When using your Mac, and especially if it is a laptop system that you take on the road, you might find yourself in a situation where you would like to share your location with others. Perhaps you are working at a cafe and want to show a friend where you are, or maybe tweet this to others. While there are several ways you can go about doing this, there is an easy one right in your Mac.

First, be sure you have Location Services enabled in your Mac’s system preferences:

1. Open the System Preferences (in the Apple menu)
2. Go to the Privacy tab of the Security & Privacy system preferences.
3. Select “Location Services” from the list of categories
4. Check the box to “Enable Location Services”
5. If listed, ensure “Maps” is allowed to determine your location

The last option here may not be present if you have not opened the Maps program. If not, then the system will give you an alert to add Maps when you open it. Now open Maps and do the following steps to share your location:

1. Click the Arrow toolbar button, or press Command-L to go to your current location.
2. Click the Share button, or choose Share from the File menu, to view sharing options
3. Select the service you want to use for sharing your location.
4. Fill out the inset window that appears with contact and message information, and then send it.

The options you have here are to send the location to one of your iOS devices, or to various supported social media services, as well as via e-mail, Messages, and even AirDrop to any nearby devices (though this last option is somewhat unnecessary for location sharing since you will be in the same location).

When done, your current location as a map and link will be sent, which upon opening will be shown in Apple’s Maps program either on an OS X system, or on an iOS device.