A Beginner's Guide to Macs
Finder and Dock Layout
The picture on the right shows the basic finder window (click it for a full version). Yours, when you first get your computer, will look very different, but everything will be in the same place. The finder itself is just the background of the screen and parts of the top bar. Any more detail gets into background applications you never notice. If you're used to windows, Finder.app is basically Explorer.exe. The work you do on your computer when you manage files and deal with the operating system is all done through the finder. You may also notice the row of icons on the bottom of the screen. This is the Dock. It's basically a launcher for commonly used applications. Later on I'll point out some tricks with the dock. Everything in the dock, with the exception of the first and last icons can be moved around or removed easily. It also shows what applications are running, and sometimes useful notifications. If an app needs your attention the default behavior is to bounce the icon, but some apps also will change the icon in some way. (Apple Mail will show a little red circle with the number of unread messages in it.) The Dock also controls Dashboard.
Differences from Windows
You may notice that many things about OS X seem similar, just in the wrong place. The functions of the taskbar are divided between the Dock and the Finder. There is also no start menu. Your hard drive is much more organized on OS X than it is in Windows. All your applications should be located in the Applications folder. Operating system and program settings are generally located in one of the 3 library folders. You usually don't have to touch these, and it's not reccomended unless you know what you're doing. Think of the library like the system registry, only human readable and much more stable. You may also notice that you don't have drive letters. Instead, hard drives and other media show up on your desktop. You can name your hard drive whatever you want to name it, and it shouldn't affect anything. (On my computer, Macintosh HD has been named "Delphyne."
All content and code, unless otherwise specified, is copyright 2004 - 2009 Callen Magnuson.
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