Customizing Mac OS X

After you figure out where the key components are, you'll want to customize Mac OS X to your liking. You do so primarily through the System Preferences control panels. The set of System Preferences control panels is available through both the Dock and the Apple menu. Figure E-11 shows the System Preferences window and the standard control panels. (At bottom are user -installed control panels for specific devices they may have installed.)

Figure E-11: The System Preferences control panels.

Tip ‚  

You can't close a control panel after you've opened it. Instead, you either close the System Preferences window or click Show All or one of the control panel group icons at the top of the window. Doing so essentially closes the control panel and saves any changes. Note that there is no option to leave a control panel without canceling any settings changed ‚ you'll have to reopen the control panel and change back any undesired or mistaken changes yourself.

You should explore all the control panels. What follows is my advice for initial setup.

Classic

Use the Classic control panel to determine whether Mac OS 9 launches automatically when you start Mac OS X or only when you first launch a Mac OS 9 application. It's usually best to have Mac OS 9 launch only when a Mac OS 9 application is launched, so you're not reserving all that memory for Mac OS 9 until you need it.

You can change which Mac OS 9 System Folder Mac OS X uses ‚ but be careful. If you kept your original Mac OS 9 System Folder, Mac OS X created a new, separate System Folder for it to run Mac OS 9 from, because there are some added files it needs to do so. If you run an older copy of Mac OS 9 (it must be at least version 9.2), Mac OS X will copy those needed files to that older version, but then you may have trouble if you later decide to start up in your old Mac OS 9. The downside to using the Mac OS X's Mac OS 9 files rather than your original ones is that all your preferences, fonts, and so forth won't be in the Mac OS 9 System Folder that Mac OS X created. I recommend that if you decide to have Mac OS X use your old Mac OS 9 System Folder, you first make a copy as a backup.

Dock

The Dock is pretty big by default, so you'll want to make it smaller. You can do that in the Dock control panel, or you can drag the vertical line in the Dock itself, which appears to the left of the Mac OS X Web site icon at the Dock's right side ‚ up increases the Dock size and down decreases it. I also recommend you set the Dock to auto-hide, so it disappears entirely unless you move your mouse to the bottom of the screen, and that you set up magnification, which makes individual Dock icons grow in size as the mouse passes over them. This way you can have a small dock height but still be able to see icons and minimized windows clearly.

Login Items

The Login Items control panel lets you select (and deselect) which programs start up when you launch Mac OS X. Click the Add button to select applications, and the Remove button to remove them. You can also hide startup items so they aren't visible on-screen (they will be in the Dock).

My Account and Accounts

The My Account control panel is where you set your password, while Accounts is where the system administrator (main user) sets up accounts for other users, including those who may connect over the network for file sharing.

Network and Sharing

The Network control panel sets up the network connections to the Internet. Typically, you'll have DHCP as the connection mechanism for the Internet, but in some circumstances, your network may be set up differently and so you'll want to change these settings. The Sharing control panel sets what kinds of connections others can make to your Mac and what kind of security is enabled. Be sure to enable firewall protection if you're working on an unsecured network, as with many locations that use cable modems and DSL lines to connect to the Internet.

Figure E-12 shows a customized Mac OS X environment.

Figure E-12: A customized Mac OS X environment.