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Top 10 Mac OS X Lion How Tos

To help you make the switch from Snow Leopard, we rounded up our helpful Mac OS X Lion how-tos to help you install, master, and tweak Apple's newest operating system.

Sharon Profis Vice President of Content, CNET Studios
As the Vice President of CNET Studios, Sharon leads the video, social, editorial design, and branded content teams. Before this role, Sharon led content development and launched new verticals for CNET, including Wellness, Money, and How To. A tech expert herself, she's reviewed and covered countless products, hosted hundreds of videos, and appeared on shows like Good Morning America, CBS Mornings, and the Today Show. An industry expert, Sharon is a recurring Best of Beauty Awards judge for Allure. Sharon is an avid chef and hosts the cooking segment 'Farm to Fork' on PBS nationwide. She's developed and published hundreds of recipes.
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Sharon Profis
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Apple

With new features like autosave, versions, and mission control, there's good reason to be intrigued by Mac OS X Lion. The new operating system carries the same intuitive interface as Snow Leopard, but adds a slew of new features, settings, and trackpad gestures.

To help you make the switch, we've rounded up our helpful Mac OS X Lion How-Tos.

If you're upgrading from Snow Leopard, start with our best practices for installing Lion before moving onto the tips, tricks, and hacks that we like best. Or, if you were lucky enough to pick up a machine with Lion preinstalled, feel free to skip directly to learning the ropes and tweaking your settings.

Install Lion OS X


Five things to do before installing Lion
Before you run and install Mac OS X Lion from the App Store, we have five things you need to do.

How to create an OS X Lion installation disc
Apple has released OS X Lion as a download from the Mac App Store only; however, you can use the download to create a separate OS installation disc or drive partition to use for troubleshooting purposes.

How to keep Snow Leopard when upgrading to Lion
While Lion may seem like an enticing installation, some programs are not yet compatible with it. You may wish to maintain Snow Leopard in a dual-boot setup to maintain compatibility. Here is how to do this.

Learn the ropes


5 hidden, awesome Lion features
If you think that gestures and Mission Control are Lion's hottest features, think again. We rounded up five little-known but awesome Lion features you may have missed.

Learn Mission Control and Launchpad in Mac OS X Lion
If you're a seasoned Mac user, you'll immediately notice that navigation is different in Lion. There's an entirely new set of gestures, some of which are used for two new features: Mission Control and Launchpad. If you prefer a written guide to Mission Control, check it out here.

How to use Autosave and Versions in OS X Lion
Mac OS X Lion brings youAutosave and Versions, two features that are going to save you a lot of trouble when editing documents.

How to install and use Mac OS X Lion's high-quality speech voices
Apple's OS X 10.7 Lion operating system comes with brand-new, high-quality text-to-speech voices. Here's how to enable these on your system.

How to use Preview in OS X Lion to digitally sign documents
Printing a document, signing it, scanning it, and then e-mailing it back to someone is a hassle. OS X Lion has added a new feature that will allow you to digitally sign a document using Preview.

Tweak your settings


How to fix the single most annoying thing in OSX Lion: Bring back tap-to-drag
Want to bring back the double-tap-to-drag gesture on your MacBook? We'll show you how.

How to change Lion's scroll direction
You upgraded to OS X Lion and one thing you absolutely cannot stand is that the scrolling gestures are reversed. Don't worry, Apple allows you to change the direction in Preferences.