437 tips for making more of apple's cloud service & itunes
iCloud | Contents
Contents Essentials
iTunes & Apple Music
10 16 18
80 84 88 92 94 96 98 100
Get started with iCloud Welcome to iCloud Your Apple ID Secure your Apple ID
Core Apps
Make the most of iCloud
22 26 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58
Make the most of Mail Browse the web with Safari Make a date with Calendar Make the most of Reminders Make the most of Notes Sign in with iCloud Keychain Work better across devices Use iCloud Drive in Sierra Using iCloud Drive in iOS Keep in touch with Contacts Find your Mac, iPad or iPhone Locate your friends Stay abreast of the news Pay for things more easily Manage iOS backups in iCloud W hen to use iCloud.com
Photos
Sync, share and edit images 64 70 74 76
Make more of your photos in macOS Get to know the Photos app for iOS Use iCloud Photo Sharing Manage your photos online
Enjoy media across all your devices Get to know iTunes 12 Get started with Apple Music The iTunes Store Master iCloud Music Library Share music, books and apps Download good books Listen to podcasts Improve your knowledge
Next Steps
Pages, Keynote & Numbers
104 106 108 110 112 114 116 118 120 122 124
Layout newsletters in Pages Writing with Pages for iOS Design with Pages online Make more of Keynote Make great presentations Using Keynote for iCloud Chart your family history Keep track of your finances Numbers for iCloud Collaborate with others Save web receipts to iCloud
Advanced Turn genius, fix things 130 132 134 137 138
Become an iCloud genius Troubleshooting iCloud Create a personal cloud Alternatives to iCloud The Home app in iOS 10
iCloud | Contents
Essentials | Welcome to iCloud
W ELCO M E TO
iCLOUD If you use a Mac, an iPhone and iPad or even a PC, iCloud is simply a must-have. It’s the web-based link that syncs all over your favourite services together – and it’s handy for much more besides. Here’s your guide... eb-based applications and online storage are nothing new, and Apple was a Johnny-come-lately to both, just as it was to mobile phones and music players. As with so many things, though, it has zeroed in on what matters: ease of use and a strong set of core features, so these days iCloud is one of the best cloud services going. iCloud is an integral part of macOS and iOS, and you can add support for it to Windows PCs, too. Many apps, including Pages, Numbers and Keynote, use iCloud Drive as their default location for saving
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documents, so your work is automatically kept in sync between your Macs and iOS devices. Developers who sell in Apple’s app stores can make use of iCloud’s capabilities, too. Better yet, if you find yourself without your computer, iPad or iPhone, storing your work online like this means you can sign in to iCloud through a web browser on a computer and use equivalent online apps to carry on working. Apple’s online services aren’t all about work, though. iCloud also integrates with your music and photo libraries, enabling you to access them on whichever of your devices you have to hand. There are so many different things you can do with iCloud – and this Ultimate Guide aims to show you how to make the most of Apple’s online service.
macformat.com @macformat
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For the full iCloud experience, upgrade to the latest version of macOS your Mac supports. Apple lists requirements for each feature at bit.ly/iclreqs.
Enable the apps and services whose data you want to sync with iCloud and with your other devices by checking the appropriate boxes.
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Open System Preferences’ iCloud pane and make sure you’re signed in. It’s easiest to use the Apple ID you use with the App Store, though you can use a different one if you prefer.
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Use the Options buttons next to Keychain, Photos and iCloud Drive to make additional choices, such as whether to enable you to create shared online photo albums.
Set up iCloud on an iOS device Support for iCloud features varies between versions of iOS. To use iCloud Drive, you’ll need iOS 9 or iOS 10. If your device can’t run these, check Apple’s feature matrix (bit.ly/ iclreqs) to see which you can use.
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two boxes, then tap Sign In. Turn on syncing of the apps and services built in to iOS whose data you want to sync with iCloud and your other devices. For most of them, the decision is simply whether syncing is on or off.
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Open Settings, tap iCloud and check you’re signed in. If you aren’t, enter your Apple ID’s email address and password in the top
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Some features, such as iCloud Drive, have a rightwards-pointing arrow to their right instead of a switch. Tap them to investigate their
Set up iCloud on Windows
! iCloud pricing Every account provides 5GB of storage for free, but that’ll quickly be eaten up as you use iCloud in earnest. Fortunately, it’s easy to upgrade on your Mac or iOS device, and it’s affordable for most people.
5GB 50GB 200GB 1TB
Free 79p per month £2.49 per month £6.99 per month
macformat.com @macformat
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iCloud isn’t built into Windows, so you’ll need to download the iCloud for Windows installer from bit.ly/ iclwindows on your PC or in Boot Camp on your Mac to sync information with it.
In the window, choose what’s synced, including which folders are used to sync your photo library’s contents and to upload new pictures, and which web browser syncs bookmarks.
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Run the installer and you’ll be presented with an interface that’s very similar to the iCloud pane in macOS’ System Preferences. Sign in to iCloud here using the email address and password associated with your Apple ID.
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In the background, iCloud for Windows will create the folders to store things on your PC/in Boot Camp on your Mac, then sync your data. You can find these folders in Windows Explorer/ File Explorer, where iCloud Drive appears in the sidebar.
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Essentials | Welcome to iCloud
Set up iCloud on your Mac
Core Apps | Mail
Core APPS | Mail
Make the most of Mail Sierra adds more refinement to Apple’s excellent email app SKILL LEVEL
Anyone can do it
IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes
YOU’ll NEED
macOS Sierra an email account
Mail is the standard app you use for getting your email on a Mac. It’s been around since the start of OS X (now macOS) but has been through many changes. In an age where webmail is king it might seem old fashioned to use a dedicated email program instead of your browser to get your mail, but Apple’s app has several advantages, which we’ll outline here. At first glance Mail hasn’t changed much in Sierra, compared to the previous Yosemite and El Capitan versions, but you now have the ability to selectively sift through your emails using Filters, just as you can in iOS 10. Mail also benefits from the new Optimize Storage feature in Sierra to free up space on your Mac. As with previous versions Mail can still automatically identify event details, show you addresses and spot updated contact information. You can also use natural language searching, so for example if you search for “emails from Susan on Friday” Mail will understand you. If you have a trackpad you can use iOS-style swiping to trash mails or mark them unread, and in another iOS-inspired move you can work in full-screen mode with your email
macOS Sierra’s Mail should be your go-to app for getting email on your Mac.
You now have the ability to selectively sift through your emails using Filters
hiding itself when you want to see or copy from another message. If you’ve got multiple messages open in full-screen mode they’ll appear in Safari-like tabs. Over the next four pages we’ll explore Mail’s many powers and show you how to make the most of them.
HOW TO | set up email in sierra Drop it! Mail Drop means you don’t need to worry about sending big files: if they’re too big for the recipient’s inbox, Mail will automatically send them an iCloud download link instead.
1 A fresh start
If you’re upgrading from Mac OS X, Mail should import everything you need: you’ll get all your messages and settings carried across. With a new Mac or a fresh macOS install, you’ll need to start from scratch. Choose one of the options from System Preferences’ Internet Accounts pane.
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2 Enter your password
As you might expect, in order to receive your mail, the Mail app needs to know your email address and password. If you’re using iCloud you’ll be asked for your iCloud ID and password. Other account types, Gmail for example, will ask you for similar details.
Shrink it!
3 Prove it’s you
iCloud, Gmail and other services offer two-factor verification, so when somebody tries to connect an app – as we’re doing here – they need to prove they’re really you by entering a code sent to one of your registered devices. Without the correct verification code, the installation will fail.
4 Watch it arrive
If you’ve entered the correct information and code (if applicable), you should now see your emails begin to appear. If you have a busy email account, this could take some time. You don’t have to wait for the messages to finish downloading: you can use Mail right now.
Digital photos can be enormous. If you don’t need to send fullresolution originals, attach your files then use the dropdown arrow at the right of your email to select a smaller image size.
JARGON BUSTER
5 See your labels
By default Mail shows you the inbox, but if you organise your email by folders (or in Gmail’s case, labels) then clicking on the Mailboxes button at the top left shows your email folders. You can create your own folders and subfolders by ≈-clicking and choosing New Mailbox.
7 Sort with swipes
If your Mac has a trackpad you can quickly filter email just like you do in iOS – with swiping. Swipe left on a message to trash it, or swipe right to toggle the ‘read’ filter to mark a message read or unread. No trackpad? No problem: use ç + ß + U to mark and ∂ to trash.
6 Use Mail Filters
You can now make emails easier to find using Filters, such as ‘Only Mail with Attachments’ or ‘Only from VIP’. To use Mail Filters head to View > Enable Message Filter (ç + l) or use the Filter icon above the central message pane, then select the blue text to change the Filter settings.
8 Anoint a VIP
Like iOS, Mail has a special VIPs mailbox that only includes messages from your most important contacts, and you can get macOS to notify you of those messages and no others. Making a new VIP couldn’t be simpler: click on the person’s name and choose Add to VIPs.
IMAP: Internet Message Access Protocol Enables you to access email that’s stored on a remote server, such as iCloud or Gmail. The older POP3 standard usually deleted messages from the server when you downloaded them to your computer. BCC: Blind Carbon Copy A way of copying an email to someone without letting them see who else you’re sending it to.
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Core Apps | Mail
Mail | Core APPS
Core Apps | iCloud Drive
Core apps | iCloud Drive
Using iCloud Drive in iOS
iCloud Drive enables you to access your files across devices SKILL LEVEL
Anyone can do it
IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes
YOU’ll NEED
iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, iOS 10, an iCloud account and apps that can save to iCloud Drive
When you sign into an iCloud account on your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch, your device is able to sync data such as Safari bookmarks, the keychain that contains your website usernames and passwords, calendars, reminders and contacts to the cloud – and from there to your other devices. This works in reverse too, so any changes you make on another Apple device (including a Mac – see page 40), or by signing in to icloud. com, are synced to all of your devices. It isn’t just the more minor pieces of data that are kept in sync, though. iCloud is also able to store documents, just as you would on a drive attached to your Mac, enabling you to update those files wherever you have access to an app that can open them, and keeping them in sync between devices, too. For example, you might enter data in a spreadsheet in Numbers on your iOS device. As long as that device has been able to connect to the internet (and the same is true of the device you switch to), you can be assured that the spreadsheet will be available on, for example, your Mac. So you can write up a report about your data later on if you like.
Apple went one stage further with the introduction of iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite in 2014. This introduced iCloud Drive – a folder-based approach to uploading, downloading and syncing documents that works much like the Finder on the Mac. iCloud Drive can store documents from different apps in the same folder, and you can nest folders inside each other so that things are organised exactly as you want them to be. Now, with the arrival of iOS 10 and macOS Sierra things have moved on again and Apple now allows you to sync all the files located in your Desktop and Documents folders on your Mac to the cloud, with local copies deleted to help save precious drive space. This, of course, has the added benefit that all of your precious documents are now available on your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch too, but with one caveat: Apple only gives you 5GB of storage for free, so if you need more than that (and you will if you’re using Desktop and Documents syncing) you can add more storage by heading to Settings > iCloud > Storage > Buy More Storage and paying a small monthly fee – 79p for 50GB, £2.49 for 200GB, £6.99 for one 1TB or £13.99 for 2TB We’ll explain how it all works on iOS below…
HOW TO | set up iCloud drive
1 Enable iCloud Drive
Apple has changed the way that iCloud Drive works in iOS 10. Previously it was available as an optional extra, which you could enable at any time. In iOS 10, iCloud Drive is switched on by default, unless you had previously hidden it. If it’s hidden from you when you upgraded to iOS 10, you’ll need to download the iCloud Drive app from the App Store. In truth, you’re not downloading it all. Apple has simply changed the way its stock apps appear / disappear.
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2 Control your storage
After iCloud Drive is turned on, the same page in Settings shows a list of apps that are able to save to it. Each has a switch next to it that can be turned off if you don’t want an app to use space – you may want to prevent an image editor taking up lots of room, for example. Below the list of apps is a global switch that can be flicked to prevent all apps from using your mobile data allowance, restricting them to Wi-Fi only.
3 Look up iCloud users
Above the list of iCloud Drive enabled apps is an item labelled ‘Look Me Up By Email’. Apps can provide a means of looking up other iCloud Drive users – perhaps because they want to collaborate with you. However, you don’t have to allow this. When you tap that item, you’ll be taken to a page that lists apps with this capability, giving you control over exactly which individual apps can find you in this way using your email address.
visual guide | iCloud Drive’s Document Picker Here’s how to browse files that you’ve saved to iCloud Drive 3 4
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1 Browsing
Open the iCloud Drive app and you’ll be presented with iCloud’s file system, known as the Document Picker, which works like Finder on the Mac. Folders can be nested within other folders, and files from different apps can be stored together by project or by whatever abstraction makes sense to you. Compatible apps from Apple and third party developers also give you access to the iCloud Drive file system from within the app – Pages’ ‘Locations’ option, for example.
2 Different views
At the top-right corner of the Document Picker is a button made up of three lines. Tap it and the default presentation – files and folders in a grid of icons – switches to a list view, with icons displayed smaller in a left column and folder names to their right. In both, folders display the number of items at the next level down, but folders inside them may contain many more items. As you tap into folders, the Document Picker stays in your selected view.
files 4 Sorting and folders
created 5 Folders by apps
When at the top of a folder, swipe downwards to pull a group of three buttons into view. These allow the folder’s contents to be sorted by the date they were last modified, newest first; or alphabetically, with A at the top (you can’t tap again to reverse the order, and unfortunately there’s no alphabetical index like the one in the Music app to jump through); or you can sort by tags you might have added when saving the file.
Some folders in iCloud Drive will display an app’s icon because that app has created the folder. Unlike Documents in the Cloud – the predecessor of iCloud Drive featured in iOS 7 – you aren’t restricted to storing everything from a single app in the same folder. If you have documents from Pages, Numbers and Keynote that are related, for example, you can keep them all neatly together in a single project folder.
for 3 Search something When you tap the search bar, the view changes to an empty list and the keyboard slides into view. Start typing something and the list will be filled with matching files found anywhere in your iCloud Drive – not just in the current folder. The same controls for sorting files and folders that are available when browsing are also available here. Note that what you type is looked for in file and folder names, but not file contents.
6 Browse folders
Folders on iCloud Drive work just as they do on your Mac or in Windows. Simply tap one to browse its contents. If you like to organise your work by putting folders inside other folders, don’t pay too much attention to the item count next to each one, which indicates how many items are in the next level down, rather than being a cumulative total of everything that’s inside the folder. You’ll have to open the folder for a more complete picture of what’s inside it.
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Core Apps | iCloud Drive
iCloud Drive | Core apps
Photos Photos|| Photos for macOS
photos | Photos for macOS
Make more of your photos in macOS Learn how to manage and edit your images in Apple’s Photos app SKILL LEVEL
Anyone can do it
IT WILL TAKE
Give yourself at least 30 minutes
YOU’ll NEED
macOS Sierra, some photos to play with
Originally launched for iOS and brought to the Mac with OS X Yosemite, Photos is a powerful yet easy to use image editing and management app that – with the launch of macOS Sierra and iOS 10 – has been gifted with an even greater range of useful features, including Memories – see page 70. If you’ve used the Photos app on iOS, the Mac version will seem familiar. It provides the same ways to explore your photo library, the same methods for organising photos into curated albums and sharing them with other people. Over the next six pages you’ll be able to discover how Photos for macOS
organises the images and video that you import from your iPhone, iPad or digital camera; how you can assign categories and keywords – and how you can geotag your photos with locations if your phone or camera haven’t already done that for you. On page 69 we’ll also walk you through Photos’ built-in editing tools, and explain how you can use extensions from third-party apps to add new capabilities at little extra cost. We’ll explain too how the new Memories feature in the macOS version of Photos works and how it adds powerful new ways for you to find and arrange your most cherished photos.
Finally, Photos, of course, can also use iCloud to make your entire photo library available on all of your Apple devices (well, those running iOS 8 or later) without you having to choose when and what to sync. Take a photo with your iPhone and the next time that device goes online using Wi-Fi, the photo will sync to iCloud and then appear on your Mac. It works the other way too, for photos added on your Mac. Photos also works seamlessly with iCloud Drive and icloud.com. We’ll cover all of these features – as well as the ability to create shared albums with family and friends on our tutorial beginning on page 76.—>
QUICK LOOK | Find your way around PHOTOS for macos See more or less
Drag this slider to resize the 1 thumbnail previews below.
Various views
Photos shows your pictures in chronological order. Albums contains your curated collections. Shared shows photos you’ve published to iCloud for others to see, and Projects is where you design calendars, books and other things to be professionally printed. 2
Make things
Click the + button to make albums and to showcase your photos in printable projects. 3
Share things
Click the Share icon to email a selected item, publish it to a social network or share it via iCloud. 4
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HOW TO | organise your photos
1 Create an album
Go to File > New Album. Enter an album name. You’ll see your photos as moments (shots taken around the same place and time). Click a photo to select it for inclusion in the album, or move the pointer over a moment’s title row and click Select Moment to mark all of its contents.
2 Add photos to an album 3 Create a Smart Album While marking photos for inclusion, click Selected (top-left) to review your choices. Click a photo again to remove the tick and exclude it. When you’re satisfied, click Add (top-right) to see the album’s new contents. Click Albums or the back arrow in the toolbar to see all albums.
4 Organise your albums 5 Play a slideshow In the Albums view, those you’ve created can be dragged around to rearrange them. Folders can be used to group albums (and other folders). Choose File > New Folder to make one. When a folder is selected, the Play and Share buttons will act upon its entire contents.
Select one or more albums or folders, or open an album and select some of its contents (ç-click to select more than one item), then click the Play button in the toolbar to choose a presentation theme and music (including tracks from iTunes) to accompany your slideshow.
Go to File > New Smart Album to set rules that automatically gather photos from your library. Click the + to add more criteria, and choose whether any or all of them must match. To modify a Smart Album’s criteria later, click the cog next to the Smart Album’s name.
SLIDESHOWS Slideshows created with the Play button aren’t saved, but those made with the + button are kept in the Projects view. Select Export (top-right) to save them as videos.
6 Mark a favourite photo 7 Show more information 8 Quickly find people To mark a photo as a favourite and have it placed in the Favourites album, put the cursor over it and click the heart at its bottom-left, or select several photos and click the heart on one to mark them all. While viewing a single photo, click the heart in the toolbar or press the . key.
Go to Window > Info to see metadata for the selected photo, such as camera settings and place taken (if recorded). You can add a title, description and keywords (press ® after each), all of which Smart Albums can inspect. You can also manually identify people.
The Faces album shows people detected in your photos. Double-click to name one. You’ll see other photos thought to be of them, and be asked to confirm or correct. When you’re done, the person’s face appears larger in the album —> and acts a shortcut to all photos of them.
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Photos | Photos for macOS
Photos for macOS | photos
iTunes & Apple Music | iTunes 12
itunes & apple music | iTunes 12
Get to know iTunes 12
Find your way around the hub of your music and media library SKILL LEVEL
Anyone can do it
IT WILL TAKE 20 minutes
YOU’ll NEED
macOS Sierra, iTunes 12; an Apple ID; optionally a CD drive
When it comes to organising your music, movies, TV shows and other media, iTunes provides an easy way to build up your collection, and powerful features to help decide what music you hear. You can manually build playlists, but iTunes also enables you to specify a few criteria – say, tracks from the ’90s that you’ve rated four or five stars, or that you have ‘loved’ using the new heart button – and it’ll pick out matching
Audio CDs can be imported into your library so you don’t have to reach for a disc to play it 1 4
tracks in an instant, even from a library that contains thousands of items, to save you the bother of doing it yourself. You can buy from the iTunes Store from within iTunes. You will need to add a payment method – such as your bank card or funds from an iTunes gift card, available in many supermarkets. Audio CDs can be imported into your library so you don’t have to reach for a disc to play an album. With many recent Macs, you’ll need to add an inexpensive external CD drive (generally less than £30). iTunes is also how you copy music and other media from your library to an iPod, iPhone or iPad, so you can enjoy it even when you’re away from your Mac. Here’s how to get around in iTunes and find its essential features.
QUICK LOOK iTunes’ layout Kinds of media
Choose the kind of 1 media you want to view. CDs, iPods and other iOS devices appear here when connected. Click the Music pop-up to pick a type, then click Edit Menu to set which categories are listed.
Different views Choose the way in 2 which the chosen media kind is presented. Each one includes a link to browse more of its type in the iTunes Store.
Reorganise
Change how what you’re viewing is presented, such as by artist or year for music; some media kinds show an alphabetical index to the right. Choose View > Show View Options for detailed customisations. 3
Recent media
Some views have a Recently Added view to help you quickly reach the most recent items of their kind that you’ve acquired. 4
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HOW TO | use iTunes’ essential features
1 Buy a track or album 2 Monitor downloads First sign in to the iTunes Store: choose Account > Sign In and provide your Apple ID details. With a bank card or credit from a gift card added to your account, switch to the Music view, click iTunes Store to the right, find an item, click its price, enter your password and click Buy.
Small items such as music will download quickly, but video can take a while. Click the button that appears to the right of the search bar to monitor progress, to pause downloads, and to drag items up and down in the queue to change the order in which they’re downloaded.
4 Set up CD import
5 Import a CD
6 Other digital music
7 Search your library
Insert an audio CD in your Mac’s internal or external CD drive and iTunes will look up track names online. If they can’t be found, or you want to make changes, click once on a row to select it, and again on a detail to edit it – or choose Edit > Get Info to edit all of its details.
AAC and MP3 files from other stores with no copy protection can be imported by dragging and dropping them onto the iTunes icon in the Dock. They’ll be copied to your library folder, provided the respective box is ticked in iTunes > Preferences > Advanced.
If the CD’s details weren’t found online, click Options and submit yours to save others time if they import the same disc. Click Import CD and choose a format and quality – AAC and iTunes Plus are the same quality as tracks from the iTunes Store. Click OK to import the CD.
Click and type in the search bar to find things in your library. Results are listed by kind. Click one to view it, or double-click to play it. Click the magnifying glass and untick Search Entire Library to see results only of the kind selected (top left) in the main view as you type.
3 Automatic downloads
Go to iTunes > Preferences and click Store in the new window to choose which of the media that you purchase on, say, your iPhone is automatically downloaded to your Mac. In iOS, use Settings > iTunes & App Store to make the same choices for purchases made on your Mac.
Rate songs With the pointer over a track, click the heart that appears to its left to indicate you love the track. Smart Playlists can check this status, and it’s important in Apple Music (see p84).
8 Make a playlist
Choose File > New > Playlist and type a name. Next, click the ellipsis next to an item and pick the playlist under Add to Playlist, or drag the item onto it in the sidebar. Smart Playlists’ are built by specifying criteria to match, such as a range of years and that you love tracks.
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iTunes & Apple Music | iTunes 12
iTunes 12 | itunes & apple music
Next Steps | Numbers iOS
Next steps | Numbers for iOS
Keep track of your finances Use Apple’s spreadsheet app to manage money and much more SKILL LEVEL
Could be tricky
IT WILL TAKE 15 minutes
YOU’ll NEED iPad, iOS 10, Numbers
On the surface, Apple’s spreadsheet app looks much like any other. It presents numerical and other information in columns and rows, and it saves you a lot of time when calculating things to forecast your finances. Don’t be deceived by your first impression, though – just like Pages and Keynote, Numbers is surprisingly delightful to use on the iPad’s touchscreen. Apple has put a lot of work into making Numbers not just practical, but also beautiful in its visualisations of your data. Like other spreadsheet apps, your documents can contain multiple sheets, which are shown as tabs across the top of the iPad’s screen. This enables you to work with pretty complex sets of information. More unusual is that each sheet is treated like a blank bit of paper on which you can add one or more tables – Numbers’ name for the columns and rows into whose cells you enter data. The + button, at the left of the tabs that represent your sheets, is used to add more of them. When tapped, it also offers the option of adding a new form, which can be linked to any table in the same document. Then, instead of having to type values into cells on the table, you punch them
into the bigger boxes on the form, as if you were adding to a database. It makes the process of updating tables on a relatively small screen much easier than you might assume. Numbers’ range of charts and graphs is excellent. You can pick from horizontal or vertical bar charts, line graphs, pie charts and scatter graphs, and tailor their colours. Once you’ve chosen a type to use, populating it requires nothing more than selecting the cells that contain the data you want to use by dragging your finger over them – and, of course, you can edit both the content and the style of titles, labels and legends for charts. To enter data in a cell, tap on it twice. Numbers’ context-aware keyboard, which changes depending on a cell’s formatting, slides into view. You can format a cell’s contents by tapping on the relevant icon above the keyboard: ‘T’ for text, ‘42’ for numerical data, ‘=’ for a formula, or the clock symbol for time or date. To set how data is presented – how many decimal places are shown, or whether a number is a percentage, for example – tap a cell to select it, then tap the paintbrush in the toolbar followed by Format. All in all, Numbers makes it easy to enter data and manipulate it on your iPad.
Numbers is about much more than just figures: you can place multiple tables and charts anywhere on the canvas; you get suggestions as soon as you start typing a formula; and you can create interactive charts to display and manipulate data in just a couple of taps.
FAR LEFT Brighten your tables with a logo or an image, or just add some attractive pictures. Drag the corner points to scale the image. LEFT You can label the axes of a chart from the paintbrush icon, and you can even set an angle for the label.
RIGHT The use of forms in Numbers makes entering large amounts of information as easy as it gets.
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HOW TO | Get the most from Numbers
1 Using the templates
Before you go hunting around the App Store for apps that perform mathematical tasks, be sure to investigate the 30 templates included with Numbers. They address lots of everyday tasks, such as budgeting and mortgage calculation, and are ready to be customised to your own needs. In fact, Numbers is good for a whole load of other things as well, as you can see from some of the starting points supplied by Apple. Among them, you’ll find templates here to organise sports teams, check attendance within a class or group, and even plan meals or holidays.
2 Entering formulae
Saved! There’s no need to manually save your work in Numbers – like other iOS apps, it saves your work automatically as you make changes to your document.
To enter a formula, double-tap on the cell into which you want to enter it. In the formula bar that appears above the on-screen keyboard, tap the = symbol, then ‘functions’ on the keypad. Now explore the categories to find a suitable formula, tap it to enter it into the cell. In the formula bar, tap the pill-shaped placeholder that represents an input value for the function, then tap or drag through a range of cells whose contents you want it to reference. If you’re unsure what a particular function does, you can tap the ‘i’ icon to the right of its name for an explanation and for an example of its usage.
3 Adding more cells
It’s not immediately obvious how you add more rows and columns to a table in Numbers, but it’s actually easy. Tap the table, then to add a single row or column, tap and drag the little circle that contains two lines, just below the last row
When you tap a cell, its column and row names in the bars at the top and left of the table turn blue; tap on a column or row name to select all of the cells in that column or row. Whatever is selected is shown with a blue highlight around it, and one or more blue dots around that highlight. Drag from a dot to adjust the range of cells that is selected. To move the contents of those cells – or, when building a formula, to shift the whole range that is selected – tap and hold within the highlighted area for a moment, let go and then drag from within it. and to the right of the last column. You can drag these up or left to remove empty rows or columns, respectively.
4 Sorting data in a table
Start by tapping once on any cell in the table whose data you want to sort. This reveals the column and row names. Tap on the name of the column that contains data upon which you want to sort a table. In the options bar that then appears, tap Sort and then choose either Sort Ascending or Sort Descending.
5 Using Table Options
You can use the formatting menu to change both the appearance and the behaviour of tables. Select an entire table by tapping it once, then tap the circle at its top-left corner, followed by the paintbrush icon in the toolbar. Be sure to explore the Table Options submenu for settings that can help make your table look great – including options for turning off grid lines and alternating row colours to aid readability.
6 Creating forms
To make forms for data entry, start by creating the table that will receive the data. Take care to first select the empty columns and apply formats such as star ratings, checkboxes or dates so the data will be stored and presented correctly, then tap the + near the top-left corner of the screen and choose New Form. Find and tap on the table you want to link to the form. Any data that’s entered into the form will be flowed automatically back into the spreadsheet.
6 Adding pictures Besides Numbers’ many templates, you can refine the appearance of your spreadsheets with options such as adding a title and border to a table.
To duplicate a document, go back to the list of all your documents, tap Edit, tap one or more documents to select them, and then tap the + icon at the top-left.
Don’t forget that you can add pictures to your sheet alongside tables and charts. As well as just brightening up your spreadsheet, you could use this to add, for example, your company logo to give a professional appearance to an invoice you’ve created, or to your business’ financial results.
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Next Steps | Numbers for iOS
Numbers for iOS | Next steps
Advanced | Genius Tips
Advanced | Genius Tips
Become an iCloud genius
Memorise these tips for doing more with iCloud on all your devices
Ordinarily iCloud is a set-it-and-forget-it kind of deal, but with every new version of macOS and iOS, Apple brings new features and functionality to deliver a richer, easier, more powerful user experience. That was certainly the case with the arrival of iCloud Drive in iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, which did away with the idea that your documents had to be siloed into fairly rigid application folders. Now, you can use your iCloud Drive in whichever way you choose, creating folder structures that make the most sense to you. Things have moved on again with the arrival of Sierra, which addresses something we all SKILL LEVEL often struggle with – finding Anyone can do it enough storage space for all documents, photos, music, IT WILL TAKE movies and more – especially 10 minutes on space-contrained laptops. YOU’ll NEED The solution is Optimized macOS Sierra, iOS 10 Storage, a feature which works a lot like your iCloud Music Library. This analyses the files stored on your Mac and works out which ones you access only rarely, automatically uploading them to iCloud for safekeeping then deleting the local copy. When you think about all the movies, photos, email attachments and other bulky files stored on your laptop that can add up to quite a saving. Naturally, Optimized Storage always gives you access to the deleted file should you need it again, with a cloud icon appearing next to any items that have been removed, that you can just click to redownload. You can find out more about Optimized Storage in macOS at http://apple.co/2dpZtXI. Here we’ve lined up eight fantastic tips to help you do even more with iCloud – from explaining how to secure your account to managing Photos on iCloud.com. We’ve included page references for futher reading where appropriate. Now on with the tips…
Apple News Publisher Join the big boys by publishing your blog or website updates to iOS 10’s News app. Apple News Publisher takes stories from your site’s RSS feed, which blogging tools like WordPress, Tumblr and MovableType are able to create, and makes them available in your channel in the News app. Apple is set to introduce its own Apple News Format soon, which will allow for bespoke layouts. You can apply to publish your content in News at icloud.com/newspublisher. It’s free, but your application is subject to Apple’s approval process.
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1 iCloud purchases iCloud syncs your purchases from Apple’s stores to all your devices enabling each one to automatically receive things you buy on any device that’s signed in using the same account. Go to Settings > iTunes & App Store on iOS, or the Store tab in iTunes’ and iBooks’ preferences on a Mac, to set automatic download options. Macs can also retrieve movies and TV shows. For more on using iTunes turn to page 78.
your 2 Secure account Two-step verification adds an extra layer of protection to your account by sending a temporary code to a trusted device, which is needed as well as your password to sign in to your account. There’s a full guide to this on page 18.
3 Engage Drive
In Finder or a dialog that opens or saves a file, pressing ß+ç+I takes you to the top level of iCloud Drive. If Finder is active but has no window open, this will create one for you at the same time. For more on iCloud Drive turn to page 42.
your 4 Access Macs remotely Back to My Mac enables you to connect to one of your Macs from another one remotely, enabling you to browse its storage or see and control its screen. You need to enable this feature in each Mac’s iCloud preferences, UPnP and NAT-PMP must be enabled on your wireless router, and your firewall settings may need tweaking too. You can find out more about setting up and using Back To My Mac on page 134, where you’ll also find instructions on how to set up your own personal cloud server using a NAS drive and an application called owncloud.
5 Find My iPhone
Ignore the deceptive name: this feature also locates your iPads and Macs. On each device you want to track, enable this feature in iCloud’s settings. To track a device, go to Find My iPhone at iCloud.com (or use the iOS app)and click All Devices. If you’ve mislaid a device at home, click its name, then Play Sound. If an iOS device is lost or stolen, click Lost Mode and enter a phone number and message to display on it until it’s unlocked by its passcode. If that doesn’t help, the Erase option will remove your data from the device, but it’s a drastic last step as the device will no longer be locatable. See page 48 for more details
on 7 Photos iCloud.com The online version of Photos is convenient when you need a picture to illustrate a Facebook or blog post or if you want to show off your snaps when your devices aren’t to hand. When viewing a photo, click the icon of a cloud with an arrow to download it. To get more than one, go to the timeline of them or open an album, click Select Photos, identify those you want, then click Download. You can even create a new album online using photos from all over your library: click + while viewing a photo, or select several and click Add To. For more on using Photos on iCloud.com turn to page 76.
8 Family Sharing
6 Slim down your backups
If you’re short on space in iCloud (Apple only gives you 5GB of storage free), go to Settings > iCloud > Storage > Manage Storage and check whether any of your iOS devices’ backups are using a lot of space. If so, switch to the device in question, then go to the same place and tap the name of that device. Under the Backup Options heading is a list of apps whose data can be backed up to iCloud, and the space their documents and data take up. You may be able to claw back some precious space by turning off the switch adjacent to any app whose data you don’t care to back up. If you decide you really need to keep your backups, you can add more storage for a small subscription fee. You can add an extra 50GB of storage, for example, for just 79p per month.
Apple understands that we’re increasingly becoming multidevice homes, hence the existence of Family Sharing, which gives six family members a shared calendar and a shared photo album, and access to each other’s app and media purchases from Apple’s iTunes and App Stores. As a parent, you are able to authorise or reject your kids’ purchase attempts right from your iOS device. The caveat is that every allowed purchase is billed to your credit card. Get started by tapping or clicking Set Up Family Sharing on the Mac or iOS device of whoever will be the family organiser. There’s a full guide to Family Sharing on page 94, along with some advice on setting up an Apple ID for a child without it being tied to a credit or debit card.
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Advanced | Genius Tips
Genius Tips | advanced
Advanced | HomeKit
advanced | Homekit
Getting started with
The Home
app in iOS 10 It’s taken a while, but iOS 10 gives HomeKit a much needed boost, in part thanks to a brand new app What devices can I control? When HomeKit debuted with iOS 8, it could control locks, thermostats, lights, door and window sensors, and power outlets. iOS 10 adds five new device types, including air purifiers, air conditioners and humidifiers. Key are cameras and doorbells, which give Apple a foot in the door of the home security market.
e’ve seen some amazing gadgets and devices in Apple Home in recent months, from colour-changing lighting and musical fridges to more practical heating and healthcare products. All of them can be controlled from an iOS app, but things start to get complicated as you add more and more devices to your home. When you leave for work each morning, you might want to turn off your lights and heating and turn on your security camera. Switching between apps to do all that could take so long that it’d be quicker to do things the old-fashioned way: by hand.
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Apple designed HomeKit to solve that problem by allowing devices from different manufacturers to work together. So instead of using three different apps to control your lights, heating and security camera, you can use HomeKit to link your devices together and control them all with a single command. That’s a great idea, but when HomeKit launched back in 2014 it was buried in the depths of iOS, and was simply ignored by most makers of home automation devices. Thankfully, iOS 10 raises HomeKit’s profile, and provides major new features to help get the ball rolling for your smart home.
Coming home Important technical changes to HomeKit in iOS 10 allow it to work with a wider range of devices. We were surprised to find HomeKit didn’t originally work with security cameras, so the addition of this in iOS 10 will help open up the large and important home security market for Apple. Withings and Canary have told us they plan to add HomeKit support to their existing cameras, while D-Link is planning a new one for later this year. Home is available on iPad as well as iPhone, so you can easily check on and control things around your above as you work or relax.
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macformat.com @macformat
$21.6bn The forecast global value of the home automation market in 2020. (Transparency Market Research)
75% The proportion of people who list energy savings as the main use for home automation. (Yale Smart Living)
5% The percentage of homes in the US and Europe currently making use of smart technology. (PwC)
The Home app means you no longer have to switch between apps to control all your HomeKit devices
2040 The year when most UK homes will be fully automated. (Yale Smart Living)
Explained Geofencing
iOS 10’s Home app can use GPS-based geofencing to create zones around your home that act as triggers for your HomeKit devices. A typical use is to turn off lights and heating if you leave the 100-metre perimeter around your home.
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Advanced | HomeKit
iFacts‌