In the lastMac 101column , you finished configuring your new Mac . At long last , it ’s up and it ’s run OS X Mountain Lion — you’ve arrived ! But where precisely are you ? And what ’s all that stuff on the screen ?
Your Mac is running an software ( also known as aprogramor anapp ) called Finder . More often than not , you ’ll hear it bring up to astheFinder . Given its name , is it a instrument for searching your Mac ?
Not on the nose . Way back when the Mac was first born , Apple used a background metaphor to aid people imagine the mode their file cabinet were organized . You could conceive of the Finder as your desk . Inside that desk were folders that keep back other folders or files . So , by open up a series of nested folders , you ’d eventually locate the file ( ordocument ) you were concerned in working with . So , in this way , the Finder earned its name : It was the starting period for finding your files .
But , as things have progressed , fewer Mac users think of it that way . There are far more efficient mean value for locating data file than digging down through a hatful of snuggle folders . And , with the last yoke of iterations of the Mac O , Apple is deemphasizing the notion of folder hierarchies anyway . ( But that ’s a topic for another tower . ) For the clip being , just think of the Finder as the berth you start when you first boot up your Mac . Now let ’s take a flavour around .
The menu bar
Starting at the top of the windowpane , you bump the computer menu ginmill . Yep , another metaphor . Rather than squeeze you to retrieve a bunch of arcane computer commands ( as was the case in prehistorical times ) , Apple organizes common command in a series of menus . get through on a computer menu heading — Edit , for instance — and you see the related choice in a fare below . Select one of those statement , and it executes . So , for representative , fall into place on a data file , opt theDuplicatecommand from theFilemenu , and the Mac creates another copy of the file . I ’ll hash out menus and their functions in a succeeding column . For now , we ’re just taking a look around .
In the menu bar you see a number of items . start from the left , there ’s the Apple icon . This is actually a menu . Unlike the menus to its immediate right , this one is represented by an icon rather than a word . Then come the Finder computer menu . This menu is know generically as theapplication card , meaning that it contains command specific to the covering you ’re currently work with . If you are presently using iTunes , for exemplar , you ’ll see an iTunes menu in this same position — just to the rightfulness of the Apple fare — and in that menu you ’ll find commands that practice to the iTunes lotion .
And then there are the even menus — File , Edit , View , Go , Window , and Help . All of these menu claim ( except Go ) are commonly found in other applications . And that ’s one of the beauty of the Mac OS . Thanks to thing like common computer menu names and commands , you ’ll have a certain sense of familiarity regardless of which software you ’re using . If you require to copy something , for example , that command will always be find in the Edit card . If you need assistance in just about any program , that ’s incisively what the avail bill of fare is for .
affect to the right in the menu streak you see a series of icons that also stand for menus . These menus often allow you to speedily switch one of the Mac ’s setting , save you a trip to the Mac ’s System Preferences program . The figure below includes the default place of image feel on a 2012 MacBook Air . Your menu bar ikon may be different because some functions may not be supported on your Mac . I ’ll excuse in greater detail what the routine represented by these icons do in a future column . For now , here ’s the brusque and mellisonant description , starting from the left :
AirPlaySome Mac models can project their sound and TV over a internet connexion to an Apple TV . ( Again , do n’t worry about it now — I’ll explicate it in a late column . ) This bill of fare tolerate you to select the gadget to which you desire to send the Mac ’s audio and video recording . You wo n’t find the AirPlay menu on any but the most late Mac simulation .
Time MachineComputers clangor , and when they do , you’re able to occasionally miss your files . For this reason , it ’s a practiced idea to back up your files . OS X includes a feature film called Time Machine that allows you to easily do this . I ’ll explain Time Machine in a succeeding chromatography column . For now , just do it that you may invoke some of Time Machine ’s most uncouth dictation from this card .
BluetoothYour Mac can institutionalize and receive data wirelessly in a couple of ways . Bluetooth — which is commonly used for communicating between wireless keyboards , mice , trackpads , earpiece , and speakers — is one of those ways .
AirPortApple calls its radiocommunication ( Wi - Fi ) web schemeAirPort . You use this carte to prefer a wireless web to connect to , as well as to sprain your computer ’s AirPort connection on or off . A ignominious fan bespeak that you ’re plug in to a Wi - Fi meshing . A gray sports fan means you ’re not . The few number of black bar in the fan , the less rich your connective to the net .
SoundClick on the Sound icon and you may adjust your Mac ’s volume up or down by align the slider .
BatteryFound on laptops only , the battery picture tells you if your bombardment is being charged ( a lightning bolt icon within the electric battery secern you that it is , and a ballyhoo icon means that it ’s fully bill and plug into an active power outlet ) and , if it ’s not stop up into a power wall plug , approximately how much battery power is left . dawn on this icon to get a more accurate battery status .
Clarence Day and timeNeed to check out the fourth dimension ? Glance up at this item . By default option you ’ll see both the 24-hour interval and time . If you ’d care to know the date , press the time and the date will appear in the ensue fare .
SpotlightI mentioned in the beginning that there are far promiscuous ways to find files than dig down through a booklet hierarchy . glare is one of them . tick on the magnifying - chicken feed image and you’re able to enter the name — or a fortune of the name — of an point you ’d like to find . A list of resultant will come along . get across on the one you want , and that detail opens . If you ’ve chosen a file , it will open in the software program associated with it . If it ’s an program , that program will establish . Spotlight can be used for many more thing , and , as you ’ve plausibly guess , I ’ll devote a pillar to it in the not - too - distant future .
NotificationsWith Mountain Lion , Apple has corralled many of the alerts you get into a single location . come home on the Notifications menu , and you ’ll see a list of presentment that you ’ve received . These can include thing like instant - message and calendar alerts , receive Mail substance , chirrup message that note you , and Game Center invitation .
The desktop
That Brobdingnagian empty area in the middle of the Mac ’s display is known as the desktop . Like a real desk ’s top , you ’re welcome to place point on this screen background , though Apple encourages you to put your files in more appropriate places — your pictures in a Pictures pamphlet and documents in a Documents folder , for example , or on Apple ’s online syncing and storage military service , iCloud .
As you ’re just start out , I ’ll plant this come : Place files where they go rather than dumping them on the background . ( And yes , we ’ll verbalize about Indian file direction eventually . ) Not only is it unmanageable to get hold files when there are one C scattered across your screen , but overloading the desktop with sure kinds of files can actually slow down down your Mac .
The Dock
By default , at the bottom of the Mac ’s display you see a recollective bar inhabit with a collection of picture . This is the Dock . By nonpayment the Dock holds these software : Finder , Launchpad , Mission Control , Safari , Mail , Contacts , Calendar , Reminders , Notes , Messages , FaceTime , Photo Booth , iPhoto , iTunes , App Store , and System Preferences .
The Dock serves a couple of intention . The first is that it acts as a path to quickly plunge commonly used covering . Just cluck on an software and it either depart up ( if it is n’t already running ) , or the Mac switches to it ( if it is ) . An applications programme that is run ( also bang as anactiveapplication ) will display a lightheaded glow below the Dock ’s app icon .
The majority of the Dock is taken up with app . If you look nearly , you ’ll see a faint argumentation near the ripe side of the Dock . The area to the left hand of that railway line is reserved for applications .
you may both add together and take applications from this area . To remove an app , just bear down the Option Florida key on your keyboard ( it ’s two keys to the left or to the right field of the spacebar ) and drag the diligence out of the Dock . Its icon will go away in a puff of virtual smoking . Do n’t worry , if you do this you have n’t erase the program from your Mac . Rather , you ’ve just dispatch from the Dock the picture that represents that program . fundamentally you ’ve get rid of the shortcut to the lotion , but the program still exists in the Mac ’s Applications folder .
When you found an software that is n’t in the Dock , its picture will also appear in the Dock and have that swoon glow beneath it indicating that it ’s run . When you quit that lotion , it will disappear from the Dock .
If you ’d like to add that or another diligence to the Dock in a more permanent way , just select it ( from the Applications booklet , for example ) and drag it into this applications area . Its icon will come along where you place it and other icons will shift out of the way .
The Dock can also alert you to things that require your care . For example , if iTunes ca n’t find a track you ’ve asked it to spiel and iTunes is n’t the software you ’re currently exploit with , the iTunes ikon may bounce up and down in the Dock so that you ’ll switch to it to learn about the problem it ’s having . to boot , some applications will showbadges — violent indicators planted on the lotion ’s ikon . Mail , for instance , will exhibit a badge indicating the number of substance it ’s received that you have n’t yet read .
And you may get at some options for fighting app by clicking and agree on an app ’s picture . For representative , if iTunes is running , you could select its Dock ikon and rate the presently toy song , pause playback , toy the next or previous tracks , or scuffle songs . When Mail is active , you could ask it to retrieve new messages or you could opt to indite a new message .
To the rightfulness of the Dock ’s vague line are , by default , two item . The first one — though it does n’t look like it — represent a folder . Specifically , it ’s a crosscut to the Downloads folder . When you download a file via Apple ’s Safari Web web browser , that file seem within this folder . press it in the Dock , and you see the folder ’s contents .
These Dock folders can be puzzling . By default , when such a pamphlet contains just a few items and you tap it , the items pop - out in a fan list with the most recent items appear at the top . When that folder has more than a few items in it and you select it , those items appear in a power grid . In a future column I ’ll discuss customizing the Finder and lecture about ways to make these folders show item in a more uniform way . For now , just realise that you may see item display in either a Fan or a Grid view . To launch a file in one of these views , just tap it .
in conclusion , at the correct edge of the Dock is the Trash . When you require to delete something from your Mac , just click , hold , and drag it to the trash - can picture . If the Trash contains no files , it will change from a scum - empty icon to a hooey - in - the - chicken feed ikon and you ’ll hear a dumped - something - in - the - folderol sound outcome . Like a real trash can , this one is n’t really empty until you do something to toss out the point in it . Rather it ’s a hold area for item that you eventually intend to throw out for trade good and all . Toreallydelete your files , select the Finder menu and choose Empty Trash . A window will seem asking if you ’re really sure you want to empty the Trash . Click the Empty Trash button to do exactly that . Otherwise , click Cancel and the items in the Trash will remain right where they are .
Once you ’ve empty the Trash , the items that were in it are , for all intents and design , gone . ( There are some utilities that can think them , but until you ’re a piffling more up to speed on the atomic number 49 and out of the Mac , just assume they ’re gone . ) However , you’re able to retrieve point if the Trash has n’t yet been emptied . To do that , just dawn on the trash - can image . A window will open that usher you the table of contents of the Trash . Drag the items you want to retrieve out of the folderol to the desktop . you could now file them away .
This area to the right of the line is n’t intended only for the Downloads folder and Trash . If the area to the left hand of the line is for software , this arena is for everythingbutapplications . If you have a brochure you get at routinely ( the Applications folder , for illustration ) , you’re able to draw it in here , and an icon stage it will appear . If you ’ve minimized a window by press its yellow button ( something we ’ll get to , I assure ) , it will appear in this area . If you have a file cabinet that you use over and over again — a text Indian file that holds your personal diary , say — you could drop it in here as well .
There ’s far more that you could do in the Finder — and we ’ll get to those thing over time — but you ’re now familiar with its major elements .
Next clock time : We look at windows — no , notMicrosoft Windows . Rather , how windows work in OS X.
