Caring for your new MacBook

MacBooks tend to be more durable and user-friendly than any other laptop. The battery life is considerably more reliable and you can customize how you use your energy. They are very quick to boot up compared full-service laptops (Chromebooks may be a bit faster in some cases). Their instructionally-valid lifespan is well over four years with care.  

Setting up your Workstation

One issue with MacBooks is they only use one type of port to connect peripherals. Newer MacBooks only have Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) or Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports, which means users will need to use adapters or what are called dongles to connect devices to the MacBook. Below, you will find instructions for setting up your instructional station or workstation.

Apple Pencil

Apple Pencil provides the ability to draw, note-take, and mark up documents. Its functionality is intuitive, precise, and magical. All devices operate with imperceptible lag, pixel-perfect precision, tilt and pressure sensitivity, and support for palm rejection. Incredibly easy to use and ready when inspiration strikes.

Mac Functions & Utilities for Instruction

Screenshots

By holding Shift+Command+4, the cursor will become a target and allow you to take a picture of a region of your screen. A preview of the screenshot will show up at the bottom of your screen. If you click on it, it is able to be marked up with a textbox or pen marks, you can add symbols, crop it, and save it as an image file. If you prefer to take a screenshot of the entire screen, then click Shift+Command+3. 

Icon Bookmarks

Have a website you love and want to keep it? You can drag site information icon by the URL address indicator in your web browser to save or share the resource like you would a file.

Siri

Siri is a built-in, voice-controlled personal assistant available for Apple users. You can ask Siri to retrieve the answers for simple, low-level questions.

Find 

(Command+F) allows the user to search for any files, document, or app on the device.

Text Size

Click Shift, Command, + to make the text larger on the screen, select Shift, Command, - to make it smaller.

Emergency Shut Down

In case your computer crashes, you can hold the power button down for 10 seconds for it to shut down.

Force Quit an App

Go to the Dock, find the App icon, and hold down the left click. Select Force quit.

System Preferences