If you wish to keep your Mac device safe, then you should lock the Mac’s display. Having a user account password gives a layer of protection to your important files.

For having the Mac lock screen feature to be effective, the first step that should be taken by you is configuring the System Preferences to need the user account password whenever unlocking or else waking up. For doing it, follow the given below steps:

Press on System Preferences.
Then, click on Security and Privacy.
After that, ensure that you are on the General tab.
Next, put a tick mark on the CheckBox after to Require Password.
Then, choose the time gap from the needed Password drop-down menu that you wish to use, selecting from the given options:
immediately
5 seconds
1 minute
5 minutes
15 minutes
1 hour
4 hours
or 8 hours.
The method of locking Mac’s display with shortcuts

If you have the device of Mac working macOS Mojave put the given below combination together for locking the display.

Command+Ctrl+Q buttons
For locking Mac’s display on an older Mac, press the given below combination together for locking the display.

Ctrl+Shift+Power
If you Mac comes with an in-built drive, then this is the shortcut you need to use:

Ctrl+ Shift+ Eject
The above-mentioned commands make the MAC’S CPU sleep urgently, shutting down every function and needing a password for resuming.

The method of putting the device to sleep by shortcuts

If you wish to use the Apple Menu, you need to select the sleep or else lock option from the Menu of Apple. Apple Menu shall always be towards the upper left-hand side of the Mac display. You need to have a look towards the end for choosing Sleep or Lock Screen.

The time to put the Mac to sleep

People working on battery power can wish to put their Mac to sleep to save power. It will stop others from being able to use your device. But the worth noting fact is that the latter option saves the battery power.

Setting the Mac device to sleep shall put a stop to every background work. So the majority of the people don’t consider it as an ideal option because they prefer having their device working when they take a short break.

The time taken to wake up the device from a sleep is more as compared to the display lock manner.

Source:- http://setupmenow.com/how-to-lock-or-sleep-the-screen-in-mac-os-x/

Mia Davis is a self-professed security expert; she has been making the people aware of the security threats. Her passion is to write about Cyber security, cryptography, malware, social engineering, internet and new media. She writes for Norton security products at norton.com/setup.