New forum member, 73 yrs old, running Mavericks on a Mac mini, 2.5 Intel Core i5, 4 GB of memory. Questions about iPhoto: With each new OS over the last 10 years, the iPhoto app has become less user-friendly, as I see it. My current peeves: photos are downloaded and placed in the library. The process in El Capitan is (compared with root-canal work, income taxes, or previous versions of OS X) relatively painless. How to install (or reinstall) OS X. In theory, you should have to install El Capitan only once, or never if your Mac came with El Capitan preinstalled.
You can upgrade to OS X El Capitan from OS X Snow Leopard or later on any of the following Mac models. Your Mac also needs at least 2GB of memory and 8.8GB of available storage space.
MacBook introduced in 2009 or later, plus MacBook (13-inch, Aluminium, Late 2008)
MacBook Air introduced in late 2008 or later
MacBook Pro introduced in mid 2007 or later
Mac mini introduced in early 2009 or later
iMac introduced in mid 2007 or later
Mac Pro introduced in early 2008 or later
Xserve models introduced in early 2009
To find your Mac model, memory, storage space and macOS version, choose About This Mac from the Apple menu . If your Mac isn't compatible with OS X El Capitan, the installer will let you know.
Before installing any upgrade, it’s a good idea to back up your Mac. Time Machine makes it simple, and other back-up methods are also available. Learn how to back up your Mac.
It takes time to download and install OS X, so make sure that you have a reliable Internet connection. If you’re using a Mac notebook computer, plug it into AC power.
For the strongest security and latest features, find out whether you can upgrade to macOS Catalina, the latest version of macOS.
If you still need OS X El Capitan, use this link: Download OS X El Capitan. A file named InstallMacOSX.dmg will download to your Mac.
Double-click the downloaded file to open a window showing its contents. Then double-click the file within, named InstallMacOSX.pkg.
Follow the on-screen instructions, which will guide you through the steps necessary to install.
After installation of the installer is complete, open the Applications folder on your Mac, then double-click the file named Install OS X El Capitan.
Click Continue and follow the on-screen instructions. You may find it easiest to begin installation in the evening so that it can complete overnight, if needed.
Please allow installation to complete without putting your Mac to sleep or closing its lid. Your Mac may restart, show a progress bar or show a blank screen several times as it installs both OS X and related updates to your Mac firmware.
One way to burn files to a CD or DVD in OS X El Capitan is to simply insert a blank disc and select the files you want to burn on the fly.
Just follow these steps to burn a CD or DVD:
Insert a blank CD or DVD disc.
You see an alert that asks you what you want to do with the disc.
Choose Open Finder from the Action pop-up menu.
Open Finder is the default choice unless you’ve changed that default in the CDs & DVDs System Preferences pane.
Your choices are
Open Finder: Mounts the blank disk in the Finder
Open iTunes: OpensiTunes automatically when you insert a blank CD
Open Other Application: Lets you choose the application to use when you insert a blank CD or DVD disc
Run Script: Runs a specified AppleScript when you insert a blank disc.
Pick one or click the Ignore button to leave the disk in your drive without doing any of the above or the Eject button to eject the disk.
If you didn’t ignore or eject the disk, if you want to make whichever action you selected the default for future disks you insert, enable the Make This Action the Default check box before you click OK.
Click OK.
Your blank CD or DVD mounts, and its icon appears in the Sidebar of Finder windows and on the Desktop regardless of whether your Finder Preferences are set that way. The mounted CD or DVD acts just like any other removable disc, but its distinctive icon tells you that it’s a recordable DVD (or CD).
Drag files or folders.
You can drag the files or folders onto the disc icon in the Sidebar or desktop, or open the disc and drag the files or folders to the disc’s window. Continue adding files or folders until the disc contains all the files you want on it or is full.
(Optional) Change the disc’s name from Untitled DVD (or CD) the same way that you change the name of any file or folder.
When you’re ready to finish (burn) your DVD (or CD), open its disc icon and click the Burn button (below the Search field near the top right).
Choose a speed from the Burn Speed pop-up menu, click the Burn button, and you’re done.
Select the Save Burn Folder To check box if you think that you may want to burn another copy of this disc someday. Fortran for mac os catalina.
Warning: CD-RW and DVD-RW disks (the RW stands for rewritable) discs rarely work in devices other than your Mac, including CD (audio) players and DVD (video) players. If you burn a music CD or video DVD and intend to watch or listen to it on a device other than your Mac, make sure the disk is a CD-R or DVD-R; NEVER use rewritable CD-RW or DVD-RW disks.