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How to set up your own Home Screen

By BY GEORGE GORDON/Computer Guru - | Oct 30, 2020

The new upgrade to the Mac computers has some really cool ways to display your screen. So, let’s open up Safari, and I’ll show you how to customize your Startup Page.

Once Safari opens up, just click on Bookmarks at the very top and choose Start Page. Wow! That’s a mind blower… Not only do you see Favorites but the Privacy Report, Reading List and From iPhone. So the Start Page replaces Top List.

You can control what shows by clicking on the bottom right, which displays all the ones I just listed.

Let’s take a look at Favorites (which is just Bookmarks). You can add a site you visit, and it will appear on the Start Page. You can remove any Bookmark by going to Bookmarks at the top, choosing Edit Bookmarks, and then under Favorites you can delete it.

Are you bored yet? To tell you the truth, I never use bookmarks. What I do is much simpler.

Since I use eBay almost every day to buy Apple computer parts, I just opened up Safari and typed in the blank space “http://www.ebay.com.” When eBay opened up, I just dragged the http://www.ebay.com over to my desktop. Now when I want to visit eBay, I don’t have to open up Safari and click on Favorites or Bookmarks. I just click it on my desktop.

I actually created a folder on my desktop called Websites. And inside I placed eBay, Schwab, First Hawaiian Bank and Citibank. Real easy to get to, and faster to open instead of using Safari.

So let’s talk about the new upgrade to the iPhone and how you can now customize the Home Page. After downloading and installing iOS 14 on your iPhone, open it up. It looks the same, so what gives? Okay, swipe to the right and keep going to the end. What is that? It’s the new App Library screen that shows all your apps by category. Now tap in the Search Box on the top, and it shows all the apps listed alphabetical.

Get ready for Widgets! What the heck are Widgets? If you swipe to the right, a screen pops up showing you Widgets, which are basically tiny apps.

You can add Widgets from a list to this screen, and you can also drag the Widget to your Home Screen.

Ready for some fun? Let’s try one out. On your Home Screen, just press and hold your finger on an empty space until the apps start to jiggle, then hit the + sign at the top right. Scroll on down until you find a Widget you want to use.

I chose Google. If I swipe to the left , there is Google, and tapping on it will open it up. Now are you ready for the blockbuster moment?

Let’s move the Google Widget to the Home Screen. This is really cool and easy to do. Ready? Swipe to the left and press and hold on the Google Widget until it starts to wiggle. Now press down and move it to the right — it will now appear on the Home Screen page. Let go of it, and now your Home Screen has a really cool Google Icon.

Wait… it looks bigger than the rest of the Home Page icons. Yep, it sure does. You can drag other Widgets over to the Home Screen, too.

When you download an app from the App Store, it appears on the Home Screen. But if you want, you can make it appear in the App Library Screen. Go into System Preferences, Home Screen and choose “App Library Only.”

Ok, last of all, here is the best one. You can use Siri to send an audio message to someone instead of typing it in. Just say, “Hey Siri, send an audio message to Granelda Thermer.” And when Siri asks you what you want to say, tell her: “Is Elwood still drinking that moonshine again?”

The next issue will have more cool iPhone tips.

Send your computer-related questions to MauiMist@aol.com.