Section 2.2. The Elements of the Mac OS X Desktop

2.2. The Elements of the Mac OS X Desktop

Most of the objects on your screen should seem familiar. They are, in fact, cousins of elements you already know from Windows . Here's a quick tour (see Figure 2-2).

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Note: If your desktop looks absolutely nothing like thisno menus , no icons, almost nothing on the Dockthen somebody in charge of your Mac has turned on Simple Finder mode for you. Details on Section 12.2.

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2.2.1. Disk Icons

In the Mac world, the icons of your hard drive and any other disks attached to your Mac generally appear on your desktop for quick access.

Figure 2-1. Left: On Macs that have been configured to accommodate different people at different times, one of the first things you see upon turning on the computer is this dialog box. Click your name . (If the list is long, you may have to scroll to find your nameor just type the first couple of letters of it.)
Right: Then type in your password and then click Log In (or press Return or Enter). If you've typed the wrong password, the entire dialog box vibrates, in effect shaking its little head, suggesting that you mistyped your password.

2.2.2. The Dock

This ribbon of translucent, almost photographic icons is a launcher for programs, files, folders, and disks you use often.

In principle, the Dock is very simple:

• Programs go on the left side. Everything else goes on the right, including documents, folders, disks, and minimized windows. (Figure 2-2 shows the dividing line.)

• You can add a new icon to the Dock by dragging it there. Rearrange Dock icons by dragging them like tiles on a puzzle. Remove a Dock icon by dragging it away from the Dock, and enjoy the animated puff of smoke that appears when you release the mouse button. (You can't remove the icon of a program that's currently open , however.)

• Click something once to open it. A tiny triangle underneath a program's icon lets you know that it's open.

• Each Dock icon sprouts a pop-up menu, similar to a shortcut menu. A folder can show you a list of what's inside, for example, while a program's pop-up menu gives you options to quit, hide the program, and so on. To see the menu, hold the mouse button down on a Dock icon, or Control-click it, or (if you have a two-button mouse) right-click it.

Figure 2-2. The Mac OS X landscape looks like a futuristic version of a Windows desktop. This is just a starting point, however. You can dress it up with a different background picture, adjust your windows in a million ways, and fill the Dock with only the programs, disks, folders, and files you care about.

You can change the Dock's size , move it to the sides of your screen, or hide it entirely. Chapter 3 contains complete instructions for using and understanding the Dock.

2.2.3. The Menu

The menu at the top left of the screen houses important Mac-wide commands like Sleep, Restart, and Shut Down. In a sense, it's like the Start menu on a diet: It lists recent programs, system-wide functions, and includes a quick way to jump to System Preferences.

2.2.4. The Menu Bar

The first menu in every program, in boldface, tells you at a glance what program you're in. The commands in this Application menu include About (which tells you what version of the program you're using), Preferences, Quit, and others like Hide Others and Show All (which help you control window clutter, as described on Section 4.2).

The File and Edit menus come next , exactly as in Windows. The last menu is almost always Help. It opens a miniature Web browser that lets you search the online Mac Help files for explanatory text.