Mac OS X Pocket Reference | O'Reilly Media

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The first part of this book is intended to show those who are new to Mac OS X how to acclimate quickly to their new environment. For Windows and Unix users who are coming to Mac OS X, most everything will be new, while Mac OS users will have to adjust the most to relearn the Mac.

This part of the book will cover:

Changes to Mac OS X from Mac OS 9
Tips for Windows and Unix users who are new to Mac OS X

There are many noticeable changes in the user interface from earlier versions of the Mac OS to Mac OS X, while others may not be so apparent. Two of the biggest changes from Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X can be found in the Apple menu and the Control Panels.

The Apple menu, displayed as an apple symbol (

) in the menu bar, is completely different; you can no longer store aliases for files, folders, or applications there. Here's what you'll find in Mac OS X's Apple menu:

About This Mac: This option will only tell you information about your Mac. In earlier versions of the Mac OS, the About box would change depending on which application was active. For information about the application, you now have to use the application menu (located to the right of the Apple menu) and select the About option.
Get Mac OS X Software: Selecting this option will take you to Apple's Mac OS X software page ( http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/) in your default web browser.
System Preferences

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There are many noticeable changes in the user interface from earlier versions of the Mac OS to Mac OS X, while others may not be so apparent. Two of the biggest changes from Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X can be found in the Apple menu and the Control Panels.

The Apple menu, displayed as an apple symbol (

) in the menu bar, is completely different; you can no longer store aliases for files, folders, or applications there. Here's what you'll find in Mac OS X's Apple menu:

About This Mac: This option will only tell you information about your Mac. In earlier versions of the Mac OS, the About box would change depending on which application was active. For information about the application, you now have to use the application menu (located to the right of the Apple menu) and select the About option.
Get Mac OS X Software: Selecting this option will take you to Apple's Mac OS X software page ( http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/) in your default web browser.
System Preferences: System Preferences replaces most of the Control Panels from earlier versions of the Mac OS. See Section 3.1 later in this book for more details.
Dock: This menu offers a quick way to change settings for the Dock (described later).
Location: This is similar to the Location Manager Control Panel from earlier versions of the Mac OS; it allows you to change locations quickly for connecting to a network and/or the Internet.

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This section is intended as a quick reference guide for people who are coming to Mac OS X from a non-Mac platform (i.e., Windows and other Unix systems). We've tried to point out some key differences between your old platform and Mac OS X to help you acclimate yourself with the Mac that now sits before you.

The Mac user interface has only one menu bar—at the top of the screen—instead of one on each window. The menu bar's contents change depending on which application is currently active. The name of the application that's currently active appears in bold text next to the Apple menu.
The Apple menu, located at the far left of the menu bar, is roughly analogous to the Windows Start menu (although it doesn't list common utility programs).
The basic GUI control program, akin to the Windows Explorer or the Window Manager in Windows, is called the Finder. Clicking on its icon in the Dock (the blue smiley-face icon) brings up a Finder window, not the desktop as you might expect.
To find what Mac OS X applications you have on your system, click on the Applications icon in the Finder's toolbar.
To find out which Mac OS 9 applications you have on your system, click on Finder → Computer → Mac OS 9.2.2 → Applications (Mac OS 9).
The Command key ( ) provides many of the functions that you are used to having associated with the Control key. For example, use -C to copy, not Control-C;

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This part of the book will introduce you to the key features of the Mac OS X interface. Here we'll cover:

Window Controls
The Finder
Keyboard shortcuts
The Dock
Mac OS X and the Classic Environment
Users and Logging in Window Controls

Windows in Mac OS X have an entirely different set of controls than those from earlier versions of the Mac OS. These window features are highlighted in Figure 2-1.

Figure 2-1: Standard window controls in Mac OS X

The controls are defined as follows:

Close window button
Minimize window button
Zoom, or maximize, window button
Proxy icon
Filename
Scrollbars and scroll arrows
Window resize control

The following are some tips for working with windows:

Open a new window?: File → Open ( -O)
Close a window?: File → Close ( -W)
Close all open windows for an application?

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Windows in Mac OS X have an entirely different set of controls than those from earlier versions of the Mac OS. These window features are highlighted in Figure 2-1.

Figure 2-1: Standard window controls in Mac OS X

The controls are defined as follows:

Close window button
Minimize window button
Zoom, or maximize, window button
Proxy icon
Filename
Scrollbars and scroll arrows
Window resize control

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The following are some tips for working with windows:

Open a new window?: File → Open ( -O)
Close a window?: File → Close ( -W)
Close all open windows for an application?: Option-click on the close window button.

If there are changes that need to be saved in any of the windows being closed, you will be prompted to save the changes. Either hit Return to save the changes, or enter

-D to invoke the Don't Save button.

Minimize a window?: Window → Minimize Window ( -M)

Double-click on the window's titlebar.
Minimize all open windows for a single application?: Option- -M

Issuing Option-

-M in Microsoft Word (Office v.X) will open the Paragraph format window (Format

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In earlier versions of the Mac OS, the Finder could be found in the application menu, located at the far-right edge of the menu bar. The Finder was the application responsible for displaying the contents of a drive or folder; when double-clicked, a window would open, displaying either an Icon or List View of the contents. Functionally, Mac OS X's Finder really isn't that different from Mac OS 9's Finder. It is still responsible for displaying the contents of drives and folders; however, the Finder is much more powerful.

The Finder serves as a graphical file manager, which offers three ways (or Views) to look at the files, folders, and applications on your system. The Finder also sports a toolbar that allows you quick access to frequently used files and directories. More on the Finder toolbar later; for now, let's look at the three Views available to the Finder: Icon, List, and the new Column View.

Icon View

This shows the contents of a directory as either a file, folder, or application icon, as shown in Figure 2-2. Double-clicking on an icon will do one of three things: launch an application, open a file, or display the contents of a double-clicked folder in the Finder window.

Figure 2-2: The Finder in Icon View

Table 2-1 presents a list of keyboard shortcuts that can be used within the Finder's Icon View.

Table 2-1: Icon View's keyboard shortcuts
Key command	Description

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On the Mac (as with Windows and Linux desktops), you have two ways of invoking commands in the GUI: by using the menus or by issuing shortcuts for the commands on the keyboard. Not every menu item has a keyboard accelerator, but for the ones that do—the more commonly used functions—using the keyboard shortcuts can save you a lot of time.

Table 2-4 lists the common key commands found in Mac OS X. While most of these commands work across all applications, some, like

-B and

-I, can be different from program to program, and others may only work when the Finder is active. For example,

-B in Microsoft Word will turn on boldface type or make a selection bold, while in Project Builder,

-B will build your application. Likewise,

-I in Word will italicize a word or selection, while hitting

-I after selecting a file, folder, or application on the Desktop or in the Finder will open the Show Info window for the selected item.

Table 2-4: Common keyboard shortcuts
Task	Key command

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One way to think about the Dock is as part Finder, part Apple menu, and part Launcher from earlier versions of the Mac OS. The Dock, shown in Figure 2-7, holds application aliases, making it easy for you to launch a program quickly with a single mouse click. To launch an application in the Dock, simply click on its icon. While the application is starting, its icon will "bounce" in the Dock; afterward, a black triangle will appear below the icon to indicate that the application is active.

Figure 2-7: The Dock

To add an application icon to the Dock, simply drag its icon from the Finder to any location in the Dock and let go. To remove an application, click on the icon and drag it away from the Dock; the icon will disappear in a puff of smoke.

The Dock is also home to the Finder, System Preferences, Sherlock, and the Trash.

The Finder icon is permanently fixed to the left of the Dock (or on top if you've moved your Dock to the left or right of the screen). Likewise, the Trash is located at the far-right of the Dock (or at the bottom if your Dock is on the left or right). No matter how hard you try to grab and move them around, you can't. Also, you can't place an icon to the left of the Finder or to the right of the Trash.

Here are some helpful hints and tips for using and configuring your Dock:

Change the Dock's preferences?: → Dock → Dock Preferences

System Preferences → Dock
Add a program to the Dock?

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To help bridge the application gap between Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X, Apple has built a virtual machine that enables you to run older Mac software under Mac OS X in what's known as Classic. Classic (or the "Classic environment") looks and feels just like Mac OS 9. The only exception is that the applications that are run in Classic don't benefit from the features of Mac OS X, such as protected memory and its advanced printing capability. Additionally, some Control Panels (

→ Control Panels), such as Control Strip, Memory, and Remote Access, are disabled. Basically, when you're running Classic, you are running a slightly watered-down version of Mac OS 9 on top of Mac OS X with only a minor performance hit.

Until all Mac applications are compliant with Mac OS X, you will also need to install a version of Mac OS 9 (9.2.2, to be exact). During the installation process, you can either create a separate partition (or have a separate hard drive) for Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X, or you can install both operating systems on the same partition. Basically, you're creating a dual-boot system , which means you can boot your Mac into either OS. However, if you don't plan to run Classic applications, you won't need to install Mac OS 9.

If your computer came with Mac OS X preinstalled, Mac OS 9 will be preinstalled as well. It's worth noting that Apple places both Mac OS X and Mac OS 9 on the same partition of your hard drive. If you want the OSes on separate partitions, you will need to partition your hard drive and reinstall the system. In most cases, the biggest benefit of installing Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X on separate partitions is being able to choose a startup volume at boot up by holding down the Option key. Otherwise, you can choose which OS to boot using the Startup Disk Control Panel (Mac OS 9) or System Preferences → Startup Disk (Mac OS X).

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The ability to have multiple users on the same system was first introduced with Mac OS 9, but it wasn't mandatory as it is with Mac OS X.

Here are some helpful hints to assist you in managing your user account:

Configuring my login?: System Preferences → Login
Change my login password?: System Preferences → Users → username → Edit User → Password panel

Use the passwd command in the Terminal.

When choosing a password, you should avoid using dictionary words (i.e., common, everyday words found in the dictionary) or something that could be easily guessed. To improve your security, we recommend that you choose an alpha-numeric password. Remember, passwords are case-sensitive, so you can mix upper- and lowercase letters with your password as well.

Add another user to the system?: System Preferences → Users → New User (requires administrator privileges)

Unix administrators might be tempted to use the useradd , userdel, and usermod commands to add, remove, and modify a user, respectively, from the Terminal. The only problem is, you can't—those commands don't exist on Mac OS X.

Remove a user from the system?: System Preferences → Users →

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This part of the book introduces you to the various tools that accompany Mac OS X. The sections in this part are intended to provide an overview of the following:

System Preferences
Applications and Utilities
Developer Tools

Chapter 5 provides additional information about how to use and apply the System Preferences for configuring your system, as well as specific uses for some of Mac OS X's standard Applications and Utilities.

As mentioned earlier, Mac OS X's System Preferences perform many of the same functions as Mac OS 9's Control Panels. To launch the System Preferences application, simply click on the light-switch icon in the Dock, and the window shown in Figure 3-1 will appear.

Figure 3-1: The System Preferences window

As you'll notice, the System Preferences are broken down into four categories: Personal, Hardware, Internet & Network, and System. There is also a customizable toolbar at the top of the window, similar to the toolbar in the Finder window. If you find yourself using a particular System Preference often, drag its icon to the toolbar. Likewise, if there is one you use rarely (such as the Displays panel), drag the icon away, and the item will be removed from the toolbar.

When you click on one of the icons, the window will change to reflect that particular item's settings, but the toolbar will remain in place. To hide the toolbar, click on the transparent button in the upper-right corner of the window. To go back to the main view, click the Show All button (or use View → Show All, or

-L). When you've completed altering the settings of your computer, quit the System Preferences (System Prefs → Quit, or

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As mentioned earlier, Mac OS X's System Preferences perform many of the same functions as Mac OS 9's Control Panels. To launch the System Preferences application, simply click on the light-switch icon in the Dock, and the window shown in Figure 3-1 will appear.

Figure 3-1: The System Preferences window

As you'll notice, the System Preferences are broken down into four categories: Personal, Hardware, Internet & Network, and System. There is also a customizable toolbar at the top of the window, similar to the toolbar in the Finder window. If you find yourself using a particular System Preference often, drag its icon to the toolbar. Likewise, if there is one you use rarely (such as the Displays panel), drag the icon away, and the item will be removed from the toolbar.

When you click on one of the icons, the window will change to reflect that particular item's settings, but the toolbar will remain in place. To hide the toolbar, click on the transparent button in the upper-right corner of the window. To go back to the main view, click the Show All button (or use View → Show All, or

-L). When you've completed altering the settings of your computer, quit the System Preferences (System Prefs → Quit, or

-Q).

The next four sections provide an overview of the controls found in the System Preferences.

For additional information on how to use the System Preferences panels to configure your system, see the Section 5.1 later in the book.

Some of the System Preferences panels require administrator privileges. If you attempt to change a setting and are asked for a password, try using the password you used to log in to the computer. If that doesn't work, you will need to contact your system administrator for assistance.

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Apple has included a set of native applications and utilities for Mac OS X. There are applications for such things as viewing and printing PDF files, basic word processing, sending and receiving email, and creating movies, as well as utilities to help you manage your system.

Use the Finder to locate the Applications (Finder → Mac OS X → Applications) and Utilities (Finder → Mac OS X → Applications → Utilities) on your system. You can quickly go to the Applications folder either by clicking on the Applications icon in the toolbar or by using the Option-

-A keyboard shortcut. Since there is no keyboard shortcut to the Utilities, you might consider dragging the Utilities folder icon to the Finder toolbar.

The following is a list of the programs found in the Applications directory:

Acrobat Reader: This is Adobe Systems' application for viewing and printing PDF files.
Address Book: The Address Book is a database program that you can use to store contact information for your friends and colleagues. By selecting a name in your address book, you can quickly send that person an email by clicking on the Send Mail button.
AppleScript: This folder contains all of the tools necessary for writing AppleScripts. If you've downloaded or installed the Developer Tools (see later in this book), you will also have the ability to build applications using AppleScript Studio.
Calculator

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Apple has gone to great lengths to lure a new breed of developers to the Mac, offering environments for traditional C, C++, Objective-C (and recently Objective-C++), Java, and with the introduction of AppleScript Studio, AppleScripters can now harness their scripting knowledge to build Cocoa-based applications.

You can quickly check to see if you have the Developer Tools installed. If you have a /Developer folder on your hard drive, you are ready to go. If not, you'll need to install the tools either from the Developer Tools CD that came with your system or from a disk image you can download from the Apple Developer Connection (ADC) site.

The Developer Tools CD comes with every boxed set of Mac OS X (including Mac OS X Server), as well as with new Macs shipped from the factory with OS X. To install the tools, simply find the CD (it's the gray one), put it into your CD-ROM drive, and double-click the Developer.mpkg file that will appear.

If you didn't receive a Developer Tools CD with your new Mac, you may find Developer.mpkg in /Applications/Installers/Developer Tools.

If you can't find your Developer Tools CD, or if you received a Mac OS X upgrade package that didn't include it (some of the free OS X 10.0 to 10.1 packages only came with one CD), you should go to the ADC member web site at http://connect.apple.com and download them.

ADC Membership has its privileges. There are many levels of membership available. The free Online membership gets you a good range of benefits, including access to the latest version of the Developer Tools and the ability to track bugs that you submit. You can register free of charge for Online membership at http://connect.apple.com.

To download the Tools, log in to the ADC Member web site, click on Download Software in the navigation bar, and then on the Mac OS X subcategory link that appears. From this page you can download the Developer Tools either in segments or in one big chunk. If you download the Tools in segments, simply double-click on the first segment, and StuffIt will launch and put all the segments together into one file.

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This part of the book serves as a basic introduction to show new users how to use the Unix side of Mac OS X. Specifically, this section will cover:

Configuring and using the Terminal
Command-line editing with tcsh
Additional shell commands, like bindkey, defaults, and open
Basic Unix commands

The Terminal application (/Applications/Utilities) is your interface to Mac OS X's Unix shell. The Terminal can be used for everything from creating new directories (folders) and files to launching applications, and from managing and monitoring your system to programming and altering your system preferences.

This section offers advice on how to configure the settings for your Terminal:

Change the style of the cursor?: Terminal → Preferences → Text & Colors → Cursor Shape → (Block, Underline, Vertical Bar)
Stop the cursor from blinking?: Terminal → Preferences → Text & Colors → Options → Deselect Blinking Cursor
Change the background color and font colors of the Terminal window?: Terminal → Preferences → Text & Colors
Assign a different title to the Terminal window?: Terminal → Preferences → Window → Custom Title
Assign a different title to the current Terminal window?: With an open Terminal window, hit Shift-

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The Terminal application (/Applications/Utilities) is your interface to Mac OS X's Unix shell. The Terminal can be used for everything from creating new directories (folders) and files to launching applications, and from managing and monitoring your system to programming and altering your system preferences.

This section offers advice on how to configure the settings for your Terminal:

Change the style of the cursor?: Terminal → Preferences → Text & Colors → Cursor Shape → (Block, Underline, Vertical Bar)
Stop the cursor from blinking?: Terminal → Preferences → Text & Colors → Options → Deselect Blinking Cursor
Change the background color and font colors of the Terminal window?: Terminal → Preferences → Text & Colors
Assign a different title to the Terminal window?: Terminal → Preferences → Window → Custom Title
Assign a different title to the current Terminal window?: With an open Terminal window, hit Shift- -T (or Shell → Set Title). Select the Custom Title checkbox, and enter a new title in the text field.
Specify the number of lines a Terminal window can contain in the scrollback buffer?: Terminal → Preferences → Buffer → Scrollback Buffer

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Mac OS X's default shell, tcsh, lets you move your cursor around in the command line, editing the line as you type. There are two main modes for editing the command line, based on the two most commonly used text editors: Emacs and vi. Emacs mode is the default; you can switch between the modes with:

bindkey -e: Select Emacs bindings
bindkey -v: Select vi bindings

The main difference between the Emacs and vi bindings is that the Emacs bindings are modeless (i.e., they always work). With the vi bindings, you must switch between insert and command modes; different commands are useful in each mode. Additionally:

Emacs mode is simpler; vi mode allows finer control.
Emacs mode allows you to cut text and set a mark; vi mode does not.
The command-history-searching capabilities differ.

Table 4-2 through Table 4-4 describe the various editing keystrokes available in Emacs mode.

Table 4-2: Cursor-positioning commands (Emacs mode)
Command	Description
Control-B	Move the cursor back (left) one character
Control-F	Move the cursor forward (right) one character

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One of the first things that traditional Unix users will notice when they start poking around in the Terminal is that there are a few new commands they'll need to add to their repertoire. Three that we'll discuss here are bindkey, defaults, and open.

bindkey is a tcsh shell command, used to select, examine, and define key bindings for use in the Terminal. Table 4-13 shows the various uses of the bindkey command.

Table 4-13: Using the bindkey command
Command	Description
bindkey	List all of the key bindings
bindkey -c key cmd	Bind key to Unix command cmd
bindkey -d	Restore the default key bindings
bindkey -e	Change the key bindings to Emacs mode
bindkey key	List the bindings for key
bindkey key cmd	Bind key to editing command cmd
bindkey -l	List the editing commands and their meanings

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If you've never used Unix before, this section will serve as a quick introduction to issuing Unix commands from the Terminal. Experienced Unix users can probably skip over this section. For each of the following, you will need to be using the Terminal application. The commands you need to type are shown in bold.

View a command's description and its options?

All of the Unix commands on your system have a manual page (or manpage for short). To view the manpage for any command, you use the man command:

[localhost:~] chuck% man pwd

The instructions for using the pwd command (described next) is then displayed one screen at a time. If there is more than one screen for a command's description, you will see a percentage at the lower-left corner of the Terminal window telling you how much of the manpage has been viewed. To scroll to the next screen, hit the spacebar; you will be returned to the command prompt when you've reached the end of the manpage. The man command even has its own manpage, which can be viewed by using:

[localhost:~] chuck% man man

Where am I?

Type pwd on the command line, and hit Return; this will tell you the present working directory.

[localhost:~] chuck% pwd
/Users/chuck
[localhost:~] chuck%

Change directories?

Use the cd command:

[localhost:~] chuck% cd /Applications
[localhost:/Applications] chuck%

Go back a directory?

Use the cd command followed by two dots:

[localhost:/Applications] chuck% cd ..
[localhost:~] chuck%

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This final section of the book shows you how to configure and administer your Mac OS X system using the System Preferences and the Applications and Utilities that come with Mac OS X.

The book wraps up with a table that lists the special characters you can create from the keyboard.

After rooting through all of the System Preferences and looking at the Applications and Utilities that come with Mac OS X, you'll quickly find that there are literally hundreds of ways to configure the settings for your system. In some cases, we've provided instructions for how to perform tasks using the GUI tools and by issuing Unix commands in the Terminal. Which is faster or easier to use is up to you to decide (but you're likely to realize quickly that the power of Unix is unmatchable by most GUI tools).

This section provides shorthand instructions to help you configure and use your Mac OS X system as quickly as possible. Each task is presented as the answer to a "How do I . . . " question (e.g., How do I change the color depth of my display?), followed by the shorthand way to execute the answer (e.g., System Preferences → Display). We've divided the tasks into the following ten categories:

Customizing the System (Section 5.1.1)
Files and Folders (Section 5.1.2)
Fonts and Font Management (Section 5.1.3)
Searching for and Locating Files (Section 5.1.4)
Obtaining Information About the System (Section 5.1.5)
Internet, Web, and Email (Section 5.1.6)
Modems and Dial-Up Networking (Section 5.1.7)
Networking (Section 5.1.8)
Printer Configuration and Printing (Section 5.1.9)
Maintenance and Troubleshooting (Section 5.1.10)

If you're new to Mac OS X, or if you just want to jog your memory when you can't quite remember where a particular setting is located, then this is the place to start.

The following are options you can use to customize your system:

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After rooting through all of the System Preferences and looking at the Applications and Utilities that come with Mac OS X, you'll quickly find that there are literally hundreds of ways to configure the settings for your system. In some cases, we've provided instructions for how to perform tasks using the GUI tools and by issuing Unix commands in the Terminal. Which is faster or easier to use is up to you to decide (but you're likely to realize quickly that the power of Unix is unmatchable by most GUI tools).

This section provides shorthand instructions to help you configure and use your Mac OS X system as quickly as possible. Each task is presented as the answer to a "How do I . . . " question (e.g., How do I change the color depth of my display?), followed by the shorthand way to execute the answer (e.g., System Preferences → Display). We've divided the tasks into the following ten categories:

Customizing the System (Section 5.1.1)
Files and Folders (Section 5.1.2)
Fonts and Font Management (Section 5.1.3)
Searching for and Locating Files (Section 5.1.4)
Obtaining Information About the System (Section 5.1.5)
Internet, Web, and Email (Section 5.1.6)
Modems and Dial-Up Networking (Section 5.1.7)
Networking (Section 5.1.8)
Printer Configuration and Printing (Section 5.1.9)
Maintenance and Troubleshooting (Section 5.1.10)

If you're new to Mac OS X, or if you just want to jog your memory when you can't quite remember where a particular setting is located, then this is the place to start.

The following are options you can use to customize your system:

Change my desktop size/resolution, or the color depth of my display?: System Preferences → Displays → Display panel

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Included with Mac OS X is the Key Caps application (/Applications/Utilities), which is a keyboard widget that allows you to see which character would be created by applying the Shift, Option, or Shift-Option keys to any key on the keyboard. Key Caps also allows you to copy and paste the character you create into another application, such as Microsoft Word.

While this might seem useful, it can be a hassle to launch another app just to create one character and copy and paste it into another program. Fortunately, one of the most little-known/-used features of the Mac OS is its ability to give you the same functionality within any application—making Key Caps unnecessary if you know what you're doing. Table 5-1 lists these special characters. Keep in mind that this doesn't work for all font types, and some fonts such as Symbol, Wingdings, and Zapf Dingbats create an entirely different set of characters or symbols. For example, to create the symbol for the Command key (

), you would need to switch the font to Wingdings and type a lowercase z.

Table 5-1: Special characters and their key mappings
Normal	Shift	Option	Shift-Option
1	!	¡	/
2	@	™

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