Making more of your Mac
While some Macs can’t, be tweaked for better performance, most can
Everyone who uses a Mac is different, and revels in customising its features to get it to work better for them. Each of these suggestions can help you tailor your system for each day, and your every activity.
1 Power management
While Monterey manages your notebook’s charging to extend its working life, you still make decisions about how to use that power. Low Power Mode is available on most supported notebook models to help eke out a bit more juice. The select few with an M1 Max in their MacBook Pro now get High Power Mode, to run theirs at full pelt. The Battery pane also lets you override Apple’s charge management when you need to start the day with a full battery.
2 Login looks
When you type your password to log into your Mac, your memoji’s face responds emotionally according to its correctness. Try deliberately typing the occasional incorrect password just to see its reaction. If you haven’t yet set your personal avatar to a memoji, open System Preferences, and click on your avatar image at the top left to edit it. Monterey adds more standard memoji, and you can always create your own from a photo or other source using that editor.
3 Dodge the notch
If an app doesn’t work well with the camera notch in the display, open the app’s Get Info window in the Finder and there check the ‘Scale to fit below built-in camera’ box to change its behaviour. App developers can also control this behaviour in the settings they bake into their software.
4 Colour the pointer
For many, the pointer isn’t always as visible as we’d like, particularly when it changes into an I-beam to edit text. One aid is ‘Shake mouse pointer to locate’, a setting in the Pointer tab