Adding and removing stocks, funds, and indexes

Your chance of owning the exact group of stocks, funds, and indexes displayed by default is slim, so this section shows you how to add your own stocks, funds, or indexes and delete any or all default ones.

Here’s how to add a stock, a fund, or an index:

1. In the Search field in the top-left corner of the Stocks window, type the name of a stock, fund, or index you want to add.

   As you type, the list updates with companies, indexes, and funds that match what you’ve typed so far, with items already in your watchlist appearing in a separate section.

2. Do one of the following:
   • Click the Add to Watchlist icon, the little + sign in a circle to the left of the item’s name.
   • Control-click or right-click the stock, fund, or index you want to add, and choose Add to Watchlist from the contextual menu.
3. When you finish adding stocks, funds, and indexes, click the Delete (X) button to the right of the Search field to clear the search results and return to your watchlist.

To remove a stock, fund, or index, select it, press Delete, and then click Remove in the confirmation dialog that opens. Alternatively, Control-click or right-click the item and choose Remove from Watchlist from the contextual menu. Or even click the item and then click the Remove from Watchlist icon, the check-mark icon in the top-right corner of the Stocks window.

That’s all there is to adding and removing stocks.

To change the order of the items on your watchlist, click an item, hold down the mouse button, and drag the item up or down to its new place in the list.

Details, details, details

To see the details for an item, click it; the right side of the window offers additional information on the item. The interactive chart described in the next section appears at the top of the pane. Scroll down for additional news; click See More Data from Yahoo! Finance for even more additional news.

Charting a course

When you select a stock, fund, or index, you’ll see a graph with the following numbers and letters above it: 1D, 1W, 1M, 3M, 6M, YTD, 1Y, 2Y, 5Y, 10Y, and ALL. These symbols stand for 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, year to date, 1 year, and 2, 5, 10, and all recorded years, respectively. These numbers and letters are labels; click one, and the chart updates to reflect that period of time.

You can do two other very cool things with charts:

• Hover your cursor over the chart to see the value for that day.
• Click and drag to see the difference in values between two days.

By default, the Stocks app displays the change in a stock’s price in dollars. You can see the change expressed as a percentage instead or as the stock’s market capitalization. Just open the View menu and choose Price Change, Percentage Change, or Market Cap, as needed.

While the View menu is open, check out its other Stocks-related commands:

• Refresh (⌘  +R)
• Hide Sidebar (⌘  +Control+S)
• Back (⌘  +[)
• Next Story (⌘  +→)
• Previous Story (⌘  +←)
• Actual Size (⌘  +Shift+0)
• Zoom In (⌘  +plus sign)
• Zoom Out (⌘  +minus sign)
• Enter Full Screen (⌘  +Control+F)

Finally, Stocks lets you open multiple windows or tabs to keep more information available on the screen.

And that’s about all you need to know to enjoy and be educated by the Stocks app.

What are your interests?

You can customize what appears in your News app by choosing File ⇒   Discover Channels, as shown in Figure 12-2.

When the Follow Your Favorites screen appears, click the little red plus sign for each source you want to follow in the News app. When you click, a red check mark in a circle appears to indicate that you’re following this source (such as HuffPost, Yahoo! News, and Bloomberg in Figure 12-2).

Click the item again, and the check mark turns back into a small red plus sign to indicate that you’re not following this source.

When you’ve clicked all the sources you want to follow, click Done, and they’ll appear in the Following section of your sidebar.

To remove an item from the sidebar’s Following section, do one of the following:

• Control-click or right-click the item, and choose Unfollow Channel from the contextual menu.
• Select the item, and choose File ⇒   Unfollow Channel.
• Select the item, and press ⌘  +Shift+L.

How News works

News creates a customized real-time news feed based on the sources you’re following, highlighting stories it expects you to be interested in. The more you read, the better its suggestions become, or at least that’s what Apple says.

Click a story to read it; click < (Back) at the top of the pane to return to the main News screen. Or use the handy commands and shortcuts on the View menu, including the following:

• Check for New Stories (⌘  +R)
• Next Story
• Previous Story
• Actual Size (⌘  +Shift+0)
• Zoom In (⌘  +plus sign)
• Zoom Out (⌘   +minus sign)

Managing your news

In addition to the useful commands in the View menu, the News app’s File menu offers myriad commands that help you manage your news.

To help News find stories you’ll enjoy, for example, choose File ⇒   Suggest More Stories Like This (⌘  +L) if you love the story you’re reading; choose File ⇒   Suggest Fewer Stories Like This (⌘  +D) if you don’t love it.

The more you use these two commands, the more insightful News will be when suggesting stories of interest.

Choose File ⇒   Save Story (⌘  +S) to save the story for future reading (in the Saved Stories section near the bottom of the sidebar).

The History section in the sidebar can help you find that story you read the other day and now want to share.

Finally, check out the other commands on the File menu, which can help fine-tune what you see in News, including the following:

• Follow Channel (⌘  +Shift+L)
• Block Channel (⌘  +Shift+D)
• Manage Notifications & Email
• Manage Blocked Channels and Topics
• Manage Subscriptions

In 2019, Apple began offering a subscription news service called News+, which offers access to hundreds of newspapers and magazines for $9.99 a month. Click News+ in the sidebar for more information or to begin a free one-month trial.

You can also get access to News+ by taking out a subscription to the Apple One service, which bundles up to six services in a single subscription payment. Depending on which other Apple services you want, getting them via Apple One might cost less than getting them individually.

And that’s about all you need to know to customize and enjoy news in the News app.

Recording a voice memo

Launch Voice Memos, and you’ll see a simple window with a sidebar that sports your previous recordings (if you have them) and a big red button.

Recordings use your Mac’s built-in microphone by default. If you prefer to use a different microphone, select it in the Sound pane of the System Settings app before you begin recording.

To record a voice memo, click the big red button. To pause the recording, click the red Pause button, which becomes the Resume button, as shown at bottom left in Figure 12-3. Click Resume to continue recording, or click Done to finish and save the recording.

Listening to a voice memo

After you capture your thoughts or musings, you’ll probably want to play them back. To do so, just click the voice memo you want to hear and then click the triangular Play icon to listen.

You can drag the playhead (the vertical blue line in the middle of the waveform) to move forward or back in the memo.

Naming a voice memo

When a memo is added to your list of recordings, it shows up with the date and length of the recording and the uninspiring title New Recording. If you’ve allowed Voice Memos to access Location Services, Voice Memos gives each memo a name based on the location it detects for you, but these names quickly get repetitive too.

To keep your voice memos straight, rename them like this:

1. Click any Voice Memo in the sidebar.
2. Double-click the name Apple assigned (New Recording, New Recording 1, and so on).
3. Type your own name for the voice memo, and press Return.

That’s it. Your recording is duly identified.

Trimming a voice memo

Maybe the professor you were recording rambled on and on. Fortunately, it’s easy to trim the audio. To do so, first click a recording and then choose Edit ⇒   Trim Recording to display the controls.

Now drag the start marker (<), end marker (>), or both to specify the portion of the audio you want to keep. Click the Play icon to listen to what’s left and make sure that it’s the part you need. If so, click the Trim button and then click the Save button.

If you make a mistake, choose Edit ⇒   Undo immediately to restore the audio you trimmed.

You may want to share a Voice Memo with others. No problem. Just click a Voice Memo to select it and then click the share icon (shown in the margin) on the toolbar. You have the option to email the memo or send it in a message. Or you can share it instantly with Mac, iPhone, or iPad users via AirDrop (covered in Chapter 4), or add it to the Notes or Reminders app.

When you have no further use for a recording, you can remove it from the Voice Memos app by selecting it in the sidebar and pressing Delete (or Backspace on a non-Apple keyboard). Alternatively, Control-click or right-click the recording in the sidebar and then choose Delete from the contextual menu.

To see all your voice memos on all your Apple devices, do one of the following:

• On your Mac: Open System Settings, click Apple ID in the sidebar, click iCloud, click the Options button on the iCloud Drive row, click the Documents tab, and enable Voice Memos in the list of apps.
• On your iPhone or iPad: Tap Settings ⇒   Apple ID (the button bearing your name)  ⇒   iCloud and then set the Voice Memos switch to On.