Mac OS X Snow Leopard: The Missing Manual (Missing Manuals)

12.6. Signing In, Logging Out

Once somebody has set up your account, heres what it's like getting into, and out of, a Mac OS X machine. (For the purposes of this discussion, "you" are no longer the administrator ”you're one of the students, employees , or family members for whom an account has been set up.)

12.6.1. Identifying Yourself

When you first turn on the Mac ”or when the person who last used this computer chooses a Log Out ”the login screen shown in Figure 12-1 appears. At this point, you can proceed in any of several ways:

• Restart . Click if you need to restart the Mac for some reason. (The Restart and Shut Down buttons don't appear here if the administrator has chosen to hide them as a security precaution; see Section 12.5.)

• Shut Down . Click if you're done for the day, or if sudden panic about the complexity of user accounts makes you want to run away. The computer turns off.

• Log in . To sign in, click your account name in the list. If you're a keyboard speed freak, you can also type the first letter or two ”or press the up or down arrow keys ”until your name is highlighted. Then press Return or Enter.

Either way, the password box appears now (if a password is required). If you accidentally click the wrong persons name on the first screen, you can click Back. Otherwise, type your password and then press Enter (or click Log In).

You can try as many times as you want to type the password. With each incorrect guess, the entire dialog box shudders violently from side to side, as though shaking its head "No." If you try unsuccessfully three times, your hint appears ”if you've set one up. (If you see a strange hollow up-arrow icon in the password box, guess what? You've got your Caps Lock key on, and the Mac thinks you're typing an all-capitals password.)

Once that's typed in, you're allowed to make up a new password for your own account (and, presumably, a better hint this time). No harm done.

Once you're in, the world of the Mac looks just the way you left it (or the way an administrator set it up for you). Everything in your Home folder, all your email and bookmarks, your desktop picture and Dock settings “all of it is unique to you, just as described in Chapter 2. Your Home folder even contains its own Library folder, which maintains a separate (additional) set of fonts and preference settings just for you. Your Applications folder may even have programs that other account holders don't see.

Unless you're an administrator, you're not allowed to install any new programs (or indeed, to put anything at all) into the Applications folder. That folder, after all, is a central software repository for everybody who uses the Mac, and the Mac forbids everyday account holders from moving or changing all such universally shared folders.

12.6.2. The Shared Folder

Every Mac OS X machine has a Users folder in the main hard drive window. It contains the in-dividual Home folders of every account on this Mac.

If you try to open anybody else's Home folder, you'll see a tiny red "don't go here" icon superimposed on almost every folder inside, telling you: "Look, but don't touch."

There are exceptions, though. As shown in Figure 12-12, two folders are designed to be distribution points for files your co-workers want you to see: Public and Sites.

You, too, have Public and Sites folders in your own Home folder. Here again, anything you put into these folders is available for inspection ”although not for changing ”by anyone else who uses this Mac.

Sitting in the Users folder is one folder that doesn't correspond to any particular person: Shared. This is the one and only folder that everybody can access, freely inserting and extracting files. It's the common ground among all the account holders on a single Mac. It's Central Park, the farmer's market, and the grocery store bulletin board.