The Icons
Icons are the little pictures you see all over the Mac. Below are some of the ones you'll bump into right away and where you can find more information about them. Sometimes you click once on an icon to activate it, sometimes you double-click on it, sometimes you press on it. For all the details about icons, see Chapter 7.
Window Toolbar icons
iDisk: If you use a telephone modem, do not click this button until you know what it does. For details, see Chapter 33.
Computer: Click this button to see all the disks in the Mac that your computer recognizes. See Chapter 9.
Home: Click this to go straight to your own, personal home folder. See Chapter 20.
Favorites: Click this to see all of the folders, documents, web sites, and other files you have designated as favorites. See Chapter 23.
Applications: Click this to go directly to the window that stores all of your Mac OS X applications. See Chapter 28.
Finder window icons
Hard disk icons: This is what a hard disk case inside your computer looks like. Think of this as a filing cabinet you look inside of it to find your files. See Chapter 9.
Network: A "network" is a system of wires and software that allows different people at different computers to share files and information. The Internet is a global network; you might also share files across the office. A click on this icon (in the "Computer" window) opens files that are available over a corporate network. (A click on this same icon in the Toolbar opens something completely different!)
Dock icons
Finder: When you click once on this icon, the main Finder window opens. All of the various files on your computer can be found in this window. Think of this as your office you look inside of it to find your filing cabinets (hard disk) and documents (files). See Chapter 9.
System Preferences: This opens up a "pane" with lots of little utilities that let you customize your Mac. See Chapter 21.
Trash: This is where you throw away files you don't ever want to see again. Just drag them into this basket. See Chapter 17.