Introduction to Mac OS X

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This is a introduction guide to help new users become familiar with the Mac OS X environment. So, lets begin:

Contents

The Mac OS X Desktop

http://calyou.cup.edu/mediawiki/images/mac_intro1.png
The first thing any user will see on a Mac workstation is the desktop.

The Mac desktop is made up of three distinct components:

These three compoents are the primary tools used to interact with a Mac Workstation. Now lets look at these tools in more depth.

The Menu Bar

The Menu Bar is a persistent border along the top of the Mac OS X Desktop that supplies both the menu options assosiated with your current application as well as a system menu, tray and clock. Lets take a look at each side of the Menu Bar.

  • Left-Hand Side

    • http://calyou.cup.edu/mediawiki/images/mac_intro2.png

    The left side of the Menu Bar contains familiar menus such as File, Edit and Help. These menus provide familiar options such as Save, Print and Cut/Copy/Paste. In addition to the generic menu items, there are specialized menu items that are unique to your current active application ("Finder" in the example). These menus allows you to Hide, Show, Quit, and Edit Preferences of the application you are currently using, as well as application specific operations. Lastly, there is also a small Apple Logo menu in the far left corner. This is the System Menu which is always visible and provides some operations such as Reset, Shutdown and Log Out.

    Notice that the left side of the Menu Bar changes depending on what application you are currently using and the same set of menus is not always visible.

  • Right-Hand Side

    • http://calyou.cup.edu/mediawiki/images/mac_intro5.png

    The right side of the Menu Bar contains several system areas that are always visible. These areas are as follows (from left to right):

    • System Tray - http://calyou.cup.edu/mediawiki/images/mac_intro5a.png

      • The System Tray is a section of the Menu Bar that is designated for background programs running on the workstation. In this example, you can see the anti-virus program, the adobe options program, and the sound volume program. This is where many background applications run so that they are still accessible to the user, but not cluttering up the desktop.

    • System Clock - http://calyou.cup.edu/mediawiki/images/mac_intro5b.png

      • This is simply the system clock formatted and displayed in the Menu Bar.

    • Desktop Search (Spotlight) - http://calyou.cup.edu/mediawiki/images/mac_intro5c.png

      • This is a very useful Desktop Search Application, called Spotlight, that will allow you to quickly search the entire contents of the workstation. The user can activate Spotlight by either clicking the icon in the Menu Bar, or by pressing the key combination (Apple Key)+(Space Bar). Spotlight is discussed in more depth in other articles.

That is a quick explanation of the Menu Bar. Lets move on to discussing the Dock.

The Dock

The Mac OS X Dock is an application launcher that sits at the bottom of the desktop.
http://calyou.cup.edu/mediawiki/images/mac_intro3.png

The Dock contains launchers for all of the specified "favorite" applications on the Mac. To start any of the apps on the Dock, simply click the launcher for the desired application. Applications that are currently running will be denoted by a small black triangle below the launcher (in Mac OS X 10.5 it has been changed to a small blue circle). To add an application to the dock, a user can drag an application from the "Applications" folder to the dock, or the user could hold the Control key and click on a running application launcher and select "Keep in Dock".

Also notice that trash can icon on the Dock, which is used to delete files. Simply drag and drop files to the trash, then hold the Control key and click and select "Empty Trash" to permanently delete files. The trash is also used to eject CD/DVD discs or external storage volumes.

Lastly, the Dock also serves as a place to hold "minimized" windows. If a user clicks the "minus" button in the top-left corner of any application window, it will be minimized to the Dock. This is simply a windowing option to help organize windows.

MAC OS X 10.5 ONLY:
In the new version of Mac OS X they added a new feature to the dock called "Stacks."
http://calyou.cup.edu/mediawiki/images/mac_intro6.png
Stacks allows you to drag a folder to that Dock and have to display the entire contents displayed at once.

That is essentially all the features of the Dock, now moving on to the "Finder," Mac OS X's File Manager.

The Finder

The Finder is Mac OS X's file manager application.
http://calyou.cup.edu/mediawiki/images/mac_intro4.png

Using the Finder, a user can navigate through all the files on the Mac's hard drive. The Finder is also directly integrated into the desktop, so clicking a desktop icon is the same as clicking an icon inside a Finder window.

When using the Finder to navigate the system, a user may notice several things. Along the top of a Finder window there are several buttons that allow for quickly moving Forward and Back as well as changing the view (Icon, List, and Column are the available views). The Finder also provides a Spotlight search box for searching the location currently in view.

Along the left side of the finder window is a collection of links that will navigate a user to frequently used folders in the Mac OS X system. These folders include:

  • Desktop Folder: Simply a folder that holds the contents of the Desktop.
  • Home Folder: This is a folder dedicated to the user account that is currently logged in. All of the users files are stored here.
  • Applications Folder: This is the folder in the Mac OS that contains all the installed applications. A user browse and run any and all local applications from this folder.
  • Other Various User Folders: The remaining folders listed are subdirectories of the Home folder. These are various place for storing various user-generated files.

A user can add more locations to the finder sidebar by dragging and dropping desired folders to the sidebar list.

That is a quick overview of the Finder, use it to handle all the files on the local workstation, as well as files on shared network drives. Now that everyone is familiar with the Mac OS X desktop, here is a list of commands for mouse and keyboard that will allow novice users to perform all of the basic operations.

Keyboard and Mouse Basics

Keyboard and mouse layout on Mac workstations is similar, but not identical to the standard PC configuration. Mac keyboards have a few unique keys: the Command Key (aka the Apple Key) and the Option Key (aka Alt Key). These keys are nothing more than extra modifer keys that perform special funtions when paired with other keys. Below are some basic keyboard shortcuts for use in Mac OS X.

NOTE: http://calyou.cup.edu/mediawiki/images/Apple_key.jpg = Command Key (aka the "Apple" Key)

Basic Keyboard Shortcuts

--- Keyboard Shortcut --- --- Function ---
Command + N New File (or Finder window)
Command + O Open File
Command + S Save File
Command + P Print File
Command + W Close Window
Command + Q Quit Application
Command + Space Bar Spotlight Search
Command + Z Undo
Command + X Cut
Command + C Copy
Command + V Paste
Command + A Select All
Shift + Command + A Open Applications Folder (Finder Specific)
Command + K Connect to Server
Shift + Command + 3 Take Screenshot
Shift + Command + 4 Take Targeted Screenshot

Mouse Basics

Apple mice are quite different from their PC counterparts, most obviously because they only have one mouse button. However, all of the same mouse operations can be performed with a one-buttoned or two-buttoned mouse. The table below elaborates on basic mouse functions.

--- Mouse Combo --- --- Function ---
Single Click Select Item
Double Click Open/Run Item
Control + Click Show Popup Dialog (same as Right Click)
Control + Mouse Wheel Up Zoom In
Control + Mouse Wheel Down Zoom Out

That concludes this brief introduction to Mac OS X.

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