How to set up an out of office message in Mail on a Mac

Going away for a few days? Let people know you when you'll be back by adding this simple rule

If you have a corporate email account at work, the chances are you'll also have some kind of setting that enables you to tell people when you're on holiday or out on the office on business. But what if you don't? Or just want to set up an email auto reply on your Mac at home?

If you're using Mail, you may be surprised to learn that there are no settings or preferences that can enable you to setup an auto-reply like you would on a corporate email system. And there are no preferences for it on iCloud either (hint hint, Apple). The only thing you can do to get around this problem is to setup an Auto Reply rule in Mail. And that's what we're going to show you how to do.

Step 1: Open Mail Preferences

Open Mail and choose Mail > Preferences from the top menu bar or type 'CMD,' then select Rules from the toolbar (it's on the far right).

Step 2: Add a rule

You should now see a list or Rules with buttons on the right site that enables you to add, edit, duplicate and remove them. By default you should have a News From Apple rule setup already. Click the Add Rule button.

You should now see a drop-down sheet that enables you to create a rule that you can apply to your incoming and outgoing emails in Mail. You can create and apply as many different rules as you like, but here we're going to setup an Auto Reply.

Step 3: Name your rule

The first thing to do here is to create a unique Rule name and add it in the Description field. You can call the rule anything you like, but it makes sense to call either something general like 'Auto Reply' - so you can use the same rule again and again -- or name it something specific if it's a one off.

Step 4: Set your rule conditions

Now we're going to decide who our Auto Reply rule is going to apply to. This could be everyone that emails you while you're away or you can break the rule down into specific groups of people.

You could send up one Rule for friends and family and another Rule for work colleagues, for example, or even set up different rules for different email accounts. It's up to you.

For this tutorial we're going to keep it simple.

So underneath where it says “If any of the following conditions are met”.

Change “any recipient” to “To”.

Leave “contains” as it is.

And then add your email address to the empty box to the right.

Under “Perform the following actions”

Click “Move Message” and choose “Reply to Message” from the drop-down menu that appears.

Then click on Reply message text...

Step 5: Add your Auto-reply

A pop-up window will now appear which enables to write your out of office message. When you're happy with the result, click “OK” and the pop-up window will now disappear.

Step 6: Activate your Auto Reply rule

If you're ready to make the Rule live, now's the time to make it happen. Click “OK” again on the Rules window. A drop-down sheet will appear asking if you want to apply your rules to messages in selected mailboxes. Make sure you click “Don't apply” otherwise Mail will try to reply to every email you've ever received. And you don't want that to happen!.

You Auto Reply / out of office rule is now live. You can see whether it works by sending a test email to yourself.

Step 7: Turn it off

When you come back from your holiday or whatever, make sure you remember to switch off your Auto Reply otherwise people will think you're still away.

To do that, simply go to Mail > Preferences > Rules again and uncheck the Auto-reply rule you created previously.

How to select and copy text from Quick Look previews in OS X

You can banish the need to launch large apps each time you want to quickly copy anything within documents on your Mac by using Quick Look, Apple's nimble preview feature. We'll show you how to make this little gem even more useful by adding copy and paste capabilities.

Since it’s introduction in OS X Leopard, Quick Look has been one of our favourite everyday tools. It’s an incredibly useful way to quickly preview documents, music, and photos, without having to load up the application that would normally run them. If you’ve ever wanted to check how an MP3 sounds, but find the frustration boiling when iTunes suddenly launches after you’ve selected the file, or wanted to take a glance at a Pages document without waiting for the iWorks app to load, then Quick Look will be your new best friend. 

Sadly the feature is often overlooked, as many users are simply unaware of its presence, but once you’ve started using Quick Look you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it. As the feature is built into the operating system it’s always available in the Finder. Just select the file you want to examine and then press the space-bar. This will bring up a window that allows you to look at the file.

If you want to increase the view to full screen then you can click on the arrows symbol in the top right hand corner, you can also launch the relevant app or share the file by clicking on the buttons to the left of the arrows.

It’s not just documents and photos that can utilise this tool, MP3 files are also available, with the ability to play the music directly in the window.

One feature that isn’t turned on by default though is the ability to highlight text within the preview so that you can copy and paste it into another document. Thankfully it is quite easy to enable, although it does require a little bit of typing in the Terminal application. Don’t worry, you won’t be there long and we’re here to guide you through the harrowing world of command line programming.

First of all you’ll need to launch the Terminal interface. To do this go to Finder and click on Applications>Utilities>Terminal.

The small window will open up, awaiting your commands. Simply copy the following text (you can cut and paste it to save typing) into the Terminal window, then press return.

defaults write com.apple.finder QLEnableTextSelection -bool TRUE; killall Finder

Finder will refresh and nothing else will seem to have happened. This is fine, just close the Terminal app and use Finder to locate a text based document (Word, PDF, Pages, etc.). Click the file once to select it, then press Space-bar to bring up the Quick Look preview. Now when you highlight a section in the document you will be able to copy the text just like you would if it was running in a word processor.

You might find that you won’t be able to edit all documents. This could be due to protection within some files, but on the whole it’s a great way to speed up your workflow with only a few clicks.

How to use Parental Controls in Mac OS X Mavericks and Yosemite

Apple has developed substantial tools to help parents who want to make sure their children are safe when online. With Parental Controls, located in System Preferences, parents can allow their children freedom to use a Mac computer safely.

Setting up Parental Controls is a must for parents, and it's easy to do. With Parental Controls turned on your can limit the applications, and internet usage of a child. This feature looks at how to set up Parental Controls on a Mac, and set sensible limits for a child's computer usage.

How to use Parental Controls: set up a child’s account

The first thing you will need to do is set up a separate account for your child. This won’t be a full account, like the one you use, but a restricted account (and you get to decide on the restrictions). Don’t worry about your child having their own account, you will get full access to it.

Follow these steps to set up an account.

1. Open System Preferences (click Go > System Preferences).
2. Click on Parental Controls.
3. Click the Lock icon in the bottom left of the window.
4. Enter your Password and click Unlock
5. Click the Add (‘+’) icon in the bottom left of the window.
6. Enter the Full Name, Account name and Password fields and click Create Account. Make sure your child knows the password (this is for their limited account).

You now have another user in the Parental Controls window. Select them in the left-hand sidebar to view the settings.

How to use Parental Controls: Limit Applications to an age range

You can limit the child’s Mac access to specific applications. Follow these steps to use Parental Controls to set limits on which Mac apps a child can run:

1. Select the child’s name in the sidebar and select the apps tab.
2. Place a tick in Limit Applications.
3. Use the Allow App Store Apps option to select an age range for apps.
4. Click the small reveal arrow next to App Store in the Allowed Apps section to view which apps are available. You can see the age range next to each app on the right-hand side.
5. Use the reveal arrow next to Other Apps to view apps that were included in Mac OS X (like Safari). These will not have age ratings.
6. Remove the tick next to any app to prevent it from running.

How to use Parental Controls: Simple Finder and Dock

A neat aspect of the Apps menu in Parental Controls is to tick the Use Simple Finder and Prevent The Dock From being Modified options. The Simple Finder options makes Mac OS X a lot easier to use for young children.

How to use Parental Controls: limit access to websites

The internet is one of the largest concerns when it comes to Parental Controls. Apple has you covered with three distinct ways your child can access the web. Open Parental Controls and click on the Web tab: here you will see three options:

• Allow unrestricted access to web sites. Normally this is only for older children, and is not selected by default.
• Try to limit access to adult websites automatically. This is the default option, and Apple runs a comprehensive list of websites that are appropriate and inappropriate for kids. Click customise to add and remove websites (that your child may require, or that you don’t want them to use).
• Allow access to only these websites. This is an option for younger children. It blocks web access apart from just sites you add. There are a bunch of kid friendly sites, like Discovery Kids, National Geographic, and Disney. Use the Add (‘+’) button underneath the websites to add more websites to the Allow Access list.

How to use Parental Controls: People, Time, and Logs

You can also use the Parental Controls preferences to adjust these settings.

• People. You can control contact through Game Center, Mail, and Messages. Create a list of Allowed Contacts to limit your child’s interaction.
• Time Limits. You can specific specific time limits (such as 3 hours a day) for weekdays, weekends and you can use the Bedtime setting to prevent access during specified hours.
• Other. Disable the Camera, Dictation, Printer, and hide profanity in the Dictionary (both printer and Dictionary profanity are limited by default).
• Logs. Click the Logs tab to view the websites your child has visited, blocked websites that the child has tried to visit as well as application and Message usage.