Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Leopard Edition

Chapter 12. Safari & iChat

Apple is obviously intrigued by the possibilities of the Internet. With each new release of Mac OS X, more clever tendrils reach out from the Mac to the world’s biggest network.

But Apple’s most obvious Internet-friendly creation is Safari, a smartly designed window to the Web (available for both Mac OS X and, believe it or not, Windows). This chapter is all about Safari—the compass icon in the Dock points the way to your Internet adventure—and iChat, the unsung superstar of the chat-and-conferencing universe.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION: Where to Specify Your Preferred Mail and Browser Programs

Hey! Where the heck do I specify what browser I want to open when, say, I click a link in an email message?

This is going to sound a little odd. But to indicate that you want some other browser (like Firefox) to be your favorite, you start by opening Safari. Choose Safari→Preferences, click the General tab, and choose from the Default Web Browser pop-up menu.

You change email programs using the same twisted logic: You open Mail, and then open its Preferences.

If you’d rather set your default Web browser and email program (and RSS reader, and so on) from System Preferences, try RCDefaultApp, a free System Preference panel that’s about 50 times more powerful than the old Internet panel ever was. (You can download it from the “Missing CD” page at www.missingmanuals.com.)

Safari

If you want to get something done right, you have to do it yourself.

At least that must be what Apple ...