While most of these tips apply to all
Macintosh operating systems (OS) from 7.5 forward, we only guarantee all of
them to work with OS8.0 or later. The "Find" demonstration, using
Apple's Sherlock technology, is only available using the Mac OS 8.5 or higher.
To establish which version of the MacOS you are using, follow the instructions
in the About this Computer
section.
If you are new to
the Macintosh platform or do not feel like you have mastered navigating the
"Finder" or, as it is also known, the Macintosh Desktop, you are encouraged
to view our Mac desktop page.
This site has a 231K image, but the few minutes spent waiting for this page
to download will be regained in time saved by fully understanding what each
icon on your desktop
does.
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Table of Contents |
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| Desktop | This is what
your Mac calls the "Finder." The icon in the upper right of your
screen will show a blue, square smiley face ( )
when you’re on the Desktop–or Finder. The two terms are practically interchangeable.
For a much more detailed explanation of the Desktop and its various parts,
see the Mac
Desktop page. |
| Command Key | The key with
the  (swirley thing)
and/or  (apple)
on it, right next to your spacebar. |
| Option Key & Control Key | So labeled–these are found on either side of your space bar. |
The Apple Menu
The Apple menu gives you control over much of how your computer works. This is also a handy place to leave shortcuts as this menu, with the exception of the very first line, does not change from application to application. For example, if you make an alias of your hard drive and place it in the Apple menu (see below), you can access your entire hard drive from this menu. To place items in this menu or remove them from it, open the System folder on your Mac and look for a folder called Apple Menu Items. Any item (alias or otherwise) placed there will show up under the Apple menu. Using the Control Panels menu, you can make changes to much of how your computer works. |
 |
About This Computer... |
A great source of information about your computer can be found under the Apple Menu. To open the window shown at left, click on your desktop (so you're back in the Finder) and click on your Apple Menu. This is the first selection under the Apple Menu. The "About This Computer" window can tell you much about your Mac. The colors in the picture to the left show different parts of this window. |
| The
RED circle is around the
Operating System, or OS, version. This shows that this Mac is running Mac
OS (or Operating
System)
8.0. The GREEN section shows how much physical memory, or RAM, is inside of the computer. Physical memory, RAM, is a chip installed on the board of your computer and differs from Virtual Memory in that it is faster and not a part of your hard disk. This example window shows 160MB, or megabytes, of RAM present in this computer. The ORANGE portion above is another number related to your system's memory, but this is Virtual Memory. Virtual Memory, when turned on in your Memory control panel, is always equal to physical memory, but can be much greater. This is not real RAM, but instead it is a method whereby your computer uses hard disk space as RAM. The large BLUE box is around the section of this window which shows currently active applications. This lists the programs you are using on your computer right now. This also shows how much memory each application is demanding from your computer. |
|
To make an alias:
 |
First, select an icon (shown circled in green at left) you want to make an alias from by clicking once on it. Then, you can do once of several things.
Drag this alias anywhere and you can use it just as you would the original. Your original file or folder won't move, but you have access to it from different places. |
| Some suggested uses for aliases |
|
Sherlock. Sherlock
was introduced with Mac OS8.5 and has added powerful features to the searching
ability of your Macintosh. There are three ways to search with Sherlock:
1. Traditional filename searches:
| To open Sherlock, look under your Apple Menu and select "Sherlock." For traditional filename seaches, to find a file whose name you know, click the "Find File" tab in Sherlock and enter the filename in the blank. Press "Find" and Sherlock will search your disk |  |
| to find that file. Results are returned in a new window. You can double-click on the filenames which are returned to open them. | |
| One of Sherlock's most powerful features, especially for researchers and people who create many text documents on their computers, is the ability to search files by the included text in each file. Sherlock will search through every file of your computer, too–not only by title but by actual content. So you can locate misplaced files even if you can only remember a word or phrase of what’s in them. To learn more about using this feature, and how to index your disks, click the circled question-mark button to the right of the blank field where text is entered, or visit Apple's Sherlock website. |
|
| Searching the internet, using various search engines and methods, can become tedius. Sherlock has the ability to search many, many sites or search engines at once. Click the "Search Internet" tab in Sherlock and enter the words you wish to search for. Let Sherlock find related web sites for you, and then, if this is the first time you have run Sherlock on the internet, it will probably ask to download some updates. Download these updates, and then your computer's search feature has just become even more powerful. For a detailed tutorial on using this easy yet powerful feature, see Apple's Sherlock site. |
|
Have your Mac wake-up before you, and then go to bed after you. Powering your computer on first thing in the morning may not seem like much of a chore, but what if it was already running and waiting for you when you came in? Go to your Control Panels and use whichever method is available: 1. Open the "Energy Saver" Control Panel and click on "Scheduled Start-up and Shut-down." It’s self-explanatory.2. If you have an "Auto Power On/Off" Control Panel, use that one the same way.Your computer will now turn itself on and off for you.
Have your Mac read your text to you.Save bits of text from email (or otherwise) quickly and easily on the desktop.
Open SimpleText (provided with your computer) and enter some text. Hold down the Command key while pressing "A" to select all of the text. Go to the Sound Menu and select "Speak All." Your Mac will read you your text.
Notice too that you can select other voices for your reader.Selected uses include having long email messages read to you or hearing speeches or presentations read aloud as you write them. Many current word processors such as Microsoft Word and Corel WordPerfect also take advantage of this feature and can read documents to you.
Highlight a bit of text. Click once on the selected area and hold the button down. Drag the text to another program and it automatically inserts itself. Drag it to the desktop and turn it loose to get a "Text Clipping," (shown bottom left) which can be double-clicked. You can copy this text to any document by dragging it into the new document.
The
HELP menu
If you’re running OS8.0 or higher (check your "About
this Computer..."), the HELP menu
is the last one to the right when you are in the Finder. Select HELP or press
Command-?. By drawing red circles around the areas of your screen you should
select, the Mac will walk you through what you need to do: printing, reformatting
floppies, opening DOS or Windows files, etc. It is a very easy to follow help
guide. Every action you need to take is highlighted, as shown below, in red.
Helpful Links:
My Mac, the online magazine, publishes helpful feedback and tips for using a Macintoshhttp://www.apple.com
Apple's websitehttp://www.maccentral.com
MacCentral posts essential updates and reviews of Mac software/hardware.For the more advanced Mac user, an additional page of Keyboard Shortcuts provides information relevant to altering the way a Macintosh behaves at start-up or during a running process.
