HOME
TOPICS
SEARCH
ABOUT ME
MAIL
Close any window by pressing Cmd-W.
|
| technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983
T h e R o a d L e s s T r a v e l e d
Tips for new Mac OS X users, Part 1: Programs, folders, the dock and shortcuts
Jan. 11, 2006
By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2006, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2006, The Post-Standard
Whether you're a new Macintosh OS X user or an old hand at Apple's computers, I have something especially for you. For the next three weeks, I'll offer tips on some of the lesser-known ways your Macintosh works.
This week: Launching programs, creating folders and using keyboard shortcuts.
THE DOCK: If you're used to Windows, you know that Windows PCs have a taskbar at the bottom of the screen. It's blank until you run one or more programs, at which time it shows a label for each running program.
Apple thought that was dumb. Instead of a taskbar, OS X computers have a dock. It has icons for programs you can choose to run — ones that aren't yet running, in other words — and keeps those icons in place once those programs are running. (Apple calls programs "applications," but they're still programs.)
If you run a program that's not in the dock, you can keep its icon in the dock by clicking and holding the mouse button on the dock icon and choosing "Keep in Dock." If you don't want to have an icon in the dock, quit the program if it's running, then drag the icon out of the dock (drag it anywhere) and let go.
You can also drag any application (or program) to the left side or center of the dock or any folder to the right side of the dock. (These would be the top and bottom, respectively, if you have moved your dock to either side of the screen.) When you drag a folder to the right side, clicking and holding creates a popup menu. Drag your Applications folder to that side of the dock to create the OS X version of the Windows Start Menu.
NEW FOLDERS: Ctrl-Click (or right click) inside any folder or on the desktop and click "New Folder" to create an empty folder. While you are saving a file for the first time, click "New Folder" in the file-saving dialog box to create a folder in the location shown near the top of the dialog box or window. Click the location to navigate to any other place.
KEYBOARD: Close any window by pressing Cmd-W. (The "Command" key has an Apple on it.) Close any application by pressing Cmd-Q. Minimize a window with Cmd-M and hide an entire application with Cmd-H. (Minimized windows show up as icons at the right of the dock. Hidden applications can be opened by clicking their main dock icons. Applications continue to run while their windows are minimized or when they are hidden.)
RENAMING: Click once on an icon and press the Return key. Then type the new name and press Return again. (There's a mouse-based equivalent to this, but I don't recommend it because it's sometimes hard to do.)
Next: Hardware tips and tricks.
| |