintosh HD).
    4. Press and hold Shift, then click Continue in Safe Mode.
    5. Log in (might ask twice) — look for “Safe Boot” in the menu bar (top right) to confirm!

    It may take a minute longer to start, but your Mac’s cache closets get a nice tidy-up. Restart normally afterward to get back to full speed. Works like magic for many little issues!

  • Zip Files on the Fly

    Woo Wooo! This is a slick little option. Next time you’re having trouble sending a file via email, while at the Finder, try holding down the control key and clicking on the attachment you want to send. Apple’s OS makes a zip file on the fly right next to your original. If you select more than one file at a time, ‘control-click’ at the finder and the zip file created will take the name of “Archive.zip”.  Handy, huh!

  • Control-Clickin’

    Right-Click! Yep, even without a two-button mouse, Apple computers running macOS can ‘right-click’ and get properties (Get Info), Cut, Copy and Paste with a pop-up (contextual menu) just like our PC pals.
    Just hold down the ‘Control’ key and click (hold for a second) on a file or folder in the Finder… You’ll see stuff that will provide relief to the heart of a PC user who otherwise thought the Mac ‘single-click’ mouse was exclusively one-dimensional.

  • Organizational Advice

    Not sure where anything lives on your Mac? Here’s a simple system that actually sticks.

    The golden rule: Keep everything inside your Home folder — Documents, Desktop, Music, Movies, and Pictures. Saving files outside your Home folder is a recipe for losing them. 😬

    Desktop vs. Documents:

    • Desktop = what you’re actively working on
    • Documents = everything else, once you’re done

    Build your folder system in Documents:

    Create an Areas of Improvement folder, then add Personal and Professional inside it. Inside each, add a folder for every role you play — Parent, Home Manager, Financial Coordinator, Fitness, Career, Friend, and so on. Most people land at 7–10 roles. More than that and you’re likely overlapping.

    Then inside each role, add topics — and add the year to the folder name so older files naturally fade over time:

    Documents > Areas of Improvement > Personal > Fitness > Nutrition-2027

    Files older than 5–7 years are rarely urgent. Dated folders make it easy to archive — or finally let go. 🗂️

  • Keyboard Shortcuts

    Well, you need to know that Apple has loads of shortcuts… hey, their whole job seems to be to simplify the way people use their computers.
    We’ve consolidated some of MacPCtech favorite keyboard commands… and, of course, Apple’s got a comprehensive list of keyboard shortcuts as well (we think our short list is handy, and prettier once you print it out.    🙂

  • PDF Magic —

    Built Right Into Your Mac

    No Adobe needed. macOS has had powerful PDF tools baked in for years — and most people never use them.

    In any app, open File > Print, then click PDF in the bottom left corner. From there you can:

    • Save as PDF — instantly create a clean, shareable file
    • Mail PDF — creates a new email with the PDF already attached
    • Notes, Preview, and more — send your PDF straight to other apps

    Newer versions of macOS take it even further — you can merge PDFs directly in Preview by dragging pages between documents, and markup, sign, and annotate without ever leaving your Mac.

    The best file to send anyone? Almost always a PDF. It looks identical on every device, every platform, every printer.

  • File Naming Trick —

    That Changes Everything

    If you’ve ever saved a file called “new logo” — you already know the problem. Here’s a better way.

    Start every filename with an International Date (YYYYMMDD):

    20270531 logo.eps

    Once you get the habit, you’ll never go back. Here’s why:

    Files stay in perfect order automatically. No sorting, no guessing — 20270531 always falls before 20270601.

    The true version is always visible. Unlike “ver3,” the date tells you exactly when the file was created — even years later, even on a colleague’s drive.

    Find everything from a specific month instantly. Search for files beginning with “202705” and every file from May 2027 appears.

    You’re never stuck on a filename. It always starts with eight characters you already know: YYYYMMDD.

    Working on something critical? Save a new version every hour by adding the time:

    20270531-1000 logo.eps, 20270531-1100 logo.eps

    Use a 24-hour clock so files sort correctly. If something goes wrong, last hour’s work is right there waiting.

    This approach works beautifully with macOS’s Spotlight search and plays nicely with iCloud Drive, Dropbox, and shared team folders.

    Tell us when you’re a convert!  🙂

  • Finding the Real Deal —

    (Alias Escape Hatch)

    Quick: What’s an alias? An alias is a tiny “shortcut” file that points to the real file somewhere else on your Mac (like a signpost saying “the actual thing is over there”). Double-click it and it opens the original — super handy, until you copy the alias by mistake and think you have the real file. Oops!

    Ever chased a ghost file like that? macOS makes finding the original stupid-easy:

    1. Select the alias (one click) → File menu > Show Original
    2. Select it → hit ⌘R (for “oRRRiginal!”)
    3. Right-click (or Control-click) the alias → pick Show Original from the menu

    Any of these teleports you straight to the source.

    If the original’s been moved, deleted, or trashed, you’ll see a polite “Can’t find it” message — time to hunt or recreate.

    Next time an alias pulls a fast one, zap it with one of these tricks and feel like a Mac sleuth. Mystery solved!

  • Preview.app —

    The Most Underrated App on Your Mac

    Most people think Preview just opens photos and PDFs. It does so much more:

    1. Sign anything digitally — Create a signature using your trackpad, camera, or iPhone, save it permanently, and apply it to any PDF in seconds. No printing required. Ever.
    2. Annotate and mark up PDFs — Highlight, underline, strikethrough, add text boxes, speech bubbles, arrows, and shapes directly onto any document.
    3. Merge PDFs instantly — Drag pages between documents in the thumbnail sidebar to combine, reorder, or extract pages without any additional software.
    4. Edit images without Photoshop — Crop, rotate, resize, adjust color and exposure, remove backgrounds, and convert between file formats including JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and HEIC.
    5. Fill out forms — Preview detects form fields in PDFs automatically, letting you type directly into them without printing a single page.

    And things almost nobody knows Preview can do:

    1. Instant contact sheets — Select multiple images, open in Preview, and print as a contact sheet in one step.
    2. Redact sensitive information — Draw a solid black box over text or images to permanently obscure confidential content before sharing.
    3. Batch convert images — Select dozens of images, open in Preview, and export them all to a new format simultaneously.
    4. Measure and inspect colors — Preview’s Tools menu reveals inspector options showing exact pixel dimensions and hex color values.
    5. Split a PDF — Drag any page thumbnail out of the sidebar and it becomes its own separate document automatically. 🤯