Introduction to Mac OS X
Date: Aug 22, 2005
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Goals |
| Become familiar and comfortable with the Desktop and Finder. |
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Understand the Finder windows and how to use them. |
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Learn to use the Dock. |
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Work with contextual menus and keyboard shortcuts. |
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Burn a CD or DVD. |
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Learn to watch for tool tips and other visual clues. |
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Know where to go for more information. |
Tiger is the latest and greatest version of the Mac OS X operating system. But even though it's the latest and greatest, it's still Mac OS X. In this section you'll become familiar with the basics of using your Mac in general, and the following sections will deal more specifically with the changes that appear in Tiger.
If you haven't yet installed Tiger, please see Lessons 1 or 2. Once you've got it installed and have gone through the setup process, you're ready to start using it!
Get to Know Your Desktop and Finder
When you turn on your Mac, you'll always see your Desktop,.shown below. This is also called the Finder, although technically the Finder is the application that runs the Desktop. Whenever you see a direction that tells you to go to the Desktop or to the Finder, this is where you need to go.
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Make sure you can get to the Desktop or Finder when necessary
As you work on your Mac, you will be using a number of applications in which you'll create your documents, but you'll often want to go back to the Finder, which sort of acts like home base. The name of the active application, the one that's currently open and available to use (including the Finder), will always be displayed in the application menu. Keep an eye on that menu.
To go to the Finder at any time, do one of these things:
- Single-click on any blank area of the Desktop.
- Single-click on any Finder window (shown below) that you see.
- Single-click the Finder icon in the Dock (shown on the opposite page).
Check to make sure the application menu says “Finder.”
Get to Know Your Finder Windows
Below, you see a typical Finder window. This is called a Finder window to distinguish it from similar (but different) windows you will use in your applications. The following pages go into further detail about this window.
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Get to Know Your Home and its Folders
When you open a Finder window, it usually opens to the Home window, as shown below. You can tell it's Home because your user name and the little house icon are in the title bar.
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To open a Finder window, single-click on the Finder icon (shown to the left) in the Dock.
If the window that opens doesn't display your Home folders, single-click the Home icon you see in the Sidebar.
Your Home window displays a number of special folders. I suggest you do not change the names of these folders or throw them away unless you are very clear on what you're doing and why you're making that choice! For now, just let them be.
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What each folder is for
Desktop Although this doesn't look like a typical folder icon, it really is a folder. The Desktop itself is a place where you can store items, sort of like keeping them on your office desk instead of putting them in a filing cabinet. Any file you store directly on your Desktop also appears in this folder.
Documents Your Mac will make sure every document you create is safely tucked into this Documents folder. Later you can create your own folders, as described on the following page.
Library This folder is used by the operating system. Do not rename this folder, do not throw it away, do not take anything out of it, and do not put anything in it unless you know exactly what you are doing. Just ignore it for now. For more details, see page 46.
Movies iMovie uses this folder to automatically store the files necessary for creating the movies you make.
Music iTunes uses this folder to automatically keep track of all the music files you buy and all of your playlists.
Pictures iPhoto uses this folder to automatically keep track of all your photos and albums.
Public You'll use this folder to share files with other people who also use your Mac, as explained in Lesson 9.
Sites You can create a web site, store it in this folder, and share it with anyone on the Internet.
Create your own folders
At any time you can create your own folders where you can store your documents and organize your files. For instance, you might want a folder in which to store all your financial documents. And another folder for all your newsletter files. And yet another for the screenplays you're writing. All of these documents could go inside the Documents folder, but to find the individual items that belong together would soon become unwieldy.
Use digital folders on your Mac as you would use paper folders in a metal filing cabinet. See page 128 for a tip on how to save files directly into your custom folders.
- To open a folder, double-click on it.
- To go back to the contents of the previous folder, single-click the left-pointing triangle, called the Back button (circled, below-left).
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To make a new folder
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Shift Command N |
New folder |
The new folder will appear inside the window whose name is in the title bar. |
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Click on its name, then type to rename it. |
If you're not sure how to use keyboard shortcuts yet, see pages 50–51.
Take Advantage of the Sidebar
The lower portion of the Sidebar of every Finder window is customizable—you can add or remove any folder as often as you like.
When you add a folder to the Sidebar, you make the folder easier to get into, not only on the Desktop, but also when you are working in an application and want to open or save a file (Sidebar folders are accessible in Open and Save As dialog boxes).
Remove folders that you don't use to make room for the ones you do. Don't worry—removing the picture of a folder from the Sidebar does not throw away the original folder nor anything in it!
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- To add a folder or document to the Sidebar, simply drag the icon from any window or from the Desktop and drop it into the Sidebar.
- To remove an item from the Sidebar, simply press on it with the mouse and drag it out of the Sidebar. Let go when the mouse pointer is on the Desktop. As you can see above, the icon disappears in a puff of smoke. Notice that although I removed the Movies folder from the Sidebar, the original folder is still safe and sound in the Home window.
Change the View of the Finder Window
You can change how the items inside any window are displayed. Experiment with the three different views and you'll decide for yourself how you like to work. You might prefer one view for certain things and a different view for others—with the click of a button, you can switch from one to the other.
- To change views, single-click one of the three little view buttons.
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The Icon View
Obviously, this displays every file as an icon, or small picture.
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In the Icon View, double-click to open files
Folder icons:
Document icons:
Application icons:
The List View
As a list, you can see the contents of more than one folder at once. You can organize the list alphabetically by names, by the dates the files were last modified, by what kind of items they are, and other options.
The blue column heading is a visual clue that the contents are organized by that heading; single-click any other column heading to organize the contents by something else.
The tiny triangle in the column heading is a visual clue that tells you whether the information is sorted from first to last or last to first. Single-click the triangle to reverse the order. Try it.
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In the List View, single-click vs. double-click
Folder icons:
Single-click the disclosure triangle to the left of a folder to display its contents as a sublist, as shown circled above. You can view the contents of more than one folder at once.Double-click a tiny folder icon to display its contents in the window, which will replace the contents you currently see in the window.
Document icons:
Double-click a document to open not only that document, but also the application it was created in.Application icons:
Double-click an application icon to open it.The Column View
Viewing the Finder window in columns allows you to see not only the contents of a selected folder or hard disk, but you can easily keep track of where each file is located. You can also view the contents of another folder without losing sight of the first one. This view helps you understand where everything is kept in your computer.
If you have photographs, graphic images, or movies in your folders, the last column displays previews of the items. You can even play a small movie in this preview column. Some documents can display previews as well.
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In the example above, you can see that the “top level” folder is my Home folder, “robin.” In “robin,” I selected the folder “Wilton Circle Press” (I clicked once on it) and in that folder I selected “WCP staff,” and in that folder I selected “Laura Egley Taylor.jpg,” and that file displays a preview.
You won't see a column to the right until you single-click a folder or a file— then a new column to the right appears to display the contents of that folder or a preview of the file. The triangles indicate the file is a folder that can contain other files.
In the Column View, single-click files to display columns
Folder icons:
Single-click a folder to display its contents in the column to the right. If there is no column to the right, one will appear.Document icons:
Single-click a document to see a preview in the column to the right. Not all documents can provide picture previews, but the preview will at least give you information about that file.Double-click a document to open not only that document, but also the application it was created in.
Application icons:
Single-click an application icon to preview information about it, such as its version and date of modification.Double-click an application icon to open that application.
Use the Buttons in the Finder Window
There are several more buttons in the Toolbar of every Finder window.
Red, yellow, and green buttons
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Single-click the red button to close the window.
Single-click the yellow button to minimize the window, which sends a tiny icon down into the Dock, on the right side.
To open that window again, single-click its icon in the Dock.
Single-click the green button to make the window bigger or smaller.
Back and Forward buttons
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These buttons go back and forward through the contents of windows you have viewed (just like the back and forward buttons on web pages). Every time you open a new window, these buttons start over.
Hide/Show the Toolbar and Sidebar
In the upper-right corner of every Finder window is a small gray button. Single-click this button to hide the Toolbar and the Sidebar, as shown below. When you double-click on a folder while the Toolbar and Sidebar are hidden, a new and separate window will open. Try it.
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Select Multiple Items in the Finder
To select an individual item in a Finder window, you simply single-click it. To select multiple items, there are two ways to do it, as explained below. Once items are a group, you can move them all, trash them all, open them all, change all their labels (see page 140), and more, all at once.
In the Icon View
In the Icon View, hold down the Command key or the Shift key and single-click on as many items as you want to group together. You can only select items from one window while in the Icon View.
In the List View or Column View
In these views, using the Shift key is different from using the Command key.
Hold down the Command key and single-click on multiple items. In the List View, you can select items from several different folders in the same window, as long as their contents are showing in the list; in the Column View, you can only select items from one column at a time. See below, left.
The Shift key lets you select a group of items that are contiguous, or next to each other in the list. Single-click on the first item you want to select in a list. Then hold down the Shift key and click on the last item you want in the list. Everything between the two clicks will be selected. See below, right.
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To deselect an item from any group in any view: Command-click it.
Use the Dock
The Dock is that strip of icons across the bottom of the screen. The specific icons that appear in the Dock will change as you open and close applications, view photos, or customize what's in it yourself. Hover your mouse over an icon to see a label appear that tells you the name of the application or file.
- To open an application or document from the Dock, single-click its icon.
The tiny black triangle underneath an icon indicates that particular application is open and available. Even if you don't see it on your screen, you can single-click the Dock icon and that application will come forward, ready for you to work in. Keep an eye on the application menu (as described on page 30) to verify which application is “active” at any moment.
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You can rearrange any of the icons. Add or remove applications from the left side of the dividing line (see callout, above). Add or remove folders, documents, and web page locations from the right side of the dividing line. Do all this by dragging:
- To rearrange the icons, press the mouse down on any one and drag it left or right. The other icons will move over to make room for the new one.
- To add an application, first open the Applications folder: single-click on the Applications icon in the Sidebar of any Finder window. Then drag an application icon down to the Dock, to the left side of the dividing line.
- To add a folder or a document, drag it to the right side of the dividing line.
- To add a web page, open your browser application, Safari (see pages 94–97 about Safari). Go to the web page that you want to have easy access to in your Dock. Drag the tiny icon that you see on the left of the web page address in the location field (circled, below) and drop it in the Dock. Make sure to drop it on the right side of the dividing line.
- To remove any icon from the Dock, press on it with the mouse button and drag it upwards, off the Dock. Let go of the mouse and the icon will disappear in a poof of smoke. This doesn't hurt anything! Never will you delete any original item by removing its icon from the Dock.
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Use the Trash
The Trash basket in the Dock is where you throw away any files you don't want. As you can see on the opposite page, when you put something in the empty Trash basket, the icon appears to have stuff in it.
- To put a file in the Trash, press on any file and drag it to the Trash basket. When the tip of the pointer touches the basket, the basket will change color—this means you're in the right place. Let go of the mouse button and that file is in the Trash.
- To take an item out of the Trash, click once on the Trash icon to open its window. Assuming you have not yet emptied the Trash, you can drag the item you want to retrieve out of the window and put it back where you want it.
- To empty the Trash, press (don't click) on the Trash icon and a little menu will pop up with an option that says, “Empty Trash.” Choose that option.
Understand the Various Disk Icons
In the top portion of the Sidebar, you probably see something similar to the example shown below—you might see more icons and you might see fewer. These icons represent hard disks, networks, a CD, a DVD, an iPod, or any other type of removable media.
Display the contents of each item the same way you do any of the items in the lower portion of the Sidebar: single-click the icon.
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The iDisk is your personal storage space on Apple's computers, which is something you get when you sign up for a .Mac account (see Lesson 11). A single click on the iDisk icon connects you to that storage space, as shown above.
The Network icon is useful when you have multiple computers linked together, either with cables or wirelessly. Use this icon as one way to connect to the other computers. See Lesson 10.
The Macintosh HD is your main hard disk, the one that holds the operating system. See the details on the opposite page. You can rename your hard disk at any time, so yours might not be called “Macintosh HD” anymore.
When you see the eject symbol to the right of an icon (the triangle with a bar under it), that means it is a removable disk of some sort. It might be a CD, a DVD, an iPod, or even another computer that you are connected to over the network. Click on the symbol to eject or disconnect the item.
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View your Home folder from the hard disk
Above you see another way of looking at your Home folder. You can tell by the highlight that I clicked on the hard drive icon “Macintosh HD” in the top portion of the Sidebar. This displayed the folders stored on that hard drive; you can see them in the column to the right.
Then I clicked on “Users,” which displayed my Home folder in the next column. If you make any other users, as explained in Lesson 9, you will see all of those users here.
Then I clicked on “robin,” which displayed my Home folders in the next column. Notice the folders in this column have the same names as the folders in the Sidebar; that's because they're the same folders. In this view you can see where they are stored on your Mac. Do you see the Applications folder?
Experiment with these different ways of accessing your Home folders until you feel comfortable about where things are stored on your Mac.
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Understand the Various Library Folders
As you work with your Mac, you'll run across a number of folders with the same name: Library. Do you see the two Library folders in the illustration below? And if you open the “System” folder, you'd see another Library folder.
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Library folders contain information that the operating system and certain applications need to function. Unless you have a really good reason and know exactly what you're doing, leave the Library folders alone—don't put anything in them and don't take anything out.
The Library folder you see above, the one directly to the right of the “Macintosh HD,” is at the “top level” of your hard disk. It contains files that are critical to running your entire computer, and those files pertain to all users who use this Mac. For instance, this Library folder has a folder inside called “Fonts,” and all fonts that are installed into this top level folder are available to all users. (For details about multiple users and how to create them, please see Lesson 9.)
The Library folder in the far-right column, above, is in my Home collection, my user folder. This is where all my application preferences, web page bookmarks, Address Book contact information, email, and other personal information is stored. Each user you set up will have her own Library folder with all her own data. There is even a Fonts folder in here; any fonts a user puts in her own Fonts folder will be available only to that user.
Use Mac OS X Together with Mac OS 9
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It is possible to use Mac OS 9.2 with Tiger. If you have the entire OS 9.2 operating system installed on your Mac, it's called Classic. Applications that need it will automatically open it for you. |
It's best, if you actually plan to use really ancient software that needs OS 9.2, that you open the Classic preferences, shown below, and have Classic automatically start up whenever you turn on your Mac. You will have fewer problems. Really, though, you need to let go of OS 9 and move on. It's okay.
To open the Classic preferences, go to the Apple menu and choose “System Preferences….” Single-click on the “Classic” icon.
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Look for Contextual Menus
These are great. A contextual menu is one that pops up and is specific to the item you Control-click on, as opposed to menus that appear in the menu bar or in dialog boxes that are always the same.
To display a contextual menu, hold down the Control key (not the Command key) and click on an object, on a blank spot on the Desktop, inside a Finder window, or anywhere. A little menu will pop up. What this menu displays depends on what you clicked on, as you can see by the examples below.
If you have a two-button mouse, you don't need the Control key—just use the right-hand button to display a contextual menu.
There is no visual clue that any item has a contextual menu—just keep checking. You'll find them in applications, on web pages, in toolbars, in the Sidebar, and elsewhere.
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Work with Keyboard Shortcuts
Most actions that you can do with the mouse and menus can also be done with a keyboard shortcut. Often this is not only faster, but more convenient because you don't have to take your hands off the keyboard to pick up and maneuver the mouse. You will see lots of keyboard shortcuts in the menus across the top of the screen, such as the ones shown below in the illustration of the Window menu. You'll use a keyboard shortcut instead of going to the menu.
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Recognize the common modifier keys
Keyboard shortcuts work with modifier keys, which are those keys that don't do anything by themselves. For instance, the Shift key doesn't do anything when you press it down by itself, but it changes the behavior of other keys.
Each key has a symbol by which it is known. These are the key symbols you will see in menus and charts:
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Fkeys are those keys across the top of the keyboard that are labeled with the letter F and a number, such as F2 or F13.
The fn key is on a laptop in the bottom-left corner. It helps individual keys do more than one function.
Keyboard shortcuts typically use one or more modifier key(s), plus one number, character, or Fkey, as you can see in the example of the Window menu above: the keyboard shortcut to minimize the selected window (to send its icon down to the Dock) is Command M.
Use a keyboard shortcut
The trick to using a keyboard shortcut is this: hold down the modifier keys all together and keep them held down, then tap the associated letter, number, or Fkey just once for each time you want to perform an action.
For instance, the keyboard shortcut to close a window is Command W, so hold the Command key down and then tap the letter W just once. If there are three windows open on your Desktop, you can hold the Command key down and tap the letter W three times and it will close three windows.
Notice gray vs. black commands
When commands in a menu are gray instead of black, that indicates an important visual clue that the Mac is giving you.
- Click on an empty spot on the Desktop.
- Now take a look through the Finder menus and notice the shortcuts for different actions, or commands. Notice how many commands
are gray.
If a command is gray, that means you cannot use that command at the moment. Often this is because you have not selected an item first, an item to which the command should apply. For instance, you can't use the command to close a window unless an open window is selected.
- So open a Finder window and select a folder (click once on it).
- Now look at the File menu again, and notice how many more commands are available.
- Find the keyboard shortcut to “Open,” but don't choose it. Click somewhere off the menu to make the menu go away.
- Make sure the folder is still selected. Now use the keyboard shortcut to open it.
Navigate the Desktop and Finder windows
If you so choose, you can get around your entire Desktop and inside Finder windows using the keyboard. For instance, you can get to every menu across the top of the screen and choose commands, without ever touching the mouse.
Access the menus on the Desktop or in any application
- Press Control F2 to focus on the menu bar across the top of the screen.
- Use the left and right Arrow keys to select menu items across the menu bar, or type the first letter of the menu you want to select. When a menu is selected, you'll see it highlight.
- When the menu name you want is highlighted, press the Return key to drop down its menu.
- Press the down and up arrows to choose a command in the list, or type the first letter or two or three. (If there is more than one command that starts with the same letter, type the first two or three letters quickly to select a specific one.)
- Hit Return to activate the selected command.
To put the menu away without activating a command, press Command Period (Command .).
Try these shortcuts in a Finder window
- Type the first letter or two or three to select files.
- When you're in the list or Column View, use the Arrow keys to select the columns to the right or left, then use the letter keys to select files.
- Select a document, hit Command O to open it, and get to work!
If you are interested in using more of these kinds of keyboard shortcuts, go to the “Keyboard & Mouse” preferences, as explained on page 149 and 403–404. There you will find an extensive list of keyboard shortcuts for getting around your Mac.
Keyboard shortcuts in dialog boxes
You can use keyboard shortcuts in the Open and Save As dialog boxes. Use the Tab key to select different areas of the dialog box and the Arrow keys to select items in the columns. When you Save As, you can title your document, select the folder in which you want it stored, and save it—without using the mouse.
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Use the Tab key to select the other parts of the dialog box
The first Tab will select the Search field.
The next Tab will select the Sidebar. Use the up and down Arrow keys to highlight the folder or disk you need.
Hit Tab to select the columns. Use the up and down arrows to select a file in the first column, then hit the right Arrow to select the next colum.
When you select the folder into which you want to save the file, hit the Return key.
Burn a CD or DVD
To burn a cd or dvd is a simple process. You'll want to burn backups of your important work. Be sure to also burn backups of any applications or fonts or other files that you download straight from the Internet.
The steps below describe how to burn data files (as opposed to music or movies) onto a disc. A cd holds about 650 megabytes; a dvd holds about 4.3 gigabytes, even though the package might tell you it holds 4.7. (To burn a music cd from iTunes, please see page 108.)
To burn a disc, of course, you must have a computer with a built-in drive that is capable of doing this! You can buy an external cd or dvd burner, but you won't be able to use the process below to burn the discs; you'll need other software, such as Roxio Toast.
To burn a CD or DVD
- Insert a blank cd-r (do not use the cd+r discs!) or a blank dvd-r (the latest models of SuperDrives can burn the dvd+r or dvd+rw discs).
- A message pops up asking what action you want to take. The option to “Open Finder” will let you do anything. Click ok.
- You can name the cd at this point. Select the cd, then click on its current label, “Untitled.” Type the new name.
- Drag the files from the Finder to the disc and drop them right onto the disc. You can drag as many individual files as you
want—the Mac will tell you when the disc is full.
This does not burn the files onto the disc! At this point, you are merely telling your Mac which files you are going to burn. You will see the files copy to the disc.
Using Apple's built-in software, you will not be able to add more data to a disc once you've burned it, so be sure to drag everything you want onto the disc at this point.
- When you're ready to burn, do one of these things:
This is the Burn icon.
Either:
Drag the disc towards the Trash. As you drag, you'll notice the Trash icon turns into the Burn icon. Drop the disc onto this icon and let go.
Or:
Control-click on the disc to get the contextual menu. Choose “Burn Disc.”
Or:
In the top portion of the Sidebar, you'll see the newly named disc. To its right is a Burn icon. Click that.
Or:
Click once on the disc to select it. From the File menu, choose “Burn Disc.”
- You'll get a message asking to confirm the process. Click “Burn.” It can take several minutes.
- After the burning process is complete, double-click the disc icon to make sure the data you want is on the disc. Then you can eject the disc (drag it to the Trash, or Control-click on it and choose “Eject Disc”).
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Learn Simple Troubleshooting Techniques
When things go wrong, here are a few simple troubleshooting techniques you can try.
Restart
It's amazing what a simple restart will fix. Especially if you rarely turn off your Mac, sometimes little things may start acting a bit quirky. Perhaps your Mac can't find the printer you've been using for months, or icons for new files don't appear. For little unexplainable things, restart.
- To restart, go to the Apple menu and choose “Restart….”
If for some reason you can't get to the Apple menu, try the Restart button that is on most Macs. It's a tiny little round button with a triangle on it.
On laptops, you can press the Power button for one second and you'll get a little message with a button to restart.
If you can't restart, then Shut Down. Either use the Apple menu command, if you can, or as a last resort hold down the Power button for five seconds.
Force quit an application or relaunch the Finder
Sometimes just one application has trouble. You can force quit any application and it doesn't affect any other application or the system. It's great. You can't force quit the Finder, but you can relaunch it, which only takes a minute.
- To force quit, hold down the Option key and press (don't click) on the application's icon in the Dock. A menu pops up with a choice to “Force Quit.”
- To relaunch the Finder, hold down the Option key and press (don't click) on the Finder icon in the Dock. A menu pops up with a choice to “Relaunch.”
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Delete the preference file
Another tip to troubleshoot an application that isn't acting right is to delete that application's preference file. This is perfectly safe—when the application opens up again, it will recreate a new preference file from scratch. You will lose any preferences you had personally changed in the application, but it can be worth it because this works pretty good to solve inexplicable annoyances.
- Quit the application.
- Open a Finder window and view it by columns, as shown below.
- Single-click your Home icon in the Sidebar.
- In the column that appears to the right, single-click the “Library” folder.
- In the next column to the right, single-click the “Preferences” folder.
- In the next column to the right, find the “.plist” file for the application that's giving you trouble. That is the preferences file.
- Drag the application's preference file to the Trash. Empty the Trash.
- Restart the application and hope it works better.
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Check the Network preferences
If you are having trouble with your Internet connection (that is, connecting to the Internet, not email issues), check your Network preferences. One particular feature to check is the “Network Port Configurations.” Also see pages 263–265.
Open the System Preferences: single-click its icon in the Dock.
- In the System Preferences pane, single-click the “Network” icon (it's in the third row).
- From the “Show” menu, choose “Network Port Configurations.”
- In the list of “Port Configurations,” make sure there are no checkmarks in connections you don't use.
- Also make sure that your primary connection is at the top of the list. If it isn't, just press-and-drag it up to the first position.
- If you've made changes, click the “Apply Now” button in the lower-right.
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If you can't get your dial-up connection going, check the settings for “Internal Modem.” Keep in mind that the account name and account password are not necessarily the same as your email name and email password! Call your provider and ask them to verify your account name and account password.
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If you keep getting disconnected from your dial-up connection, check the “PPP Options” (circled, above, shown below). Uncheck the box, “Disconnect if idle for ____ minutes.” Click the blue ok button, then click “Apply Now.”
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Check for software updates
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Make sure you are using the latest versions of all your software. For your Mac os software, use the Software Update preferences to see if everything is up to date (open it in the System Preferences, as described on the previous pages). |
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It's especially important to check for updated application software when you update your operating system, like when moving from any other os to Tiger.
Create another user and test
If you install new software and it just won't work, like it won't even open, create another user (see Lesson 9 for details). Install the software in the new user's Home and see if it works. If it doesn't work for the new user, the software itself has a problem—check with the package it came in or the vendor you bought it from to make sure it is the corrrect version for your operating system.
If the software does work for the other user, that indicates there is something in your system that is conflicting. Try throwing away the preferences, as explained on page 57. If it still doesn't work, you may need to contact the vendor to find out what sorts of cache files or other files may be conflicting with that particular software.
If you forgot your password
If you forgot the password you entered when you .rst set up your new Mac or installed your new system (called the Admin password), you'll have to use the original install cd to .x the problem. (I think someone told you that you should have written down your password.) If you have created more than one user for your Mac, you can use these steps to change the password of any user.
- Get the original CD. Put it in and double-click the “Install” button. Follow the directions to restart. No, you are not really going to re-install the entire system.
- All you need to do is wait until the install screen appears. Then go to the Utilities menu and choose “Reset Password….”
- Enter your new password—twice. And write it down where you can find it again. Click OK.
- Quit the installer from the Installer menu. Your Mac will restart.
If you did not enter a password when you first set up your Mac, then you can leave the password field empty and just hit the blue “OK” or “Continue” button and it will work just fine.
Report crashes
Most of the time when an application crashes, an alert box appears and asks if you want to send a report to Apple. Now, Apple is not going to write you back—this is just an anonymous report you send in so Apple can figure out if there are common issues among many users, enough to warrant looking into. It's good to go ahead and send in the report.
Learn More About Mac OS X
There are a number of ways to learn more about your Mac and how to use it, all available right from your Desktop. Keep these tips in mind as you spend time on your Mac—you will learn a lot from them.
Tool tips
Most applications and dialog boxes provide little tool tips that pop up when you “hover” your mouse over an item. They tell you what the items do. Just hold the mouse still over a button or icon for about three seconds and if there is a tool tip, it will appear, as shown in the examples below.
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Visual clues
Keep a constant eye out for the visual clues that the Mac is always providing. Every little visual extra you see means something! When the pointer turns into a double-headed arrow, that's a clue. When you see a little dot in a divider bar, that's a clue. When you see a triangle anywhere, that's a clue.
You are probably already aware of visual clues such as the underline beneath text on a web page to indicate a link, or the little colored dots in your word processor that indicate a word is misspelled. Here are a few others that will help you start noticing what your Mac is telling you.
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Sometimes our eyes glaze over because there is so much visual stimulation on the Mac screen. Just keep in mind that everything means something and slowly get to know the visual clues.
Below you see a typical title bar of a document. There are two visual clues in this title bar: the red button has a dark dot in it, and the tiny icon next to the title is gray. Both of these visual clues mean the same thing: this file has unsaved changes. Once you save the document, the dark dot goes away and the tiny icon is no longer gray.
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You might see a dot next to a document name in an application's Window menu—that's another visual clue that the document has not been saved recently. The checkmark indicates the active document, or the one that is in front of all the others and that you're currently working on.
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Everywhere on your Mac you will see buttons to save a document, not save, cancel a process, etc. One of these buttons is always blue. The blue is a visual clue that you can hit the Return or Enter key to activate that button instead of picking up the mouse to click on it.
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Help files
No matter where you are on the Mac or what application you are working in, you'll always find Help just a click away. At the Finder, go to the Help menu to look up tips and techniques on just about anything.
Every application has a Help menu, and it's always at the far end of the menu choices, as shown below. Choose the Help option for that particular application, type in a word or two that you want to look up, then hit Return.
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Support pages
The Apple web site has a huge number of support pages. Here you can find manuals that you can view on screen or download (copy) to your computer. There are discussion pages where users talk about different products and software packages on the Mac, ask questions, and answer questions. You can sign up for training at a local Apple store, read the product question-and-answer pages for hardware and software, and more. Go to www.mac.com/support.
.Mac Learning Center
If you are a .Mac member, take advantage of the .Mac Learning Center where you'll find dozens of tutorials and movies to help you learn more about all sorts of features of your computer. Log in to your .Mac account and then find the link called “Learning Center.”
To be a .Mac member costs $99.95 a year and includes lots of perks. Please see Lesson 11 for more details.
What You've Learned
- What all those items on the Desktop are.
- How to make sure you are at the Finder.
- What the Home folders are.
- How to use Finder windows.
- How to create new folders.
- How to add or delete folders from the Sidebar.
- How to change the views of windows and open items in those views.
- How to use all the little buttons in the Finder window Toolbar.
- How to select multiple items in a Finder window.
- How to use the Dock; how to add, delete, and rearrange items in the Dock; and what all the icons represent.
- How to throw items in the Trash and remove items from the Trash.
- What the various disk items are.
- Where on the hard disk the Home folders are located.
- What the icons on the Desktop indicate.
- What the Library folders are.
- How to use Mac OS 9 with Mac OS X.
- How to use contextual menus.
- How to work with keyboard shortcuts.
- What the modifier keys do.
- Why some commands in menus are black and some are gray.
- How to navigate the entire Desktop and Finder windows with the keyboard.
- How to navigate the Save As and Open dialog box with the keyboard.
- How to burn a CD or DVD.
- How to use simple troubleshooting techniques.
- When to restart and how to restart.
- How to force quit an application.
- How to delete a preference file.
- When and how to check the Network preferences.
- How to check for software updates.
- When to create another user to test software problems.
- What to do if you forgot your administrator password.
- How to report crashes to Apple.
- Where to learn more about Mac OS X.
- Where to find tool tips.
- How to recognize visual clues.
- How to access the Help files for Mac OS X and for applications.
- Where to find Apple's support pages.
- Where to find the .Mac Learning Center.
Keyboard Shortcuts
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Shift Command N |
Make a new folder |
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Command W |
Close the active window |
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Command Option W |
Close all open windows |
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Command M |
Minimize the active window |
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Command O |
Open the selected folder, document, or application |