Sweet Briar College Academic Computing
Intro to Mac OSX
Sweet Briar College Academic Computing Intro to Mac OSX (v.10.4.2)
Author and Designer: Tom Marcais Academic Computing Training Services Version 2 September 2005
Table of Contents ABOUT THIS COURSE ..................................................................................................................................... 1 OSX LAYOUT ..................................................................................................................................................... 1
The Desktop ................................................................................................... 1 The Finder & Finder Windows ........................................................................ 3 Smart Folders................................................................................................. 4 Opening applications and documents............................................................. 5 SYSTEM PREFERENCES................................................................................................................................. 6
Personal ......................................................................................................... 6 Hardware ..................................................................................................... 10 Internet & Network...................................................................................... 14 System ......................................................................................................... 16 UTILITIES FOLDER / PRINTER SETUP UTILITY ........................................................................................ 20
Utilities Folder.............................................................................................. 20 Printer Setup Utility ..................................................................................... 21 DASHBOARD ................................................................................................................................................... 21
Using Widgets .............................................................................................. 22 The Preinstalled Widgets ............................................................................. 23 Downloading Widgets .................................................................................. 26 BURNING CDS / DVDS ................................................................................................................................... 27
Burning a Data CD/DVD ............................................................................... 27 Burning a Music CD ...................................................................................... 27 Burning a DVD Movie ................................................................................... 28 SAFARI 2.0 ....................................................................................................................................................... 28
Built-in Google Search ................................................................................. 29 SnapBack ..................................................................................................... 29 Browsing with Tabs...................................................................................... 29 Bookmarks ................................................................................................... 30 RSS Feeds .................................................................................................... 30 USING LAZLO .................................................................................................................................................. 31
Connecting to Lazlo...................................................................................... 31 Adding Existing Files from Your Computer to Your Lazlo Account. ............... 31 Disconnecting from Lazlo ............................................................................. 32 USING MAC HELP (THE HELP CENTER) .................................................................................................... 32
Sweet Briar Academic Computing
Intro to OSX (v.10.4)
About this Course Have you ever stopped to think of the importance of your computers operating system? The operating system doesn’t really DO anything… or does it??? A good operating system will function to keep all your important applications running (at the same time, even!), plus an operating system will also include all sorts of useful little “helper applications” which can be used to customize your computers interface and make tasks easier for you. It is these little applications that we will focus much of our attention on throughout this course.
OSX Layout The Desktop Once your computer has finished booting, you should instantly see the desktop screen as pictured. The OSX desktop has three main areas: The desktop, the dock, and the menu bar. Once your computer has finished booting, you should instantly see the desktop screen as pictured. The desktop covers the majority of the space on your screen. The default desktop in Mac OSX is a blue-screen with little light swooshes across it. However, if you dislike the way this screen looks… we can always change it! (Discussed in System Preferences section). You will also probably see an Icon of your computer’s hard drive on the desktop, and you might have other files or folders that you have saved to the desktop for easy access. The dock is one of OSX’s most useful enhancements. Basically, the dock is a resizeable bar that can hold shortcuts to all of the programs you use on a regular basis. To open an application, just move your cursor to the icon on the dock and click your mouse once. The program will instantly open, and an arrow will appear near the icon in the dock. That arrow indicates that the program is open (and currently using some of the computers resources!). To add a program to the dock, first find the program in your hard drive. Once you have located the icon for the program, just click and drag 1
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Intro to OSX (v.10.4)
the icon to the dock. When you let go of the mouse, the icon will appear in the position you placed it in the dock. To get rid of an item in the dock, just click and drag it out of the dock. You’ll see a little puff of smoke… and the icon will disappear (like magic!) The dock also is where the Trash icon is located. Anytime you want delete a file or folder, just click and drag it to the trash. The files will then be stored in your trash folder, and won’t be permanently deleted until you choose Finder->Empty Trash from the menu bar. There are also many different options to change the appearance of the dock, and we will discuss that in the System Preferences section. The menu bar is located at the top of the desktop. The blue-apple and words that you see at the top-left of the screen each represent a dropdown menu with more commands. We’ll go over some of the more important commands from those menus now. First, click on the blue-apple. You’ll notice that one of the choices is Force Quit. If you selected this command, a box would appear that would show you all the programs currently running on your computer. If one of those programs is causing problems on your computer, you can select it and force it to terminate. This way, only the program causing problems is affected, and the rest of your programs and operating system remain stable. Also in this menu is the choice for Sleep, Restart, or Shut Down. Sleep would put your computer into a hibernation state where the screen and hard-drive would turn off… but would come right back on to the spot you left when you press a key on the keyboard. Restart would turn your computer off then on again (necessary sometimes when installing software). Shut Down would turn your computer completely off and keep it off until you turn it on again. The other part of the menu bar is at the top-right of your screen. This section contains additional useful information about your computer, such as: Bluetooth status, Airport Status, Battery Life (for laptops), Date/Time, Current User and most importantly access to Apple’s new Spotlight search feature. Spotlight searches your entire computer… not only by filename, but also by content, file-type and other criteria. Spotlight is represented by a blue circle with a magnifying glass in the center. When you click on this icon, a drop down search field will appear. As soon as you start typing in the search field, any matching results will appear in the list below. Just select any of the results to open what you find!
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The Finder & Finder Windows The Finder in OSX is designed to allow you to search for files or folders that are on your computer (or on the network your computer is connected to). To access the Finder, choose File-> New Finder Window from the desktop menu bar. A new window should appear. A Window is basically just a rectangular box that contains the information you’re working with. You’ll see that in the top left-hand corner of your window, you have 3 colored round circles: one green, one yellow and one red. If you click on the green button, it will make the window the maximum size for the content that is being viewed. If you click on the yellow button, it will minimize your window to the dock (where you can click on it to make it appear on the screen again). If you click on the red circle, it will close your window. These three circles reside on what is called the Title bar of the window. You’ll notice that the reason it is called the title bar, is because there are also words in the center of this bar indicating what the name of this window is. If you click and drag on the title bar, you can move the window to different locations on your screen. If you click-and-drag on the bottom right hand corner of your window, you can resize the window. Using the Finder to search your computer for files is very easy. Underneath the title bar of your window is another bar with various icons. On the right-hand side of this bar is a field labeled Search. Just type in the name of the file/folder you are looking for, and press return. The results should appear in the main section of the window. Navigating through finder windows is also very easy. You’ll notice that you have back and forward buttons that you can use to go back and forth between your searches. To the right of those buttons you have view options for your window. The first choice (from left-to-right) is to view the results as icons. The second option is to view the results as a list. The final option is brand new for OSX; you can view your results as columns. Columns are very useful because not only does it show you where your files are, it shows where they are in relation to everything else on your computer.
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Intro to OSX (v.10.4)
Smart Folders Smart Folders are folders that contain documents that are grouped together based on search criteria that you define, rather than on their physical location. Documents aren’t actually stored in a smart folder… the folder just shows you a list of the files that meet your criteria. For example, let’s say you want a folder on your desktop that shows you just the Microsoft Word documents that you have opened on your computer during the past week. To create a Smart Folder to contain these files… first, choose File->New Smart Folder from the desktop menu bar. A New Smart Folder window should appear. Underneath the title bar, you have choices of where the smart folder should search for files (Servers, Computer, Home, Others). Servers would search any computers on your network, Computer would search your entire computers hard drive, Home would search just your user account, and others could be used to check other drives (like CD’s, Firewire Hard Drives, USB drives, etc…). In this case, let’s select Computer. Then, we need to fill out our criteria. For our first criteria, select Kind from the first drop-down menu, then select Others from the second drop-down menu, and finally select Microsoft Word Document from the third drop-down menu. For our second criteria, choose Last Opened from the first drop-down menu and then This Week for the second drop-down menu. Your window should now look something like this:
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Now, press the Save button. A popup window will appear. In the Save As field, type Recent Word Files. In the Where field choose The Desktop. If you keep the Add to Sidebar box checked, then you will see this folder on the left-hand side of all open windows. When finished, press the Save button. You should now see a folder on the desktop that contains shortcuts to any of the files that met your criteria. The possibilities with Smart Folders are only limited by your creativity with the criteria selections!
Opening applications and documents There are several ways to open applications and documents in OSX. The easiest is to just double-click on the icon of the application or document you wish to open. Another way is to single-click on any of the icons in the dock. Finally, if you’ve already opened the application, you could open a file by choosing File->Open from the menu bar. When you do this, the Open dialog box will appear. You can use the Show and From fields to change your search criteria and you can use the sliders on the right and bottom to navigate through your hard drive.
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System Preferences System Preferences is the heart of OSX. This is where you can adjust all your various options for the operating system. To open the system preferences window, go to the desktop menu bar and choose BlueApple>System Preferences… System preferences are divided up into four main sections: Personal, Hardware, Internet & Network, and System. To open any system preference just click on the icon for it. To return to the list of all system preferences, click on the Show All icon in the top left of the window.
Personal Appearance: This system preference allows you to change the Appearance color for the overall look of buttons, menus and windows as well as the Highlight Color for selected text and lists. You may also choose where to place scroll arrows in your windows (‘at top and bottom’ or ‘together’) and what happens when you click inside the scroll bar (‘jump to the next page’ or ‘scroll to here’). The Number of Recent Items section refers to how many items you want to see in your Recent Application & Recent Documents lists. (These lists are accessible from the Blue Apple in the menu bar of the desktop.) Finally, you can choose your Font smoothing style (recommendations for various monitors are shown).
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Dashboard & Exposé: Dashboard is an OSX feature that lets you quickly access all sorts of little helper applications called widgets. We will discuss Dashboard to a greater extent later in this tutorial. Exposé is an OSX feature that allows you to temporarily see all your open windows at once so that you can easily click on any window and make it active. By moving your mouse to any corner of your screen, or by pressing keyboard shortcuts, you can activate Dashboard, Expose or your screen saver. This system preference lets you assign various commands to each screen corner and to keyboard shortcuts. If you click on any of the drop down menus in the Active Screen Corners section, you will see you have a choice of All Windows (which will show you all the open windows on your computer), Application Windows (which will show you just your open Applications), Desktop (which will move all the windows out of the way, so you can see your desktop), Dashboard (which will bring the Dashboard widgets to the front), Start Screen Saver (which will start your screen saver) and Disable Screen Saver (which will stop your screen saver). Note that if you prefer, you can also assign Keyboard shortcuts for the All Windows, Application Windows, Desktop, and Dashboard choices. Desktop & Screen Saver: This is where you can change the Desktop picture for your computer, and/or set your screen saver. To change your desktop picture, first make sure you have the Desktop tab selected. Then, just click on one of the collections from the left-hand column (or choose the location of a folder where your picture is stored by selecting the Choose Folder… icon). Then, use the slider at the bottom of the window to browse through the pictures. When you find one you like, just click on it with your mouse and the change is instantly applied. You can also checkmark the “Change Picture” box if you want the desktop picture to change automatically at a given time period.
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In the Screen Effects tab you can choose from a variety of different slide shows. If you want to use your own pictures, choose “Pictures Folder” or “Choose Folder” (which lets you pick ANY folder with pictures. When you select a screen saver, you’ll see a preview in the window. All Screen Savers have various options that you can set by pressing the Options button. One of the new Screen Savers in Tiger is the RSS Visualizer. This Screen Saver takes RSS feeds (Rich Site Summary, an XML format for distributing news headlines on the web) from any RSS site you have defined in Apple’s internet browser, Safari. To set the website your news headlines will come from, just make sure the RSS Visualizer Screen Saver is selected, press the Options button and make your selection from the list of choices. There is also a slider that you can use at the bottom of the window to set the amount of time of inactivity before the screen saver will start. The Hot Corners button at the bottom of the window lets you select a corner of the screen. When the mouse moves to that corner, the screen saver will instantly appear. (Leave all the corners unchecked if you do not want to use this feature).
Dock: This is where you go to change your preferences for the Dock. You can adjust the size of the dock with the slider. If you check the Magnification box, the icons in the dock will enlarge when you pass your cursor over them. You can adjust the level of the magnification to your preferred degree. You can also choose to position the dock on the left, bottom, or right of the screen. (Personally, I recommend that you set it to the left, because if it is at the bottom or on the right it might get in the way while you’re scrolling in active windows.) You can select either “Genie Effect” or “Scale Effect” in the Minimize using field. (These options just change the visual effect of how windows are minimized). The “Animate opening applications” check box, allows you to see the icons of applications dancing around in the dock as they are opening. The “Automatically hide and show the Dock” check box, allows you to hide the Dock until you pass your cursor to the location of where the dock is positioned.
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International: This preference opens to a window with several tabs; Language, Formats and Input Menu. On the Language tab, you can choose the different Languages your operating system will use. You can also display dates, times, numbers (and currency) according to the appropriate conventions of your region by changing the settings in the Formats tab. The Input Menu tab allows you to choose which keyboard or input method formats will be used. I recommend that you always make sure you have the Show input menu in menu bar box checked. This will allow you to see a country flag in your menu bar that corresponds with your keyboard input language. If you then also checkmark the Character Palette, you can open the character palette directly from the menu bar . The character palette is a great way to insert any special character into any program that accepts text (even web browsers!). Security: This preference lets you make your OSX computer (which is pretty secure to begin with) even more secure! You can use the FileVault setting to encrypt your data files as you use them. This way, if your computer is stolen and you’re not logged into your account, your files are much more difficult to access. You can also set other security options, such as: setting passwords when waking from a Screen Saver, Disabling automatic Login, Requiring a password to unlock secure system preferences, Logging out after a period of inactivity, and Using Secure Virtual Memory.
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Spotlight: This preference allows you to change the categories that will appear in your Spotlight search results. In the Search Results tab, you can checkmark various categories that you wish Spotlight to show results from. Any category that is not checked will not show up in the Spotlight search results. You can also click and drag the categories to change the order in which they will appear. By clicking on the Privacy tab, you can add folders or disks that will not show up in the search results. Finally, at the bottom, you can assign Spotlight menu and window keyboard shortcuts.
Hardware Bluetooth: Bluetooth is a wireless technology that lets computers and devices communicate with each other without using cables. The Bluetooth preference lets you control how various Bluetooth devices will work with your computer. The Settings tab has basic options for how Bluetooth will behave on your computer. The Devices tab will show you all Bluetooth devices that are currently connected to your computer, and will allow you to add additional ones. The Sharing tab will let you set how you will share files with other computers, PDA’s, etc‌ through Bluetooth. 10
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CDs & DVDs: This preference allows you to tell your computer what to do when various kinds of CDs and DVDs are inserted into your disk drive. You can have a music CD automatically open iTunes, a picture CD open iPhoto, and a video DVD open the DVD player. Displays: The displays preference has two tabs, Display and Color. The options in the Display tab allows you to set the resolution for your monitor, increase the brightness, and change the number of colors displayed. If you click on the Color tab, you can also choose a display profile to match your monitor. If you click on the Calibrate button it will walk you through a calibration assistant to adjust the screens output for your vision. Energy Saver: The Energy Saver preference allows you to set your computer to save electricity when it is left on, but unused, for a period of time. There are two tabs in this preference: sleep and options. Under the sleep tab you can set a time for your computer, display and hard drive to go to sleep if they have been inactive for any given period of time. When a computer is at sleep, it conserves energy by shutting everything down (you’ll just see a blank screen on your display), but when you press a key on the keyboard it will wake up and resume exactly where you left off (applications running, documents open, etc‌). Under the options tab, you can set it to wake when the modem detects a ring, wake for network administrator access, or to restart automatically after a power failure. (*Note: Laptop computers will have separate Energy Saver settings for Power Adapter and Battery Use.) 11
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Keyboard & Mouse: The keyboard and mouse preference allows you create custom settings for your keyboard. It has four tabs: Keyboard, Mouse (or Trackpad on laptop computers), Bluetooth, and Keyboard Shortcuts. Under Keyboard, you can adjust the speed of the Key Repeat Rate, or adjust the length of the delay until repeat. The Mouse tab allows you to adjust the tracking speed and double-click speed of your mouse (or trackpad). The Bluetooth tab provides information about any Bluetooth keyboard or mouse attached to the computer. Keyboard Shortcuts shows you a list of various common tasks, and their corresponding keyboard shortcuts (which can be easily edited by double clicking on the shortcut and holding down the new shortcut keys). Print & Fax: This preference has three tabs: Printing, Faxing, and Sharing. The printing tab is where you can control the printers connected to your computer. To add a printer, just press the + button. This will open up the Printer Setup Utility, which will allow you to browse your network or USB connections for available printers. Once you have selected a new printer, it should appear as one of your choices in the printer list of the Print & Fax preference. If you wish to see the printer as a choice when you print documents, make sure the check box in the In Menu column is checked. When you select a printer in this list, you can then press either the Print Queue button to see any documents that are waiting to be printed by this printer, or the Printer Setup button to see any additional options for the printer. You can also control which printer will be selected in the print Dialog as well as the default paper size in your Page Setup.
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The Faxing tab allows you to set up your computer to receive faxes. First, place a check in the Receive faxes on this computer box. Then, enter your Fax Number in the empty field. You can then choose to have your faxes saved to a folder, emailed to an account and/or printed. (*NOTE: In order to receive faxes, you must be connected to an OPEN phone line No one can be using the phone line to connect to the internet or make a call. Your computer also must not be in sleep mode.) Finally, the Sharing tab allows you to share printers that are connected to your computer with other users and/or let other people send faxes through your computer.
Sound: The sound preference has three tabs: Sound Effects, Output, and Input. The Sound Effects tab allows you to choose an alert sound for your computer and adjust the volume for the alerts. The output tab allows you to choose a device (built-in audio, speakers, etc‌) that will handle your computers sound output. You can also set the balance between left and right channels for your sound output. The input tab allows you to choose a device (internal microphone, external microphone, etc‌) for sound input. You can also set the input volume here. At the bottom on all the pages of the sound preference you are able to adjust the overall output volume of the sound on your computer. You also mute the sound, and have the volume control shown in your desktop menu bar.
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Internet & Network .Mac: .Mac is a subscription based service (which means you have to pay a fee!) where Apple provides online storage, email, backup, web pages, and Virus protection. Personally, I do not recommend this service for any SBC community member because SBC provides us with all these services for free! However, if you do choose to use this service (perhaps for a personal computer) you can set up and control your .Mac account from this preference. Network: The Network preference holds your settings for your Internet connection. Depending on your computer, you can enter and change settings for the Ethernet, AirPort, Internal Modem, Bluetooth, and FireWire internet connections. Depending on the port, you can change TCP/IP, PPPoE, PPP, AppleTalk, Proxies, AirPort and Modem settings. You also can change network settings by choosing a network location, which is a set of network configurations you create. If you need to make changes to this preference, it is best that you contact your Internet service provider for support and have them give you the appropriate information to enter in the fields.
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Quick Time: The QuickTime preference handles the settings for the QuickTime plug-in; a multi-media player that can handle movies, pictures and sound. The QuickTime preference has five tabs: Register, Browser, Update, Streaming and Advanced. Under the Register tab you can register your copy of QuickTime Pro (only necessary if you purchase QuickTime pro). The Browser tab lets you determine of you want movies to play automatically in your web browser and if you want to save your movies in your disk cache. The Update tab allows you to search for any new QuickTime updates on the Internet (you can also set it to check for updates automatically.) The Streaming tab lets you set the speed at which you normally connect to the Internet. Computers that are connected to SBC’s network should use the T1 connection speed. You can also enable Instant-on which will play streamed media without delay (but may decrease quality). The Advanced tab lets you pick your default synthesizer to play music and Midi files. It also, allows you to set your Transport setup (if you’re having problems with QuickTime files being blocked by a firewall, you could change your settings here to try to get around the firewall). You can also enable Kiosk mode, which will help prevent users from changing QuickTime settings and saving movies. The Mime Settings button will let you choose which files will automatically open with QuickTime. Finally, the Media Keys button is used to enter a secure password key to view QuickTime files that have been encrypted by their creator.
Sharing: The Sharing preference lets you set your Computer Name. This is the name that people connected on the same network as you will see for your computer. There are three tabs in the Sharing Preference: Services, Firewall and Internet. The Services tab allows you to various sharing services on or off. You can allow personal file sharing, windows file sharing, personal web sharing, remote login, FTP access, Apple Remote Desktop, remote apple events and printer sharing, and Xgrid. The firewall tab allows you to prevent incoming network communication to all services and ports other than ones that you selectively choose. The Internet tab allows you to share your computers Internet connection with other computers through either airport or Ethernet. 15
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System Accounts: The Accounts preference is used to create individual user accounts for each person who uses your computer. Each user you add has their own home folder, including Public folder and Drop Box, and can adjust their preferences without affecting other users. To create a new account, just press the + button in the bottom left-hand corner of the window. To view your login options, click on the Login options button at the bottom of the accounts column. This will allow you to set options such as automatic logins, how the login window will appear, if password hints will be displayed and if fast user switching will be used. When you select your account, there are four tabs for the accounts preference: Password, Picture, Login Items, and Parental Controls. Under the Password tab, you can enter a name, and change your password. You can also choose if this user can administer the computer. The Picture tab lets you pick a picture to use as your icon. Under Login Items you can add items (programs, documents, etc..) to open automatically every time you log in to your computer (this is also where you can stop programs from starting automatically like AOL Instant Messenger). Finally Parental Controls lets you the restart and shutdown buttons, and you can have the password hint shown after 3 attempts to enter a password.
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Classic: The Classic preference controls the Classic Environment settings for OSX. The Classic Environment allows older Macintosh programs to function properly in OSX. The Classic preference has three tabs: Start/Stop, Advanced, and Memory/Versions. In the Start/Stop tab you can choose to manually start, restart and force quit Classic. You can also set it to start Classic when you log on to your computer, and/or to warn you before starting Classic. The Advanced tab allows you to start Classic without extensions, set Classic to go to sleep after a period of inactivity, and rebuild the Classic Desktop. The Memory/Versions tab shows you what applications are currently running in classic and how much memory they are taking up. Not all computers will have Classic installed, so this system preference may not appear on all machines. Only computers that have both OSX and OS9 installed can run classic.
Date & Time: This preference allows you to set your computers Date & Time. You can set the Date & Time Manually in the Date & Time tab. You can choose your Time Zone in the Time Zone tab. You can choose to have your computers time set over the Network (using various time servers) through the Network Time tab. Or, you can change the way your time and date appear in your menu bar from the Menu Bar Clock tab.
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Software Update: This preference allows you to search the Internet for any updates to your OSX software. In the Update Software tab, you can choose to have the computer automatically check for updates when you are connected to the network. Apple frequently releases new updates that will enhance the performance of your machine, so I recommend that you use the automatic check on a weekly basis. Or, you can manually choose to update software at any time. The Installed Updates tab shows a list of updates you have already run on your computer system. Speech: This preference allows you to adjust the Speech settings of your computer. There are three tabs in this preference, Speech Recognition, Default Voice, and Spoken User Interface. Under the Speech Recognition tab, you can choose to turn on or off Apple Speakable items. This allows you to use spoken commands to control your computer. You can also adjust the listening options and the type of commands that your speech will control. The Default Voice tab lets you choose which voice you would like to hear when the computer talks to you. The Spoken User Interface tab lets you choose under what circumstances the computer will talk to you. Startup Disk: This preference lets you choose which operating system on your computer will be used to start your computer the next time it is restarted. Most of the time you will want it to stay in OSX. For some older Macintosh software, you may need to actually select the OS9 folder (if OS9 is installed) and restart your computer for it to work.
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Universal Access: This preference is used to adjust the settings on the computer to overcome physical disabilities or hindrances. There are four tabs; Seeing, Hearing, Keyboard, and Mouse. Under the seeing tab, you can choose to use a Zoom function, you can switch the monitor to show white text on black backgrounds (instead of black text on white backgrounds) or you can set the Display to Grayscale instead of color. These settings can greatly improve the experience of a user with poor eyesight or color blindness. The hearing tab lets you choose to have the screen flash when a warning message appears, rather then hear a warning tone. The keyboard tab has options that allow you to overcome difficulties with pressing more than one key at a time, and difficulties with keystrokes being repeated. The Mouse tab has options that allow you to deal with difficulties using the mouse such as using the numeric keyboard in place of the mouse, and controlling the speed of the mouse pointer.
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Utilities Folder / Printer Setup Utility Utilities Folder
The Utilities Folder is located inside your hard drive folder inside the Applications Folder. Inside this folder are all sorts of little applications that can be run on your computer. Most of these applications are for the more advanced user, so I will not go in to much detail on them. Some of the ones that you may find most useful include:
AirPort Admin Utility: Allows you to configure your AirPort base station (if you have one!) AirPort Setup Assistant: Allows you to configure your computer for wireless Internet access (if you have an airport card and access to a wireless internet) System Profiler: This application shows you all sort of information about your computer. It will tell you what your processor is, how much memory you have, what applications are installed on your computer and a whole lot more. If you need to know something specific about your computer, this is the place to look! Grab: This applications lets you take a screen-shot of your monitor and save it as an image file. All the images in this tutorial were made using this application.
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Printer Setup Utility There are lots of other items in the Utilities folder, but you probably won’t need to use them on a regular basis (if ever!) However, the Utilities folder does contain one very important application for all users: the Printer Setup Utility. This utility is used to choose printers and control or check the status of printing. To add a printer, just click on the Add button from the Printer List menu and choose the item from the pop-up menu specifically for your printer, if available, or for the way your computer connects to the printer. If you have multiple printers added to the Print Center, you can use the Make Default button to select the printer you will use most frequently. You can also use the Delete button to remove a printer from your list. If you want to monitor items that you are currently printing, you can choose Printers->Show Jobs from the menu bar. If you want to stop printing your documents, you can choose Printers->Stop Jobs from the menu bar. To resume printing, choose Printers->Start Jobs from the menu bar (This is sometimes necessary when the printer stops due to a printer error, such as “no paper” or “empty ink cartridge”). *Note… remember that you can also access the Printer Setup Utility from the Print & Fax System Preference.
Dashboard Dashboard is a brand new feature of OSX Tiger. It is a collection of mini, easy-to-use applications (called widgets) that can be fun, functional… or both! By default, Dashboard starts automatically when you start your computer. But, you won’t see your widgets until you ask for them. To make Dashboard active, just click on the Dashboard icon in the dock (pictured at right)… or press the F12 key on your keyboard. Your widgets will appear! (to hide them again, just click anywhere on the screen that doesn’t contain a widget… or press the F12 key again).
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Intro to OSX (v.10.4)
When your widgets appear, you can move them anywhere you want simply by dragging them with your mouse (click and hold your mouse button on a widget and move it to where you want it). To see all the widgets installed on your Mac, just press the open (+) button in the lower-left corner of the screen. You should see something similar to the following picture appear:
Notice how at the bottom of the screen you now have a Widget Bar. This widget bar displays all the widgets on your Mac… and you can use the arrow buttons on either the left or right-hand side to display any additional widgets you might have. To add one of the widgets to your Dashboard… just click on the icon in the Widget Bar. To remove one of your widgets, make sure the Widget Bar is displayed… and then just click on the widget’s close button (a round, black button with a white X… usually in the upper-left corner of the widget). To close the Widget Bar, click the close button (round black button with a white x) which is directly above the Widget bar on the left-hand side.
Using Widgets Using widgets are very easy… and typically just require you to click on the widget to activate it, and then you can start doing whatever the widget is designed to do for you! (such as use a calculator, check a date, etc…). Notice how some of them will have a small italicized i displayed. When you click on this i you will be given some options that you can customize for that particular widget. *Note… Not all widgets have customizable options!
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Sweet Briar Academic Computing
Intro to OSX (v.10.4)
The Preinstalled Widgets OSX Tiger comes with a small selection of widgets that are preinstalled in Dashboard. These include:
Address Book—This widget gets its information from the main OSX Address Book program. It allows you to look up a person's email address, phone number, and mailing address quickly. Just start typing a name in the search field, or click the arrow buttons to step through all entries.
Calculator—This computerized version of a calculator works just like a handheld one. It is designed to easily allow you to add, multiply, divide and subtract. You can enter numbers either by clicking the buttons with your mouse or pressing the numeric keys on your keyboard.
Dictionary—Get word definitions, synonyms, and antonyms for any English language word you type in the search field. Because the dictionary is built into Tiger, you don't need an Internet connection to get this information. Flight Tracker—View the flight paths of many upcoming or in-progress flight around the world. Just choose an airline, departure city, and arrival city from the pop-up menus (or enter the information in the fields), click Find Flights, select the flight in the results, and click Track Flight. (*Note, it is necessary to be connected to the internet to use this widget!)
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Sweet Briar Academic Computing
Intro to OSX (v.10.4)
Calendar—This widget allows you to view the current day and date in a small calendar, as well as view days and dates in the future and past. Just click the up or down arrow buttons to jump through the calendar by month.
iTunes—This widget allows you to control iTunes playback (iTunes must be open for this to work). You can use the widget controls to play, pause, and skip forward and backward through songs in your iTunes Library or a playlist, or listen to Internet radio. You can even control volume with a twist of the outer dial. Stickies— This widget acts just like the paper version. Just type notes right on the Stickies pad. To change the paper color and font, click the i button in the bottom-right corner. Then select a paper color, choose a font from the Font pop-up menu, choose a font size from the other pop-up menu, and click Done. Stocks—This widget lets you track your favorite stocks (with up to a 20-minute delay). To enter a company, click the "i" button in the bottom-right corner, type the company's name or ticker symbol in the field, and click Done. To get an overview of your stock's performance, click the company symbol to view a graph that shows the highs and lows over a user-selectable timeframe. (*Note, you must be connected to the internet to use this widget!) Tile Game—The goal of this game is to rearrange all the tiles so that they form a picture. Just click the widget to make it start scrambling the tiles. Click it again to make it stop. To rearrange tiles, click a tile that borders the empty space to move it in its place, and continue in this manner until you see the picture again. Just like the hand-held puzzles you used to play with as a child!
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Sweet Briar Academic Computing
Intro to OSX (v.10.4)
Translation—This widget will translate short phrases to and from various different languages, including: Chinese (Simplified Han), Chinese (Traditional Han), Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portugese, Russian and Spanish. Just choose the language that you want to translate from and to using the popup menus, and type (or copy & paste) the word or phrase in the text box below the Translate from field. (*Note you must be connected to the internet to use this widget) Unit Converter – This widget will convert weights, measurements, temperatures, speeds, currency, volume, and other items. Just choose a unit category from the Convert field, then select a unit that you want converted from the bottomleft pop-up menu and select the unit that you want it converted to in the bottom-right pop-up menu. When you enter a value in the left text field you will see conversion to its right. (*Note, you do not need to be connected to the internet unless you are using the currency converter) Weather — The Weather widget displays the current weather conditions for the city of your choice in thermal terms (high, low, and current temperatures) and in current graphical conditions too. You can click on the widget to show or hide a 5-day forecast. To change the city, click the "i" button, then enter a city & state, or a zip code and click Done. (*Note, you must be connected to the internet to use this widget!) World Clock—The World Clock widget displays the local time for many cities around the world. Open multiple windows to keep track of different time zones. To change the city, click the "i" button, choose a continent from the Continent pop-up menu, choose a city from the City pop-up menu, and click Done.
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Sweet Briar Academic Computing
Intro to OSX (v.10.4)
Phone Book—The Yellow Pages widget allows you to look up names and addresses just like a regular phone book… except faster! Just type a business name or category (like "restaurants") in the search field, and view your results in the expanded window. To change the local city, click the "i" button; enter a city, state, or zip code; and click Done. (*Note, you must be connected to the Internet to use this widget!)
Downloading Widgets In addition to all the pre-installed widgets… there are hundreds of other widgets that you can download. Go to the website: http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/
Here you can download all sorts of additional widgets. Most of them are freeware… some are demos… I haven’t noticed any that are paid products (yet). These tiny applications open up all sorts of new possibilities for your computing. There is an easy-to-use Widget Browser at this website which breaks the widgets up into categories, and gives you brief descriptions of each widget. Once you find one you like, just click on the Download button next to the widget. After the file has downloaded, an installer application will launch. It will ask you if you want to install the Widget and place it in your dashboard. If you confirm this, the widget will be installed on your computer, and you can access it through Dashboard. It’s an excellent way for you to get more functionality for your computer!
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Sweet Briar Academic Computing
Intro to OSX (v.10.4)
Burning CDs / DVDs If your computer has a drive that can write CD’s or DVD’s, then you can create your own CD and/or DVD discs.
Burning a Data CD/DVD A data CD can typically hold around 650-700MB of information. A data DVD can hold about 4.7GB of information. Both are very inexpensive forms of back-up storage. To burn a data CD/DVD, first insert either a CD-R (record one time) or CD-RW (re-writeable) blank disc into your disc drive. A pop-up window will appear asking you what you would like to do. From the Action drop down menu, choose “Open Finder” and in the Name field enter a name for your CD/DVD. Then press the OK button. An icon of the disc will appear on your desktop. Now drag any data you want copied onto the disc icon. After the data has been copied to the disc, drag the disc to the burn icon in the dock (looks like a nuclear symbol). By default CDs are burned in a universal format and can be used with both Macintosh and Windows machines.
Burning a Music CD Audio CD’s may be created in OSX by using the built-in MP3 player, iTunes. iTunes is part of a larger multi-media software suite named iLife. Because of the complex integrated features of the iLife software, I will be having a separate training tutorial for the iLife products. However, if you already are comfortable with the basic operations of iTunes, you may follow these instructions to create an Audio CD. First open the iTunes application by clicking on the icon in the Dock (should look like a CD with musical notes). If the icon is not in the dock, you can open it from the Applications folder inside the Hard Drive. Now choose iTunes->Preferences from the menu bar. A pop-up window will appear. Click on the Burning icon, and then choose Audio CD as the Disc Format. If sound check is turned on in the Effects pane, you can select the Sound check checkbox (in the burning pane) to use the Sound Check volume settings on your CD. This ensures that all your songs are recorded at the same volume level (rather then having some really quiet songs and some really loud ones on the same CD!). When finished, press the OK button.
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Sweet Briar Academic Computing
Intro to OSX (v.10.4)
Now that your preferences are set, you can select the playlist that you want to burn to the CD. Once your playlist is selected, click the Burn disc button (in the upper righthand corner of the iTunes window). Insert a blank CD-R disc and click Burn Disc again. Make sure you are using a CD-R and not a CD-RW disc, or you may have problems playing the CD in a standard CD player. It will take several minutes for the CD to burn, and then a message will appear when it is completed.
Burning a DVD Movie Movie DVDs may be created in OSX by using the Apple application, iDVD. iDVD is part of a larger multi-media software suite named iLife. Because of the complex integrated features of the iLife software, I will be having a separate training tutorial for the iLife products. However, if you already are comfortable with the basic operations of iDVD, you may follow these instructions to create a movie DVD. First, open iDVD either by clicking on the icon in the dock, or by opening the program in the Applications folder of the hard drive. To see motion menus and buttons in your finished disc, click the Motion button to turn motion on. If motion is not turned on when you burn the disc, you won’t see motion in the disc. Then, click the closed Burn Button to turn on the burning feature. Click the burn button again and when prompted, insert a new blank DVD-R disc into the drive. The time it takes for the disc to be created depends upon the amount of video on the disc and the type of computer. On average, expect it to take 2-3 minutes to encode and write 1-minute worth of video to the disc.
Safari 2.0 Safari is the Apple Internet Browser designed specifically for OSX. In addition to having an easy-to-use graphical interface, Safari is also considerably faster at many operations than Internet Explorer or Netscape. Safari has proven itself to be far superior then other browsers currently on the market. If Safari is not already installed on your computer, you can download it for free at: http://www.apple.com/safari/download. Some of the innovative features of Safari 2.0 include: Built-in Google Search, SnapBack, Browsing with Tabs, an advanced Bookmarks library and RSS feed support.
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Sweet Briar Academic Computing
Intro to OSX (v.10.4)
Built-in Google Search Google is one of the most powerful meta-search engines on the Internet. Apple recognizes it as an important research tool, so they have made it very easy for their users to access. To the right of the URL address field in your browser window, there is another field labeled with a magnifying glass icon. Just type your search words into this field and press return. It will instantly bring you to a Google search page with the results of your search. If you click on the magnifying glass icon, it will show you a list of your most recent searches so that you can access them again if necessary.
SnapBack SnapBack is very innovative technology created by Apple. SnapBack works like a breadcrumb trail to lead you back to where you started. Just by nature of the Web, it is easy to click on to lead you back to where you started. Just by nature of the Web, it is easy to click on one page after another, and get completely offtrack in the process! The SnapBack button (an orange circle with a white arrow) returns you to the point where you last typed a URL or selected a bookmark. It is much quicker and more efficient than hitting the back button 20 times! The Snapback button is located on the right-hand side of your URL address field. (you also have a Snapback button on the Google search field that will take you to your last Google search).
Browsing with Tabs Safari lets you see and switch between multiple web pages in a single window by using tabs. You can even open a folder of bookmarks with a single click. Tabs will resize themselves based on the number open, and there’s a convenient close button on each tab. To open a new tab in your window, just choose File->New Tab from the menu bar. It’s a really convenient way to switch back and forth between information, plus it keeps your desktop and dock less cluttered!
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Sweet Briar Academic Computing
Intro to OSX (v.10.4)
Bookmarks Apple makes it easy to add bookmarks to Safari. Just click on the Add Bookmark button (looks like a Plus sign) to the left of the URL address field. A naming sheet will appear in a pop-up window giving you the opportunity to edit the bookmarks name and file it into one of your bookmarks folder. If you want to see, edit or organize your bookmarks, just click on the bookmarks folder button (looks like an open book) underneath the forward/backward buttons.
RSS Feeds Many websites now offer RSS feeds. RSS is an acronym for Rich Site Summary and is an XML format for distributing news headlines (also known as syndication). Safari has built in support for RSS feeds. When safari encounters a site that uses RSS feeds, you’ll see a logo on the right-hand side of the address bar. When you click on that logo, you’ll see a window similar to this one:
Here, you’ll see a list of all the current RSS articles for the website. You can use the Article Length slider on the right to determine how much of the summary you see. Or, you can use the Search Articles field to quickly find an article. RSS is a great way to quickly sift through the latest news at any RSS supported website!
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Sweet Briar Academic Computing
Intro to OSX (v.10.4)
Using Lazlo Connecting to Lazlo Lazlo is Sweet Briar's private network fileserver. It is available to all students, faculty, and staff and is accessible on all campus computers. If you do not already have a Lazlo account, you can create one at http://lazlo.sbc.edu. To connect to your Lazlo account on OSX, choose GO->Connect to Server from the desktop menu bar. Type lazlo.sbc.edu in the address field and then press the Connect button. A new window will appear, asking for your Username and Password. Fill those in and press the OK button. A new icon will appear on your desktop (it will look like a globe) and will be titled with your username. That icon is your Lazlo account. Just double click the icon to access your Lazlo files.
Adding Existing Files from Your Computer to Your Lazlo Account. First, double-click on the Lazlo icon on your Desktop. A new window will open, which will show you all the files that are in your Lazlo account. By default your Lazlo folder also contains a website folder. Anything that you put inside the website folder can be accessed by anyone who has network access, so it is a great place to create and store a website. To add existing files from your computer, just drag the file into the open Lazlo window. If you want your files to remain secure (accessible only by you), do NOT put them inside the website folder. You may also want to create other folders inside your Lazlo account to organize your documents.
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Sweet Briar Academic Computing
Intro to OSX (v.10.4)
Disconnecting from Lazlo First, save anything you are working on to Lazlo, and then quit all the programs you used with your Lazlo account. Select the Lazlo icon on the Desktop and drag it over to the dock where the “Trash Can” icon is. You will notice that the Trash Can icon will change into what looks like an eject button. Drop the Lazlo icon over the Eject button. Your Lazlo account is now disconnected.
Using Mac Help (the Help Center) OSX comes with a searchable help center that will assist you in finding answers to questions you might have about OSX (and other software you might have installed on your computer). To access Mac Help, choose Help->Mac Help from the OSX menu bar. The Mac Help Window will appear. Just type your question, or subject, in the “Ask a Question” field and press return. A list of relevant topics will appear. Just click on the topic that looks the most promising, and a synopsis of the topic will appear in the bottom half of the screen. By clicking on the blue hyperlink in the synopsis, you can view the detailed help provided for that topic. Mac Help should be your first resource for your questions.
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