Concluding the Tour


Now that you have seen the highlights of Mac OS X and have a basic understanding of what features do what, a few final notes are in order.

Put the Computer to Sleep

To put your Mac into a state of suspended animation, select the Sleep option from the Apple menu. The computer will appear to shut down, the fans and hard drive will spin down, and the display will go dark, but the power indicator light, which varies from model to model but which is usually purple, will pulse gently. This means that you can immediately wake the computer from sleep at any time by pressing a key or moving the mouse. The computer will immediately become usable again, without having to go through the entire boot cycle.

Because a Mac uses almost no power during sleep, it is the preferred means for turning the computer off for the night; Sleep mode is especially well suited to laptops, which automatically go to sleep when you close the lid. However, a sleeping Mac must still be connected to power; you can't unplug a sleeping iMac or remove an iBook's battery, or the computer will shut off entirely. (PowerBooks can remain running in sleep mode for a few minutes with the battery disconnected, allowing you to swap out an exhausted battery for a fresh one.)

NOTE

If your computer does not shut down cleanlyfor instance, if the power cord is pulled, there is a power outage , or a sleeping laptop runs out of battery powerit may take longer to boot the next time you switch it on. Mac OS X has to repair the fragmentation on the disk that is caused when the machine shuts down unexpectedly, and these repairs can take a minute or more.


Log Out

To end your computing session, select Log Out <Your Name > from the Apple menu. This will automatically quit all your running applications and return you to the Login window. If you use a Mac that is shared among several users, you will want to log out each time you're done using the computer. Logging out protects your documents and settings from being altered or even seen by any other users (to see your documents, another person must have your login password). It's always a good idea to log out if there's any chance of someone else using the computer or of the computer being lost. If someone steals your laptop, logging out protects your sensitive documents even from a thief 's prying eyes. To learn how to make your files even more secure, see 136 Secure Your Files with FileVault .

KEY TERM

Log out To end a login session. When you log out, you are returned to the Login window.


Shut Down

If you want to completely shut down your Mac, choose Shut Down from the Apple menu. As with the Log Out option, the Mac automatically quits any open applications and ends your session; however, it will then proceed to clean up the system and then methodically power down. There is no need to press any switchesthe computer will shut itself off completely. This is the safest method for deactivating your computer when you're done using it; it's safe to unplug the Mac or open it up to change the internal hardware after it has shut down. However, because shutting down and then restarting (a "warm boot") takes much longer than simply waking from sleep (which is almost instantaneous), it is usually not desirable to shut down completely unless you have a good reason to do so.

KEY TERM

Restart To shut down the entire system and immediately boot it again, as though you had turned off the power and switched it back on. This process is also known as a reboot or a warm boot (a cold boot is when you start the computer after it's been shut off completely), and is typically necessary only if something goes badly wrong with the operating systeman unlikely occurrence in Mac OS X.




MAC OS X Tiger in a Snap
Mac OS X Tiger in a Snap
ISBN: 0672327066
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2001
Pages: 212
Authors: Brian Tiemann

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