Working with a Window

What is Mac OS?

The Mac OS is a kind of program called an operating system. (That's what OS stands for.) It provides basic functions for your computer such as:

• Controlling your hardware (printer, monitor, etc.)
• Running your programs
• Organizing your information
  

Understanding the Screen

The main area of the screen is called the Desktop. Some other features are:

• Desktop menu (lets you close down, empty trash and a few other things)
• Trash (stores deleted files and allows you to retrieve them)
• Hard drive icon (lets you access what's on your hard drive)
• You may have other icons on the desktop, such as a printer icon and aliases (shortcuts to programs or files)
  

Using the Mouse

The mouse lets you choose commands on menus and toolbars as well as select objects on the screen. As you move the mouse, a cursor moves on the screen. The cursor can take different shapes and is sometimes called an arrow or pointer. When you use the mouse, you first point the cursor to some object, then use the mouse button. Here are some mouse terms:

• Click: Press the mouse button.
• Click and Drag: Press the mouse button and hold it down while you move it over text or an object. If an instruction says to drag, it assumes that you hold down the mouse button while you are dragging.
• Double-click: Quickly press the left mouse button twice
  

Sometimes you'll see an instruction like this : Command + click. That means to hold down the Command key (the one with the apple and the cloverleaf on it) while you click with the mouse. You may see a similar instruction with the Shift and Option keys.

If you see an instruction that says to choose or select an item, it means that you should point to it and click it.

If the cursor is shaped like a twirling black and white circle or a watch, it means you have to wait. The OS is busy.

Accessing the Contents of a Drive

Double click any drive icon, such as the hard drive icon, to open it. Inside are files and folders. A folder is a container for files and other subfolders.You can have several windows open at a time, but only one can be active. The active window has a gray horizontal bars in the title bar at the top. Inactive windows have a gray title bar. Here's what you can do with a window:

Close: Click the box at the upper left corner, called the close box (or button). Note: If you are in a document in a program, the close box is for the individual document or file you are working with. So, if you want to close the file but leave the application open, click the close box.

Minimize: To hide the window, click the the box in the upper right corner, called the minimize box (or button). This hides the window but does not close it. You see just the title bar.You can display it again by clicking the the title bar's minimize button. Tip: You can also double-click a title bar to minimize it and display the full window again.

Resize: The left button at the top right corner is called the resize box (or button). This resizes the window to its last size

• To move window, click and drag it by its title bar at the top of the window.
• To change a window's size, move the mouse cursor to the bottom-right corner of the window you want to resize. Click and drag in the desired direction.
• To switch between windows, for example, to move from one open program to another, you can choose the desired program from the Finder at the top right corner of your screen. Click the logo of the current program and choose from the menu that drops down. If both windows are visible (but the one you want is partly obscured), you can just click anywhere in the window you want to make it active.
  

Scrolling Through a Window

When a program is opened a scroll bar will appear at the left side and at the bottom of the screen. You probably see a scrollbar to the right of your browser right now. This is a vertical scrollbar. A vertical scrollbar has four parts:

• Top arrow: click to move up in a file line by line. Don't use this method to scroll long distances.
• Bottom arrow: click to move down in a file line by line. Don't use this method to scroll long distances.
• Scroll box: click and drag this to move long distances in a long document. You can drag either up or down.
• The space between one of the arrows and the scrollbox: Click here to scroll up (if you click above the scroll box) or to scroll down (if you're below the scroll box) one screen at a time. Ideal for systematically scrolling through a long document.
  

The horizontal scrollbar you sometimes see works the same way, except it scrolls you to the left and the right.