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Don’t overlook these small but useful tweaks in Mojave

ACCENTS AND HIGHLIGHTS

Ever changed the color that’s used to highlight selected text, but been disappointed that your choice also affects the color that’s used to indicate the item in the menu bar, or control in a window that has the focus? In System Preferences > General, Mojave offers two color options.

The accent color is the one used for menus, controls and the like. Make sure you set it first, as the highlight color set to match it automatically; you can then change it to be different. Note that some apps are inconsistent: in Notes, say, the selected folder uses the accent color, while the selected note uses the highlight color. Similarly, System Prefs’ search bar uses the highlight color.

DVD PLAYER

Noticed DVD Player doesn’t show up in Launchpad or the Applications folder? Don’t worry, it isn’t gone. However, it has been updated to be a 64–bit app, ready for support for 32–bit apps ending next year, and it can now be found tucked away in /Library/CoreServices — though you only have to type its name in Spotlight to reach it.

If you’ve used Automator’s actions to control DVD Player for accessibility reasons, they are gone, so try recreating their effects using the Watch Me Do action.

SOFTWARE UPDATES

Settings for how macOS checks for and installs system and security updates have moved. Rather than being in the App Store’s pane, they’re in a new one named Software Update. Click Advanced to review the detailed settings beyond whether or not your Mac is automatically kept up to date.

The App Store’s settings aren’t found in System Prefs now. In the new–look store app, go to App Store > Preferences. The app’s Purchase tab is gone; click your name in its sidebar to see past buys.

A NEW DOCK GROUP

After using Mojave very briefly, notice there’s now a second dividing line in the Dock. Apps you open whose icons aren’t persistently pinned to the Dock appear between the two lines. As you quit those apps, up to three of them will remain in that space, in case you need them again soon, saving you having to locate them with Finder, Spotlight or Launchpad. If you’d rather the Dock didn’t do this, from Apple Menu, go to System Preferences > Dock and turn off ‘Show recent applications in Dock’.

TIDY UP SAFARI TABS

It’s easy, when using the web, to end up with a lot of disorganized tabs open. To sort the tabs in the current window, Ctrl–click one of them and pick ‘Arrange Tabs by Website’. Also helpful to guide your eyes, in Safari > Preferences > Tabs, is ‘Show website icons in tabs’.

Like its counterpart in iOS 12, Safari 12 for Mac indicates passwords you’ve reused. Go to Safari > Preferences > Passwords and check for an alert sign next to items. If you see one, click it for extra details and suggestions.

Don’t forget Safari’s existing tab management features: Window > Merge All Windows if you’ve ended up with tabs spread around a bit, and press Cmd+F in the graphical overview for a search bar that checks page addresses and titles in the current window’s tabs.

DYNAMIC BACKGROUNDS

The dynamic Mojave background blends between several color variations to match the time of day at your location. Apple makes only two of those available as static backgrounds — one for daytime, another for night. If you want one of the more subdued times on your desktop, do the following: In Finder, go to /Library/Desktop Pictures and open the Mojave.heic file in Preview (if double–clicking doesn’t do that, Ctrl–click the file and choose Open With > Preview). Ensure thumbnails are shown down the left side of the app; if not, do another workaround and pick View > Thumnbails.

Click the thumbnail of the version you want to use, choose File > Export and save as a JPEG — in your Pictures folder, say. Drag the file into the well at the top left of the Desktop & Screen Saver pane.

> CHOOSE FROM MORE DESKTOP BACKGROUNDS

Mojave includes a larger selection of new desktop backgrounds than the average new version of macOS. Ctrl–click an empty space on the desktop and choose Change Desktop Background to check them out for yourself. As well as the usual static images, try out the two dynamic backgrounds whose colors change as the day progresses.

RECOVER MISSING BACKGROUNDS

Of course, some backgrounds have been removed, including the stunning Antelope Canyon image. To retain access to them, take a copy of the contents of /Library/Desktop Pictures before upgrading, or restore the missing images from that folder in your Time Machine (or other) backup.

HAD ENOUGH OF SIRI’S VOICE?

From the Apple Menu, go to System Prefs > Siri and click the Siri Voice pop–up menu to find Irish and South African accents, in male and female versions. (These are available in iOS 12 as well.)

SPEAK TO YOUR HOME

You don’t have to use the Home app to control your smart lights, heating, plug sockets, and other clever kit. Instead, call upon Siri and say commands like “Turn off the lights” or the name of a scene you’ve set up. Apple gives examples of voice control of your home at bit.ly/sirihm.

CUSTOMIZE THE TOUCH BAR

You can make the Touch Bar more personal in Mojave by adding your own Quick Actions to it. In Automator, create a Quick Action like the one shown to the right. Our example displays a dialog for creating a new calendar event, with the event’s description being whatever text you selected before running the action. Save it as ‘New Calendar Event from Selection’.

Go to System Preferences > Extensions, select Touch Bar on the left and put a tick next to your Quick Action. As you add more items, dragging them up or down this list changes their order on the Touch Bar, the top item appearing leftmost.

In the Keyboard preferences pane, click Customize Touch Bar and add the Quick Actions button to the Control Strip. When you tap that button, the Quick Actions listed in the Extensions pane appear on the bar. You can even have the bar show them by default or when the Fn key is held.

> SCAN TO PDF

Earlier, we talked about how Continuity Camera integrates your iOS devices with such useful apps as Pages and Notes. It’s also accessible in Finder, where you are able to ‘scan’ documents directly to PDF files.

Go to the folder where you want PDF(s) to be saved, Ctrl–click in an empty spot and choose Import from iPhone or iPad > Scan Documents. As with using the tool within document–based apps, you can scan multiple sheets to each PDF file. Though many of our documents, such as bills, arrive in digital form these days, this is one of our favorite features in Mojave.