When wemet the Findera few calendar week ago , you con that OS X offers a bill of fare measure , as well as menu to populate it . In one of the many instances of “ we ’ll discuss this at a late prison term , ” I name that we would soon dive into the works of OS X ’s menus . That time has get in . Let ’s get started with the content of Finder carte du jour .
Apple menu
As I trust you recall , that apple symbolization at the far left hand of the menu bar is not merely a decoration . It ’s a truthful - blue computer menu maneuver . It contains commands for taking all-encompassing action on your Mac . Specifically , it admit :
About This Mac : Select this command if you ever necessitate to get it on the Mac operating system version you ’re running ( as I save this , the most recent is 10.8.2 ) , the character ofprocessor(the figurer chip that ’s essentially the brains of your computer ) , how much memory is installed , or the name of the Mac ’s inauguration disc .
Andwhywould you need to cognise such things ? If you ever have a problem with either your Mac or an software prevail on it and you find yourself on the phone with a technical support voice , that person may very well call for you for this information . Now you recognise how to find it . To dismiss this window , just select the red release in the top left-hand corner .
Software Update : In early versions of the Mac O , choose Software Update launched a Software Update software . Under Mountain Lion this command now hire you to the Mac App Store — Apple ’s on-line software system emporium . ( Your Mac must be link to the net for this instruction to operate . ) We ’ll verbalize about the Mac App Store in an upcoming column . For now , you just need to know that when the Mac App Store launches , you ’ll be need to the Updates area . If you have any applications on your Mac that can be update with newer versions or if there are updates to the Mac OS itself , you ’ll rule them here . To actually download and add the updates , you could either set up them in one go by clickingInstall All Updatesor you could cherry - cull the ones you desire by sink in theInstallbutton next to private update .
App Store : Wait , did n’t we just chit-chat the Mac App Store with the Software Update statement ? We did . The difference here is that when you chooseApp Store , you’re get to the storage ’s homepage , where you may see democratic and recommended applications .
organization Preferences : It ’s within the System Preferences software program that you configure most of the preferences used by your Mac . If you have an iOS twist such as an iPhone , iPod touch , or iPad , you’re able to remember of System Preferences as the Mac ’s options screen . If you ’re come from a Windows information processing system , this is similar to Windows ’ Control Panels . organization Preferences is a big subject and one we ’ll look at over the course of study of a few next columns .
Dock : Dock is the first hierarchal control that we ’ve find . To its right field you see a right - pointing trilateral , indicating that there ’s another computer menu ( orsubmenu ) available for this command . In this case , those other commands are ‘ turn over Hiding On ’ , ‘ plough Magnification On ’ , ‘ Position on Left ’ , ‘ positioning on Bottom ’ , ‘ side on Right ’ , and ‘ Dock Preferences ’ . When you choose aTurn X Oncommand , it alter to ‘ TurnXOff ’ so that you’re able to put thing back the way they were . Rather than have me explicate what all these commands do , feel free to select them and see what happens . If you ’re unhappy with the results , I ’ll remind you of the nonremittal options : Dock concealment is off , as is magnification ; and the Dock is positioned at the bottom of the Mac ’s screen .
If you chooseDock Preferences , you’ll be taken to the Dock organization taste . To leave , just clack the red button in the top left corner of the System Preferences windowpane .
Recent Items : Your Mac keeps cartroad of the fistful of applications , document , andservers(other calculator that are web with yours ) you ’ve most late used . If you ca n’t locate a file you were using an hour or two ago , check this menu and see if the document ’s name appear in the cascading menu .
Force Quit : If an software you ’re running becomes unresponsive — entail you tap buttons and dictation and nothing happens or you see a rotating , rainbow - tinge beachball icon that never disappears — that software is belike frozen and ca n’t be drop out by normal means . If , however , you chooseForce Quit , you do exactly that — force the program to quit .
When you invoke this control , you ’ll see a Force Quit Applications window that lists all presently escape applications . Any applications whose name appear in red ( and is unremarkably follow by the wordsNot Responding ) are lock up and call for to be military group quit . To do that , just tap the problem software and click theForce Quitbutton at the bottom of the window .
The elision is the Finder . You ca n’t personnel fall by the wayside it , as your Mac needs it to be persist to carry out sure chores . So when you selectFinderin this windowpane , the button changes to Relaunch . penetrate that button , and the Finder will quit and take off up again . Any menus and open windows will briefly disappear . Other practical program will continue to work as they should .
The Force Quit keyboard cutoff is a in effect one to know just in case the Finder gets so mucked up that you ca n’t get to the Apple menu . The command is Command - Option - Esc . ( See the recent ” Mac 101 : Your input equipment ” if you ’re not certain where these keys are located . )
catch some Z’s : you could put your Mac into a power - saving state by choose theSleepcommand . While sleep , most Macs wo n’t do anything ( in a future column I ’ll talk about some more late models that can do things while sleeping when you apply something call the Power Nap feature ) . The vantage of using Sleep rather than exclude down your Mac is that it comes back to life much more quickly when you next require to practice it . To arouse up a sleeping Mac , push any keyboard key .
Restart : Although you could leave a Mac go for week on destruction , there may be times when you want to re-start it . If it seems to be run more lento than common , for example , re-start it can assist . And some program and updates require that you restart after installing them ( though most will offer a Restart command of their own ) .
When you reboot your Mac , it briefly powers down and then starts up again . Depending on how your Mac is configure , you may next be direct to the Login filmdom or the Mac could move directly to the Finder for your user account . By nonpayment , under Mountain Lion , any practical software and window you had open when you chose the Restart bid will open again once the Mac is up and run .
closure : To turn off your Mac you choose this program line rather than pull the tycoon plug or press and hold on the Mac ’s power button to straight off close down your Mac . You do this because , as with the Restart command , it allows your Mac to gracefully give up all its open diligence . If you suddenly deprive your Mac of baron , it ’s potential that you could foreclose it from save a file you ’re work on or , worse , tainted data point or put your Mac into a country where it ca n’t be easily restarted .
lumber out : In our inaugural outing—”Mac 101 : Getting set up“—I explain that OS X was designed as amultiuser operating system . In plain English , that mean that many multitude can use the same Mac but figure out in their own fiddling space that ’s dedicated altogether to their stuff . Think of this as a building with different rooms , each decorated as the occupant likes .
Each person using the Mac place up a user bill — mine might be call Chris , while my wife ’s would be Zelda ( if , indeed , that was her name ) . When I ’m land up working in my user history , I can leave it ( orlog outof it ) , make the Mac usable to other the great unwashed and their business relationship . To do all this , I prefer theLog Outcommand . When I do , the Mac again gracefully quits all running play applications , but instead of restart or shutting down , it takes me to the Login screen . Here you find listed any exploiter accounts that have been localize up on the Mac . To use one , just tap its icon and then go into the countersign associated with that account .
Application menu
The menu next to the Apple carte is generically called the “ software menu”—because this computer menu bears the name of the applications programme you ’re currently running . So , if you ’re currently using iTunes , this menu will be namediTunes . If you ’re working with photos , there ’s a right chance you ’re using iPhoto and thereforeiPhotoappears in this perspective . For the time being , we ’ll calculate at what appear here when you ’re in the Finder .
About Finder : Any covering you ’re running should have an About command in the first position . Like the About This Mac window , this command gives you details about the practical software ’s variation number , which , can be helpful when you ’re speaking with tech reenforcement .
Preferences : This is another program line that you ’re likely to see in most applications . When you want to configure some of an software ’s configurations — how windows appear or the way fussy options oeuvre , for good example — you select this mastery . ( Another keyboard command worth memorizing is Command - comma , which call down many applications ’ Preferences command . ) In the Finder this command grow the Finder Preferences window , which we ’ll see at sometime in the futurity .
Empty Trash : If you have something in the Trash , this program line will be black . ( If the Trash is empty , the dictation will be in grey , suggest that you ca n’t use it . ) To rightfully erase the contents of the Trash ( though there ’s a caution to this — see “ Secure Empty Trash ” below ) , chooseEmpty Trashand , in the resulting window , affirm that you want to do this by fall into place theEmpty Trashbutton .
assure Empty Trash : hold off a Securities and Exchange Commission , did n’t we just empty the Trash ? Well , yes . However , when you empty the trash you do n’t really vaporize the files that were in the Trash . Rather this command tells the Mac , “ I ’m going to withdraw any reference to these detail but they ’re still on the hard parkway . If you postulate some space to create unexampled file or save something somewhere , palpate free to overwrite these file at your leisure time . ”
That means that with the right tools , you could recover the filing cabinet even though you ’ve “ trash ” them . What Secure Empty Trash does is overwrite the area of the hard drive where these files were stored with nonsense data , cook them pretty darned unrecoverable ( an expert with very advanced tools might still be able to recuperate share of the data , but unless you ’re an International Man of Mystery , do n’t sudate it ) .
Services : Services are piddling chores that your Mac can carry out . For example , you could send a bit of selected text to Twitter or look up a selected word in the Dictionary software .
What appear in this menu depends on which software you ’re using and what ’s select in that lotion . For example , if you launch Apple ’s dewy-eyed text editor app , TextEdit , and selectServicesfrom the TextEdit card , you ’ll see just a couple of commands . However , type some textual matter and then choose that school text , and you ’ll see several more options — Make New Sticky Note , Search With Google , and New Email With Selection , for example .
service are widely ignored by even experience Mac users . Do n’t make that same mistake . You ’ll find out right commands under the Services bidding . search it as you work with dissimilar app , and you ’ll belike find some utile commands .
conceal Finder : This is another command you ’ll always witness in app menu . take ‘ Hidenameofapplication’,and that app and its window will disappear . The diligence is still running — you’ve just go it out of the way so you may see other applications and their window . To make that program reappear , just select its ikon in the Dock .
hide out Others : This works in a similar way . The difference is that when you choose Hide Others , everything but the app program you ’re currently working with disappears , again giving you a little visual respiration room .
Show All : When you want to see all the window within any open applications on your Mac , chooseShow All .
drop out : Because you ca n’t quit the Finder ( again , because the Mac O needs it to be running at all clock time ) , you wo n’t find a Quit Finder command in the Finder menu . You will , however , find a Quit command in nearly every other app program ’s app menu . When you want to conclude down the practical app that ’s front and center on your Mac , evoke this command ( or , easily yet , press the Command - Q keyboard cutoff ) .
And more
The Mac has a raft of menus and commands , and I do n’t desire to deluge you with an everlasting article on their intricate behaviors . Let ’s give you a week to absorb what you ’ve learned so far . Next week , we ’ll move further along the fare barroom .
Next week : diving event into menus , part 2 .
