All Current Tutorials

Markdown is a powerful and yet simple markup language that allows you to create formatted text documents, all while writing in plain text. These plain text documents can be opened and read in any text editor.

In this tutorial from Allison, you learn the basics of the Markdown syntax, like bold and italics, as well as making checkboxes, create links, and even embed image links, to name a few. Allison also shows you several applications that support Markdown, including her favorite, Typora, plus TextEdit and BBEdit (with Brett Terpstra's Marked as a companion renderer). She plays around with Markdown in Meta's Messenger, Apple's own Notes, and much more.

When the Action Button was introduced to the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max in September 2023, it replaced the traditional mute switch, which had been present since the 2007 iPhone. So many people just converted this button back to muting the device! There's so much more you can do with it though, and in this video, Lee shows you how he does indeed still use it as a mute switch, but also as an input button for tasks, ideas and memories at the same time.

Following on from Allison's show last week on managing Apple Photo libraries with the help of PowerPhotos, Don's thoughts turned to optimising and organising the actual contents. In this week's show, he grasps the nettle on sorting out his personal Photos library, as years of neglect have resulted in out-of-date and unorganised albums, both personal and shared. You also learn how Apple Intelligence can help in this organisation, giving you solid organization tools, both automated and manual. The version of Photos seen in this video requires macOS Tahoe 26.

Lee is passionate about using hotkeys and keyboard shortcuts to get to actions quicker when using his Mac. Remembering them all, however, can be a tricky affair. Not so if you use Ergonis' KeyCue, a highly customisable utility that allows you to view a list of application and system hotkeys with the touch of a button.

In this video, Lee shows you how to configure KeyCue not just to view hotkey combinations, but also files and folders, Typinator (Lee's preferred text expansion tool) abbreviation sets, emoji tables, lists of URLS, and more.

KeyCue requires macOS 10.12 and newer.

PowerPhotos works with the built-in Photos app on your Mac, providing powerful tools to manage your photos and videos. With PowerPhotos, you can split large libraries, as well as merge existing libraries. You can find and delete duplicate images with full control of how duplicates are defined and managed.

You also get a much better metadata editor, which even supports batch editing. Join Allison as she guides you through PowerPhotos' extensive feature set, with real world examples.

Get a 20% discount at checkout by using code SCREENCASTSONLINE (This offer is valid through January 10, 2026.)

PowerPhotos 3 is a one-time purchase of $39.95 USD, and requires macOS Sonoma or newer. If you already own PowerPhotos 1 or 2, you can purchase an upgrade for $19.95 USD.

** SPECIAL DISCOUNT for SCO members: get a 20% discount at checkout by using code SCREENCASTSONLINE **

See more information in Resources below.

A constant bugbear of many Mac users has been trying to find a reliable solution for backing up both iCloud Drive and iCloud Photo Library data. After all, it's important to note that these are NOT backups within themselves, and it's a good idea to have a separate solution for them - especially for those beloved photos.Parachute Backup for macOS is a great utility that does exactly this and in this video, Lee actually uses it for the first time to see if it's worth the praise it's been receiving. The results speak for themselves.Parachute Backup costs $4.99 in the Mac App Store

Ever wish you could have Notion-like databases inside of your plain-text Obsidian notes? Well, now you can. With the release of the Bases core plugin in version 1.9.10, you can now use property metadata to filter and sort your Markdown notes using different views.

In this screencast, Mike helps you get up and running with Bases and shows you all of the different ways you can use this game-changing feature inside of your Obsidian vault.

iOS and iPadOS 26 brought with them something a little unexpected this year. The Preview application found its way to the mobile platforms! Whilst it doesn't bring with it all the features of its desktop counterpart, it's a more than adequate application for annotating and marking up your PDFs and image files. It also includes the Forms Editor and in this video, Lee goes over the features of Preview for iPhone and iPad so you can start using it today.

The version of Preview demonstrated here requires iOS or iPadOS 26.

In this video, Darcy introduces you to Doneit, a full-featured project management tool, available across every Apple device, including Apple Watch. This app allows you to grow into your own style by only choosing the elements that work best for how you like to capture and organise your tasks. Like other apps in that category, it incorporates tagging, statuses and priorities, but with a degree of customisation that makes them fit neatly into your projects.

Join Darcy as he builds a project and related tasks around going on holiday. You learn about Doneit's interface and its many components along the way, and you see it in action on iPad, iPhone, and Apple Watch in this video.

Doneit will run on iOS and iPadOS 17 or newer; macOS 14 or newer; watchOS 10 or newer.

A lifetime Premium license costs $19.99 USD. See all pricing information in the Resources section below.

watchOS 26 has arrived with a compliment of new features. Starting with the workout app, which has been redesigned to create a more focused experience when interacting with your workout of choice. Add to this Workout Buddy, a new motivational tool created with the help of Apple Intelligence to audibly motivate you throughout your exercise. Notes have finally made their way over from the iPhone, allowing you to view, edit and create new notes directly from your wrists. So to can you utilise the new Live Translation feature which uses Apple Intelligence to automatically translate iMessage notifications into your preferred language.

It's time to look at the latest iteration of macOS and get to grips with some of the new features and improvements. Whilst we covered lots of generic app features last week in the iOS/iPadOS 26 video, macOS has had it's own, personal touches. There is a significant improvement to Spotlight, with added functionality for launching actions, shortcuts as well as accessing your clipboard history. The menu bar is now fully customisable, and you can also create automations from Shortcuts that have the potential to impact your productivity for the better. There's a lot of new stuff to cover, and Lee walks you through the most significant changes in this bumper show.

Have you ever glanced at your iPhone and realised that you're down to your last 10% of charge with no charger in sight? Or set off on a trip knowing that the charge on your iPhone isn't going to last the day and you left your battery pack at home?

Low Power Mode to the rescue.

Lower Power Mode optimises your battery life by switching off non-essential services and gives you extended power just when you need it. In this tip video, Don takes you through the basics of Low Power Mode. He also shows you to create an automation in Shortcuts that turns on Low Power Mode automatically based on your battery's charge level.

It's that time of year again where we get ot play with the new features that are landing on your favourite Apple devices. Today, we look at iOS and iPadOS 26 and the big news is of course, the new Liquid Glass design which represents the most significant design change on your devices since iOS 7, back in 2013.

Whilst that change is the most noticeable, there is a lot to get your teeth into with the new versions of iOS and iPadOS. In this video, Lee walks you through some of the most significant updates, including the new Window Management features on iPad that bring some form of parity with the Mac, improvements to the Phone and Messages app on iOS, and much, much more.

Lee loves having little sticky notes around his desk, that have little bits of information, like phone numbers he's jotted down, important information relating to the project he's working on that he knows he needs to go back to.  Everyone loves a sticky note, however not as many people know that there is a built-in Stickies application on macOS.

In this video, Lee not only shows you how to create and format sticky notes to your liking, he also works around the lack of support for Stickies in the Shortcuts app and walks you through a couple of scripts you can create to automate the creation of Stickies with just a keystroke.

Downtime is a precious commodity so when you get some time to sit back and consume media, whether it's a movie, series, book, audio book or playing a game, you want to be sure you're making the most of that time.  Sequel is an application that Lee has embedded firmly into his workflow as it allows you to add titles into wishlists from a variety of sources and then, when you get the chance to sit down and relax, it can guide you to ensure you are not wasting time, scrolling for the next thing to watch. You can add items manually, or from an external source and Sequel has a Magic Lookup feature that enables it to read a web page and find media that can be added to your Sequel database. You can set up Release Reminders so when your new show lands, you don't miss it and it's a highly customisable application with great Shortcuts support and Home Screen Widgets.

In his video, Lee walks you through the application end to end.

Numi is a sleek, notepad-style calculator app for macOS designed to blend natural language with powerful calculation features. You can type expressions like “$20 in euro - 5%” or “today + 2 weeks,” and Numi instantly interprets and computes the result in a clear and elegant interface. It supports simultaneous multi-step calculations, unit and currency conversions, time-zone and date math, percentages., and maintains a history of your calculations in organized “notes,” making it both intuitive and efficient.

In this video, Lee walks you through some of the best features of Numi.

Numi runs on macOS 10.13 or newer.

Whilst it's important to keep your Mac as clutter-free as possible, it's even more important to do so prior to upgrading your operating system. With macOS Tahoe just around the corner, Lee thought it would be a good idea to revisit CleanMyMac.

This popular utility from MacPaw has undergone some changes since we last covered it in 2021, with a whole new interface as well as some new features. Lee shows you My Clutter which sorts through your storage, deleting your unneeded files, and Cloud Cleanup which connects to your cloud storage provider and helps improve your sync times by only syncing files you truly need.

CleanMyMac runs on macOS 11 or later.

Dynamic Island is the latest in software innovations for the iPhone, enhancing the notch with seamless interactions for live activities, media control and so much more.  NotchNook brings these innovations and more to the notch on MacBook Pros, and introduces a virtual notch on other Macs.  Interact with this area to write notes, use your calendar, control what's playing and access your Siri Shortcuts without opening any other applications.  For professionals, the notch houses a tray which stores files that can be previewed, opened or airdropped.NotchNook is $25 for a one off purchase, $3 per month for a subscription, or you can pick it up as part of your Setapp subscription

There are many different apps that track your nutrition and diet, but few do it as effortlessly as FitCounter. Use your camera to scan foods while you shop, showing their nutritional information including calories, protein, fats and carbs. Add them directly to your breakfast, lunch or dinner for that day or save them to your library for later use. And overall picture of what you’re eating throughout the day emerges, advising you to increase or decrease consumption to meet your goals.  Meals can be saved for reuse, and FitCounter even offers a large digital cookbook so you can get ideas for meals, recipes and include them in your tracking.FitCounter is a subscription-based product costing £29.99 for an annual payment at time of recording, or £5.99 per month if paying monthly.

Whilst working from his web browser this week, Lee was trying to capture some text from an image that wasn't playing ball…He then discovered a workaround that he wanted to share.

This led him to creating this short video covering Live Text on macOS and how you can use it to capture information. At the end of the video, Lee fires up Shortcuts and creates a simple shortcut that automates this process for you!

The feature shown here will work on a Mac with an M1 chip or newer running macOS 12 or later.