D.7. Alt key

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D.6. All Programs

There's no Programs menu built into Mac OS X, like the one on the Windows Start menu. If you'd like one, drag your Applications folder into the end of the Dock. Now its icon is a tidy pop-up menu of every program on your machine.

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D.7. Alt key

On the Mac, it's the Option key. You can substitute Option for Alt in any keystroke in most popular programs. The Option key has a number of secondary features on the Mac, too: It hides the windows of one program when you click into another, and so on.

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D.8. Automatic Update

The System Preferences Software Update panel does exactly the same thing.

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D.9. Backspace key

It's in the same place on the Macintosh keyboard, but it's called the Delete key.

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D.10. Battery Level

The status of the battery in your PowerBook or iBook laptop now appears in the menu bar, rather than in the system tray. (If you don't see it, open System Preferences Energy Saver and turn it on.)

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D.11. BIOS

You'll never have to update or even think about the ROM of your Macintosh (the approximate equivalent of the BIOS on the PC). It's permanent and unchanging. The very similar firmware of your Macintosh does occasionally have to be updated in order to work with a new version of the Mac operating system or some dramatic new feature ”once every four years , perhaps. You'll be notified on the screen when the time comes.

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D.12. Briefcase

Mac OS X doesn't have anything like the Briefcase, a Windows invention designed to help you keep your files in sync between a laptop and a desktop computer. On the other hand, if you sign up for a .Mac account (Chapter 19), you get a program called Backup that is similarly designed to keep folders synchronized between two machines. And you can use iSync (Chapter 19 also) to keep your calendar, addresses, and other items synched between multiple computers.

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D.13. Calculator

The calculator program in Mac OS X is almost identical to the one in Windows XP, except that it can also perform conversions (temperature, distance, currency, and so on) and features an editable "paper tape." It sits in your Applications folder and is described in Chapter 10. (There's a simpler Calculator in Dashboard, too; see the end of Chapter 5.)

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