How to use the Mac

Macintosh computers were first introduced in 1984 by Apple Computer of California. These computers were the first consumer computers built for people who didn't want to learn electronics or computer programming to get their work completed. They remain the easiest to learn and use, while being the most powerful desktops and laptops available for the price.

The Mac uses a display screen, keyboard, and a mouse to interact with you. You have probably already learned to use the mouse to move the pointer around on the screen, but for background information, when the mouse slides around on your desktop, a cursor will move about in the same direction on the screen. This cursor is usually an arrow-shaped cartoon, but depending on what you are doing, it may also look like a miniature I-beam, a wrist watch, a spinning beach ball, or something else.

Turning on the Mac

Many Macs have a soft-on/off command controlled by the software and the keyboard . That's the "ON" button on the keyboard, the button all by itself with the odd triangle on it. Press the button, and the Mac should come to life and make a chime sound. If it doesn't, make sure the power strip that the computer is plugged into is turned on or that the power cable is firmly inserted in it's receptacle. If the Mac does chime, but nothing shows up on the display, make sure the monitor's own power switch is on and any brightness and contrast controls are set properly.

You may have some accessories which work with the Mac such as an external hard drive, printer or modem. These devices should be turned on before the Mac is turned on. Here's a handy rule-of-thumb: the CPU (Mac) is the last device on and the first device turned off. Keeping that in mind alone will save you hours of headaches down the road.

The Mac takes a few seconds to "boot up". You'll see a happy face on the computer, then a message that says something like Welcome to Macintosh or your OS version.  Finally, after some figures (icons) show up along the bottom of the screen, you will see what we call the desktop. A menu bar will be at the top of the screen which looks similar to this:

• You always start and end at the desktop. The finder is the "keeper" of the desktop. Meaning the finder manages the stuff on your Macintosh.

This is a diagram of of a common Macintosh desktop

More information of about the desktop

	- The desktop
	The desktop is big area that fills your Macintosh's screen and is made up of a menu bar, hard disk, and trash. The finder is the application that is responsible for creating the desktop. You can change the desktop's color or cover it with your favorite picture. So think of the desktop like the top of your desk or table in your home or school. Like your real desk, you do stuff on it like draw, write, and sometimes drop a bunch of junk on it
	- The menu bar
	The menu bar cointains the apple menu, the pull down menus, time and date, and the application view. A menu gives you information, choices, and tells you what's available.You use the menu to tell your Macintosh what to do. Say you want to keep a document you wrote to your friend, you would go to menu bar -> click File -> and select save. You name it what ever you want to call it, like "letter to friend". This tell your Macintosh that you would like to save it
	- The hard disk
	The hard disk (sometime called the hard drive) is a permanent storage area on your Macintosh. All of your your applications and documents are store on the hard disk. It is a storage container, that takes up space with more stuff you add to your Macintosh. Think of the hard disk like a file cabinet or the drawers of your desk. It is used it to store, keep, hold, all your stuff.
	- The trash
	The trash, is the place you throw away the stuff you don't want to keep on your hard disk. Like your real trash can at home, stuff you throw away isn't really gone unless you take it outside for the garbage truck to pick it up. On your Macintosh you do this in the Finder by going to the menu bar and selecting special -> empty trash. You should see the lid back on top of your trash can.
	- The Finder
	The Finder is your Macintosh's system application that deals with icons, windows, and creates your desktop and more. The Finder is also used to represent the desktop. When your desktop is active, you are in the Finder. As long as your Macintosh is on, the finder is always there, no matter what application you are using. Remember that you are "in the finder" when the desktop is active. The finder = the desktop.

Using the Mac  --  The Mouse and the Desktop

You will use the mouse to move a pointer around on the screen to select either from the menu bar or the icons for the hard drive, trashcan, files, etc. All this you already know, but as a reminder, the mouse lets you do several things: You can move the tip of the pointer to an item to single-click on it (highlights a file or folder), double-click quickly to open a file or folder, or click-and-hold to select a menu item like File or Special.

Let's say you wanted to open a file on the hard drive. In the top right side of the desktop, the hard drive is represented by the icon called After Hours (the cowdog). Your hard drive may be named something different (Macintosh HD?) and have a different icon. That is perfectly normal.

To open the hard drive, you maneuver the pointer arrow so the tip is on the icon for the hard drive, then double-click the mouse button quickly. It takes a little adjustment, but if you double-click just right, the icon will "open", and the contents will be shown in a "window" which represents the hard drive. Some of these contents will be folders, and some may be files or applications. What's the difference? Well, a folder is analogous to a normal folder in your office filing cabinet: it's an icon which simple holds files or applications as a way of grouping related files or information. These are the Mac's version of a subdirectory. You can use folders many ways to organize your files, no one way is the right way, so experiment.

A file can be anything -- a written letter (the Word file called mom 7/16/96), a spreadsheet, a database, anything. Some special files are called applications (software programs which allow us to create other files or do special jobs on a computer "applications"). The nomenclature is kind of silly, but you have to know the terminology to move ahead.

To discover this, move the pointer to the Apple then click-and-hold the mouse button without moving the mouse. A pull-down menu appears. If you keep the mouse button depressed, you can carefully move the mouse and the pointer will move about on the pull down menu. Bring the pointer down on top of the About This Macintosh... item and release the mouse button. This selects the About This Macintosh... menu item, which reveals another window.

This window gives a lot of important basic information about the Mac. Here, we find our OS version (7.5.5) and the amount of built-in RAM memory (69,632 Kilobytes, or 69 Megabytes of RAM), and we can even see how much memory different programs use. When this window was copied, I had three programs running simultaneously (FileMaker Pro, Find File and Microsoft Word) along with the System (which always runs).

Each pull down menu will have it's own features. Some are only available after you have selected a file icon on the hard drive, and some are always available. You should explore these menus, because this is where you control how the Mac works.

Shutting Down the Mac

To turn off a Mac, always select the Shut Down command. Never turn off the power to a Mac without first selecting ShutDown. On some models, selecting ShutDown will also turn off the Mac; on others, you will have to turn off the power after the Mac tells you it is safe to turn off the model.