Appendix A. Mac OS X GUI Primer
If you’re a Unix Geek who’s new to Mac OS X, some of the terminology may not be that obvious. Although you know what most things do, you probably haven’t connected them with their street names. This short appendix gets you up to speed with what everything’s called, and provides some details on what each of them does.
Figure A-1 shows Mac OS X’s desktop. Each numbered item is explained in the following list:
Legend has it that the Apple menu almost didn’t survive the transition from the classic Macintosh operating system into Mac OS X, but that the cries of the faithful kept it there. This menu leads to more information about your Mac, quick access to Dock, Network, and System Preferences, as well as recently-opened documents and options for sleeping, restarting, and shutting down the system.
The menu bar is where the frontmost application’s menus appear. Unlike Windows and Linux desktops like GNOME and KDE whose menus are attached to individual windows, Mac OS X’s menu bar changes appearance and function based on which application is in the foreground.
Some parts of the operating system, including Bluetooth networking, AirPort, and your battery, install a menu extra in the rightmost side of the menu bar. Use these to check the status of these items and click the menu extra for a menu that lets you adjust things. Command-drag to rearrange your menu extras, or Command-drag an item off of the menu bar to consign it to oblivion (to bring it back, you’ll need ...
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