Got a new Mac or got one as a Christmas present? We collect ten solid tips that will give you a good start on Mac usage.

 are ten tips to help you avoid problems later with your new computer. Although the Mac is mostly simple and intuitive, there is a lot to think about to maximize the benefits it.

1. Back up, early and often

Time Machine is a secure and reliable backup system and is built into the Mac OS operating system. With Time Machine, you solve both large and small problems because it takes incremental backups, so you can restore individual files you have accidentally thrown away as well as the entire disk if the accident occurs.

The easiest way is to use Time Machine with an external hard drive connected via USB, but you can also connect to a network share, such as some NAS devices. To get started, open System Preferences, click Time Machine, select a destination disk, and activate. The hard disk must be formatted for Mac with the hfs plus or apfs file systems. For a new Mac with a new backup, it is easiest to choose apfs. Most hard drives are sold formatted with the exFAT or NTFS file system: Use the Disk Utility program located in Utilities in the Apps folder to reformat it.

If you want to be really safe, you should also back up to another place outside the home, for example with an online backup service. Apple's cloud service iCloud can sync and thus secure some files, but not the entire computer.

2. Connect to iCloud

Even if this is your first Mac, the probability is quite high that you already have an iPhone or Ipad. Like these iOS devices, your Mac can connect to iCloud with your Apple ID and password. You can connect the first time you start your computer or at a later time through System Preferences -> Apple ID.

By connecting all your Apple gadgets to the same iCloud account, you can share photos, contacts, calendars, and much more without ever having to pair them with wires. By checking Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices in System Settings -> General on Mac and in Settings -> General -> Airplay and Handoff on iPhone and Ipad, you can also take advantage of the ability to move open browser tabs quickly and easily between your Mac and an iOS device, as well as copy and paste between your different devices. For example, if you have a password for something stored on your Mac, you can copy it and paste it on your iPhone or Ipad to log in to the account in question.

In iCloud settings you will also find an important setting: Optimize Mac storage. If you enable it, your computer will load files to the cloud when the free space on your Mac starts to run low. This means that files are deleted from the computer but remain in the cloud. If you try to open such a file, it must first be downloaded from the iCloud servers. This can be useful if you have some built-in storage, but can also make local backup more difficult.

3. Use the Help menu

If you have ever wondered why your Mac did not have the included manual, the answer is simple: The manual is built into the system. The help menu is so obvious that most of us do not even think about it when we wonder about something. But we should, because the answer is often there. Help is in the menu bar, on the far right of the menus.

What is included in Help differs from program to program and is added by the developers, but the structure is the same. At the top of a search field to quickly find the right one and then different options. Many programs have lists of keyboard shortcuts, guides on how to use them, and more. If there is only one or a couple of options, one of which is named something like "Program name help", you can select it to open the help files in a separate window.

Unfortunately, Apple is not always good at filling out the Help menu in its own applications. Safari, for example, has only one manual that opens in a separate window with basic tips. Some other developers provide significantly more information.

Familiarize yourself with the menu bar

At the top of the screen on a Mac, you will see the menu bar, a strip showing the menus of the active program on the left, and various small icons on the right. The menu bar has been around since the very first Macintosh computer in 1984 and is a central part of the entire Mac user experience. Apple placed the menu bar at the top, with the most important menus at the far left, as our eyes are naturally drawn there.

Unlike on Windows and Linux where individual programs can place menus as they wish, all Mac programs have menus in the menu bar, only certain programs in full-screen mode (games for example) hide it. Therefore, as a new Mac user, it is important that you get acquainted and become friends with it.

The Apple menu is the menu you find by clicking the Apple icon at the far left of the menu bar. Here are shortcuts to System Preferences (which you can also access via the Spotlight and Applications folder) and the Mac App Store, the commands rest, restart, and shut down and log out. Recent Items lists the last ten programs and files you have opened, Force Shutdown corresponds to Windows ctrl-alt-delete (Task Manager) and allows you to force an unresponsive program to shut down. About This Computer Displays basic information about your Mac, such as how fast the processor is and how much internal memory it has. There you can also select System Report to get detailed information about all hardware.

All programs also have a menu with the program name where you can find functions program settings, check for updates, and exit the program.

To the right of the program, the menu is the menus File, Edit, and Content (or File, Edit, and View if the program is in English). After these, many programs have a number of their own menus and on the far right the menus Window and Help (Window and Help in English). Default commands are always in the same menu regardless of the program, once you have learned that, for example, settings for showing or hiding different parts of the interface are almost always found in Content, you always look there first.

The icons on the right are so-called menu bar programs and can both be built into the system and come from third-party programs. Many small utility programs that do not need to have a window open all the time but work best if they are always running are located here. Which built-in functions are to be seen here, select in System settings -> Dock and menu bar.

Read more: How to get the menu bar in Mac OS Big Sur

5. Use the Mac App Store but do not be afraid of third-party developers

Apple opened the Mac App Store to create a place to easily acquire third-party applications without having to worry about security and typing card details on a variety of websites. You can use the same account as on the App Store for iOS and the iTunes Store.

Unlike on iOS, developers can choose to distribute their applications themselves and there are also many who do it instead of living with the limitations that exist in the App Store. Applications that, for example, need to access the entire hard disk (such as backup software) or install drivers must be distributed outside the App Store. Therefore, your range of applications will be very limited if you strictly adhere to the App Store.

Examples of programs that are only available outside the App Store are the Adobe Creative Cloud suite (Photoshop, Premiere Pro, et cetera), all fantastic audio programs from Rogue Amoeba, Firefox, Spotify, and not least the game store Steam. To install apps outside the App Store, you need to open System Preferences -> Security & Privacy -> General, unlock the settings via the padlock at the bottom left, and switch Allow apps downloaded from to the App Store and specified developers.

Do not miss - 18 real gold nuggets: Smart applications that are an absolute must for the Mac

6. Set up your email

Are you still using your browser to use Gmail, Yahoo Mail, or other email services to check your email? There's a better way: Apple sends with the Mail application that can connect to virtually any email provider in the world. Using Mail is much easier than webmail, especially if you have more than one account. The program is, for example, linked to other programs such as Calendar and Maps.

Keep in mind that most email services today use two-factor authentication with, for example, time-bound one-time codes and that you usually have to log in to the service in question on the web and create a special "app password" to be able to log in to the account from a standalone program like Mail.

7. Get to know Spotlight

Spotlight is Mac's built-in search engine that quickly helps you find documents, programs, photos, contacts, emails, and other files. It can also connect to the internet and find articles from Wikipedia, news, IMDB, and more. You can even use Spotlight for simple calculations, such as converting feet to meters or ounces to grams. Spotlight lives in the menu bar, on the far right under a magnifying glass. You can also open Spotlight by pressing cmd space.

Once you get started, you will find that Spotlight is the fastest way to open applications you do not have in the Dock, find documents, and much more.

If you have external disks connected to your Mac that you do not need to search, you can remove them from the Spotlight index, which speeds up searches. You do this in System Settings -> Spotlight -> Integrity . Press the plus button and locate the disk in question (or individual folders you do not want to be included in the search results).

8. Fine-tune the Dock

However, the line of icons is at the bottom of the screen where you will find common programs such as Safari and Finder. Click on an application icon to open or view the application. But you do not have to settle for what it is like when you first start using your Mac.

First, you can delete programs you do not use often (drag the icon a bit up on the screen and release when it says Delete above) and add others you want there permanently (drag from the Programs folder or move an open program icon within Though).

Second, you can change how it is displayed. Open System Preferences -> Dock and menu bar. Here you can resize the icons, enable or disable magnification (which "zooms" the piece of Dock you hold the pointer over), select the location on the screen (if you prefer it on one of the pages), and a few more things. If you have a Mac with a smaller screen, the Hide and Show Dock automatically option may be a good idea - this means that the Dock does not appear, but only appears when you drag the pointer to the bottom of the screen.

9. Learn keyboard shortcuts

Although the Mac OS standard menu bar makes it quick to find various commands and settings regardless of the application, you can save an incredible amount of time by learning shortcuts for common tasks. Instead of finding the Print command in the File menu, you can press cmd-p to immediately open the print dialog.

All programs have their own keyboard shortcuts, but many keyboard shortcuts are set by the system and are the same everywhere. For example, cmd-c , cmd-x, and cmd-v are copy, cut, and paste. Cmd-h hides the active program (it "disappears" and reappears by clicking the icon in the Dock or by otherwise activating it, for example opening a file belonging to the program).

You can see the shortcuts for different menu options on the right of the menus. Unfortunately, the text is very thin - if you have difficulty reading it, you can open System Settings -> Tools -> Monitor and check Increase contrast. Then hold the pointer over the menu option you want to see the shortcut for and the text will be much clearer.

Master Mac shortcuts - and set new ones

10. Stay up to date

If you are not in the habit of going in and checking for available updates yourself, it is a good idea to enable automatic updates wherever possible. Updates are at least as much about security as new features, and in our increasingly connected world, it is difficult to use outdated software.

Open System Preferences -> Software Update and click Advanced. Here you can choose which updates to download and install automatically. If you prefer to choose when the system itself is to be updated, you can check that particular option, but if you do not know how you want it, we recommend that you check all options. If you have opted out of automatically installing system updates, you will receive daily reminders that an update is available, so you will not forget it.

Third-party programs often have their own settings for automatic updates, even if they do not, a notice usually appears that an update is available.