Q & A for first time Mac Users

1. What do the 3 buttons do at the top of every Mac OS X window?

The 3 buttons shown in figure 1 are very similar to the 3 options in the every Windows explorer window. The red dot is to close a window, just like the red square with the X inside it will close a window. The amber button with the - in it is to minimize a window into the Dock just like a square with the - in Windows will minimize it into the taskbar. The green dot with the + will expand the window usually as far as it can just like it would do in Windows.

buttons
Figure 1


2. What is the dock?

The dock (figure 2) for the most part, acts like the task bar and start menu in Windows. It houses the apps that you go to all the time. So normally you'll have it full of the apps you use everyday like Word, Safari, IE, OS X Mail, iTunes, etc... You can also minimize your Finder and applications windows into it just like in Windows where you can minimize things into the taskbar. The dock is a very flexible part of OS X. Its basically the center of how you access your programs. You can place the dock either on the bottom, left or right side of the screen.

dock Figure 2

The trash can is located in the dock as well. This is where you delete your apps, documents, etc, and also where you eject CDs/DVDs, network drives, removable disks (Zip Disks, floppies, etc), and external drives (iPods). When you start to drag any of the items mentioned above the trash can turns into the eject symbol as shown in figure 3.

figure 4 Figure 3

From the dock you can do multiple things to a specific app or folder by right clicking on an item (control click for single click mice), such as:

•Force quit an app that is acting up on you.
•Remove that item from the dock
•See the contents of the folder
•Open the app or folder
•Choose to have that app open at login


3. What is Finder?

Finder is an internal OS application that is required to run in order for the OS (Operating System) to function properly. The Finder is similar to Explorer in Windows (not Internet Explorer) as its primary function is to aid in navigating around the OS. Finder also has many other features as well, such as the name implies, find things. It has find features built into the app itself. Finder is launched automatically when the OS is started and logged in. You can see the in's and out's of Finder by double clicking on your hard drive icon in the upper right of the screen (usually called Macintosh HD unless you've renamed it). When you launch it, you'll see a brushed metal window with a sidebar on the left hand side and the contents of the hard drive in the rest of the window. (see figure 4) You can add or take away items in the sidebar on the left, or you can hide the sidebar itself. Just drag the split between the 2 white spaces to the left and it will hide the sidebar. You can also make the sidebar view by icons only when dragging as well. Just drag the split to the left until only the sidebar icons are showing. The sidebar is auto scrolling, meaning that scroll bars won't appear until they need to. Also, the sidebar will auto size itself as you add or remove items to it. To add an item to the sidebar, just click, hold, and drag the item you want into the sidebar and it will show a line under the item that you've placed it, then release the mouse and the item should stay in the sidebar.

You can view icons in a finder window in 3 different views, list view (as shown below), icon view, or column view. You can change the view of Finder windows by clicking on the View menu when in Finder. When in column view, the columns are scalable, meaning you can change the width of the columns to fit your needs. Also, a small preview may be shown on the right hand side of a column depending on what you click on. When in the List View, you can sort the items

You can help set a label to anything in the right side of a Finder window. You can use the labels to help pick out things, or categorize things, etc... To set a label for an item in a Finder Window, click ONCE on the item to select it, then go to the File menu, and in that menu you'll see the labels. You have 7 colors to choose from.

finder_window
Figure 4

4. What are System Preferences?

System Preferences (see figure 5) are very similar to Control Panels in Windows, and Mac OS 9. This is where you adjust the settings of the OS to your likings. You can adjust the settings for things like Network, Sharing, Spotlight, Appearance, Energy Saver, Keyboard, Mice, Sound, etc... If you have users with limited access, they will only be able to adjust certain things if you give them permission to access System Preferences. You can also search for things that you're not sure of which category they fall under by using the search feature in the top right where you see the magnifying glass (see figure 5).

system_preferences
Figure 5

5. What are Applications?

Applications is just another name for programs, which is what Applications are called on the Windows side. Some examples of programs, are Safari, iChat, Microsoft Word, iTunes, etc... You can get to them using many methods. The easiest way is to just double click on your HD, then click on Applications either in the sidebar, or on the right hand side of the Finder Window. Anytime you install an App, it should go here. It may be in the folder who makes the application depending on how the creator of the App configured the installer. In Mac OS X, developers can use many ways to have the end user install an application. Some use the built-in Mac OS X Installer app to install their application, others use a 3rd party installer such as VISE, and others just make the app drag n drop to install. Mac OS X applications have a unique feature where almost everything needed to run the app is stored within the application itself. So all the little icons, pictures, etc are stored within the application which makes drag n drop installs possible. This is something that is extremely rare in the Windows world as most apps have registry entries, and rely on .dll files stored elsewhere.

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