2 Beginner Tips in Mavericks and Cranky iMessage Settings on Your iPhone

There are some little known treats stored in Mavericks. Try these out and see if they help you. I am also including a problem that some people have had coordinating iMessage between computers and iOS 7.

iMessage

I started having a strange problem with iMessage. I could get messages on my i-devices, or on my Mac, but not on both of them at once. Since I rely heavily on iMessage this was a problem.

It turns out that my Send & Receive settings on my iPhone in iOS 7 got changed, though I didn't change them. When I set them up again, I started getting all my iMessages on all of my devices once again. If you're having a similar problem, here's how you check those settings:

Start by opening the Settings app on your i-device. Select Messages.

Step 1

Clicking on Messages takes you to the Messages window.

Step 2

Select Send & Receive and you get this window.

Step 3

Under the heading “You can be reached by message at,” be sure you enter all the email addresses you want to be reached at. For example, [email protected], or [email protected]. This should solve your problem.

Battery Usage

There are times, like when you are running your computer on battery, when it is important to know if any app on your computer is using a significant amount of energy. In Mavericks you can easily check on that by holding down the battery icon in your title bar. A contextual window will open and one of the options addresses this concern. You will either find a message that says XYZ app is using too much energy, or a message that says no apps are using too much energy.

Check battery usage

Contextual Windows

Most Mac users know you can right click on objects on your Mac to get contextual menus. Depending upon what you click on, you get a varied assortment of options such as “trash document”, “quick look”, and “print” just to name a few.

Take the time to check contextual menus for items in your work flow. For instance, you can right click a Calendar event to email or message event participants.

Setting up a meeting

 When I emailed an invitation to a meeting the recipients received the following message.

Automatic email created

All they had to do was click on the invitation to get all the facts and an automatic option to add it to their own calendars.

In another example I right clicked on a screen shot. Among the options available to me is Share which instantly allows me to send that screen shot to others.


Contextual menu allows additional actions

Naming, Tagging, or Saving a Document

I particularly like this new option in Mavericks, so I saved it for last. At the top of the window of any document is a little arrow. Click on it and you will find a contextual window that allows you to name, save or tag that document right then and there. That's so handy!

Quickly add identifying information