Learn about the Apple Menu and the different features available on the Mac.
In this lesson for macOS, I look at the Apple Menu and the different options we have in the Apple Menu. With the Apple menu, you have easy access to the Mac’s System Preferences, you can force quit an app, and more, all from any app. Take a look at the Apple Menu in this lesson for macOS.
Video Transcript (video also has closed captions):
Introduction: In this video, we’re going to take a closer look at the Apple menu. Let’s go to my Mac. The Apple menu is located in the upper left-hand corner of the menu bar under this apple. Now, this Apple menu will always be available. It doesn’t matter which app you’re in. Right now, I’m in the Finder. It’s going to open up my calendar. Click on it, and then if we go up to the upper left-hand corner, we have our apple. It is always going to be available. I’m going to quit out of the calendar, command queue. What is underneath the sample menu that we can access from within any app?
About this Mac: Our first option here is About this Mac. You saw a brief glimpse of this when I talked about which OS you’re using. When I select this, I’m going to get a window that tells me about the smack. We have several tabs across the top of the window. Our first one here is an overview. This gives us an overview of the Mac. We can see them using macOS Mojave. I can see the processor, the memory, what graphics card it has, and a serial number. If I want to see if there’s any software update, I click on software update.
Displays: We also have Displays. This will tell me information about the displays that are connected to my Mac. Now, I have three different displays here. Now, I can see these different displays.
Storage: We also have storage. These are hard drives. I click on it, and now I can see all the hard drives that are connected. I can also see how much space is in each hard drive. We can see that my time machine has 1.74 terabytes available out of four terabytes. How’s it being used? One backs up another. My Drobo is mostly being used for movies. If I want to manage the space on my Macintosh hard drive, I click on manage, and now a new window opens up. Actually, it’s a new application. From here, I can see what is using up all of my space. We do have some recommendations. What I can do is I can set if I want to store my files in iCloud. Do I want to optimize the storage for iTunes? Maybe I want to empty my trash automatically. All I have to do is just turn this on.
Reducing Clutter: If I want to reduce clutter, I can review the files to reduce the clutter. I want to see what has taken up all my space in Mail; I click on Mail. I want to see what all the space is taking up in Messages; I click on Messages. That’s how we can easily manage our space. If you’re running low on space, this is a good way of taking a look at what’s taken up all of your space and possibly freeing up more space. I’m going to close this window, and we’re back at about the smack.
Memory: We also have memory, so I can see how much memory is installed on my Mac. Then I have support. I click on support, and I have different support options. I have macOS help, and then I also have the user manual, and then I have different Mac resources. Then our last one here is service. Click on service, and I’m able to check to see if I can get service for this Mac.
Accessing System Preferences: That’s how we can see about our Mac. Let’s go back and close this and go back up to our Apple menu. We also have our system preferences. This is where I can open up my system preferences. Then if I want to open up the app store, I select this, and I can open up the app store. We also have access to recent items. This is divided into two different categories. I have my applications, so these are all my recent applications. Then I also have my documents. If I want to clear this, I select Clear Menu, and it’s going to clear all of these recent items.
Force Quitting an App: If you’re having a problem with an app, you can force quit that app. I click on it, and then let’s go ahead and move this to the center. I can go and select the app that I want to force quit. Now, with the Finder, you’re going to see that I can’t force quit. If I go and click on Sonos here, I can go and force quit. With the Finder, I can’t force quit it, but what I can do is I can relaunch it.
Relaunching the Finder: Remember, the Finder is always running because that’s how we access our different files and folders on the Mac. If you’re having a problem with it, what you may need to do is relaunch it. You can’t force quit it, but you can relaunch it. I’m going to go and close this and let’s go back up to the Apple menu. We also have sleep, restart, and shutdown. If I select sleep, it’s going to put my Mac to sleep. Restart, obviously restart the Mac. Then if I want to shut it down altogether, I select shutdown.
Locking the Screen: Now, if you have a password on your Mac, what you can do is you can lock the screen. I select this, and it’s going to lock the screen. Then I’m going to have to enter in the password before I can access my screen. If you’re in an area where you want to keep your screen private, and you have to go, let’s say you want to get a cup of coffee, what you can do is you can go and quickly lock the screen by selecting this and then no one be able to access your computer while you’re away. Then if you want to log out, remember how we can have different users. What I can do is I can log out of this user and then log into another user.
That’s the Apple menu on the Mac.