Discover the Little Things in Sierra

While Sierra packs some substantial new powers (cough, cough…Siri), there are also many smaller ones—from new text shortcuts that will save you time typing, to big emoji in Messages, to the ability to view videos in Picture in Picture mode while you work ①. Here are some of the most interesting features that don’t fit into one category or another.

Watch While You Work

Whether it’s presidential debates, a much-anticipated soccer game, or the cat videos you’ve been watching to preserve your sanity, sometimes you want to watch while you work.

Sierra’s Picture in Picture feature makes it easy by showing a small video window in a corner of your screen. Send an email message, remove red-eye in the Photos app, or get deep into a Web search and your video window floats above it all, holding steady even if you switch to full-screen or Split View.

Currently, Sierra offers Picture in Picture only with iTunes and with Safari (as long as the Web site supports it). At press time Vimeo videos worked, for instance, but Flash-based videos—like NBC’s Olympics live stream—did not. (Note that the sidebar Yes, You Can Use Picture in Picture with YouTube, ahead in this chapter, explains a simple trick for YouTube.)

Starting up in iTunes

Start playing a video in iTunes and then click the Picture in Picture icon on the video control bar.

The main iTunes window says “This video is playing in Picture in Picture.” (You can minimize the main window to the Dock by clicking the yellow Minimize button or pressing Command-M, but don’t close it.) A small window appears at the top right of your screen.

Starting up in Safari

Start playing a supported Web video and then click the Picture in Picture icon on the video control bar. (You won’t see the button until the video starts playing.)

The Web page says “The video is playing in Picture in Picture,” and a small window appears at the top right of your screen.

Using Picture in Picture

Choose which corner of your screen the Picture in Picture window snaps into by dragging it into place. To make the window bigger, drag one of its edges.

Move your pointer over the Picture in Picture window to reveal its controls ②.

Here’s what you can do:

• Pause: Click the Pause button.
• Return to iTunes or Safari: Click the End PiP button to return the video to the iTunes or Safari window, which you’ll need to do if you want to rewind, fast-forward, or scrub through it.
• Close the window: Click the Exit button in its upper left-hand corner.

Take Advantage of Text Shortcuts

Lazy typists, unite! Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Text to see Sierra’s two new text shortcuts:

• Capitalize words automatically: With this option active, when you start a sentence, the first word capitalizes automatically—you don’t need to press the Shift key.
• Add period with double-space: Select this option and every time you quickly press the Space bar twice, the double space will be replaced with a period and a space. (Still typing a double space after every period? Seize this chance to break the habit!)

These text shortcut settings are off by default, but you can select them in the Keyboard system preference pane. They work in Apple apps like Mail, Messages, Notes, TextEdit, Numbers, Pages, and Keynote, as well as in third-party apps like Nisus Writer Pro and Slack. (Text shortcuts don’t work in Google Docs.)

Watch Out for Auto-correct!

The Keyboard system preference pane is also where Sierra’s auto-correct option lives. Although nowhere near as aggressive as iOS auto-correct, some people still find it an annoyance. If that’s you, deselect the checkbox next to Correct Spelling Automatically.

Unlock Your Mac with Your Apple Watch

It’s often wise to password-protect your Mac whenever you step away from it, especially if you lug your laptop around with you everywhere or work in a crowded office, but entering your password repeatedly is a pain. If you have an Apple Watch with watchOS 3 and a Sierra Mac that meets Apple’s requirements, you can use an extremely cool shortcut: Raise your watch and voilà! Your Mac unlocks automatically.

First things first, you need to make your Mac require a password when it wakes, as described in the nearby sidebar, “Protect Your Mac When It’s Idle.”

Once that’s taken care of, here’s how to set up Auto Unlock on your Mac:

1. Go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General and select the Allow Your Apple Watch to Unlock Your Mac box. This box is visible only if you have a watch. If you see a Disable Automatic Login box here, uncheck it.
2. If you aren’t using two-factor authentication (2FA) for your Apple ID, you’ll see an error ④. Turn this security feature on by going to the Apple ID account page, logging in, clicking Edit next to the Security header, and then clicking Turn On Two-Factor Authentication. (For more about 2FA, see the sidebar In Case You Missed It: Apple ID Two-factor Authentication, earlier in this chapter.)

   

3. When prompted, enter the password for your user account on the Mac.
4. Close your laptop or put your desktop Mac to sleep. (If you don’t want to wait, choose Apple  > Sleep.)
5. Wake your Mac by pressing a key or by opening it if it’s a laptop.

If your watch is on your wrist and you’re within a foot or so of the Mac, you’ll see an unlock notification on the Mac ⑤.

You’ll also see a notification on your Apple Watch ⑥.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Your watch can unlock only a sleeping Mac; it can’t automatically unlock a Mac that’s been rebooted.
• Your watch must have a passcode, but you don’t need to enter the passcode every time you use Auto Unlock. (That wouldn’t save any time!)
• Your watch locks automatically whenever you take it off, so it wouldn’t be possible for someone to pick your watch up off your desk and use it to access your Mac.

Add New References to Dictionary

Perhaps you parli Italiano as well as English, or you commonly write memos in Mandarin. El Capitan brought reference sources in many languages to the Dictionary app. Now, Sierra adds additional Italian, Danish, Dutch-English, and Traditional Chinese offerings.

To add a new reference, open Dictionary (in the /Applications folder, or ask Siri to open it) and choose Dictionary > Preferences. Select the boxes for any references you would like to include. (Make sure to scroll down to see all the offerings.)

Keep Folders on Top When Sorting in the Finder

You have a better chance of finding what you’re looking for if you arrange the contents of your Finder windows to fit the way you work. For instance, you can use the Arrange button in the Finder window’s toolbar to see files listed by the date they were added when looking at your Downloads folder and by name when looking at your Documents folder.

Still, there’s never been an easy way to prioritize folders in Mac Finder windows and jumbled together with files, folders can be hard to spot. No more: List folders first by going to Finder > Preferences > Advanced and selecting the Keep Folders on Top When Sorting by Name box ⑦.

Make Your Mac More Accessible

Apple has expanded its range of accessibility features to make using the iPhone and iPad easier for people with mobility issues, color blindness, and more (see Josh Centers’ iOS 10: A Take Control Crash Course).

The biggest new accessibility addition to macOS is Dwell Control ⑧. It lets you control your Mac’s pointer using head- or eye-tracking hardware, for example a headband with reflective dots. When the pointer dwells—or remains still—in a location for a certain amount of time, the Mac translates that into a mouse click or another customizable action like Double Click or Scroll Menu.

To explore all the options, go to System Preferences > Accessibility > Dwell Control.

Do More with Contacts

Apple’s Contacts app aims to hold the “deets” for your friends, family, acquaintances, and colleagues. As of Sierra, third-party messaging and video calling apps including Skype, Jabber, ICQ, Facebook, and more can integrate with Contacts, allowing handles and addresses for third-party services to appear in a person’s contact card, too.

You can even choose a third-party app as a contact method using the hard-to-miss buttons across the top of the contact’s card. Just click a button and then choose from available options ⑨.

Filter Your Email

Sierra’s Mail offers quick preset filters to help you find the messages you seek without the hassle of searching.

To start using these filters, click the Filter button at the top of the message list and then click Unread. A popover appears with possibilities including Flagged, Only from VIP, and Only Mail with Attachments. You can also filter by email account or by whether messages are addressed directly or CC’ed to you.

Click as many filters in this list as you like to narrow your search ⑩. Checkmarks indicates which filters you’ve selected. To remove one, just select it again; the checkmark will disappear.

To turn off all filters, click the Filter button (now darkened).

Store Fewer Attachments Locally

A new Download Attachments pop-up menu in Mail lets you choose to keep only recent attachments on your local drive: choose Mail > Preferences > Accounts > account-name > Account Information. (Previously, you could keep all or none of your attachments locally.) Note that this menu has a relationship to the new Optimize Storage feature.

Preview Links and Play Videos in Messages

Sierra’s Messages packs more interactivity than ever. Now there’s no more clicking blindly on URLs without knowing what you’ll see after the click. Whenever you add a link to a message, Messages shows the name and, if possible, a preview image. If the link happens to be to a video, click the play button to watch the video in the chat window itself ⑪.

Share Big Feelings with Big Emoji in Messages

Emoji can express the inexpressible, whether you’re feeling , , or . To add one to your message, click the Emoji icon in the text field, pick one from the pop-up menu, and it appears inline with your words.

What’s different as of Sierra, though, is if you send an emoji without any other text, it appears extra big ⑫.

Tapback in Messages

In person, you can snicker, snort, or smile in response to what someone says without using any words at all. Now Messages makes it easier and faster to do the digital equivalent using Tapback:

1. Control-click (right-click) the message you want to respond to, and choose Tapback from the contextual menu.
2. A speech bubble appears with several choices: a heart, thumbs up, thumbs down, “Ha Ha,” “!!” and “?” ⑬.

   

3. Click the appropriate one for this moment.

Messages tacks the image to the upper-right corner of your correspondent’s message ⑭.

Turn Off Read Receipts in Messages

Seeing a message change from “Delivered” to “Read” can amp up the anxiety for someone who is awaiting your reply. It also increases the pressure on you to come up with something to say right away.

In earlier versions of OS X, Messages let you turn off read receipts—the notices that let another person know if you’ve looked at their message or not. Sierra does, too, but what’s new is that you can now change the setting from conversation to conversation.

To change your setting only for a particular conversation, click the Details link at the top right of the message list you’re talking in and then uncheck (or check) the Send Read Receipts box ⑮.

To turn off, or on, all read receipts in Messages, choose Messages > Preferences > Accounts and uncheck, or check, Send Read Receipts ⑯.