Master Your Mac: Simple Ways to Tweak, Customize, and Secure OS X

OS X is a lot more than just a pretty face. Sure, the basics are easy, but beneath that gorgeous surface lie countless powerful features.

If you want to go beyond the basics, Master Your Mac will take you there. With tips on everything from organizing your workspace to strengthening your computer's security, author Matt Cone will show you how to tweak, customize, and control your Mac. And since many of the best tools for unlocking your Mac's potential don't come with OS X, you'll discover the best apps to fix those everyday Apple annoyances and make your computer do things your way.

In Master Your Mac, you'll find out how to change hidden defaults and enable undocumented features; repair disk permissions to improve performance and keep things humming along; monitor your system; and even create a bootable USB drive for emergencies. You'll also learn how to:

• Automate day-to-day tasks with AppleScript, triggers, and Automator macros
• Handle massive amounts of email and media with synced accounts and spam filters
• Turn your Mac into a file or web server
• Improve your web experience by creating Safari extensions and using site-specific browsers
• Secure your Mac with firmware passwords, firewalls, and FileVault full-disk encryption

Master Your Mac is packed with tips and addons to make everything you do with your Mac faster, easier, and better. Make OS X your own.

Covers OS X Mountain Lion.

Matt Cone, a freelance writer specializing in Apple hardware and software, has been a Mac user for over 20 years. A former ghost writer for some of Apple's most notable instructors, Cone founded Macinstruct.com in 1999, a site with OS X tutorials that boasts nearly 200,000 unique visitors per month.