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: Getting Started with Your iMac 5
Chapter 1: Okay, This Machine Looks Really, Really Weird 7
Intel iMac or M1 iMac - That Is the Question 8
An Introduction to the Beast 9
Major parts of your major appliance 9
Important hidden stuff 14
Choosing a Home for Your New Pet 15
Picking the right location 15
Considering the convenience factor 16
Unpacking and Connecting 17
Unpacking your iMac For Dummies 17
Connecting cables like a true nerd 18
Discovering All the Cool Things You Can Do 19
What software do I get? 19
Looking forward to fun on the Internet 20
Applications that rock 21
Would you like to play a game? 22
Stuff You Oughta Buy Right Now 22
Chapter 2: Life! Give My iMac Life! 25
Throwing the Big Leaf Switch 25
Mark's Favorite Signs of a Healthy iMac 26
Harriet, It's Already Asking Me Questions! 27
Setting up macOS Monterey 28
Registering your iMac 29
Importing Documents and Data from Your Old Mac 29
Manually Importing Documents and Data from Windows 31
Chapter 3: The Basics Behind macOS Monterey 33
Your Own Personal Operating System 34
The Monterey Desktop 34
Check out that Control Center 36
Wait a Second: Where the Heck Are the Mouse Buttons? 39
Launching and Quitting Applications with Aplomb 42
Performing Tricks with Finder Windows 45
Viewing your stuff 45
Scrolling in and resizing windows 46
Minimizing and restoring windows 47
Moving and zooming windows 48
Closing windows 49
Juggling Folders and Icons 50
A field observer's guide to icons 50
Selecting items 52
Copying items 54
Moving things from place to place 54
Duplicating in a jiffy 55
Using Finder Tabs 56
Keystrokes to Fame and Fortune 57
Special keys on the keyboard 57
Using the Finder and application keyboard shortcuts 58
Speeding Things Up with Shortcuts 59
Home, Sweet Home Folder 60
Working with Mission Control 62
Switching Desktops with Spaces 63
Personalizing Your Desktop 64
Taking Control of Your iMac 66
Customizing the Dock 67
Adding applications and extras to the Dock 68
Keeping track with Stacks 69
Using Desktop Stacks 69
Using Dock Stacks 69
Resizing the Dock 71
What's with the Trash? 71
All You Really Need to Know about Printing 72
And Just in Case You Need Help 74
The Monterey built-in Help system 74
The Apple web-based support center 75
Magazines 75
Local Mac user groups 75
Part 2: Shaking Hands with macOS 77
Chapter 4: What's New in Monterey? 79
Shortcuts Hit Your iMac 80
Let's Get Focused 81
Putting Tags to Work 82
Hiding Email the iCloud Way 83
FaceTime Over the Web? 83
Chapter 5: A Nerd's Guide to System Preferences 85
An Explanation - without Jargon, No Less 86
Locating That Certain Special Setting 88
Popular Preferences Panes Explained 89
The Displays pane 90
The Desktop & Screen Saver pane 91
Mission Control preferences 93
The General pane 95
The Energy Saver pane 97
The Dock & Menu Bar pane 98
The Sharing pane 100
The Time Machine pane 101
Apple ID preferences 102
Notifications & Focus preferences 104
Chapter 6: Searching Amidst iMac Chaos 107
Doing a Basic Search 108
How Cool Is That? Discovering What Spotlight Can Do 111
Expanding Your Search Horizons 112
Customizing Spotlight to Your Taste 114
Chapter 7: Putting Common Apps to Work 117
Remind Me to Use Reminders 118
Taking Notes the Monterey Way 121
Staying Current with Notification Center 123
Introducing the Maps Application 126
Switching Views in Maps 128
Getting Directions Over Yonder 129
Creating and Using Guides 130
Catching Up on News 132
Using Favorites and Channels 133
Part 3: Connecting and Communicating 135
Chapter 8: Let's Go on Safari! 137
Pretend You've Never Used This Thing 137
Visiting Websites 139
Navigating the Web 141
Configuring Your Home Page and Start Page 144
Adding and Using Bookmarks 145
Working with the Reading List 148
Downloading Files 149
Using History 150
Tabs Are Your Browsing Friends 151
Printing Web Pages 153
Protecting Your Privacy 154
Yes, there are such things as bad cookies 154
Banishing pesky iCloud Keychain passwords 156
Handling ancient history 156
Setting notifications 157
Avoiding those @*!^%$ pop-up ads 157
Chapter 9: Expanding Your Horizons with iCloud 159
So How Does iCloud Work, Anyway? 160
Moving, Saving, and Opening iCloud Documents 161
Putting Handoff to Work 162
Expanding Your Horizons with Sidecar 163
Configuring iCloud 163
Managing Your iCloud Storage 165
Chapter 10: Creating a Multiuser iMac 167
Once Upon a Time (an Access Fairy Tale) 168
Big-Shot Administrator Stuff 169
Deciding who needs what access 169
Adding users 170
Modifying user accounts 172
I banish thee, mischievous user! 174
Setting up login items and managing access 176
Tackling Mundane Chores for the Multiuser iMac 181
Logging in and out of Monterey For Dummies 181
Interesting stuff about sharing stuff 184
Encrypting your Home folder can be fun 185
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
Using your iMac as a sharing device 191
Using a dedicated Internet-sharing device 191
What Do I Need to Connect? 192
Wireless connections 192
Wired connections 197
Connecting to the Network 200
Sharing stuff nicely with others 201
Use Your Firewall! 203
Chapter 12: Hooking Up with Handy Helpers 207
Connecting Printers 207
USB printers 208
Network printers 210
Connecting Scanners 211
Using Photo Booth 212
Conversing with FaceTime 214
Sending Instant Messages Across the Network 216
Part 4: Living the Digital Life 219
Chapter 13: The Multimedia Joys of Music and TV 221
What Can I Play in Music? 222
Playing Digital Audio Files 223
Finding songs in your Music library 227
Removing old music from the library 227
Keeping Slim Whitman and Slim Shady Apart: Organizing with Playlists 228
Know Your Songs 230
Setting the song information automatically 231
Setting or changing the song information manually 231
Ripping Audio Files 232
Tweaking the Audio for Your Ears 233
A New Kind of Radio Station 234
Tuning in your own stations 235
Radio stations in your playlists 235
Creating a custom Music Radio station 236
iSending iStuff to iPhone and iPad 237
Burning Music to Shiny Plastic Circles 238
Feasting on Music Visuals 239
Exercising Parental Authority 239
Watching Video with TV 241
Buying Digital Media the Apple Way 242
Chapter 14: Focusing on Photos 245
Delving into Photos 245
Working with Images in Photos 248
Import images 101 248
Organize mode: Organizing and sorting your images 250
Edit mode: Removing and fixing stuff the right way 257
Exploring iCloud Photos 262
Putting My Photo Stream and iCloud Shared Albums to Work 263
Chapter 15: Making Film History with iMovie 265
Shaking Hands with the iMovie Window 266
A Bird's-Eye View of Moviemaking 269
Importing the Building Blocks 270
Pulling in video clips 270
Making use of still images 272
Importing and adding audio from all sorts of places 272
Building the Cinematic Basics 275
Adding clips to your movie 275
Marking clips 276
Removing clips from your movie 277
Reordering clips in your movie 277
Editing clips in iMovie 278
Transitions for the masses 279
Even Gone with the Wind had titles 280
Adding maps and backgrounds 281
Creating an Honest-to-Goodness Movie Trailer 281
Browsing Your Video Library 283
Sharing Your Finished Classic 284
Chapter 16: Recording Your Hits with GarageBand 285
Shaking Hands with Your Band 286
Composing Made Easy 288
Adding tracks 289
Choosing loops 291
Resizing, repeating, and moving loops 294
Using the Arrangement track 296
Tweaking the settings for a track 297
Sharing Your Songs 299
Creating song files in Music 300
Exporting a project 301
Burning an audio CD 301
Part 5: Getting Productive with Your iMac 303
Chapter 17: Desktop Publishing with Pages 305
Creating a New Pages Document 306
Opening an Existing Pages Document 307
Saving Your Work 308
Touring the Pages Window 309
Entering and Editing Text 310
Using Text, Shapes, and Graphics Boxes 310
The Three Amigos: Cut, Copy, and Paste 310
Cutting stuff 311
Copying text and images 311
Pasting from the Clipboard 311
Formatting Text the Easy Way 311
Adding a Spiffy Table 312
Adding Alluring Photos 314
Adding a Background Shape 315
Are You Sure about That Spelling? 316
Setting Your Font Defaults to Speed Things Up 316
Printing Your Pages Documents 317
Sharing That Poster with Others 318
Chapter 18: Creating Spreadsheets with Numbers 319
Before You Launch Numbers 320
Creating a New Numbers Document 320
Opening an Existing Spreadsheet File 321
Save Those Spreadsheets! 322
Exploring the Numbers Window 323
Navigating and Selecting Cells in a Spreadsheet 324
Entering and Editing Data in a Spreadsheet 325
Selecting the Correct Number Format 326
Aligning Cell Text Just So 327
Formatting with Shading 328
Inserting and Deleting Rows and Columns 329
The Formula Is Your Friend 330
Adding Visual Punch with a Chart 332
Printing Your Spreadsheet 333
Chapter 19: Building Presentations with Keynote 335
Creating a New Keynote Project 336
Opening a Keynote Presentation 337
Saving Your Presentation 338
Putting Keynote to Work 338
Adding Slides 340
Working with Text, Shapes, and Graphics Boxes 340
Adding and Editing Slide Text 341
Formatting Slide Text for the Perfect Look 342
Using Presenter's Notes in Your Project 342
Every Good Presentation Needs Media 343
Adding a Background Shape 344
Creating Your Keynote Slideshow 344
Printing Your Slides and Notes 346
Part 6: The Necessary Evils: Troubleshooting, Upgrading, and Maintaining 349
Chapter 20: It Just Sits There 351
Repeat after Me: Yes, I Am a Tech! 352
Step-by-Step iMac Troubleshooting 352
The number-one rule: Reboot! 353
Special keys that can come in handy 354
All hail Disk Utility, the troubleshooter's friend 356
Disk repair made easy 358
Mark's iMac Troubleshooting Tree 359
Okay, I Kicked It, and It Still Won't Work 364
Local service, at your service 364
The macOS Help Center 364
Apple Help Online 364
Chapter 21: I Want to Add Stuff 365
More Memory Will Help 366
Figuring out how much memory you have 366
Installing memory modules 367
Can I Upgrade My Internal Drive? 371
Consider your external options 372
Gotta have internal 373
Weighing Attractive Add-Ons 374
Game controllers 374
External drive arrays 374
Video controllers 375
Audio hardware and MIDI controllers 375
Chapter 22: Tackling the Housekeeping 377
Cleaning Unseemly Data Deposits 377
Managing your storage in macOS (or cleaning things the elegant way) 378
Getting dirty (or cleaning things the manual way) 379
Using a commercial cleanup tool 382
Backing Up Your Treasure 383
Saving Files 384
Backing up to an external drive 384
Backing up to DVD 384
Putting Things Right with Time Machine 386
Maintaining Drive Health 388
Automating Those Mundane Chores 388
Creating an application in Automator 389
Creating an Automator login item 390
Updating macOS Automatically 391
Part 7: The Part of Tens 393
Chapter 23: Ten Ways to Speed Up Your iMac 395
Nothing Works Like a Shot of Memory 396
Hold a Conversation with Your iMac 396
What's Up, Siri? 397
Keep Your Desktop Background Simple 397
Column Mode Is for Power Users 398
Make the Dock Do Your Bidding 398
It All Started with Keyboard Shortcuts 399
Hey, You Tweaked Your Finder! 399
Keep in Touch with Your Recent Past 400
Go Where the Going Is Good 400
Chapter 24: Ten Things to Avoid Like the Plague 401
Keep Things Cool 402
Phishing Is No Phun 402
Don't Rely on a Single Password 403
Do You Really Want a Submerged Keyboard? 404
Don't Use Antiquated Utility Software 404
Don't Endorse Software Piracy 405
Call It the Forbidden Account 405
Don't Settle for a Surge Suppressor 406
Refurbished Hardware Is No Deal at All 406
iMacs Appreciate iCleanliness 407
Index 409
