Mac 101: Set your preferences

System Preferences lets you tweak your system

Learn how to:

• Optimize Your Keyboard, Mouse, and Trackpad
• Change Your Screen Resolution
• Change Your Sounds
• Customize Your Keyboard Shortcuts
• Change Your Mac's Sleep Habits
• Change Your Language
• Set Your Media Preferences
• Change Your Date and Time

Optimize Your Keyboard, Mouse, and Trackpad

We all type, point, and click differently. That's why it's important to make sure that you optimize your keyboard and mouse or trackpad, if you're using a MacBook or MacBook Pro for your movements. Here's how to do this.

Customize Your Keyboard

1. From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences.
2. In the System Preferences window, click Keyboard & Mouse.
3. Click the Keyboard tab. These controls allow you to set the keyboard sensitivity for how fast you type.
4. To control how quickly a key types its character repeatedly when held down, move the Key Repeat Rate slider left to slow down the rate, or right to speed it up. You can use the text field in the middle of the window to test your setting.
5. To control how long you can hold down a key before it starts repeating, move the Delay Until Repeat slider left to allow a longer delay or right to shorten it.
6. If you want to reassign the modifier keys on your keyboard (Control, Option, Command, and Caps Lock), click Modifier Keys. In the dialog that slides down, you can change which modifier is assigned to what key, or disable a key altogether. For example, if you keep hitting Caps Lock by accident and wind up typing in ALL CAPS, choose No Action from the Caps Lock Key pop-up menu. Click OK when finished.
7. If you're using a MacBook or MacBook Pro and want to use the F1-F12 keys on your keyboard to control other application features, select the checkbox—you'll need to press the Function (fn) key along with any F1-F12 key to perform a key's default hardware function.

Optimize Your Mouse

Your Mouse preferences settings may differ, depending on what kind of mouse you're using.

1. Open System Preferences and click Keyboard & Mouse to display these preferences.
2. Click the Mouse tab. These controls let you set the mouse sensitivity to control how fast the arrow flies across your screen when you move your mouse, and adjust for your double-click reflexes. Other controls may be available, depending on the type of mouse you're using.
3. To control how fast the arrow moves across your screen when you move the mouse, move the Tracking Speed slider left to slow it down, or right to speed it up.
4. To set your computer's reaction to your double-click speed, move the Double-Click Speed slider left if you tend to click slower, or right if you've got an itchy trigger finger.
5. If your mouse has a scroll wheel, you can set its scroll speed using the Scrolling Speed slider. You can also change the mouse's primary button if you're using something other than an Apple single-button mouse.

Optimize Your Trackpad

Portable Mac users can change the speed and functionality of their trackpad

1. Open System Preferences and click Keyboard & Mouse to display its preferences.
2. Click the Trackpad tab. These controls let you set the trackpad sensitivity to control how fast the arrow moves across your screen when you move your finger across the trackpad, and also adjust for your double-click speed.
3. To control how fast the arrow moves across your screen, move the Tracking Speed slider left to slow it down, or right to speed it up.
4. To set your computer's reaction to your double-click speed, move the Double-Click Speed slider left if you tend to click slower, or right if tend to click faster.
5. If you want to add double-click functionality to your trackpad, select the Clicking checkbox below Trackpad Gestures. You can also select the Dragging and Drag Lock checkboxes if you'd like to drag items using the trackpad.

Change Your Screen Resolution

You may want to use a high resolution so you can see more files, folders, desktop items, and view graphics at the best possible resolution. Or you may prefer a smaller resolution. Here's how to adjust your screen resolution.

This MacBook Pro display provides a maximum 1440 x 900 resolution, but also supports several smaller resolutions.

1. Open System Preferences and click Displays to display its preferences.
2. Click the Display tab; your display's supported resolution settings are listed in the Resolutions pane, from the lowest to the highest resolution.
3. Select any of the choices to change the resolution. A lower resolution gives you less desktop space to display windows and interfaces, but these will also appear larger. A larger resolution maximizes your screen space, letting you see more of a photo or document, and can help you manage applications whose interface elements span multiple windows.
4. To adjust your screen's brightness, move the Brightness slider left to make it dimmer, or right to make it brighter.

Change Your Sounds

 

1. Open System Preferences and click Sound to display its preferences.
2. To change the alert sound, it plays when your Mac wants to get your attention, click the Sound Effects tab, and select a sound in the top list.
3. If you want to hear sound effects play when you do other things in the Finder, such as when you drag stuff to, or empty, the Trash, or remove items the Dock, select the "Play user interface sound effects" checkbox.
4. To change the overall volume of sound effects, move the "Alert volume" slider left to turn the volume down, or right to turn it up.
5. To adjust the overall volume of your Mac, move the "Output volume" slider left to quiet things down, or right to crank it up. If you'd rather have your Mac be quiet, select the Mute checkbox.
6. To adjust the sound balance for your internal or external speakers, click the Output tab, select your speaker device from the list, and move the Balance slider left to skew the stereo sound mix to the left channel, or right to hear more from the right channel.

Customize Your Keyboard Shortcuts

Your Mac has plenty of functions and commands that can be triggered by a simple keyboard shortcut, pressing two or three keys simultaneously to perform an action.

Look in any menu. For example, click the File menu in the menu bar, and you'll see a list of functions and commands, as well as a two- or three-character code to their right. These are keyboard shortcuts. Most shortcuts are made up of one or two modifier keys (Command, Option, Control, or Shift) and another key. Here's what modifier keys represent:

You don't have to stick with the keyboard shortcuts that are already assigned for your Mac. You can customize many of the functions with your own key combinations.

You can dictate which keys to press to make your Mac perform certain tasks in the Keyboard Shortcuts pane.

1. Open System Preferences and click Keyboard & Mouse to display its preferences.
2. Click the Keyboard Shortcuts tab to display a list of some of the system-wide menu commands whose shortcuts you can change.
3. To change any item, double-click on the actual shortcut, the characters in the Shortcut column, and press your preferred key combination to enter it in the text field.
4. To change the keyboard shortcut for any unlisted system-wide or application-specific item, click the plus (+) button.
5. In the dialog, choose All Applications or a specific one from the Application pop-up menu, and type the exact name of the menu command that you want to change in the Menu Title field, look in the menu to view the exact name.
6. Type your preferred keyboard combination in the Keyboard Shortcut field, and click Add.
    

Change Your Computer's Sleep Habits

To conserve energy, all Macs have the ability to sleep. That is, when you haven't used your computer for a set amount of time, the computer enter a low-power mode until you wake it by using it. Sleep doesn't turn off your computer; it merely puts it into an inactive state that consumes less power. Waking your Mac from sleep is faster than waiting for your Mac to start up after a shutdown.

This is especially helpful for conserving battery life on MacBook and MacBook Pro computers. But sometimes you may need to alter your computer's sleep settings, such as when you're burning a DVD—if you're not interacting with your Mac during this time, it could go to sleep during the process. Or, you may want to have your Mac go to sleep earlier than scheduled. Here's how to change sleep preferences.

Set the Sleep Time

 

1. Open System Preferences and click Energy Saver to display its preferences.
2. Click the Sleep tab.
3. Move the sliders for both the computer and display to change the times in which they go to sleep.
4. Click the Options tab.
5. Select any other options you want, such as wake options, in the panel.

Customize Your MacBook or MacBook Pro Sleep Habits

If you're using a portable Mac, you can set different sleep times for your battery and power adapter use.

1. In Energy Saver preferences, choose Power Adapter or Battery from the Settings for pop-up menu.
2. To change the sleep times for your power source choice, either move the computer and display sliders to change the sleep time, or choose one of the energy presets from the Optimization pop-up menu.

Schedule Sleep or Shut Down

You can also automate when your Mac goes to sleep and wakes up, or shuts down and starts up. If you want to put your Mac on a set schedule:

 

1. In Energy Saver preferences, click Schedule.
2. In the dialog, select the "Start up or wake" checkbox.
3. Choose a scheduled interval from the top pop-up menu, for example Every Day or Weekdays.
4. Set a wake up or start up time in the field to its right.
5. Select the bottom checkbox and from the pop-up menu to its right, choose either Sleep to have your Mac automatically sleep and wake on schedule, or Shut Down to make your Mac automatically shut down and start up on schedule.
6. Choose a scheduled interval from the next pop-up menu, for example Every Day or Weekdays.
7. Set a sleep or shut down time in the field to its right.
8. Click OK.

Change Your Language

Your Mac is set to display the language for the country in which you bought the computer. In other words, if you bought your Mac in the United States, your Mac is set to English. If you bought your Mac in France, your Mac understands French. But if you prefer to use a different language, you can.

If you bought your Mac in the U.S. but English isn't your preferred language,
you can switch what language your Mac speaks via drag-and-drop.

1. Open System Preferences and click International to display its preferences.
2. Click the Language tab.
3. In the Languages pane, drag your preferred language to the top of the list.
4. Restart your Mac or log out and log back in to apply the language throughout your system.

Set Your Media Preferences

When you insert a CD or DVD into your Mac, we told your Mac what it should do. For example, when you insert a music CD, iTunes automatically opens so you can listen to it. When you insert a DVD, DVD Player opens so you can kick back and watch.

But you don't have to stick with our assumptions. You can tell your Mac what you want it to do when you insert a prerecorded CD or DVD, or a blank disc.

You can tell your Mac which applications, scripts, or actions to take when you insert media

1. Open System Preferences and click CDs & DVDs to display its preferences.
2. The top two pop-up menus let you decide what your Mac should do when you insert a blank CD or DVD. By default, both menus are set to "Ask what to do"; this action opens a dialog. You can change it to open your choice of application, open Disk Utility, run a script, or simply ignore it.
3. The bottom three pop-up menus let you choose what your Mac should do when you insert a music CD, picture CD, or video DVD, respectively.

Change Your Date and Time

Your Mac has the ability to automatically set the correct date and time, or you can choose to set these manually. You can also decide how you want the time and date to display on your Mac. Here's how to set these preferences.

 

1. Open System Preferences and click Date & Time to display the preferences.
2. Click the Date & Time tab.
3. If you always want your Mac to set the date and time automatically, select the "Set Date & Time automatically" checkbox, choose your location from the pop-up menu to the right, and skip to step 7. A network connect is required.
4. To set things manually, or if you don't have a network connection, deselect the "Set Date & Time automatically" checkbox.
5. To manually set the date, click on the month, day, or year in the field above the calendar to select it,. Either use the up or down arrows to change the value, or type in the information. Or, click on the correct date in the calendar graphic, to change the month use the left and right arrows.
6. To set the time, click on the hour, minute, seconds, or AM/PM in the field above the clock to select it. Either use the up or down arrows to change the value, or type in the information. Or, click and drag the hands on the clock graphic to the correct time.
7. Click the Time Zone tab and either click your approximate location on the map or choose the city closest to you from the Closest City pop-up menu.
8. To change the way the clock displays on your Mac, click the Clock tab. In this pane, you can select whether to display the time and date in the menu bar, and whether it will be displayed in digital format, or as an analog clock face.  Seconds display and additional options are available.