Macintosh Basics

The material in this document is intended to provide a quick introduction to the lab machines for students who are unfamiliar with them. It is not intended to be comprehensive, but should be sufficient for your needs in the course. The section "Learning about the Mac" provides pointers to sources of more information for anyone interested in learning more.

Turning on your computer

Your computer should be on when you arrive at the lab; if it is "sleeping", you can wake it up by moving the mouse or pressing the return key. If there is still no response, you can press the power button to turn your computer on. The power button, illustrated below, is a round button located on back of the monitor.

Logging in to your account

Once your computer has either been woken up or turned on, you will be presented with a login screen. For your name, use the first 8 characters of your Quest userid. If your Quest userid is shorter than 8 characters long, use the entire userid.

Using the Dock to launch applications

The Dock is a feature that allows you to quickly change between applications (similar to the "Taskbar" in Windows). Icons for the applications needed for coursework are pre-loaded into the Dock for you. The Dock also contains a Trash icon (see the "Deleting files" section) and may also contain icons of files (see the "Using windows" section to see how they got there). You can use the Dock to see which applications are open, as a black triangle appears below the icon of any open application. For example, in Figure 1 the "Finder" application is the only open application.

Figure 1: The Dock

If you click on an icon, the corresponding application will become the active application. You don't need to worry about whether it is already running or not. If it is not running, clicking will both open the application and make it be the active application. You'll just have to wait a little longer than if the application is already running.

If the application you need is not in the Dock, see the "Using the Finder" section.

Using the menu bar and the Apple menu

The top edge of the screen is the menu bar, used to access the active application and access several other features of the machine.

The name of the active application (in the figure above, DrScheme) is in bold, and leads to a menu that allows you to quit the application. The Finder, discussed below, is an exception. The other menus depend on the application, but typically include the following menus and menu items:

• File: opening, saving, and printing files.
• Edit: cutting, pasting, and finding.
• View: changing formats and toolbars.
• Windows: managing windows.
• Help: accessing more information about the application.

The Apple menu is available no matter which application is active; it is accessed by clicking on the apple icon on the far left of the menu bar. You will use this menu to log out at the end of your session.

Using windows

Each window has three buttons on the top left corner and diagonal lines on the bottom right corner. The button on the top right usually changes the appearance of the window such as by removing or adding a toolbar; this will depend on the particular application. The top edge of the window, slightly darker and labeled with the name of the file (if it has one), is the title bar.

Here are some ways to manipulate windows:

• Make a window the active window: Click anywhere on the window (avoiding the buttons).
• Move a window: Move the cursor to the title bar, click, and while holding down the mouse button, drag the window where you want it to go.
• Resize a window: If you wish to enlarge a window to fill the screen, click on the green button. Clicking again will return it to its normal size. Another option is to click on the diagonal lines on the bottom right corner and drag the corner to make the window whatever size you wish.
• Close a window: Click on the red button. If the middle of the red button is black, you have made changes that have not been saved (so you may wish to save your file before closing it).
• Move a window to the Dock: Click on the yellow button, or double-click the title bar. This is useful to know if you've accidentally clicked on a window and it "disappears". You can open the window by clicking on it.

Using keyboard shortcuts

There are some small differences between Apple keyboards and IBM-compatible PC keyboards, with which you may be more familiar. Many of the special keys are useful for keyboard shortcuts, allowing you to access certain menu items without having to use the mouse. A list of keyboard shortcuts can be found at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1343; these are not required course material, just handy ways to speed up your work.

On either side of the space bar you will find a command key (with a picture of an apple and four-looped design). Some of the other special keys used in shortcuts include the alt or option key, the escape key (at the top left of the keyboard, labeled esc), the control key (to the left of option), and the arrow keys (at the bottom right of the keyboard). For example, in the description of shortcuts "Command-S" is used to indicate that you should hold down the command key while typing a captial S, and "Option-Command-W" is used to indicate that you should hold down both the option and command keys while typing a capital W. At the top right of the keyboard is an eject key that allows you to eject CDs. It looks like a triangle over a line.

Although keyboard shortcuts can be different for different applications, many are common across applications. Here are some useful ones:

Using an Apple mouse

Translating from a Windows mouse to a single-button Apple mouse is usually straight-forward: double-click is double-click, left-click is click, and right-click is (often, but not always) Control-click (that is, holding down the control key while clicking). In many applications, Control-click brings up a box with useful information. Try Control-click on an icon in the Dock.

Using the Finder to manage folders

The Finder is used to manage files by organizing them into folders; as the name suggests, it can also be used to find files if you have forgotten where you put them. It is similar to, but not the same as, "My Computer" in Windows.

• Making Finder active: Click on its icon in the Dock (depicted on the far left in Figure 1) or click on the desktop.
• Changing the view: You have a choice of the icon view, the list view, and the column view. Use the View menu or the icons on the finder window.
• Creating a new folder: Use the menu item on the File menu, or in the Action menu (illustrated with a gear) in the Finder window.
• Moving a file: Drag the name or icon of file to the folder (this is easiest if you have two Finder windows open, one with the file and one with the folder).
• Finding a file: If you know where a file is stored, you can access it by clicking on the correct series of folders. You can also use the search box on the top right of the Finder window; you can choose to search for text in the name of a file or in its contents, should you have forgotten the name as well. If you select one of the files found, the bottom of the window will show the path through folders to find it (or you can double-click to open the file).

Deleting files

Drag files to the Trash when you wish to delete them. The Trash is found on the Dock (depicted on the far right in Figure 1); it is like the "Recycling Bin" in Windows. Simply putting a file in the Trash does not automatically delete it. You must choose the menu item Empty Trash from the Finder menu to permanently delete files from the Trash.

Learning more about the Mac

If you place the cursor over a button or icon, you might see a popup box with information about how to use that particular feature. The Help menu for the Finder gives you a search box which leads you to Mac help pages.

Closing applications and logging out

When you are done working, you should save all your work, close all the open applications, and log out.

You can figure out which applications are open by using the Dock. Unlike in Windows, an application can be running even if it has no open windows. To close an application, you can select "Quit" from that application's menu or use the keyboard shortcut Command-Q. The Finder cannot be closed.

To log out, select Log Out from the Apple menu. You do not need to shut down the computer .

Created July 2008 by Terry Anderson and Naomi Nishimura