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Chapter 1

Mac OS X Snow Leopard 101

(Prerequisites: None)

In This Chapter

▶ Understanding what an operating system is and is not

▶ Turning on your Mac

▶ Getting to know the startup process

▶ Turning off your Mac

▶ Avoiding major Mac mistakes

▶ Pointing, clicking, dragging, and other uses for your mouse

▶ Getting help from your Mac

ongratulate yourself on choosing Mac OS X, which stands for Macintosh

Operating System X — that’s the Roman numeral ten, not the letter X

(pronounced ten, not ex). You made a smart move because you scored more

than just an operating-system upgrade. Mac OS X Snow Leopard includes

several new features to make using your Mac easier, and dozens of improve-

ments that help you do more work in less time.

In this chapter, I start at the very beginning and talk about Mac OS X in

mostly abstract terms; then I move on to explain what you need to know to

use Mac OS X Snow Leopard successfully.

If you’ve been using Mac OS X for a while, some of the information in this chapter

might seem hauntingly familiar; some features that I describe haven’t changed

from earlier versions of Mac OS X. But if you decide to skip this chapter because

you think you have all the new stuff figured out, I assure you that you’ll miss

at least a couple of things that Apple didn’t bother to tell you (as if you read

every word in Mac OS X Help, the only user manual Apple provides, anyway!).

Tantalized? Let’s rock.

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Summary of content (14 pages)

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Chapter 1 RI AL Mac OS X Snow Leopard 101 (Prerequisites: None) TE In This Chapter ▶ Understanding what an operating system is and is not MA ▶ Turning on your Mac ▶ Getting to know the startup process ▶ Turning off your Mac D ▶ Avoiding major Mac mistakes C GH ▶ Getting help from your Mac TE ▶ Pointing, clicking, dragging, and other uses for your mouse PY RI ongratulate yourself on choosing Mac OS X, which stands for Macintosh Operating System X — that’s the Roman numeral ten, not the lette
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10 Part I: Introducing Mac OS X Snow Leopard: The Basics If you’re about to upgrade to Snow Leopard from an earlier version of Mac OS X, I feel obliged to mention a major pitfall to avoid: One very specific misplaced click, done while installing your new OS, could erase every file on your hard drive. The appendix describes this situation in full and loving detail, and it contains other important information about installing Snow Leopard that can make upgrading a more pleasant experience.
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Chapter 1: Mac OS X Snow Leopard 101 (Prerequisites: None) So, armed with a little background in operating systems, take a gander at the next section before you do anything else with your Mac. One last thing: As I mention in the introduction (I’m only repeating it here in case you normally don’t read introductions), Mac OS X Snow Leopard comes with more than 50 applications. And though I’d love to tell you all about each and every one, I have only so many pages at my disposal.
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12 Part I: Introducing Mac OS X Snow Leopard: The Basics A Safety Net for the Absolute Beginner (Or Any User) In the following sections, I deal with the stuff that the manual that came with your Mac doesn’t cover — or doesn’t cover in nearly enough detail. If you’re a first-time Macintosh user, please, please read this section of the book carefully — it could save your life. Okay, okay, perhaps I’m being overly dramatic. What I mean to say is that reading this section could save your Mac.
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Chapter 1: Mac OS X Snow Leopard 101 (Prerequisites: None) buzzing, and flashing (meaning that the operating system is loading), OS X first tests all your hardware — slots, ports, disks, random-access memory (RAM), and so on. If everything passes, you hear a pleasing musical tone and see the tasteful gray Apple logo in the middle of your screen, along with a small spinning-pinwheel cursor somewhere on the screen. Both are shown in Figure 1-1.
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14 Part I: Introducing Mac OS X Snow Leopard: The Basics Figure 1-2: The Mac OS X Desktop after a brandspankingnew installation of OS X. If your computer is under warranty, dial 1-800-SOS-APPL, and a customerservice person can tell you what to do. Before you do anything, though, skip ahead to Chapter 19. It’s entirely possible that one of the suggestions there can get you back on track without your having to spend even a moment on hold.
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Chapter 1: Mac OS X Snow Leopard 101 (Prerequisites: None) Figure 1-3: If this is what you’re seeing, things are definitely not fine and dandy. How do you know which version of the Mac OS your computer has? Simple: 1. Choose About This Mac from the Ú menu (the menu with the Ú symbol in the upper-left corner of the menu bar). The About This Mac window pops up on your screen, as shown in Figure 1-4. The version you’re running appears just below Mac OS X in the center of the window. Version 10.
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16 Part I: Introducing Mac OS X Snow Leopard: The Basics 2. Click the More Info button to launch the System Profiler application. This app shows you much more information, including bus speed, number of processors, caches, installed memory, networking, storage devices, and much more. You can find more about this useful program in Chapter 18. Figure 1-4: See which version of Mac OS X you’re running.
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Chapter 1: Mac OS X Snow Leopard 101 (Prerequisites: None) for what those “everything elses” are.) A really stubborn crash doesn’t happen often — and less often under OS X than ever before — but when it does, forcing your Mac to turn off and then back on might be the only solution. A few things you should definitely NOT do with your Mac In this section, I cover the bad stuff that can happen to your computer if you do the wrong things with it. If something bad has already happened to you — I know . . .
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18 Part I: Introducing Mac OS X Snow Leopard: The Basics ✓ Don’t kiss your monitor while wearing stuff on your lips. For obvious reasons! Use a soft cloth and/or OmniCleanz display cleaning solution (I love the stuff, made by RadTech; www.radtech.us) to clean your display. Point-and-click boot camp Are you new to the Mac? Just figuring out how to move the mouse around? Now is a good time to go over some fundamental stuff that you need to know for just about everything you’ll be doing on the Mac.
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Chapter 1: Mac OS X Snow Leopard 101 (Prerequisites: None) ✓ Double-click: Click twice in rapid succession. With a little practice, you can perfect this technique in no time. Use a double-click to open a folder or to launch a file or application. ✓ Control+click: Hold down the Control key while single-clicking. Control+clicking is the same as right-clicking a Windows system and displays a menu (called a contextual menu) where you Control+clicked.
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20 Part I: Introducing Mac OS X Snow Leopard: The Basics Clicking the Help menu reveals the Search Help field at the top of the menu and the Mac Help item, which opens the Mac Help window, as shown in Figure 1-5. Figure 1-5: Mac Help is nothing if not helpful. The keyboard shortcut for Help appears on the Help menu as Ô+?, but you really need to press $+Ô+? to open Help through the keyboard.
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Chapter 1: Mac OS X Snow Leopard 101 (Prerequisites: None) Figure 1-6: You have questions? Mac has answers. Now, here’s a cool feature I like to call automatic visual help cues. Here’s how they work: 1. Type a word or phrase in the Help menu’s Search field. 2. Select any item that has a menu icon to its left (such as the Secure Empty Trash item in Figure 1-7). The automatic visual cue — an arrow — appears, pointing at that command in the appropriate menu.
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22 Part I: Introducing Mac OS X Snow Leopard: The Basics Figure 1-7: If you choose an item with a menu icon, an arrow points to that item in context. Although you don’t have to be connected to the Internet to use Mac Help, you do need an Internet connection to get the most out of it. (Chapter 9 can help you set up an Internet connection, if you don’t have one.) That’s because OS X installs only certain help articles on your hard drive.