Take Control of Sonoma

Book excerpt: Meet the latest version of macOS Version 1.2, released March 20, 2024 macOS 14 Sonoma makes your Mac more secure and easier to use, with a wide array of new and improved features. Learn how to upgrade your Mac from an earlier version of macOS, find your way around Sonoma, use new features, and discover extensive changes to built-in apps such as Safari and Messages. Sonoma is Apple's latest effort to make Macs even more powerful and easier to use, and Joe Kissell is back with a complete guide to the upgrade process, as well as an in-depth look at what's new. People participating in video calls or sharing their screens via FaceTime, Zoom, and similar apps have some helpful new tools at their disposal. Widgets can now live on your desktop. Messages adds usability features, Safari offers greater privacy and flexibility, and Notes includes hyperlinks and better PDF support. Take Control of Sonoma walks you through all these changes and many more. This book teaches you things like: • How to tell whether your Mac is compatible with Sonoma • Steps you should take before upgrading • How to perform an in-place upgrade—or do a clean install and migrate your old data from a backup • What's new in the System Settings app • Using new Safari 17 features, such as profiles that separate your Safari data into multiple contexts, turning any website into a standalone app, sharing passwords and passkeys securely, and browsing the web with greater privacy • How to put widgets on your desktop • Navigating long, multi-person Messages conversations more easily, using filters to narrow down searches, sharing your location (or requesting someone else’s) within Messages, and more easily working with stickers • Creating categories in Reminders to organize your lists, and getting alerts before a scheduled task is supposed to occur • Viewing complete PDFs within Notes and easily creating link that take you from one note to another • Improving your privacy and security by securely sharing passwords and passkeys and using information from your keychain in apps besides Safari • Small but interesting changes throughout macOS, such as accessibility improvements, a less-annoying Autocorrect feature (plus inline typing predictions), AutoFill for PDFs, and new capabilities for AirPods, dictation, screen savers, wallpaper, your lock screen, and screen sharing (among other features) • Improvements to bundled apps, including FaceTime, Find My, Home, Mail, Music, Photos, and Siri