How to Do Everything with Mac OS X Panther

When you first start up your Mac, the Finder displays, showing four items (see Figure 4-1):

Figure 4-1: The Finder, showing the menu bar, the Dock, the Desktop, and a Finder window

At the top of the screen is the menu bar; attached to the top of the screen, and visible at all times, it contains menus and commands for the Finder, and these menus change when you switch to another application—each application has its own set of menus (though they all share the Apple menu, which I explain later in this chapter). The menu bar also contains menu extras, icons or text displays that give you information or provide access to certain functions. In Figure 4-1, you can see two menu extras: the clock, showing the day of the week and the time, and the user menu, showing the current user. The user menu, which displays if you turn on Fast User Switching (see Chapter 8) lets you choose a different user and open a new session for them.

At the bottom of the screen is the Dock, a combination launcher, application switcher, and control center that you use to work with applications and windows.

The background of the screen is called the Desktop. You’re probably familiar with how this works if you already use a computer. (If you’re new to computers, don’t fret; I’ll explain it in the next section.)

Finally, you can see a Finder window open above the desktop. You learn everything about working with Finder windows in Chapter 6.

Work with the Mac Desktop

The Mac Desktop—the actual background seen in Figure 4-1—is part of the Finder, but it’s also a folder you can use to store files. You can see the Desktop icon folder in the Finder window displayed in Figure 4-1. But you don’t want to keep all your files here; this is why Apple has provided a home folder (which you can see in the sidebar of the window in Figure 4-1; for more on the home folder, see Chapter 7), containing subfolders to organize your files.

You can access the Desktop easily, either by clicking the Finder icon in the Dock or by clicking the Desktop icon in a Finder window sidebar. As you can see in Figure 4-2, files on the Desktop also appear in the Desktop folder.

Figure 4-2: The Finder, showing the menu bar, the Dock, the Desktop, and a Finder window

If files on the Desktop are both on the Desktop and in the Desktop folder, where are they really? Well, it doesn't make a difference; it's not just a question of semantics, but the Desktop, which is just an abstraction for the Desktop folder, is a clever illusion on Apple's part. Because many users put files on the Desktop as they work with them, Apple made the Desktop folder accessible so you have another way to get to the files you leave on the Desktop. If you used a previous version of Mac OS, such as Mac OS 9 or earlier, you'll remember that you didn't have a Desktop folder; one did exist, actually, but it was an invisible folder, so you had only one way to get to files on the Desktop.

While many users find it easy to place files on the Desktop for quick access, you'll probably find storing your files in your home folder and its subfolders more practical, (even though one of these subfolders is the Desktop folder), but you can choose any place you like. Your Desktop will quickly get cluttered if you put all your files there.

Customize Your Desktop

Mac OS X gives you many options for customizing your computer and your working environment. One element you can customize is your Desktop: you can change its picture, or background, the way it displays icons, and what information it displays with icons.

To change the Desktop’s presentation, select Show View Options from the Finder’s View menu (or press z-J). The contents of the View Options window that displays (Figure 4-3) depend on which window is active. When the Desktop is active, its title bar shows “Desktop”; if another window is active, it shows both the name of that window and different view options. (See Chapter 6 for more on view options in Finder windows.)

Figure 4-3: The View Options window shows Desktop display options.

This window lets you choose exactly how you want icons to display on the Desktop:

• Icon Size Move this slider to increase or decrease the size of icons on the Desktop.

• Text Size Choose the size you want for Desktop labels, text that displays the names of your icons.

• Label Position Icon names can either be below icons (bottom) or to the right, as shown in Figure 4-4.

  Figure 4-4: You can choose from two label positions: either below or to the right of icons. This choice is global for each window.

• Snap to Grid This keeps icons aligned on an invisible grid, making them look more organized.

• Show Item Info This displays information about the icon and is especially useful when you display your hard disk icon on the Desktop.

• Show Icon Preview This option, when checked, shows a thumbnail image of graphics or movies instead of normal icons.

• Keep Arranged By This arranges icons by Name, Date Modified, Date Created, Size, or Kind. Select your choice from the pop-up menu.

  Note

  You can also choose what types of items you want to display on your Desktop: whether you want to display icons for hard disks, removable media, or network volumes. You learn about this and other Finder preferences in the section “Customize the Finder.”

Change Your Desktop Picture

Your Mac displays a standard Desktop picture, or background, when you first start working with it, but you can change this to one of the many Desktop pictures Apple includes, or even use your own picture. To change this, hold down the CONTROL key (CTRL) and click anywhere on the Desktop. (If you have a two-button mouse, right-click on the Desktop.) Select Change Desktop Background... from the contextual menu. This opens the Desktop preference pane (Figure 4-5.)

Figure 4-5: The Desktop preference pane is where you can change your Desktop picture.

This preference pane lets you choose which picture you want on your Desktop. Choose a collection from the list at the left, and then click one of the pictures in the preview section at the right to apply it. If you want to use a picture that’s in your Pictures folder, choose Pictures Folder from the list, and then select one. If you want to use a picture in another folder, select Choose Folder... from the list and navigate to the folder containing your picture. And if you have a picture file on the Desktop or in another window, you can just drag it into the Desktop Picture zone to use it, as shown in Figure 4-6.

Figure 4-6: Dragging a picture to the Desktop Picture zone changes the picture immediately.

Customize the Finder

The Finder offers a number of options that affect how certain items are displayed and how other items react. Some of these affect the Desktop, others change the way Finder windows display, and others control certain Finder operations, such as emptying the Trash. To access the Finder preferences, choose Preferences... from the Finder menu. The Finder preferences window (see Figure 4-7) displays.

Figure 4-7: The Finder preferences window lets you customize some aspects of the Finder’s display and operations.

The Finder preferences window has four panes, each of which is accessed by clicking one of the icons in the preferences window toolbar:

• General These preferences affect the display of items on the Desktop, new windows, and spring-loaded folders.

• Labels This section lets you change the names for colored labels.

• Sidebar This section allows you to choose which items display in Finder window sidebars.

• Advanced This section contains settings regarding file extension display, emptying the Trash, and languages for searching file contents.

General Preferences

The General pane of the Finder preferences lets you choose among several ways of displaying items and Finder behavior:

• Show These Items on the Desktop Check any of these three items: Hard Disks (which includes both internal and external hard disks), CDs, DVDs And iPods (which also includes removable media such as Zip disks and other USB devices), and Connected Servers (network volumes).

• New Finder Window Shows This sets the contents of new Finder windows, when you press z-N, or select File | New Finder Window. Choose from Home (your home folder), Documents (your Documents folder), Computer (the Computer window, which displays your hard disk and other volumes), your startup disk, your iDisk, or, if you want to use a custom folder for new windows, select Other and browse to select a folder.

• Always Open Folders in a New Window If you check this, double-clicking a folder opens a new window. If you leave this unchecked, the folder’s contents display in the same window.

• Open New Windows in Column View If you check this, new windows open in column view. See Chapter 6 for more on window views.

• Spring-Loaded Folders and Windows This lets you turn this function on or off, and set the delay for using spring-loaded folders and windows. See Chapter 6 for information on using spring-loaded windows.

  Note

  Because the Finder sidebar offers options for displaying items such as hard disks and removable media, using only one of the two (the Finder window sidebar or the Desktop) to display these items is something to consider. You may find the Finder window sidebar a useful way to deal with these volumes because it centralizes all your volumes in a small area. If you’re used to using the Desktop for these items, however, you might want to keep on doing so. There’s nothing to stop you from using both, of course.

Apply Labels

When Apple released Mac OS X, one of the features many users missed from Mac OS 9 was labels. Labels, like those shown in Figure 4-8, let you highlight icons with a colored background behind their names so you can spot them more easily. You can, for example, apply red labels to all pending files, allowing you to see at a glance the red-labeled files in a window. You can also use labels to search for files (see Chapter 6), to sort files in Finder windows (see Chapter 6), or simply to make them stand out.

Figure 4-8: You can't see it well here, but these three files have different colored labels: from left to right, the labels are red, yellow, and blue.

To set a label for an icon, click the icon while holding down the CONTROL key (or click the right mouse button of a multibutton mouse) and select a label color from the contextual menu that displays.

As you can see in this illustration, the label name displays when you move your cursor over a label color. To remove a label, click the x at the beginning of the line of labels.

Labels Preferences

You can change label names in the Labels pane of the Finder preferences. Just select one of the names and type a new name.

By default, the labels are named according to their colors. You could change them to names such as Personal, Urgent, Pending, or anything you want.

Mac OS X offers contextual menus for many common operations. As you learned in the previous section, “Apply Labels,” you display contextual menus by holding down the Control key and clicking the mouse on a selected item. These menus are called contextual because what they display depends on the context, or when they're invoked.

If you have a mouse with more than one button, press the right mouse button to display the contextual menu. Some input devices, with their own driver software, let you assign a different button to display contextual menus; if you have installed special software for a mouse or trackball, see that software to find out how to assign a button to this task.

In the Finder, contextual menus offer a number of menu items that are available in other Finder menus: Open, Copy, Paste, Duplicate, and more. The contextual menus merely provide shortcuts, giving access to these commands with a single click (you can click an icon, rather than click it to select it and then click a menu).

The same commands are available in the Finder's Action menu, which is available by clicking the Action button in a Finder window toolbar.

No matter how you invoke them, contextual menus can save time because they show only what you can do with the current item, and they group the most common commands in a single menu.

Sidebar Preferences

This pane lets you choose which items display in Finder window sidebars. Your choices apply to all Finder windows, and also apply to Open and Save dialogs (see Chapter 13 for more on these dialogs).

As you can see in the previous illustration, this pane is separated in two parts, corresponding to the separation of the sidebar. At the top, you see volumes: your hard disks, iDisk, and removable media, and your Computer and Network icons. At the bottom, you see the Desktop, Home, and Applications.

By default, all these items are checked, but you can uncheck any of them if you want to display fewer items in your Finder window sidebars. If you find you’d rather have them back, just return to this preference pane and recheck the items.

Advanced Preferences

This pane offers only three options:

• Show All File Extensions This tells the Finder to always display file extensions, such as .txt, .doc, and so on. You don’t usually need to know these on the Mac, but if you want to see them, check this option.

• Show Warning Before Emptying the Trash If you check this, the Finder displays a warning when you empty the Trash.

• Languages for Searching File Contents The Finder automatically indexes your hard disk to help you search for files by their contents. (See Chapter 6 for more on finding files by content.) To save time and disk space, click Select... and uncheck any languages you don’t want to use. If you uncheck all the languages, the Finder won’t index your files.