OS X El Capitan is essentially the same operating system as OS X Yosemite but includes minor bug fixes, improved performance and security, better language support, as well as a few feature enhancements.
OS X El Capitan is the eleventh major release of OS X. This new release is offered as a free upgrade through the Mac App Store application found on your Apple computer. If your Apple Computer has no Mac App Store (pre-10.6.8) or is running a 32-bit graphics card or 32-bit processor (pre-2007), OS X El Capitan will not be compatible with your. Mar 11, 2020 Check the benefits of El Capitan 10.11.4 that Apple just brought, like the abilty to share Live Photos between iOS and macOS via Messages and AirDrop. Besides other minior new features, users can enjoy a slew of El Capitan 10.11.4 advantages.
OS X El Capitan is the eleventh major release of OS X. This new release is offered as a free upgrade through the Mac App Store application found on your Apple computer. If your Apple Computer has no Mac App Store (pre-10.6.8) or is running a 32-bit graphics card or 32-bit processor (pre-2007), OS X El Capitan will not be compatible with your computer.
Some of the feature enhancements in El Capitan are as follows:
Find cursor: If you have a lot of windows open, busy wallpaper, or multiple monitors, then finding your cursor is not always an easy task. To find your cursor more easily, El Capitan offers the capability to magnify the cursor briefly when you wiggle it back and forth.
If you do not need nor like this built-in feature it can be disabled through System Preferences→Accessibility→Display. Simply un-check the box marked “Shake mouse pointer to locate.”
The magnify action can be executed with the shake of your mouse or by wiggling one finger on your touchpad.
AirPlay integration: AirPlay been improved upon in iTunes and is now included in QuickTime and Safari. This means you can throw content not found in your iTunes libraries as well as content you discover online to an AirPlay-capable device such as an Apple TV.
Once you find some desired music, photos, and videos to throw locate and click on the AirPlay symbol integrated into iTunes, QuickTime, or Safari and select the device to which you wish to throw the content.
Auto-hide menu bar: If screen real estate is important to you or you don’t like the look of an “always there” menu bar, you can change the way OS X behaves by setting the menu bar to auto-hide just like the dock. This option leaves a full desktop area from which to work. A great feature if you are someone easily distracted by clutter!
To turn on Auto-hide open System Preferences–>General and check the box marked “Automatically hide and show the menu bar.”
Find My Friends widget: The Find My Friends app that is included in iOS is now integrated into OS X via a widget you can add to your notifications pane. This widget shows you where friends, family, and colleagues are located provided they use the iOS and OS X Find My Friends app/widget as well.
Adding the Find My Friends widget to your notifications pane is simple. Click on the three dashes in the top right corner. The notification pane will slide out, at the bottom select “Edit.” You will be presented with a list of widgets to add to your notification pane. Locate Find My Friends and click on the green plus sign associated with the widget. Click to allow location services access, and you’re done.
Adding the Find My Friends widget to your notifications pane is simple.
Improved Spotlight search: Spotlight includes improved search results, integrated weather, stocks, and web content. A Siri of sorts for OS X, the spotlight box now can be moved around and resized for your convenience. To launch Spotlight click on the magnifying glass icon in the top right corner of your menu bar.
Type in your question, request, or keyword and watch the Spotlight application do its magic.
Split View: A feature that has been around on Windows since Windows 7, OS X finally has the capability to “snap” two windows to your screen to maximize your screen real estate and workflow.
Open two or more applications that have full-screen/split-screen support (all built-in applications are supported as well as some third-party applications provided you updated them after your upgrade.) After you have two or more applications open, click and hold the green button in the top-left corner to activate the Split View function. The application will fill half the screen and a list of applications will display as options to fill the second half of the screen. Chose the application you want to snap into the second half of the screen.
Performing the split-screen function on two supported applications is easy.
On the far-left side of the menu bar in OS X El Capitan sits a little apple, which, if you click it, actually displays a menu. No matter what application is active, the Apple menu is always available in the top-left corner of your menu bar.
The menu bar is always available, even with apps that hide it in full-screen mode. To make it reappear, move the pointer to the top of the screen, wait a second or two, and watch the menu bar magically reappear.
Apple El Capitan Installer
From top to bottom, the Apple menu gives you a number of options, including the following:
El Capitan Apple Update
About This Mac: Choose this item to see what version of OS X you’re running, what kind of Mac and processor you’re using, how much memory your Mac has, the name of your Startup Disk, and much more. The window sports multiple tabs across the top of the window — Overview, Displays, Storage, and so on.
Click System Report on the Overview tab to launch the Apple System Information utility; there, you can find out more than you’ll probably ever want or need to know about your Mac’s hardware and software.
Click Software Update on the Overview tab to have your Mac check with the mothership (Apple) to see whether any updates are available for OS X; its included applications; third-party applications purchased at the Mac App Store; other Apple-branded applications, such as GarageBand, Final Cut Pro, Pages, or even Apple-branded peripheral devices, such as the iPod or iPhone.
System Preferences: Choose this item to open the System Preferences window.
App Store: Choose this item to launch the Mac App Store.
Dock (submenu): This lets you mess with options for the Dock.
Recent Items: This lets you quickly access applications, documents, and servers you’ve used recently.
Force Quit: Use this option only in emergencies. What’s an emergency? Use it when an application becomes recalcitrant or otherwise misbehaves or refuses to quit when you say Quit.
Memorize the keyboard shortcut for Force Quit (Command+Option+Esc). Sometimes a program gets so badly hosed that you can’t click anywhere and other keyboard shortcuts won’t do anything at all. It doesn’t happen often, nor does it happen to everyone. If it should happen to you, calmly press the magic key combo you memorized (Command+Option+Esc), and the Force Quit Applications dialog (usually) appears. Click the name of the program that’s acting up and then click the Force Quit button or press the Return key to make the balky application stop balking.
The reason Force Quit should be used only in an emergency is that if you use it on an application that’s working fine and have any unsaved documents, your work since the last time you saved the file will be blown away.
Or not. The Auto Save and Versions features, which first appeared in Lion, are still the default for Apple’s own applications. If the app you’re using supports Auto Save features, you shouldn’t lose any (or at least not much) of your work regardless of when you last saved.
Shut Down options: These four commands do exactly what their names imply:
Sleep: Puts your Mac into an energy-efficient state of suspended animation.
Restart: Quits all open programs and restarts your Mac. It’s quite polite about this task, asking if you want to save any unsaved changes in open documents before complying.
Shut Down: Turns off your Mac.
Log Out: Quits all open programs and logs you out. Again, your Mac will be ever so polite, asking if you want to save unsaved changes in open documents before complying. When it’s done, the login screen appears.