P O R T A B L E G E N I U S

MacBook®

by Brad Miser

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P O R T A B L E G E N I U S

MacBook®

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P O R T A B L E G E N I U S

MacBook®

by Brad Miser

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MacBook® Portable Genius

Published byWiley Publishing, Inc.10475 Crosspoint Blvd.Indianapolis, IN 46256www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-0-470-29169-6

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or byany means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permittedunder Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior writtenpermission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to theCopyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600.Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing, Inc.,10475 Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46256, (317) 572-3447, fax (317) 572-4355, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and the author make no representations orwarranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaimall warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may becreated or extended by sales or promotional materials.The advice and strategies contained herein may not besuitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged inrendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services ofa competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable fordamages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Web site is referred to in this work as a citationand/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses theinformation the organization of Web site may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readersshould be aware that Internet Web sites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between whenthis work was written and when it is read.

For general information on our other products and services or to obtain technical support, please contact ourCustomer Care Department within the U.S. at (800) 762-2974, outside the U.S. at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317)572-4002.

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Trademarks: Wiley and the Wiley Publishing logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley &Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. WileyPublishing, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

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About the Authorhas written more than 25 books, with his favorite topics being anything related

to Macintosh computers or starting with “i” such as iTunes, iPhones, and iPods. In

addition to MacBook Portable Genius, Brad has written Teach Yourself Visually MacBook; MacBook

Pro Portable Genius; My iPhone; Absolute Beginner’s Guide to iPod and iTunes; Sleeping with the

Enemy: Running Windows on a Mac; and Special Edition Using Mac OS X Leopard. He has also been a

co-author, development editor, or technical editor on more than 50 other titles.

Brad is or has been a solutions consultant, the director of product and customer services, and the

manager of education and support services for several software development companies.

Previously, he was the lead proposal specialist for an aircraft engine manufacturer, a development

editor for a computer book publisher, and a civilian aviation test officer/engineer for the U.S. Army.

Brad holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from California Polytechnic

State University at San Luis Obispo and has received advanced education in maintainability engi-

neering, business, and other topics.

In addition to his passion for silicon-based technology, Brad enjoys his steel-based technology,

motorcycles, whenever and wherever possible. Originally from California, Brad now lives in Indiana

with his wife Amy; their three daughters, Jill, Emily, and Grace; and a rabbit named Bun-Bun.

Brad would love to hear about your experiences with this book (the good, the bad, and the ugly).

You can write to him at bradmacosx@mac.com.

Brad Miser

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Senior Acquisitions EditorStephanie McComb

Project EditorChris Wolfgang

Technical EditorGriff Partington

Copy EditorMarylouise Wiack

Editorial ManagerRobyn B. Siesky

Vice President & Group Executive PublisherRichard Swadley

Vice President & PublisherBarry Pruett

Business ManagerAmy Knies

Senior Marketing ManagerSandy Smith

Project CoordinatorErin Smith

Graphics and Production SpecialistsAlissa D. Ellet

Jennifer Henry

Andrea Hornberger

Jennifer Mayberry

Quality Control TechnicianLaura Albert

ProofreadingMelissa D. Buddendeck

IndexingRebecca R. Plunkett

Credits

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The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought

not to deter us from the support of a cause we

believe to be just; it shall not deter me.

—Abraham Lincoln

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AcknowledgmentsStephanie McComb with whom this project had its genesis and who allowed me to

be involved. Chris Wolfgang deserves lots of credit for keeping the project on track

and on target; I’m sure working with me was a challenge at times. Griff Partington did a great job of

keeping me on my toes to make sure this book contains fewer technical gaffs than it would have

without his help. Marylouise Wiack transformed my stumbling, bumbling text into something peo-

ple can read and understand.Thanks also to my agent, Marta Justak, for managing the business of

the project and being a support for me during the writing process. Lastly, thanks to all the people

on the Wiley team who handle the other, and equally important, parts of the process, such as pro-

duction, sales, proofreading, and indexing.

On my personal team, I’d like to thank my wife Amy for her tolerance of the author lifestyle, which

is both odd and challenging. My delightful daughters Jill, Emily, and Grace are always a source of

joy and inspiration for all that I do, and for which I’m ever grateful.

Thanks to

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How Can I Use My Desktop SpaceEfficiently? 2

Setting Desktop Preferences 4

Setting Finder desktop icon preferences 4

Setting desktop pictures 4

chapter 1Working with the Dock 6

Configuring the Dock’s contents 8

Configuring and organizingapplication icons on the Dock 8

Configuring and organizing stacks on the Dock 9

Configuring the Dock’s appearance and behavior 10

Working with the Sidebar and Toolbar 12

Using and configuring the Sidebar 12

Using the Sidebar 13

Configuring the Sidebar 13

Using and configuring the Toolbar 14

Using the Toolbar 14

Configuring the Toolbar 15

Working with Exposé 16

Using Exposé to hide all open windows 16

Using Exposé to show thumbnails of open windows 17

Using Exposé to show thumbnails of an application’s open windows 18

Configuring Exposé keyboard shortcuts 19

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Using Desktop Spaces 20

Creating Spaces 21

Using Spaces 23

Using the Dashboard 25

Working with the Dashboard 25

Getting weather information with the Weather widget 26

Calculating with the Calculatorwidget 27

Tracking your days with the iCal widget 27

Managing widgets 27

Setting the Dashboard keyboard shortcut and hot corner 28

Configuring the widgets on theDashboard 29

Configuring installed widgets 30

Installing more widgets 30

Creating your own Web widgets 32

How Do I Manage User Accounts? 36

Creating and Managing User Accounts 38

Creating new Administrator or Standard user accounts 39

chapter 2

Limiting user accounts with ParentalControls 43

Restricting system resources for Managed user accounts 44

Restricting content for Manageduser accounts 45

Limiting e-mail and chats forManaged user accounts 46

Setting time limits for Managed user accounts 47

Setting Login Items for a user account 48

Creating Sharing Only user accounts 49

Creating Group user accounts 50

Changing user accounts 51

Deleting user accounts 51

Using Automatic Login 52

Configuring the Login Window 52

Working with Fast User Switching 53

Enabling Fast User Switching 53

Using Fast User Switching 53

Working with the Root User Account 54

Enabling the Root user account 54

Using the Root user account 55

How Can I Connect a MacBook to the Internet? 56

Setting Up a Local Network with InternetAccess 58

chapter 3

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Installing and configuring an AirPortExtreme Base Station 58

Installing an AirPort Extreme Base Station 58

Configuring an AirPort Extreme Base Station 59

Building a local network 64

Connecting to the Internet through a Wireless Network 64

Enabling AirPort 64

Connecting to wireless networks 65

Connecting to open wirelessnetworks 65

Connecting to closed wirelessnetworks 65

Connecting to the Internet with an Ethernet Connection 66

Connecting to the Internet with a WirelessBroadband Card 67

Obtaining a wireless broadband card 68

Installing and configuring a wirelessbroadband card 68

Managing Multiple Network Connections 70

Configuring network connections 70

Using locations to manage networkconnections 72

Creating locations 72

Changing locations 73

Changing or deleting locations 74

Troubleshooting an Internet Connection 74

Solving a network problem 74

Solving a MacBook Problem 76

None of these steps helped.Now what? 77

What Can I Do on a Local Network? 78

Sharing Files 80

Sharing your files with others 80

Configuring Sharing user accounts for your MacBook 80

Configuring file sharing on your MacBook 81

Accessing files shared with you 83

Using the Sidebar to access shared files 83

Accessing shared files using a URL 85

Sharing files with Windows PCs 86

Sharing files on a MacBook withWindows PCs 86

Accessing files on your MacBookfrom a Windows PC 87

Sharing files on a Windows PC with Macs 88

Accessing files on a Windows PCfrom your MacBook 89

Sharing Screens 89

Sharing MacBook with other Macs 90

Accessing another Mac from MacBook 91

Accessing a shared Mac by browsing 91

Accessing a shared Mac by address 91

Sharing a Mac’s screen 92

chapter 4

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Sharing Printers 93

Sharing USB printers connected to a base station 94

Sharing printers connected to a Mac 94

Sharing an Internet Connection 95

How Do I Take Advantage ofMobileMe? 98

Obtaining a MobileMe Account 100

Configuring a MobileMe account 101

Managing a MobileMe account 102

Working with an iDisk 103

Configuring and managing an iDisk 103

Using an iDisk 106

E-mailing from the Web 108

Using MobileMe Webmail 108

Setting Webmail preferences 109

Using MobileMe e-mail aliases 111

Creating e-mail aliases 111

Using e-mail aliases 112

Synchronizing Data 113

chapter 5

How Can I Manage ContactInformation? 116

Adding Contact Information to Address Book 118

Creating a contact manually 118

Importing vCards 120

Adding contact information from e-mail 121

Editing address cards 122

Working with Cards 122

Browsing for cards 122

Setting format and sort preferences 122

Browsing for cards with three panes 123

Browsing for cards with one pane 123

Searching for cards 123

Using card information 124

Organizing Cards with Groups 125

Creating groups manually 125

Creating smart groups 126

Changing groups 127

Synchronizing Contact Information with an iPhone 128

Printing from Address Book 130

chapter 6

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How Can I Go Beyond E-mail Basics with Mail? 132

Configuring E-mail Accounts 134

Configuring a MobileMe e-mail account 135

Configuring a POP e-mail account 136

Configuring an IMAP account 138

Configuring an Exchange account 140

Testing e-mail accounts 141

Working with File Attachments 141

Sending compressed files through e-mail 141

Preparing attachments for Windows users 142

Working with files you receive 143

Organizing E-mail 144

Using mailboxes to organize e-mail 144

Using smart mailboxes to organize your e-mail 145

Using smart mailbox folders to organize your smart mailboxes 146

Using the Junk Mail Tool in Mail 147

Configuring the Junk Mail tool 147

Managing spam with the Junk Mail tool 148

chapter 7Adding Signatures to E-mail 149

Automatically Managing E-mail with Rules 150

Working with RSS Feeds 152

Adding RSS feeds to Mail 152

Configuring RSS preferences 153

Reading RSS feeds 153

How Can I Communicate with iChat? 154

Configuring iChat 156

Configuring iChat with the Assistant 156

Configuring iChat with preferences 157

Setting General preferences 157

Setting Account preferences 158

Setting Messages preferences 159

Setting Alerts preferences 160

Setting Audio/Video preferences 160

Setting Up and Working with Chat Buddies 161

Working with the AIM Buddy List 162

Adding chat buddies 162

Creating a buddy in iChat 162

Adding someone from your Address Book as a buddy 163

Chatting with Text 164

Requesting a text chat 164

Responding to a text chat invitation 165

Chatting with more than one person 165

chapter 8

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Chatting with Audio 166

Chatting with Video 167

Sharing Desktops During a Chat 168

Accessing a desktop being shared with you 169

Sharing your desktop with someone else 171

Sharing a Document During a Chat 171

Chatting On 172

How Can I Get the Most from the Web? 174

Setting, Organizing, and Using Bookmarks 176

Setting bookmarks 176

Setting bookmarks preferences 176

Organizing bookmarks 177

Using bookmarks 179

Using Tabs to Browse 179

Configuring tabbed browsing in Safari 179

Using tabs 180

Opening many Web pages with one click 181

Searching the Web 181

Downloading Files 183

chapter 9

Using AutoFill to Quickly Complete Web Forms 184

Preparing AutoFill 184

Using AutoFill 185

Saving and E-mailing Web Pages 186

Saving Web pages 186

E-mailing links to Web pages 187

E-mailing Web pages 187

Using Firefox to Surf the Web 189

Downloading and installing Firefox 189

Browsing with Firefox 190

Setting and organizing bookmarks in Firefox 191

Browsing with Firefox tabs 193

Configuring Firefox tabs 193

Using Firefox tabs 193

How Can I Manage My TimeEffectively with iCal? 194

Setting Up iCal 196

Creating Calendars in iCal 197

Adding Events to Calendars 197

Creating and Completing To Do Items 200

Adding To Do items to a calendar 200

Managing To Do items 200

chapter 10

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Working with Calendars on Your MacBook 202

Viewing calendars, events, and To Do items 202

Printing calendars 203

Publishing and Subscribing to Calendars 204

Publishing calendars 204

Publishing calendars through MobileMe for iCal users 204

Publishing calendars for non-iCal users 205

Subscribing to published calendars 207

Subscribing to public calendars 208

Moving iCal Calendars to an iPhone 208

How Can I Make Sure I Don’t Run Out of Battery Power? 210

Monitoring Battery Status 212

Configuring the Battery menu 212

Keeping track of power levels 212

Making the Battery Last Longer 213

Using the Energy Saver 213

Using a standard power setting 214

Customizing power settings 214

Adopting low energy habits 217

chapter 11

Powering MacBook while Traveling 218

Powering MacBook with multiplebatteries 218

Packing a power travel kit 219

How Can I Control MacBook More Effectively? 220

Using the MacBook Trackpad 222

Using the MacBook Keyboard 224

Configuring the keyboard 224

Configuring the keyboard’s languagesettings and the Input menu 225

Using keyboard tricks 227

Controlling your MacBook withfunction keys 227

Controlling your MacBook withdefault keyboard shortcuts 227

Configuring keyboard shortcuts 228

Creating your own applicationkeyboard shortcuts 229

Navigating with the keyboard 230

Using the Input menu 232

Using the Character Palette 232

Using the Keyboard Viewer 234

Configuring Bluetooth on a MacBook 234

chapter 12

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Adding a Bluetooth Mouse 236

Pairing a Bluetooth mouse with MacBook 236

Configuring a Bluetooth mouse 237

Adding a Bluetooth Keyboard 238

Pairing a Bluetooth keyboard withMacBook 238

Configuring a Bluetooth keyboard 239

How Do I Make Better Use ofMacBook Audio? 240

Getting Sound Out of a MacBook 242

Understanding sound output options 242

Using external speakers 242

Connecting an analog speaker system 243

Connecting a digital speaker system 243

Controlling sound output 244

Working with Sound Effects 246

Configuring sound effects 246

Using your own alert sounds 247

Creating an alert sound 247

Adding an alert sound for a specific user 250

Adding an alert sound for all users 250

chapter 13

Getting Sound into a MacBook 251

Recording sound with the MacBookinternal microphone 252

Configuring the internalmicrophone 252

Recording sound with the internalmicrophone in iMovie 253

Recording sound with a USB headset 254

Configuring a USB headset 255

Using a USB headset 256

Recording sound with a video camera 256

Recording sound from externalmicrophones and musical instruments 257

How Do I Print with MacBook? 258

Connecting to USB Printers 260

Installing a USB printer 260

Configuring a USB printer 260

Connecting to Network Printers 262

Installing a network printer 262

Configuring a network printer 263

Printing Wirelessly 265

Configuring AirPort Extreme Base Station to share a printer 265

Connecting to a USB printer connected to an AirPort Extreme Base Station 266

chapter 14

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Managing Print Jobs 267

Configuring print jobs with the Print dialog 267

Managing print jobs with the Print Queue 269

Printing to PDF 271

Creating PDF Files 271

How Do I Add More Data Storage? 274

Using External Hard Drives 276

Installing an external hard drive 276

Using Disk Utility to prepare an external hard drive 277

Working with external hard drives 280

Maintaining hard drives 280

Managing a hard drive’s free space 280

Using Activity Monitor to check a drive’s available space 281

Using Disk Utility to check or repair an external drive 282

Erasing an external hard disk with Disk Utility 284

Using Disk Utility to check or repair the internal drive 285

Defragmenting and optimizing hard disks 287

chapter 15

Using an iPod as an External Drive 287

Configuring an iPod Classic as a hard drive 288

Configuring an iPod shuffle as a drive 288

Working with an iPod as a hard drive 289

Working with Flash Drives 290

Connecting a flash drive 290

Preparing a flash drive 290

How Can I Protect MacBook? 292

Keeping Software Current 294

Keeping Apple software current 294

Updating Apple software manually 294

Updating Apple software automatically 295

Viewing installed updates 296

Keeping non-Apple software current 297

Updating Microsoft Officeapplications manually 297

Updating Snapz Pro X automatically 298

chapter 16

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Protecting MacBook from Internet Attacks 298

Using a base station to shield yourMacBook 298

Using the Mac OS X firewall to shield your MacBook 299

Protecting MacBook with General Security 300

Protecting Data with Time Machine 302

Preparing a backup disk 302

Backing up with Time Machine 303

Restoring files with Time Machine 304

Restoring files in the Finder 304

Restoring files in applications 306

Protecting Data with Backup from Apple 307

Downloading and installing Backup 307

Backing up with Backup 308

Managing backups in Backup 311

Restoring files with Backup 311

Protecting Data with Encryption 312

Protecting Information with Keychains 315

Viewing and configuring your keychains 316

Adding items to a keychain 317

Working with keychains 319

How Do I Solve MacBook Problems? 320

chapter 17

Looking for Trouble 322

Understanding and Describing Problems 324

Recognizing user errors 325

Recognizing software problems 325

Hangs 325

Unexpected quits 326

Unexpected behavior 326

Describing problems 326

Fast and Easy Solutions 327

Forcing applications to quit 328

Forcing the Finder to relaunch 328

Restarting 329

Shutting down soft 330

Shutting down hard 330

Logging in under a troubleshooting user account 330

Repairing external hard drives 332

Repairing the internal hard drive 332

Repairing permissions 333

Reinstalling applications 333

Starting up from an alternate startupexternal drive 335

Starting up from the Mac OS Xinstallation disc 335

Getting Help with MacBook Problems 336

Getting help from the Mac Help system 336

Describing a problem in detail 336

Profiling a MacBook 336

Monitoring MacBook activity 338

Capturing screenshots 339

Getting help from others 340

Trying Harder or More- Expensive Solutions 341

Reinstalling Mac OS X 341

Melting and repouring 342

Index 344

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its distinctive silver metallic finish to its backlit keyboard, dazzling display, and invit-

ing design, a MacBook is amazing technology that looks as great as it works. Running

Mac OS X and including lots of amazing software, MacBooks let you do more out of the box more

easily than any other computer. In fact, MacBooks do so much, it is easy to overlook some of the

great things they can do.That’s where this book comes in.

While you probably already know how to turn your MacBook on, you might not know how to use

Spaces to create virtual working spaces on the desktop so that you can keep many applications

and windows open at the same time and move among them easily. While you likely know how to

use the trackpad to point to objects on the screen to select them, you might not know how to cre-

ate your own keyboard shortcuts for just about any command in any application that you use.

While you have probably browsed the Web before, you might not have taken advantage of some

of Safari’s really cool, but not so obvious, features to make your travels on the Web better.

The purpose of this book is to provide a resource for you when you are wondering how to do

something better, how to do it more easily, or even how to do it at all.You’ll find that each chapter

is organized around a question.Within each chapter are answers to its question; these answers are

task-focused so you learn by doing rather than by just reading. The steps you’ll find are very spe-

cific and hopefully, quite complete; if you start at step 1 and work through each step in sequence,

you’ll end up someplace you want to go.Thus, the book’s title of Portable Genius; it is intended to be

your companion to guide you on your in-depth exploration of your MacBook. Once you’ve been

through a topic’s steps, you’ll be prepared to go even further by extending what you’ve learned to

other tasks.

xx

From

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xxi

Introduction

We’ve designed this book to provide a broad range of topics in which most MacBook users will be

interested. There’s no particular order to the topics in this book so you can jump to any chapter

without having read the preceding ones. To get started, I recommend that you take a look at the

table of contents and decide which question you’d like to have answered first. Turn to the appro-

priate page and off you go!

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How Can I Use MyDesktop SpaceEfficiently?

1

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

Your MacBook desktop is the area that is displayed on its screen. Like a phys-

ical desktop, you place things (in this case, windows) “on top” to focus your

attention on them and use their content. As you work, your desktop naturally

becomes cluttered with windows for applications, documents, and system

tools. Keeping control of all these windows can help you make the most of

your MacBook desktop space. The good news is that it’s a lot easier to keep

your MacBook desktop neat and tidy than it is a real desktop, and you don’t

need even need a dust rag.

Setting Desktop Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Working with the Dock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Working with the Sidebar and Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Working with Exposé . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Using Desktop Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Using the Dashboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

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Setting Desktop PreferencesYou can configure your desktop so it appears the way you want it to. You can control some of the

icons that appear on it by default, and you can configure the image that fills your desktop.

Setting Finder desktop icon preferencesBy default, icons for your MacBook hard drive, external hard drives, DVDs and CDs, and servers

appear on the desktop.This is okay if that is your preference, but they take up space on the desktop

that isn’t really necessary because you can get to these elements even more easily by opening a

Finder window and using the Sidebar.To hide these icons, perform the following steps:

1. Choose Finder ➪ Preferences. The Finder Preferences dialog appears.

2. Click the General tab if it isn’t

selected already.

3. Uncheck each check box if you don’t

want to see the icon for items of that

type on your desktop. For example, to

hide the icon for the MacBook hard disk,

uncheck the Hard disks check box (see

figure 1.1). As you uncheck the check

boxes, the related icons disappear from

your desktop.

Setting desktoppicturesI confess that this section has nothing to do

with efficiency whatsoever. However, there’s

more to life than being efficient. Since you

stare at your desktop so much, you might as

well have something interesting to look at,

which is where desktop pictures come in.

You can set any image to be your desktop picture.The images you can use as your desktop include

the default images that are included with Mac OS X, image files you create or download from the

Internet, and, best of all, photos from your iPhoto Library. You can also configure your MacBook so

that the desktop picture changes over time to keep it even more interesting.

4

MacBook Portable Genius

1.1 If you uncheck the four check boxes in the

Show these items on the Desktop section, your

desktop immediately becomes less cluttered.

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To configure your desktop pictures, perform the following steps:

1. Open the Applications folder and double-click the System Preferences icon. The

System Preferences application opens.

2. Click the Desktop & Screen Saver icon. The Desktop & Screen Saver pane appears.

3. Click the Desktop tab. The Desktop picture tools appear. On the lower-left side of the pane

are the sources of images from which you can select pictures for your desktop, such as black

and white images, abstract pictures, or photographs from your iPhoto albums.

5

Chapter 1: How Can I Use My Desktop Space Efficiently?

You can use any folder as a source of desktop pictures by clicking the Add (+) button

located at the bottom of the source list. Use the resulting dialog to move to and

select the folder containing the images you want to use.

4. Choose a source of images in the left pane of the window, such as an iPhoto album.

Thumbnails of the images in that source appear in the right pane of the window.

5. Click the image that you want to apply to the desktop. The image fills the desktop and

you see it in the image well at the top of the Desktop pane (see figure 1.2).

1.2 Here, I’ve selected an event called yosemite, and I can see the photos associated with that event.

Genius

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6. If the selected source is iPhoto Albums, use the pop-up menu at the top of the window

to choose how you want photos to be scaled to the screen.

7. If the image doesn’t fill the screen, click the Color button that appears to the right of

the menu when it can be used.

8. When it appears, use the Color Picker to choose the background color that appears

behind photos when they don’t fill the desktop.

9. To have the image change automatically, check the Change picture check box.

10. On the pop-up menu, choose how often you want the picture to change.

11. If you want images to be selected randomly instead of by the order in which they

appear in the source, check the Random order check box. A new image from the

selected source is applied to the desktop according to the timing you selected.

12. To have the menu bar be translucent so you can see the desktop picture behind it,

check the Translucent Menu Bar check box. With this option unchecked, the menu bar

becomes a solid color.

13. Quit the System Preferences application. Enjoy your desktop!

Working with the DockThe Dock is an important part of your desktop space. By default, it appears at the bottom of the

desktop, but you can control many aspects of its appearance, where it is located, and, to a great

degree, how it works. The Dock is organized into two general sections. The area to the left of the

application/document separation line (the white, dashed line) contains application icons. On the

right side of the line, you see icons for documents, folders, minimized Finder, document, or mini-

mized application windows, and the Trash/Eject icon.

6

MacBook Portable Genius

When you empty the Trash, the icon returns to a more pristine state.When you select

an ejectable item, such as a DVD, the Trash icon changes to the Eject symbol.You can

drag a disc or other ejectable item onto the icon to eject it.Note

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When folders appear on the Dock, they

become stacks by default. When you click a

stack, it pops up into a fan or appears as a grid

(depending on how many items are in the

folder) so that you can work with items it con-

tains (see figure 1.3). You can disable this fea-

ture for any folder so that it behaves more like

a normal folder (more on that shortly).

The Dock performs the following functions:

Shows running applications.

Whenever an application is running, you

see its icon on the Dock. A small glowing

light is located at the bottom of every

running application’s icon.

Enables you to open applications,

folders, minimized windows, and doc-

uments quickly.

Enables you to quickly switch among

open applications and windows.

7

Chapter 1: How Can I Use My Desktop Space Efficiently?

1.3 Clicking a folder’s (or stack’s) icon on the

Dock causes it to fan out.

To move between applications quickly, press Ô+Tab or Ô+Shift+Tab.The Application

Switcher appears. Click an icon to move into the associated application, or keep press-

ing the keys to cycle through the list; when you release the keys, you move into the

selected application.

Gets your attention. When an application needs your attention, its icon bounces on the

Dock until you move into that application and handle whatever the issue is.

Enables you to customize its appearance and function. You can store the icon for any

item (applications, folders, and documents) on the Dock.You can control how the Dock

looks, including its size, whether it is always visible, where it is located, and which applica-

tions, folder, and documents appear on it.

Genius

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Two icons on the Dock are unique and are always on the Dock: the

Finder and the Trash. When you click the Finder icon (anchored on the

left end of a horizontal Dock or at the top of a vertical one), a Finder

window opens if none is currently open. The Trash icon is where all

folders and files go when their time is over. When the Trash contains

files or folders, its icon includes crumpled paper so that you know the

Trash is full (see figure 1.4).

Unlike open applications, open documents don’t automatically appear

on the Dock. Document icons appear on the Dock only when you add

them to the Dock manually or when you have minimized a document’s

window. When you minimize a window, by default the window moves

into the Dock using the Genie Effect; it is pulled down into the Dock

and becomes an icon that is a thumbnail view of the window. To open (or maximize) a minimized

window, click its icon on the Dock, and it is pulled back onto the desktop.

8

MacBook Portable Genius

When you hide an application, its open windows do not appear on the Dock.The hid-

den application’s icon continues to be marked so that you know that the application

is running. You can open a hidden application’s Dock menu to jump into one of its

open windows.

Configuring the Dock’s contentsThe Dock gets even more useful when you organize it to suit your preferences.You can move icons

around the Dock, add more applications to it, remove applications that are currently on it, and add

your own folders and documents to it so that

they are easily accessible.

Configuring and organizingapplication icons on the DockTo add an application’s icon to the Dock, sim-

ply drag it from a Finder window and drop it

onto the location on the Dock where you want

it to be stored (see figure 1.5). Application

icons must be placed on the left side of the

dividing line. When you add an application

icon to the Dock, an alias to the application is

created; like the default application icons, you

can click the icon to open the application and

Ctrl+click its icon to open its Dock menu.

1.5 Because I frequently use Firefox, I’ve added its

icon to my Dock.

1.4 At least this trash

doesn’t smell when it is

full.

Note

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