What’s New in Sierra?

The days of OS X—whether you pronounced it “10” or “X”—are over. Apple’s operating system now goes by macOS, in keeping with its cousins on the iPad and iPhone (iOS), on the Apple TV (tvOS), and on the Apple Watch (watchOS). macOS 10.12 Sierra improves upon and adds to the big changes OS X 10.11 El Capitan brought us. You’ll find updates—some substantial, some subtle—to key apps as well as new integration of the macOS and the iOS experiences. Use the links in this chapter to jump straight to the new feature you’re most interested in.

Interface Changes

  • Picture in Picture: Keep an eye on the game while you’re busy with other things. With Picture in Picture, video from iTunes or Safari floats above all open windows ①. See Watch While You Work.
**①** With Picture in Picture, your video never gets buried under windows.
① With Picture in Picture, your video never gets buried under windows.
  • Tabs everywhere: Now you can organize a mess of windows into orderly tabs in almost any app. See Cut Clutter with New App Tabs.
  • New ways to view files: Make it easier to scan for the file or folder you want by putting folders first in Finder lists sorted by name. Check out Keep Folders on Top When Sorting in the Finder
  • Trash changes: You can now set your Trash to take itself out after 30 days. See Empty Trash Automatically.
  • Rearrangeable menu bar icons: Command-drag any menu bar icon into the place of your choosing. The only exception is Notification Center . See Master the Menu Bar.
  • Menu bar volume control: Click the Volume icon in the menu bar to see not only a volume slider, but also output options. See Master the Menu Bar.
  • Dwell control: This new accessibility feature lets you control the pointer using head- or eye-tracking hardware. Read all about it in Make Your Mac More Accessible.

Cross-device Features

  • iCloud Drive: Chances are you have more—maybe a lot more—than one Apple device. Apple makes it easier to move between them with increased iCloud integration:
    • Store your Documents and Desktop folders in iCloud so you can access them from all your devices (and save space on your Mac).
    • Easily switch on iCloud Photo Library so you can access your photos from all your devices (and save even more space on your Mac).

    See Manage Your Storage.

  • Universal Clipboard: Copy and paste text and images from one device to another—say, from your iPad to your MacBook. Learn how to Juggle Information with the Universal Clipboard.
  • Login with your Watch: Lift the wrist with your Apple Watch on it and—bam!—your Mac unlocks without you typing in a password ③. SeeJuggle Information with the Universal Clipboard.
**③** Password, smassword—you can unlock your Mac with your Apple Watch.
③ Password, smassword—you can unlock your Mac with your Apple Watch.

System-wide Tools

  • Siri: One of Sierra’s blockbuster features is the arrival of Apple’s digital assistant on the Mac. Siri on the Mac can find answers to questions and tell you a joke, but it also lets you search for files in the Finder ④, perform system tasks like turning on Bluetooth or dimming your screen, and tap into app features in amazing ways—all with your voice! Learn more in Say Hello to Siri.
**④** Siri on the Mac can track down files for you.
④ Siri on the Mac can track down files for you.
  • New text shortcuts: Sierra adds two new text shortcuts. One capitalizes words automatically and the other adds a period (and space) when you type a double-space. These are available in most apps that work with text, such as Mail, Messages, Notes, TextEdit, Numbers, Pages, and Keynote. See Take Advantage of Text Shortcuts.
  • Notification Center: Notification Center adds a new look and the ability to pin topics to the Today view using Siri. See Keep Current with Notification Center.

Apple Apps

Here’s a look at what’s new in your Apple apps.

Photos

  • Advanced Computer Vision makes it possible to search your library not only for familiar faces, but also for a wide range of scenes and objects. This has very cool tie-ins to Siri (see Find Your Photos).
  • The Brilliance tool brightens shadows, tones down highlights, and adds contrast to make details pop.
  • Auto-generated Memories albums group photos and videos based on people, places, holidays, and more.
  • A new People album identifies faces and then groups your pictures by person.
  • A new Places album puts your images on a map so you can browse by location ⑤.
**⑤** See all your photos on the map with Photos’ new Places album.
⑤ See all your photos on the map with Photos’ new Places album.

Safari

  • Use Apple Pay to shop in Safari without the hassle of entering credit card details.
  • Open recently closed tabs.
  • Make bookmarks easier to find by adding descriptions to new ones.
  • Enable and disable plug-ins on a site-by-site basis.
  • The checkbox for setting a minimum font size is gone. If that’s a problem for you, read the sidebar Bring Back a Minimum Size for Safari Text.

Get the scoop in Update Your Safari Smarts.

Notes

Apple’s omnipresent Notes app now lets you share and collaborate on notes with others; find out how in New! Share Notes with Others (Also worth mentioning: Apple slipped in the ability to lock notes for privacy after the release of El Capitan. See New! Share Notes with Others)

Messages

Now you can Preview Links and Play Videos in Messages, Share Big Feelings with Big Emoji in Messages, and respond with quick reactions—like a thumbs up or “Ha Ha”—to a received message (see Tapback in Messages).

If you’d rather your correspondent not know whether you’ve read their messages within a particular conversation, you can also Turn Off Read Receipts in Messages.

Contacts

Contacts allows handles and addresses for more third-party services like Skype to appear in a person’s contact card. Click and hold one of the hard-to-miss buttons across the top of each card to choose how you want to connect. See Do More with Contacts

Dictionary

Dictionary adds more references in more languages to satisfy polyglots everywhere. See Add New References to Dictionary.

Mail

Fundamentals

  • RAID support: Removed in El Capitan, software RAID (redundant array of independent disks) features now return to Sierra’s Disk Utility. Read more in New! Disk Utility Does RAID.
  • Improved Console app: This utility’s enhanced search tools and more user-friendly interface make it easier for experienced users to examine log files when troubleshooting software and hardware problems. See New! Updated Console App ⑦.
**⑦** Geeks rejoice! The updated Console app is more user-friendly.
⑦ Geeks rejoice! The updated Console app is more user-friendly.
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