Have you upgraded to the new OS X Mavericks yet?  If no, but you do want to try it, Grovo Learning has posted a quick tutorial video on how you can get your hands on it.

The first thing you need to know about OS X Mavericks is that it is a FREE upgrade from the Mac App Store for people who are already using OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8, Lion 10.7, or Mountain Lion 10.8.  It requires 5.29GB of space to download and install.

To get the upgrade, go to apple.com/osx and click the “Upgrade Now” button.  This will open up a page where you will see a “View in Mac App Store” button, click on this to open the link of the App Store, then click on the “Free Upgrade” button, then the “Install App” button.  A small window will pop up where you will be asked to enter your Apple ID and password to start downloading.  When downloading is complete, click on the “Continue” button, then agree to the terms and conditions, click on the “Install” button, and enter your password.  When the software is done preparing, click on the “Restart” button to finalize the installment process.  You might be notified that some of the apps installed are no longer compatible with the OS X Mavericks, hit the “Continue” button to finish installing.

If you already have the new OS X Mavericks, Grovo also posted quick video tutorials that would help you get the most of the new Apple OS.

Get directions from OS X and Send to your iOS device

On your Mac, open up the Apple Maps app, click the arrow icon found on the upper left corner to get your current location.  Click on the “Directions” button to open the directions pane. On the space provided for the Start location, you can either use your current location or specify another place.  Choose whether you want directions for driving or walking on foot. Type the address of your destination, a contact’s name, or even the business name in the space provided for the End location, and select from the dropdown menu the specific place you want to go to.

Apple will suggest multiple routes along with estimated travel times so you can choose the best route for your travels.  You can click on each route suggested on the map to select and get a better sense of the route suggested.  Click on the cars button on the top left to get a general idea of traffic in the area.  If you are logged on iCloud in your computer, you will be able to send your route to your iDevice by clicking the arrow button adjacent to the directions button and select your device.  The map will instantly be pushed to your paired iDevice.  This will allows you to use turn by turn navigation to get to your destination.  You can also send the directions using other means such as sending it via email, AirDrop, Twitter, Facebook, Messages, or save it as a Bookmark for future use.

File organization

When you have too many files saved, you may find it hard to locate specific files on your computer.  But did you know that you can put tags on files and folders to make finding them easier?

You can tag files in Finder. You can apply one or more tags to any file or folders on Finder. To start tagging, find a file or folder in Finder, then click the tag button found at the top of the Finder window. A small window will pop up which will allow you to use existing tags on the list or create new tags. The list will show frequently used tags, you just have to click on “Show All” to view all your tags. After applying tags to an item, you will a colored dot next to an item’s name. The colored dots represent each tag you have applied for that file or folder.

To view all the files and folders in a particular tag, just click on the tags found in the Finder’s side bar or you can search for the tag in spotlight.  Click on “All Tags” at the bottom of the tags list to see all your tags.  To edit a tag, just right on the label to rename it, change its color, or delete it.  You can drop and drag tags to the sidebar so it will show the most frequent tags you use, or if you want to delete a tag, just drag a tag out.

It should be noted that tagging a folder does not tag contents of that folder, and not all folders can be tagged.

For more tips and tricks on how to use OS X Mavericks, visit Grovo.com.