6 Ways to Get the Most Out of macOS Sonoma on Your New Mac

With Sonoma, Apple made a major user interface change that may be disorienting for longtime Mac users. Before Sonoma, if you clicked on the wallpaper, the interface would switch to desktop, but the app you were using remained on the screen.

Now, if you’re in an application and you click out of an application window and onto your Mac’s wallpaper, all open windows hide so you can see your desktop. This is a new feature called “Click wallpaper to show desktop”. The new interaction takes some getting used to – you might find it annoying, especially if you mindlessly click on the wallpaper and your apps jump off the screen.

You can, however, adjust this setting. Here are complete instructions on how to set or disable “Click wallpaper to show desktop”.

Sonoma can host widgets on the desktop: they are no longer isolated in the right notification area. This allows users to quickly access essential information. Better yet, the widgets available include Apple’s own apps as well as third-party apps. If you use widgets on your iPhone, you can transfer them to your Mac. Here are instructions for adding widgets to the Sonoma desktop.

Sonoma comes with several stunning live wallpapers that can also be set as the Mac screensaver. If you use the Spaces feature, a different wallpaper can be set for each desktop space.

You can see the wallpapers in the Wallpaper system settings section. We have an article that highlights some of our favorite Sonoma wallpapers to give you an idea of ​​what’s available.

To add some spice to FaceTime calls and video conferences, Apple introduced FaceTime Reactions. These are simple gestures you can perform that will trigger a special effect background on your video window. For example, if you give a thumbs up to the camera, the background will display fireworks. Apple has a list of all gestures and reactions.

These gestures and reactions are not limited to FaceTime; they are also available in Zoom, Webex and other video conferencing applications. If you want to disable the feature, you can click the FaceTime icon that appears in the menu bar when you are in a video conferencing application, then click the icon Reactions button to turn it off. If you leave the feature enabled, you can use this menu to enable reactions without using gestures.

When you’re writing on your Mac, whether it’s an email, a text message, or something for work or school, you can take advantage of Sonoma’s new online predictive text feature , provided the app you are using has been updated for Sonoma.

You’ve probably seen this feature on the iPhone; this is where the system suggests what you might want to type next. If you like the suggestion, just press the spacebar. If not, keep typing.

This is a time-saving feature that can also prevent spelling and grammar mistakes. It is enabled by default and you can disable it if you wish. The setting can be found in System Settings > Keyboardthen in the Text entry section, go to Input sources section and click on the To modify button. A set of adjustment switches appear; search for “Show predictive text online”

The Accessibility System setting is often overlooked, but it has a multitude of settings you can adjust to make it more comfortable and easier to use on your Mac. For example, in Sonoma, Apple added an “Autoplay animated picture” setting (Accessibility > Display) which you can disable so that files like gifs in Safari or text messages don’t play automatically, in case you find that annoying.

There are a ton of other settings you can adjust: intensity of flashing lights, test and pointer size, subtitles, background sounds, Siri, and more. You can even create a text-to-speech voice that sounds like you. Dive into the accessibility settings and tweak these settings to make the Mac truly tailored to your tastes.