QNS OSX instructions. CONTENTS 1 The Apple and Finder 2 The Dock 3 Navigating OS X 4 System Preferences
1 OS X tutorial: the apple The apple menu The apple menu is hidden under the apple at the top left of the desktop, and is always there no matter what program is active. Items in the apple menu; About This Mac: Brings up a window containing information about what version of OS X you are using, how much RAM (memory) your computer has, and processor specifications. Get Mac OS X Software...: Takes you to the Downloads section of Apple s website. System Preferences: Opens the System Preferences application. Same function as clicking on the System Preferences icon in the Dock. Dock: Moving your mouse pointer over Dock will bring up a menu with a few Dock preference items, as well as a link to the Dock System Preferences. Location: Allows the user to select from a list of locations, like the Location Manager in OS 9. Locations are set up in the Network System Preferences. Recent Items: Shows a list of all recently opened files and applications for quick access. Force Quit: Opens the Force Quit window, displaying all open applications. If an application freezes, you can open this window and select to Force Quit any single application without affecting the others. Typing Command+Option+Esc. on the keyboard also brings up the Force Quit window. Sleep: Puts your computer into sleep mode. You can wake it by hitting a key on the keyboard. Restart...: Restarts the computer. A confirmation window will pop up before restarting. Shut Down...: Shuts the computer down. A confirmation window will pop up before shutting down. Log Out...: Logs you out of your account. A confirmation window will pop up before logging you out.
OS X tutorial: the finder Finder is the application used to navigate and control everything in OS X. Clicking on the desktop always takes you back to the Finder. The Finder Menu About Finder: Tells you what version of OS X Finder you are using. Preferences: Brings up a window which offers many user preferences relating to how the Finder interface looks and functions. The preferences feature will be found in this same menu for each application. For example, if you are in Microsoft Word, this menu will say Word instead of Finder, and preferences for Word will be found here. Empty Trash: This command empties the Trash. This can also be accomplished by Ctrl-clicking on the Trash icon in the Dock and selecting Empty Trash. Services: Allows you to perform basic system commands quickly, such as making a new sticky note. With questions regarding the items in this menu, contact Computer Support at x.3832. Hide Finder: Hides the Finder application. This feature is also present when an application is open. For instance, in Microsoft Word, you would see Hide Word. Hide Others: Hides every open application other than Finder. Click on an application s icon in the Dock to show it again. Show All: Reopens all hidden applications.
The Go Menu The Go menu contains shortcuts to the standard OS X folders, and shortcuts to folders and drives you have recently accessed. Computer This opens a window that shows all the drives that are presently available on your computer like my computer in Windows. Home This opens a window that shows all your personal files. Home contains a number of folders that Apple has chosen to help you organise your files. For example, you would store all your music files in Music! We recommend you save all your audacity files in Documents. Desktop Useful when you have so much on the desktop you cannot find something. The File Menu New Finder Window Use this if you want to open a new window. Of course, this can be done lots of ways, but it is useful just having a direct instruction to open a window. Even more useful is to get into the habit of using apple N - the keyboard shortcut. New Folder You will need this a lot if you properly organise your files. Open a new folder for each chapter or section of your work. Once again even more useful is to use shift apple N the keyboard shortcut. New Burn Folder We are using memory sticks to send your data to QNS, it is so simple, but there may be times when burning a disk is easiest. Make a new burn folder, drag the items you want to burn into it, then open it and click the button BURN.
The Edit Menu Undo This is one of the handiest options there is. No matter what you have done, use this and it is undone. Show clipboard See the contents of your clipboard. The View and Window Menu Most of these menus are basically self-explanatory. One useful menu item worth mentioning is Show View Options in the View menu. This option is available when you are in the Finder interface. Clicking this menu item will bring up a window containing the settings necessary to alter how your desktop looks, including icon and text sizes, which is good if you are short sighted. You can clean up (straighten out and sort) your icons on the desktop or in a folder from here. In the window menu, you can see a list of all the finder windows that are open, either minimised or on the desktop. you can click on any of these to activate them. This window option is also in most applications. The Right Side of the Menu Bar The right side of the menu bar offers a clock and volume control, and on the emacs, a temperature gauge. If you cover the back of the computer with a mute while narrating, check the temperature gauge occasionally. Clicking the speaker icon will bring up a volume slider. The little magnifying glass is called spotlight. This is incredibly useful. If you click on it and write in there ANYTHING you want to find, it will show you where it is, even if you only remember some of the title. So if I have a song for example named john s house, but I only remember john s, then If I write john s into spotlight it will give me all the files and folders on the computer with john s in them.
2 OS X tutorial: the dock What is the purpose of the Dock? The Dock serves many purposes: * It can be customised to hold shortcuts to the applications and folders you use most * It holds the Trash can, System Preferences, and a shortcut to the Finder application. * It shows all currently opened applications and minimised windows as icons. To add a shortcut to the Dock: 1. Click and hold an application or folder icon. 2. Drag and drop the icon on the dock. It will automatically open a space for you. Application shortcuts are stored on one half of the Dock (with the Finder), and folder shortcuts are stored on the other half (with the Trash). Trash To delete a file, remove a dockling, eject a disk, or disconnect from a network drive, simply drag the item to the Trash. Finder You can click the Finder icon, to enter Finder, which is the first icon in the Dock. Customising the Dock 1. Open System Preferences by clicking on its icon in the Dock. 2. In the section labelled Personal, click on the Dock icon. 3. Now you can customize the Dock s appearance and behavior to your liking. 4. When you are done, quit the System Preferences and your settings will be applied.
1. Why is there a little black arrow next to some of my Docklings? This arrow is telling you that these applications are open. Clicking the icon will bring its application to the forefront. To quit the application (and remove the black arrow), hit Command-Q on the keyboard or select Quit from the application s main menu at the top of the screen. You can also Control-click the icon and select Quit. 2. Why does the Dock have two sides? Why is there a line through the Dock? Can I remove the line? The Dock is divided into two sections. One section holds application icons, the other holds minimized windows, folders, and Trash. These sides are separated by a thin bar. This bar cannot be removed. 3. I m trying to put a folder or application in the Dock, but it won t allow me to. What s wrong? Make sure you are dropping it on the appropriate section of the Dock. If you are creating a shortcut to a folder, you will not be able to place it on the side where application icons are stored. If you are trying to make a shortcut to an application, make sure you are not attempting to put it on the same side as the Trash can. 4. Why is one of my Docklings bouncing up and down? This can mean one of two things: 1) The application is starting up. 2) The application wants your attention. Click on the bouncing icon to find out why.
3 Navigating OS X To start looking around in finder you can; double-click your Macintosh HD icon. click once on the Finder icon on the Dock choose computer or documents in Go in Finder Icon view You will notice the mouse pointer on the image above. Clicking on this button always switches the window to icon view. Clicking on the second button will switch it to list view, as seen below: List view List view is good is good for viewing file and folder details like date modified and file size. To see what is inside a folder click on the triangle to make it point downward and the contents will be revealed. You can also double click on the the folder s icon and the folder will then open in the window. In any window, the arrows in the top left hand corner of the window will always take you back to where you have been and forward again, just like a web browser. You can sort the contents of any list window by clicking on the column headers. Click again to reverse the order.
There is a third view called column view, which is set by clicking the third button, as seen below: Column view In column view, clicking on a hard drive icon or folder will expand the contents of that folder into a second column, and selecting a folder in the second column will expand its contents into a third column and so on. This mode essentially creates a folder tree, rather than opening each folder in a new window. This initially a little harder to understand, but eventually very useful and quick. You can find things and organise things very well using column view. All the information on a computer is set out in a hierarchal tree. Once you understand this, it all becomes more logical. Even the files you make are filed in terms of the hierarchal tree You will also notice that in OS X, by default, each folder opens in the same window. If you would like each folder to open in a new window, you can select this option by opening the Finder menu and clicking Preferences. Check the box next to Always open folders in a new window. Windows
By double-clicking on the hard drive icon, you open a Finder window to look into your hard drive. At the very top is the title bar, below it is the tool bar, at the bottom is the status bar and on the left is the side bar. At the left end of the Title Bar are 3 buttons: The red button closes the window but does not close the program. The yellow button minimises the window to the Dock, getting it out of the way but still giving you immediate access to it just as you left it, simply by clicking on it in the Dock. The green button expands the window large enough to show all that will fit on the screen, clicking on it again will return the window to it s previous size Title bar In the centre of the title bar is what is called the folder proxy Icon. If you click on it while holding the command key (Apple key), you will see the path to that folder. Choosing any of the enclosing folders will be open that folder in the current window. Remember this only works in finder, not in program windows. Status bar The Status bar shows you how much space you have left on your computer. Side bar You can move folders and applications that you use a lot into the side bar. The folder documents is there already. Maybe you would like to put Audacity there too!
4 System Preferences You can find System Preferences in the apple menu. Categories As you can see above, the System Preferences window is divided into four categories: * Personal * Hardware * Internet & Network * System The Personal category contains the items which control each user s personal account settings. These settings determine the look and behaviour of Mac OS X when you are logged into your account. The Hardware category contains the items you can use to set your personal preferences for the performance of your system s hardware. The Internet & Network category contains the items used to set up internet and network settings. File sharing preferences are also stored here. The System category contains the items necessary to control settings which affect your computer at a more technical level. While you may want to change a variety of these settings and are welcome to do so, here we will cover sound, mouse and energy saver.
Sound Sound is at the end of the hardware category. There are three tabs in its window. the first is the beeps and bells that go off when you do things on your computer. The second and third are the output and input tabs. Each audio setup will require different selections in these windows. The important thing is to remember that the correct selection must be made in both output and input for your devices to link to your computer. If you just use a mini mixer and headphones plugged into the computer then the choice will be line in for input. The headphones will be automatically picked up (you can see this in the output window as you plug them it the output will automatically change to headphones). If you use a Rode Podcaster microphone, it will appear in the choices of sound input. If you cannot see the Rode Podcaster and it is plugged in then you may have to restart your computer with the Rode Podcaster plugged in so the computer picks it up. Rode Podcaster will appear in here
Energy settings save power, but if they are too quick to turn things off it can become annoying. Adjust the settings if there is something that annoys you. Try playing with the mouse settings so that the arrow moves across the screen at the right rate for you. This is set under tracking settings.