If you’ve just bought yourself a shiny new Apple Mac computer, you’re probably wondering “How do I use it? Is it anything like Windows?” By and large, you’ll find that the Mac OS X operating system shares a lot of similarities with Windows – all the basic conventions like icons, desktop, shortcuts (Apple calls them “aliases”), windows, menus, Trash, etc. all work pretty much the same.
However, Mac OS X also has its own distinct personality quirks & features. The current version of the operating system – 10.4, also known as “Tiger” – was released in April 2005. Its stand out features are listed here:
- Spotlight
- Dock
- Sidebar
- Smart Folders
- Expose
- Dashboard
This article, which I’ll be presenting in two parts, aims to cover most of Mac OS X’s unique features & methodology, and in particular how to use them to your advantage.
Part 1 which follows will cover Spotlight, the system-wide search feature, as well as the Dock & Sidebar. Part 2 will cover Smart Folders, Exposé and Dashboard.
Spotlight
Spotlight is the Mac’s system-wide Search feature, which created a b ig splash when Tiger was first released in 2005. With it, you can search not only for files or programs by name, but you can also search for almost anything else that has anything to do with that name, like Address Book contacts, Mail messages, iCal events and lots more.
Actually, there’s a bit of debate over who came up with the idea first – Apple & Microsoft were both working on the concept for their upcoming operating systems. Search exists on Vista as well as Tiger, and the feature works very well on both, but there’s no denying that Apple were first to the party.
To use Spotlight, you start by clicking on the blue magnifying glass in the top-right corner of your screen and start typing. Spotlight will immediately start returning search results as you type, sorting them by Kind. When you see your results appear, just highlight the one you want, or select “Show All” to see every result.
Spotlight technology permeates throughout the whole operating system. You’ll find that almost any window you open has a textbox in the top right corner with a little magnifying glass in it. Type your words here, and Spotlight will do its thing.
The Dock and Sidebar
The Dock in Mac OS X works a bit like the Taskbar in Windows, but more fluid. It shows what programs are currently running (shown by a little black marker), and also contains shortcuts to things that you make use of most frequently. Items on the left of the dividing line are applications, and items on the right are anything else – Files, folders, servers, whatever.
To customise it, just drag icons onto it, or off it. Drag an icon along the dock to rearrange its order. Drag the dividing line to make the Dock bigger or smaller. A word of reassurance: When something is dragged off the Dock or Sidebar, it disappears in a puff of smoke. Don’t worry! You haven’t deleted anything – just the shortcut. The original item is still safe
If you want to change the way the Dock behaves, select ‘Dock’ from the Apple Menu, or just right-click the dividing line.
The Sidebar, which can be found on the left side in all Finder windows and Save dialogs, works pretty similar to the Dock in that it keeps shortcuts to files and places you use most often. You customise it the same way, by dragging icons onto it and off it.
Stay tuned for Part 2, where we’ll be highlighting some more of Tiger’s nifty features! Please stick around and check out some other articles at Inspect My Gadget.