Mac Basics
Turning Power On/Off.
The best way to turn ON your Mac is to use the power button just above the number pad on the upper right of your keyboard. On the new flat screen iMacs, the power button is located in the left back side of the base. Just press it once to turn on your computer. On QuickSilver Macs, the power button is on the tower. The best way to turn OFF a Mac, is to go to the Apple menu (on the Apple menu bar) and select Shut Down. In the dialog box that appears, choose Shut Down.
After the Mac is on, across the top of the screen you should see the Main Menu, which consists of the "words" , File, Edit, View and Special. This main screen itself is sometimes called the desktop. At bottom right is a picture of a trashcan. These little pictures are called icons. At top right may be a rectangle or something like it with a name below it- this is the icon and name for the computer's hard disk drive, which is where the computer's long-term memory lies. Your main control for driving a Macintosh is the mouse. Just as you had to practice with the controls of a car before taking it out on the freeway, you will need to develop some basic mouse skills to get around on the Mac. The skills are: pointing, clicking, dragging, and selecting menu items.
POINTING: Hold the mouse lightly between your thumb and middle finger. Move it around a bit on the pad and see how it controls the arrow on the screen. If you accidentally get to the edge of the pad but want to move the arrow more in that direction, just pick up the mouse and place it anywhere else on the pad and keep rolling from there. Now (without pushing the mouse button) practice pointing by moving the arrow until it just touches each of the screen objects. Point to each corner of the screen in turn, in clockwise order and then in counter-clockwise order.
CLICKING: This is where you put the arrow on an icon or a menu item and push-and-release the mouse button (if it has two buttons, push the left one). Try clicking on the . Did you see a list appear and then disappear? That was the apple menu. If you want to look at it longer, point at the again and this time click-and-hold the button. When you let the button go, the menu disappears. Let the button go now, and point-and click on the trash can. It should change shading, which means it has been selected. Now click twice on the trash can as quickly as you can. This is called double-clicking. The empty box that opens on the screen is called a window (specifically, it is the trash window). Now close the trash window by pointing and single-clicking on the close box in its upper-left corner. So, in summary, there are at least three variations on clicking: click (point and push-and-release the mouse button once) click-and-hold (point and push-and-hold the mouse button) double-click (point and push-and-release the mouse button twice, quickly).
DRAGGING: Click-and-hold on the trash (don't double click), and while still holding the button, move the mouse on the mousepad. An outline of the trash can should move as if it is pasted to your arrow. Drag it clockwise to all four corners of the screen. Now drag it back to the lower right corner where it belongs.
SELECTING MENU ITEMS: Click-and hold on the . You'll see the apple menu, which is a list of mini-programs called desk accessories. Let's check the time: with the mouse button held down, move the arrow slowly downscreen from the . Notice each menu item goes to white-on-black when it is touched by the arrow. Make the Alarm Clock item change to white-on-black and then, without moving the mouse, let go the button. You have just selected that menu item; as a result, you should now have a small box somewhere on the screen showing you the time. Close this desk accessory now by clicking in its close box at left of the time shown. Now select another desk accessory from the menu: the Calculator. Make that menu item go to white-on-black and then carefully let the mouse button go. You should see a picture of a calculator on the screen. You can push buttons on this calculator by pointing to them and clicking. Try it: point and click on each of these in turn: 4, *, 8, =. The calculator register should show you the answer to 4 times 8: 32. The "C" button clears the calculator - try it now. You can also enter numbers on the calculator from the right keypad. Try that to divide 217 by 67.3. It's 3.224, right? Now click on the calculator's close box at the upper left corner to put it away. OS X Desktop and the Dock Most of what you do on your Mac begins on the Desktop. The Desktop allows you to manage files, store documents, launch programs, adjust the way your Mac works, and much more! The first icon you will probably notice on your Desktop is the hard drive icon (usually labeled as Macintosh HD, iMac HD, or something like that). The hard drive icon resides in the upper-right corner of your Desktop and by double-clicking upon it, you can view the files and applications on your hard drive.
At the bottom of the OS X Desktop, you will see a row of icons. These icons comprise the Dock. Single-clicking a dock icon allows you to either 1) Open applications, files, or folders; or 2) Bring an open application, file, or folder to the front of all others. Whenever you launch a program, Mac OS X puts its icon in the Dock Ð marked with a little black triangle. As soon as you quit the program, its icon disappears from the Dock unless you had placed the application in the Dock permanently. If you realize the application is one that you use a lot and would like to keep it in the Dock permanently, simply press and hold down your mouse on the Dock icon and select ÒKeep in DockÓ and an alias is made. Pressing and holding your mouse (or Control-Clicking) on a folder that resides in the Dock allows you to see the contents of an entire folder as well as other folders embedded within the folder. You can also put away files by dragging them directly into the DockÕs folder icons just as if it were a regular folder on the hard drive. By default, the Dock contains a number of commonly used Mac OS X applications. However, you can add your own preferences of applications, folder, and files to the Dock by simply dragging an application, file, or folder icon directly to the Dock. OS X automatically creates an alias in the Dock but keeps the application, file, or folder in its original location. To get rid of the alias, simply drag the alias from the Dock into the Trash (Note: The Trash icon also resides on the Dock). Disposing of the alias does not affect the original application, file, or folder. There are four buttons on the title bar of OS X v. 10.2 windows:
The red button on the left closes the window. If the window is a document, it closes the active document (and will prompt you to save if you have not already). This is not the same as quitting the application itself. To quit the OS X application itself, you will have to go to the menu with the application name and select Quit [application name], or press APPLE + Q on the keyboard. Leaving many applications open at once might lead to memory problems, so please remember to close out of applications properly when you are done. The yellow button minimizes the window and sends it down to the Dock. To bring the minimized window back up to the desktop, click once on the icon of the minimized window on the right side of the Dock. The green Zoom button expands or contracts the window size depending on its current and former position on the screen. The button in the upper right-hand corner now shows or hides the toolbar at the top of a window.
Macintosh Entry Skills
There are three fundamental and essential skills for using a Macintosh. These are the skills of using the mouse for pointing, clicking, and dragging. If you're already good at pointing, clicking and dragging, skip to this section.
Entry Skill #1: Pointing You need to be able to use the mouse to move the pointer to any object on the screen. The mouse is a small device that controls a pointer on the Mac screen. Figure 1-1 contains a pointer, can you find it? The pointer is a small shape on the screen that follows the movement of the mouse. The pointer may be an arrow, an I-bar, or some other shape. The pointer only moves when the mouse rolls on a surface. As you can tell, using the mouse to move the pointer requires some eye/hand coordination. Pointing will become automatic with practice. After a while, you won't even have to think about it, you'll just do it.
Entry Skill #2: Clicking You need to be able to click on any desired object on the screen. Notice that the mouse has a button on it. Clicking is quickly pressing and releasing the mouse button without moving the mouse. When you point to an object on the screen and press the mouse button, you're clicking that object. Clicking makes something happen. For example, icons are selected by clicking on them.
Entry Skill #3: Dragging You need to be able to drag any desired object from one screen location to another. Dragging is the procedure of moving an object on the screen from one location to another. To drag objects from one place to another: Point at the desired object. Press the mouse button and hold it down. Move the mouse while you watch the object move on the screen. Stop moving the mouse when you get it to the desired location. Release the mouse button. You must be able to perform the pointing, clicking, and dragging operations in order to use a Macintosh. If these skills are new to you, you'll need to develop them before you can make much progress with your computer. We've found that one of the best ways to learn and practice these skills is provided on the Macintosh Tour that comes with every Macintosh computer. You can also practice by dragging objects such as the trash can around on the screen. When you're an effective "pointer, clicker, and dragger," you're ready for your next set of skills. The fourth skill is double-clicking.
Entry Skill #4: Double-clicking You need to be able to double-click at any desired object on the screen. A double-click is two single clicks in quick succession. You quickly press and release the mouse button two times without moving the mouse. Double-clicking is a mouse technique used to perform a shortcut. For example, one way to open a folder is to click on it to select it, then choose Open from the File menu. A shortcut for opening a folder is to double-click on it. The fifth skill is called selecting. One of the nifty features of the Macintosh is its consistency. That is, every time you want to act on an object, you first have to identify that object for the computer. That way the Mac knows which object it's supposed to act on. The process of identifying the object is called selecting and it's done by simply clicking on the object. You can select many kinds of items including files and folders.
Entry Skill #5: Selecting You need to be able to select objects on the Macintosh screen. Selecting an object is a matter of putting the pointer on the desired object and clicking the mouse button. For example, to select Trash, put the pointer on the Trash icon and click. Notice that when you release the button the object is highlighted. Clicking on one icon at a time selects (highlights) that object. It also de-selects previously selected objects. To select more than one object at a time, you can hold down the Shift-key then click the mouse button on the other icons one at a time. There are two other Macintosh operations with which you need to be familiar. These three operations are very closely related. In fact, experienced Mac users perform them as one smooth and continuous operation. They are actually combinations of the three basic skills: pointing, clicking, and dragging.
Entry Skill #6: Pulling down menus You need to be able to pull down menus. Along the top of the Mac screen is the menu bar. Each item on the menu bar hides a set of commands. To see the commands, you simply point at the desired menu item, click your mouse, and hold it down. For example, to pull down the File menu, point at the word File on the menu bar, then click the mouse button and hold it down. This is different than Windows where you click on the menu. The menu appears and you read the choices for as long as you hold the mouse button down. When you release the mouse button, the menu disappears.
Entry Skill #7: Choosing menu items You need to be able to choose menu items from pull-down menus. Once you've pulled down a menu so you can see the commands, the next step is to choose one of those commands. Choosing one of the commands is a matter of dragging the pointer to the desired command, stopping, and then releasing the mouse button. The action that takes place then depends on what object was selected and the command you chose. For example, if a folder was selected, and you chose Open from the File menu, upon releasing the mouse button, the folder would zoom open to reveal the contents of the folder in a window.