If you’re shopping for a loan, you’ll undoubtedly have a few loan options. Comparing loans can be intimidating and daunting, and it’s hard to know which option is right for you, or which loan may make the most sense for your particular situation. But thanks to the Numbers app, you can easily compare loans.
All you have to do is input some data into a free Numbers spreadsheet, and you’ll be able to do a quick loan comparison. To get started, make sure you have the Numbers app installed on your device, and have some general information about the loan options, things like the loan amount, the interest rate, and the loan length:
• Get the Numbers app if you have not done so already (free on the App Store)
• Open the Numbers app and choose to create a new Numbers document
• Look under the “Personal Finance” section for “Loan Comparison” and select to create that
• Near the bottom of the spreadsheet, input your loans and loan data to compare
The Loan Comparison spreadsheet will instantly calculate your loan options and provide you with valuable information, including your monthly payment, total interest paid, and the total amount paid, as well as offer you a bar graph to visualize the loan amounts.
Want to find a solution to back up multiple Macs in your home or office without buying dedicated hardware like network-attached storage, paying for a backup service, or needing multiple external drives? You can set up a shared network folder on Mac to allow other machines to save their Time Machine backups.
The handy feature to set up a shared network folder for backups with macOS is like a built-in virtual NAS. Keep in mind, you’ll want to make sure the Mac you’re setting up the shared folder on has enough storage to handle backups from Macs you’ll be using it with. You can also limit backups to a specific size. And don’t forget to regularly back up the Mac you’re using as the shared folder host with an external drive or other option.
Set up a shared Time Machine backup folder on Mac
• Choose Apple menu > System Settings... > General
• Choose Sharing and turn on File Sharing
• Click the (i) information button
• Now click the "Options..." Button and make sure “Share files and folders using SMB” is checked
• Click Done
• Click the + button at the bottom of the Shared Folders list
• Select the folder you want to use (or create a new one) for sharing, then click Open
• Control-click the folder name, then choose "Advanced Options..."
• Turn on "Share as a Time Machine backup destination" (you can also limit backups to a certain GB threshold)
• When done, click "OK"
Back up a Mac to a shared network folder
• Choose Apple menu > System Settings... > General > Time Machine
• Click the "Add Backup Disk..." button
• Choose the shared folder and click the "Set Up Disk..." button
Here are three useful tips that will ensure you do not face this issue on your Mac.
Add a password hint
After you add a password hint, it shows up on the screen if you enter the incorrect password a few times. You can see that hint and instantly recall what your Mac’s login password is.
A hint should be there to help you refresh your memory. Do not put your exact password or make it too obvious that others around you can guess it.
You can add the hint when you’re creating or changing your Mac’s user account password. Here’s what to do if you’d like to add one now:
• Go to Apple menu > System Settings... > Users & Groups
• Click the info icon (i) next to the desired account
• Click Change... next to Password
• Create a new password and add the hint on this screen
• Lastly, click Change Password
Once the hint is added, go to System Settings > Lock Screen and turn on the switch for “Show password hints”.
Show a Lock Screen message
The Lock Screen message is not for adding password hints but rather for displaying a welcome message. You can for example add your email address/phone number so someone who finds your misplaced Mac can contact you and return it.
However, if you do not want to change your current Mac password – a requisite for adding password hint if you don’t have already – then you can rely on the Lock Screen message feature to add a hint. But again, don’t make it obvious.
• Launch Cocktail (https://www.maintain.se/cocktail)
• Click the Interface toolbar button
• Go to the Login tab
• Enter your message into the "Display additional message" text field
• Click Apply
Allow Apple ID to reset Mac’s password
This is an extremely important step that will be helpful if you’ve forgotten your password and can’t figure it out even after looking at the hint.
Go to System Settings > Users & Groups and click the info icon (i) next to an account. Now, turn the switch for “Allow user to reset password using Apple Account”
From now on, you can use your Apple ID and password to reset your Mac’s forgotten account password.
Hover Text is an interesting macOS accessibility feature that magnifies the text that’s displayed on your screen. This can be any regular text, a menu item, or a button.
As the name suggests, when you hover your mouse cursor over the text, macOS will magnify and display a high-resolution zoomed version of the text in a separate window. This makes reading content a whole lot easier, whether the font size is tiny, or even if the screen is far away from where you’re seated.
This is an accessibility feature, but really anyone who use computers with high-resolution displays can potentially find utility in this capability. Anyone who has used any modern device knows how difficult it can be to read tiny text sometimes, so having the ability to magnify text is obviously helpful.
To enable Hover Text:
• Click on the Apple menu from the top-left corner and choose "System Settings..."
• Click on "Accessibility"
• Select "Hover Text"
• Enable "Hover Text" (to further customize this feature, click on "i" right next to the switch button)
As per the default settings, if you hover the cursor over any text that’s displayed on your screen while pressing the Command key, macOS will bring up the zoomed version right below it.
Using removable media, such as USB flash drives or removable disks, is a convenient way to transport information. However, if the removable media is lost or stolen, someone else can access its data by mounting the media on another computer.
If you want to keep private or confidential information secure on removable media, you need to encrypt the information on it.
WARNING: When you encrypt a disk or other media, the disk format is converted to the APFS format and then encrypted. Macs with earlier versions of macOS that don’t support the APFS format are not able to read the device’s data. Consider whether you need to connect the media to a Mac with an earlier version of macOS before you encrypt the data. You can also update your other Mac to the latest version of the macOS that supports the APFS format.
To protect your removable media with encryption:
• On your Mac, click the Finder icon in the Dock to open a Finder window
• In the sidebar, Control-click the item you want to encrypt
• Choose Encrypt [item name] from the shortcut menu
• Create a password for the disk and click Encrypt Disk
Be sure to record and keep this password in a safe place. You cannot access the data on the encrypted disk without it.
It may take some time to encrypt, depending on how much information is stored on your Mac. However, you can use your Mac as usual while the disk is being encrypted. To decrypt an encrypted disk, Control-click the disk you want to decrypt, then choose Decrypt [item name] from the shortcut menu.