Publishers of technology books, eBooks, and videos for creative people

Home > Articles

How to use the Dock

This chapter is from the book

This chapter is from the book

In this chapter

  • All those icons in the Dock
  • Display item names
  • The tiny black triangle
  • Resize the Dock
  • Remove an item from the Dock
  • Rearrange items in the Dock
  • Put an item in the Dock
  • Magnify the icons in the Dock
  • Reposition the Dock
  • When a Dock item jumps up and down
  • Also Try This
  • Remember

The Dock is that strip of icons across the bottom of your screen, and you'll find it to be one of your most important tools. In this chapter you'll experiment with using the Dock, adding icons to it and takings icons out, resizing it, and more.

All those icons in the Dock

Below is a description of each icon that is probably in your Dock when you first turn on a new Macintosh. Don't worry if you have slightly different icons! An asterisk (*) under a number, shown below, means that icon will try to automatically connect to the Internet when you click on it.

one_icon.gif Finder: Single-click the Finder icon when you need to open a window. If you did the exercises in Chapter 2, you are familiar with this icon and what it shows you (if you skipped those exercises, you might want to pop back to the previous chapter and run through them).

two_icon.gif Dashboard: Widgets provide quick information at your fingertips. See pages 183–186.

three_icon.gif Mail: This is an email application that you'll use to send and receive email (unless you use America Online, in which case you don't need Mail). If by chance you have more than one email acount (for instance, one for work and one for personal mail), Mail can check them all at the same time, and it can also send email messages from any of your accounts. See Chapter 11.

four_icon.gif Safari: This represents the software called a browser. It displays web pages, so this is what you'll use to surf the web (see Chapter 10). If someone tells you to “open your browser” or “open Safari,” this is what you'll click on.

five_icon.gif iChat: With iChat you can “talk” (type) to everyone else in the world who also has the type of account that lets them chat. This chatting is done “live,” which means you are both at your computer at the same time and responding to each other, as opposed to an email message that waits in your box for you to open it. You can even have group chats. If you have a video camera attached, you can have free video conferences around the world!

six_icon.gif Address Book: This is a little application in which you can collect and organize contact information such as names, addresses, phone and fax numbers, email, web addresses, birthdays, anniversaries, notes, and more. When you use the Mail program, you can get addresses from the Address Book and transfer them directly to an email message without having to type the address. See Chapter 11.

seven_icon.gif iTunes: With iTunes you can transfer songs from music CDs to your Mac so you can play them without having to have the CD inserted into the computer. You can burn CDs of your own collections; listen to radio stations over the Internet; and buy individual songs, entire CDs, and audio books right through the iTunes Music Store.

eight_icon.gif iPhoto: Organize your photos, clipart, drawings, illustrations, and other images in iPhoto. Separate them into “albums,” create slideshows with music, have Kodak prints of selected photos sent through the regular mail to you, and much more. Rotate photos, crop them, take out the red-eye, lighten or darken them, and more.

nine_icon.gif iMovie: If you have a digital video camera, you can make your own digital movies. It's much easier than you might think. My mother (who is in her 70s) is in the process of filming a comedy with her lady friends in the Napa wine country, called WSI: Wine Scene Investigation, about a wine crime in Yountville, California.

ten_icon.gif iDVD: Assemble photos and movies you have already edited into a format that can be burned to a DVD. Beautiful, professionally designed templates let you create DVD menus that provide instant access to a movie, any chapter or scene within a movie, or a slideshow.

eleven_icon.gif GarageBand: Create and compose music. You can record your own musical instruments or use the included music loops to compose an original song. Powerful editing and mixing tools can add professional effects or even change instruments to voices.

twelve_icon.gif iCal: Create and manage multiple, color-coded calendars of appointments, to-do lists, and important events. Set alarms for events. Automatically send and retrieve invitations for events, and, if you have a .Mac account, you can publish your iCal calendar on the Internet.

thirteen_icon.gif QuickTime: You won't really do anything with QuickTime, but movies will automatically open themselves in QuickTime and play.

fourteen_icon.gif System Preferences: The Mac lets you customize many of its features. For instance, you can change the picture on your Desktop, adjust your mouse, change the time zone, and more. See page 170.

Dividing line: Everything you see to the left of this dividing line is an icon representing an application, or program, that you use to do things with. On the right side, you can put your own folders, documents, web site addresses, and other things. And of course the Trash is on the right side.

fifteen_icon.gif Web site link: This particular link that is already in your Dock goes to Apple's web site. You can add your own favorite links.

sixteen_icon.gif Trash: Any file you don't want anymore you can just drag to the Trash. See Chapter 8.

To learn to use iChat, iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, GarageBand, and iCal, please see the book from Peachpit called Robin Williams Cool Mac Apps, second edition, by John Tollett with a little help from me. It has step-by-step directions for using these great applications.

Peachpit Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from Peachpit and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Overview


Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about Peachpit products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information


To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites; develop new products and services; conduct educational research; and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email ask@peachpit.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information


Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
  • Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
  • Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information


If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out


Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by Adobe Press. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.peachpit.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information


Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
  • With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
  • To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
  • In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
  • To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020