ComputerTree - Apple Macintosh/iPad Sales, Training & Service

INTRO TO MAC

		Menu Bar Macintosh HD
		Desktop
		Dock

ComputerTree's Intro To Mac class is designed for first-time users of modern Apple Macintosh computers. Some of you will have never used any computer before. Others will be familiar with older Macintosh computers, or with Microsoft PCs. Either way, the OS X Lion operating system will seem both familiar and strange at first glance. As with any new thing, it does take some getting used to.

Desktop

You may never believe this, but the people who design operating systems try to mimic reality. Since most of us are familiar with a physical desk with papers and other things scattered about its top, that was the visual notion they chose for the onscreen layout. A computer's desktop is the backmost/bottommost layer of your computer screen. Sitting on top of (in front of) this desktop are all the items you're working with (documents, applications, etc.).

Everything is a File

In the world of a physical desk, most everything is a piece of paper. The text of a letter is typed onto a piece of stationery, a portrait is developed on photographic paper, and one or more of these documents is kept inside a manila folder which is also paper.

In the world of computers, everything is a file. The text you're reading right now was typed into a file. Each of the graphics on this page is stored in its own separate file. Individual document files are stored within folders... which are also files. And just to be confusing, the computer equivalent of staplers and mailmen and typewriters are also files, a special type of file called programs or applications. The application which let me type this text is itself a file. The application which let me create the graphics is likewise a file.

A computer is, amongst other things, a potentially huge filing cabinet. So how do you go about finding the particular file you're looking for?

Macintosh HD and Finder

Although most of us don't rest our filing cabinets on top of our physical desktops, computers do. Think of the little grey icon labeled Macintosh HD as the handle on the filing cabinet drawer. Double-clicking that icon opens an application called Finder (those of you familiar with Microsoft Windows know Finder by the name My Computer). The Finder application lets you leaf through the possibly thousands of files stored in possibly hundreds of folders within the hard disk (HD) of your Mac. Finder also lets you leaf through the files stored on other devices such as camera memory cards, flash drives, external hard drives, etc.

Dock

As with working at a physical desk, most of your day-to-day work is done with a fairly small set of documents and applications. The row of icons across the bottom of the Mac desktop is called the dock. Each of these icons launches an application, or opens a window, or does some other task. For example, the smiley faced icon usually located on the far left of the dock is another way of calling up the Finder application. It's your choice which icons to keep on the dock. They'll be the things you want to keep near to hand because you're constantly going in and out of them.

Windows

Some applications do their work behind the scenes, but most applications interact with you in some way: iPhoto shows you the photographs you've accumulated and lets you organize them, TextEdit lets you type, Safari lets you browse the web, etc. Again following the desk metaphor where most items are rectangles of paper, the equivalent within computers is the concept of a window. For example, here's a Safari window showing a very simplistic web page:

		Title Bar Address Bar
		Page Content (text, photos... whatever this application manipulates)
		Status Bar

Some applications only open one window. iPhoto, for example, tries to do all of its work within one window, only occasionally opening dialog boxes (subordinate windows) for such things as Export. Word processors, on the other hand, usually provide a separate window for each document you have open. Web browsing apps like Safari allow you to remain within one window as you browse from page to page, but they also allow you to open each new web page in a new window (by right-clicking / Control-clicking on the link to the next page).

Window Controls

In the upper lefthand corner of most windows, you'll find a set of three little buttons which resemble a stoplight. Clicking the red button closes the window (pressing the keys Command-W does the same thing). Clicking the yellow button minimizes the window (pressing the keys Command-M does the same thing). Clicking the green button optimizes the window (there's no known keyboard shortcut).

		Active: the one window (usually frontmost) which is giving you its full focus

		Inactive: all other windows which are open but quiet behind the active window

		Hover: even inactive windows light up when the cursor passes over them

		Dialog: windows which are asking a question (Save where?) (Are you sure?)

In addition to the three window control buttons, you can move the window around the desktop by moving the cursor over the window's title bar, then clicking and holding the click while you drag. Most windows will also let you adjust their size by moving the cursor over an edge or corner of the window, then clicking and holding the click while you drag.

Full Screen Mode

Normally, OS X keeps the dock and the menu bar and at least a sliver of the desktop visible. Beginning with Lion, however, a new mode was added: full screen.

		Applications which support full screen mode (Safari, Preview, etc.) have a grey button in the upper right hand corner showing two arrows pointed outbound. Clicking this button causes this window to fill the entire screen, dismissing the dock and the menu bar. Pressing the keys Control-Command-F does the same thing.

		To get the Mac back out of full screen mode, either press the keys Control-Command-F or move the cursor to the top of the screen (provoking the menu bar to reappear) then click the blue button in the far right of the menu bar showing two arrows pointed inbound.

Full screen mode is a step on the path towards unifying the onscreen experience of the Mac to that of the iPad/iPhone.

For More Information

We regularly provide Intro To Mac classes. Please contact our Training department (800) 467-9820 x6, or (336) 768-9820 x6, or training@computertree.com) for more information.

TRAINING DEPARTMENT

(800) 467-9820 x6
(336) 768-9820 x6
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