Advanced Mac Tutorial

Can anyone point me in the direction of an advanced Mac tutorial? Ideally videos tutorials as I find them easier to follow than pages of text.


I want to understand how to use more advanced tools such as Activity Monitor, Console, Keychain Access, Script Editor, Xcode, etc.


I can run these applications and investigate them but want to understand better how I can usitlize them. For example, Console tells me:


default 21:41:38.340816+0000 WindowServer [HID] [MT] dispatchEvent Dispatching event with 2 children, _eventMask=0x2 _childEventMask=0x2 Cancel=0 Touching=1 inRange=1



.. but what does that mean? How can I find out?


Keychain Access tells me about Web Form Passwords, Application passwords, System keychains, etc., but what use can I make of them? What's safe to delete. Or edit? Can I fix system problems with it?


I'm just interested to learn more about the inner workings of Mac system software. Most tutorials seem to show you how to run the software and how to select filters, search for specified text, etc., without revealing what use you can make of it.

Posted on Dec 28, 2020 1:56 PM

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6 replies

Dec 28, 2020 2:48 PM in response to The_Knowledge_Seeker

Not all videos that you encounter on the Internet will be for Big Sur, and some features/functionality shown on those videos may not pertain to Big Sur. It sounds like you are a visual learner, and yet, Apple focuses on online written guides such as:


macOS User Guide

Script Editor User Guide

Preview User Guide

Contacts User Guide

Calendar User Guide

Mail User Guide

Pages Support

Numbers Support

Keynote Support

Keychain Access User Guide


Certain Apple applications (e.g. Preview, Pages, Numbers, Keynote) allow you to place a password on a document, and there is an optional entry on that panel about allowing Keychain to remember that password. This allows you to open the password protected document without having to provide a password, as long as the protected document is in your user account. The opening application simply requests the password from Keychain.


Dec 28, 2020 3:37 PM in response to The_Knowledge_Seeker

Here's a tip for Console: Ignore it. That's developer's talking to themselves. Trust me, Been using Macs since the early 90's. There is no useful information to be garnered there and but there is potential for a lot of confusion.


Script Editor: that's what you use to create and edit AppleScripts, which are a form of automation that you can do for yourself on your Mac. Feel free to google how to write Apple Scripts.


All the passwords on your Mac are stored in the Keychain. So, when an app autofills a password it gets it from there. Keychain access is your point of entry to that keychain.


Xcode is of no relevance whatever unless you're developing software applications. If you are don't expect a brief tutorial on that. Start thinking university course.

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Advanced Mac Tutorial

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