The Tips - Mac Kung Fu - page 380

Tip 371

Quickly Adjust Preferences for Any App

Hitting COMMAND + , (that's the comma key) will open the Preferences dialog box
for the app you're currently using.

Tip 372

Grab Files from Your Mac While Miles Away

There are a variety of ways of accessing files on your Mac's hard disk while
you're away from it. Of course, for these tips to work, your Mac will need to
be left turned on when you're not sitting in front of it, and you'll have to ensure
it isn't set to go into sleep mode after a period of inactivity (look at the Energy
Saver settings within System Preferences).

Using the Back To My Mac Service
The easiest and most fuss-free way of accessing files is to use the Back To
My Mac service, which is offered as part of iCloud (see Exploring OS X: iCloud ,
on page 211 ). However, this can be accessed only via another Mac.

Back To My Mac makes it seem like the home Mac and remote Mac are on
the same local area network—as if they're in the same home or office. It does
this via a secure tunnel across the Internet.

Back To My Mac requires both the home Mac and the Mac you're using to
access the files to be signed in with the same iCloud ID.

Some setup is necessary, as follows:

1. On the home Mac, open System Preferences (Apple menu→System Prefer-

ences), and then click the iCloud icon. Then check the Back To My Mac
box. Note that you might see a warning about enabling Universal Plug 'n'
Play or NAT Port Mapping on your Internet router, and if so, you should
consult the router's documentation. Back To My Mac will work without
this enabled but will be slower than it could be.