Mac OS X Shortcuts for New Users
By Damien Gallop

September 25th, 2001

Mac OS X will make it into the operating system hall of fame some day. Will it make it into yours? Maybe, if you can just figure out how to get started. That's exactly what we'll tackle today.

I highly recommend digesting the booklet that comes with your OS X kit. If you've lost it, there is an Acrobat version called Welcome to Mac OS X on the CD itself. Just double-click to read it. It's also available from Apple's ftp site.

One of the important features of that booklet is the complement of desktop pictures. These are very helpful for new user orientation. The main objects on your OS X screen are the Finder menu bar (which also contains the Apple menu), the Dock, and an icon for your hard disk. The Dock is your docking station for application aliases. Additional drives such as CDs and flash disks will also appear when they're mounted. Drag these icons to the Trash, the last icon in the Dock, to unmount them.

Since getting into OS X is merely a matter of switching on your Mac, I'll start with how to get out. Once OS X has started, it presents you with the Finder menu bar, among other goodies. Click the Apple, Shut Down to quit. You'll see that you also have options to Sleep, Restart, and Log Out. The Apple menu is available anytime, regardless of which application is running in the foreground.

Now that you can vamoose the operating system, how would you exit an application? Every OS X application is written with two exit doors. Bring the application to the foreground by clicking on one of its windows or the application's icon in the Dock. Click the application name at the left end of the Finder menu, and select Quit. Alternately you can press Cmd-Q.

What about an apparently hung application? No problem. This is OS X. Internet Explorer, still in beta, doesn't always manage process threads very well. If you hit the right site, you'll wait forever until a page or graphic never loads. IE is still running, but it might as well be crashed, because that waiting process has stolen all of the focus, preventing you from even pressing the Stop button. Your only option is to kill the process. Press the Cmd-Option-Esc key sequence for a task list, select the recalcitrant task, and press Force Quit. So far in my experience, every task I've ever needed to kill has shown up in this list. It works well, and doesn't leave debris as far as I can tell.

How do you start an application? Easy. Click the familiar Finder icon in the Dock and press Applications. You can drag a favorite application such as TextEdit to a parking spot in the Dock, and a nice alias for it will appear there. Single-click to start it. While it's open and in front, pull down its name from the Finder menu bar to access Preferences for it. When you want to move or delete the alias (the application must be closed first), just drag it either to another spot in the Dock or away from the Dock altogether to delete it. If you want to run an OS 9 application, things are slightly different. Let's put a hold on that one for now.

Finder is your main tool for negotiating around OS X. You can have multiple Finder windows, pretty handy for moving files between folders. Just type Cmd-N to get a new one. If you're elsewhere than Finder right now, click on a blank area of your desktop first in order to bring Finder to the foreground.

To rename a file, click its name and wait a moment for the editing cursor in the name field to appear. To copy a file, hold down the Option key while you drag the file someplace. To check a file's properties, select it, then type Cmd-I. To see other options for the selected file or folder, go Ctrl-Click. To delete a file, drag it into the Trash.

While we're at it, you can cut/copy/paste to and from the clipboard with Cmd-X, Cmd-C, and Cmd-V respectively in any editing context. TextEdit saves in Rich Text Format by default. Change this to plain text in its Preferences, once TextEdit is running. I also recommend checking Ignore Rich Text HTML so that you can edit html source if you need to sometime.

Changing icon views in a Finder window appears to be a pain. Not so, at least the first time. Bring Finder to the front again, and pull down View, Show View Options from the menu bar. Here you can set your global preferences, e.g. Keep arranged by Name, and the preferences for the current window, which normally should be the Use Global checkbox. Any new folders you create will inherit these settings. Any you don't won't.

Suppose you need a shell to unix. You need Terminal. It's hiding away in the Applications, Utilities folder. If you plan to use Terminal more than once, make yourself an alias for it in the Dock.

While we're hanging out in Utilities, you might also make an alias for StuffIt Expander, or you might like to download and install the latest version, free from Aladdin, into your Applications folder. Once you do, delete the older version in Utilities. The newer one explicitly becomes the default package for unpacking archive files, if you so choose. Very important. You need an Expander icon in the Dock for archives that may have been assembled under OS 9, as double-clicking these archives will call the OS 9 version of StuffIt. Instead, just drop the archives onto your Dock icon. They'll unpack in the same place they came from, usually your desktop.

So you don't care for the default menu bar clock? Pull down the Apple menu, System Preferences, Date & Time, Menu Bar Clock, and fix it to your liking. Or you can download the free Wclock applet and use it instead. Just make an alias for it in System Preferences, Login, Login Items after you've installed Wclock into your Applications folder, so that it starts automatically. Remember to disable the default clock; otherwise the two will superimpose.

You set your password when you installed OS X, but now you want to change it. I guardedly say, okay. Open System Preferences again, and select Login, Login Window. Change your password there. If you ever need unix root access, you'll need to change it there too, because the new password may not percolate down. To do that, open a Terminal shell, and enter the following command: sudo passwd in lower case. You'll have to type in your original password correctly before it prompts you for your new one. Note that as the computer's owner you must have system manager privileges. For more on this, see my earlier article entitled Desktop Security in my OS X Security series.

Suppose you forget your password altogether. Lucky for you, Apple included a Password Reset utility on the OS X installation CD. Insert your CD, then open a fresh Finder window. Open the CD, then the Applications, Utilities folder. Voila!

While we're here, open the folder Welcome To Mac OS X, Utilities, and copy Startup Disk and Disk First Aid into your Applications (Mac OS 9), Utilities folder, in case you boot to OS 9 some day and need 'em there. You will need Startup Disk to boot back to OS X. I keep a copy on my OS 9 desktop, so that it never gets "upgraded".

We've opened System Preferences quite a lot so far, and it's looking like it won't be the last time. System Preferences in OS X is actually an application. So, just like any application, you can open the Applications folder and make an alias for System Preferences in your Dock. I have mine right next to Finder.

So you've already made a couple of Dock aliases, but they don't stick between restarts. Alas, the alias! The key to a permanent alias is to have the application closed first before dragging it to the Dock. Usually the Dock will not let you add an alias for an already-opened application, but for sure you can move aliases around. Once an application is running, an alias for it appears in the dock automatically, and there is no way to tell the difference between one of these temporary aliases and a permanent one. It's something to keep in mind.

How do you tell if an application has stopped? A live Dock alias has a little arrow under it. Look for that. Merely closing an application window won't close the application itself. (You'd be thinking of that other operating system, I suspect, which behaves this way.) Cmd-N opens a new window in most applications.

Now that you have all of these applications running, you also have a traffic problem. You can hide an application with the Cmd-H sequence in any application.

You've already downloaded a couple of applications across the internet. What if you want to store the download archives, just in case? Good idea. Make an Archives folder in your root directory. To do that, open a Finder window, double-click your hard drive's icon, then press File, New Folder from the Finder menu bar. Give it the name Archives, and you're done. Now you can drag the archive from your desktop into it.

Your root folder is very important, and you really want to guard it jealously in OS X. Unlike classic Mac OS, the default location for installing new applications under OS X is the Applications folder. That's where they go, period. So far, every bona fide OS X application I've installed has gone there willingly.

Internet Explorer comes with OS X, but suppose it breaks. Then what? IE is integrated into your original OS X installation CD somehow. You may need to reinstall OS X to fix it. I for one find that interesting. The good news is that OS X respects your current settings and leaves them alone during a reinstall. Once you have it working, though, use Software Update from the System Preferences window to update it.

While Netscape Communicator isn't available for OS X nor does it look likely it ever will be, there are other browser options, assuming you have the first one (Internet Explorer) working alright. Some that come to mind are Mozilla, Netscape 6.x, Opera, and OmniWeb. All are downloaded as StuffIt archives, and should unpack themselves to your desktop nicely. You can clean up later. Most installations are just one or two steps, often merely dragging the application package into the Applications folder. Some of these packages are beta understandably, so your mileage may vary.

Finally, you are ready to check out security options. What now? I suggest a read of my earlier article entitled Mac Security for starters, and a leaf through my Mac OS X Security series for a more in-depth look. Meanwhile, don't let another moment pass before you download and install BrickHouse for OS X.

Perhaps a quick word on Classic Mode is in order before we part ways. Classic really requires separate treatment. For now, just know that OS X actually boots an OS 9 session within OS X, and runs OS 9 applications there. If Classic isn't already running when you double-click an OS 9 application, it will start automatically. Be aware that Classic does have some overhead. Imagine two computers running simultaneously inside your iMac. That's Classic.

So these are items I use on a daily basis. You will too. When you're ready, Apple has some good tutorials and resources available for various aspects of the OS X experience. You might also like to read my take on making the transition from OS 9 to OS X sometime. Later on you may care to reference some of my other articles in the Critical Mass column on various OS X topics. Thanks for stopping by. Ciao.