The latest version of the macOS for Apple Mac computers, Sequoia v15, is out now. Here’s a few features and settings that might interest Microsoft Office users plus a few tips from real use of macOS Sequoia.
macOS Sequioa is available now and works quite well for us. More cautious people might want to wait for the 15.01 release which is out now. And there’s a macOS 15.1 already in the works, see below.
v15 of macOS is fully compatible with Microsoft 365, Office 2024, Office 2021 and Office 2019. Parallels, the software to run Windows virtual machines, is also ready for Sequioa.
We’ll also mention one glaringly missing feature from Mac computers that Windows users have enjoyed for the last nine years.
We’ve found a few more macOS Sequoia extras like Hover Text and a nice screen-saver … More macOS Sequoia tricks to check out
Restore access to OneDrive folders
A big PITA after moving to a new version of macOS is reconfirming folder permissions, most especially to OneDrive shared folders.
Just click OK then confirm the folder that appears in the Finder window.
We saw the above prompt several times before macOS got the message and stopped asking.
Window placement
Click and hold the green window bottom (left on title bar) to see various window positioning options; Move & Resize, Fill & Arrange, Left screen, Right screen or Entire (Full) screen.
Or go to the Window menu in any app and look under the Move & Resize and Full-screen Tile menus.
Double-click title bar
Double clicking on an app title bar has been expanded to include a Fill option.
Previous macOS had a option at Apple | System Settings | Desktop & Dock called “Double-click on a window’s title bar to:
- Zoom – expands the app to the space between the menu bar (top) and the Dock (bottom).
- Minimize
- Do Nothing
macOS Sequoia, finally adds a ‘full screen’ option under another name.
- Fill – expands the app fill the whole screen below the menu bar.
- In other words, Fill is Zoom plus covering the bottom Dock area.
This new option doesn’t yet behave consistently. Some apps, like Office 365 for Mac, still appear to need a tweak to obey a Fill request.
Tiled windows without margins
Tiled windows have a margin between them, but they can be removed at System Settings | Tiled windows have margins.
iPhone mirroring
Not especially useful for Office users but very nice is iPhone mirroring. A Mac computer with Sequoia can have an iPhone appear in a window and be fully interactive.
That means you can work with iPhone apps from the larger Mac screen.
Tip: hover the mouse over the top of the window to reveal a title bar for moving the window around, Home screen and App Switcher (usually drag up from the bottom of the iPhone screen)
Change iPhone window size
Simple shortcuts to increase or decrease the mirroring windows size.
Increase – Cmd + + or strictly speaking Cmd + = (i.e. no Shift is needed)
Decrease – Cmd + -
TouchID on the Mac is accepted as authentication on the iPhone when needed, for example in a secure app.
Combine mirroring with the Universal (shared) clipboard and the iPhone becomes an extension of the Mac computer.
There have been third-party apps which do this but the Sequoia version is simple and works very well.
If you have more than one iPhone, go to Desktop and Dock settings to select which iPhone to use for mirroring and widgets.
Private Wifi Address
For each Wifi connection, you can choose a private Wifi address which reduces the risk of tracking between connections.
Go to System Settings | Network | Wifi, choose a connection then Details. Choose from Rotating (default), Fixed or Off.
This option can only be changed for a connection once it’s started. We can’t see a way to change it for saved connections. However the default for new and existing Wifi connections seems to be Rotating.
This option already in iOS and Windows 11 has a similar thing in recent releases called ‘Random hardware addresses’.
Spotlight is a calculator
Spotlight (Cmd + Space) is now a calculator as well as a search tool.
Just type a calculation and Spotlight will show an answer. It’ll handle PEDMAS/BODMAS formulas that some social media users think are interesting.
We were pleasantly surprised that it accepted the word ‘Pi’ as a value.
Installing Apps
One thing that hasn’t changed is the strange ‘drag to install’ system that’s almost certain to confuse new Mac customers.
Apple ID is now Apple Account
The long-standing Apple ID is now called Apple Account.
It’s still the primary login for all Apple devices. At this stage it looks like just a name change, possibly after a long liquid lunch by management.
STILL missing – a 21st Century clipboard
One of the best features in recent Windows releases is the multi-item clipboard aka Clipboard History. It was added with Windows 10 in 2015.
Nine years later and there’s no equivalent in the macOS system. Grrrrr.
After updating to macOS Sequoia or iOS 18
A reminder that, after updating any operating system make sure you update the installed apps as well. That should happen automatically, eventually, but it’s better to force an app update manually to ensure the apps are compatible with the new operating system.
macOS Sequoia 15.1
MacOS 15.1 will have the first examples of Apple’s AI system called, unsurprisingly, Apple Intelligence. Those features will need a Mac with an Apple Silicon (M series) chip not an Intel based machine.
For other devices, Apple Intelligence will need an Apple Silicon iPad, iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max or iPhone 16 . At first, it’ll only be available for US English.
Among other goodies in 15.1 will be:
- Clean Up photos – the photos app will let you remove unwanted objects
- Call recording – the Phone app will have an inbuilt recording button. The audio is saved to the Notes app.
- Transcription – in Notes you can record audio (like from a phone call) then get a transcript and summary. Good for lectures, especially long boring ones.
- Drag and Drop in mirroring – drag and drop files from Mac to iPhone via iPhone mirroring.
We’ll have more to say about Apple Intelligence when it’s available in the wild.
