[Type here] Moving to the Mac A GUIDE FOR NEW USERS OF MAC OS X This guide is aimed at those who are new to using Mac s. It assumes that you have prior knowledge of using a computer, probably a PC. The aim is to introduce the main differences and to highlight some of the basic elements of the Mac operating system Last updated 14 July 2015 This document and other Information Services documents are held online on our website: https://staff.brighton.ac.uk/is
University of Brighton Information Services Contents The Apple Menu... 3 The Dock... 4 The Finder... 4 The Title / Menu Bar... 8 Searching in OS X... 9 System Preferences... 9 Setting up your mouse... 9 General Use...10 7.1.1 Cut, Copy and Paste...10 7.1.2 Saving documents from within Applications...10 7.1.3 Ejecting CDs, Memory sticks, External Hard Drives etc....11 7.1.4 Viewing PDF files and Images...11 7.1.5 Switching between open applications...11 The Dashboard...12 The Launchpad...13 University Specific Network Locations...14 Useful Links...14 Page 2 14 th July 2015
Moving to the Mac The Apple Menu One of the first things you may miss is the Windows Start button in the bottom left. In Mac OS X, the equivalent functionality can be found in a combination of the Apple Menu and the Dock. The Apple menu can be revealed by clicking on the apple icon at the extreme left of the Title bar. About This Mac displays some basic technical information about your Mac. Software Update... will check for updates to your operating system and other Apple software installed on your computer, and App Store... will display the Apple App Store where you can purchase (some software is available free) and download software. Note that we don t recommend that you download Apps onto a university computer in case they interfere with other applications. left). System Preferences... will bring up the System Preferences dialogue box. This is the Mac equivalent of the Windows Control Panel and is where you can set all of your hardware and software preferences. We will return to this again later. This Panel can also be launched by clicking the System Preferences icon in the Dock (as shown on the Dock gives you direct access to setup and display options for the collection of items that appear along the bottom of your desktop. This collection is known as The Dock. Location allows you to select different network locations (For instance, if you have a laptop you might have set up different network configurations for Work and Home locations). This setting is usually set to Automatic. Force Quit... Sometimes you may find that an application freezes and you can t do anything with it, or even close it. This is when you would select Force Quit... A dialogue box opens listing all the applications currently running. Select the one that has frozen and click the Force Quit button. This dialogue can also be opened with a keyboard shortcut hold down the Cmd ( ), Alt ( ) and Esc keys together. Sleep, Restart and Shutdown allow you to put your Mac into Sleep mode (for instance, if you are going to be away from your desk for a while, but don t want to turn it off altogether), restart your computer, or shut it down. Printed Thursday, 30 July 2015 Page 3
University of Brighton Information Services The Dock The row of icons along the bottom of your screen is called the Dock. It contains several very useful shortcuts and is divided into two areas, separated by a dotted line. To the left of this line are icons that you can click to launch your applications. To the right of the line are stack icons, icons for any minimised applications you have open and the Trashcan. Application icons The dotted line Minimised application Trashcan Applications Documents Downloads Stack stack stack Application icons Some but not all of your applications will have shortcut icons in the Dock. When an application is open, a light appears below its icon (see the example under the Outlook icon above). If you add icons to the dock for all the applications you regularly use, you can launch them easily with a single click. To add an icon to the dock, click on the Applications Stack in the dock; this will open a pane containing icons of all your installed software. Click on the icon you want to add, hold down the mouse button and drag it down to a position of your choice on the Dock. To remove an icon, simply click on it, hold down the mouse button, drag it away from the dock and drop it on the desktop. Note: This does not remove or delete the software; it merely removes the shortcut icon from the Dock. Stacks are collections of related icons that are revealed when you click each icon. Stacks you are likely to see include an icon for your Applications folder, your Documents folder and the files you have recently downloaded. Try clicking on each stack to see the contents. Minimised application windows if you have minimised any applications or document windows, a small thumbnail image of the window will appear in the Dock. Just click on the thumbnail to bring the window back to size, as you would with the Task bar in Windows. The Trash Can the Trash Can on the Mac has a dual purpose. As well as dragging documents you want to delete to the Trash Can, you also use it to eject CDs, USB keys and other items when you have finished using them see Ejecting CDs later. The Finder The Finder is the Mac equivalent of the Windows Explorer window and is where you can navigate to any folder or file stored on your Mac. Page 4 14 th July 2015
Moving to the Mac You can open the Finder by clicking on its icon in the Dock (shown right). The finder window is split into several areas. The title bar shows the name of the current folder displayed, as well as a set of icons for changing how files are displayed. The left hand column has a list of links to Favourite locations: such as your own folder, your documents and the applications folder and desktop. Under Devices there is a link to the entire hard drive (equivalent to C: drive on the PC) and any other connected devices, such as cameras, CDs, USB data sticks. The main pane on the right is where the files that are in the selected folder are displayed. There are several different ways that you can display your files. The above view is for Icons Only. Icons List Columns Cover Flow Sort options The icons in image are used to change the your files displayed. the above way are The Icons buttons will display just Icons with the filename below. The List button displays the files as a list (as in the graphic above). Folders have a small right-pointing triangle to the left of them. Click this to expand that folder and see the list of files it contains. Click it again to close that folder. Printed Thursday, 30 July 2015 Page 5
University of Brighton Information Services The Columns button give you a list view but in columns. If you click on a folder in Column 1, its contents are listed in Column 2. If you click on a folder in Column 2, its files and folders will be displayed in Column 3, and so on. The Cover Flow button splits the main pane into an upper and lower window. The upper window displays a Cover Flow like view. If you have used itunes or an ipod, you may be familiar with this more graphical way of presenting your files. It displays your files as if they were on a carousel, and you can rotate the carousel by: 1. Clicking on a file on the carousel with the mouse 2. Use the Arrow keys on the keyboard to rotate the files left or right 3. Slide the slider underneath the carousel The file immediately at the front of the carousel is the current, selected file and will be highlighted in the text list of files displayed in the lower window. The final Sort options button reveals a drop-down menu, as seen above, and gives you many different options for how to sort the displayed files. Above it is set to None. There are two more buttons available above the main pane. These are the Quick View button (with the eye) and the Settings icon (with the cog). To quickly view the contents of a file, be it an image or a document, simply select the file in any available view and click the Quick View button. It will quickly open a preview of the file for you. Simply press the Esc key on the top left of your keyboard to close it. This is a really useful way to simply check the contents of a file before selecting it to open in an application. Tip: A really useful shortcut to Quick View is to simply press the space bar on your keyboard this will open the currently selected file in Quick View. The Settings (cog) icon drops down a menu when selected and offers quite a few functions: Create a new folder Move selected files to Trash Get information about the selected file Burn the current folder / file to a CD or DVD Copy, duplicate or create a shortcut to a file / folder Send file as an email attachment, and more Minimise Close Maximise The remaining icons on the top left of the Finder window are three coloured circles, as above. These are the equivalent of the icons you find at the top of all Windows on a PC (but confusingly, they are on the right hand side on Page 6 14 th July 2015
Moving to the Mac a PC). As on a Windows PC, these controls appear on every window, not just the Finder. The Red circle will close the current window. IMPORTANT: Unlike when you click the X icon on a Windows PC, this does not close the application, it merely closes the window and whatever document was displayed in it, the application itself is still running. To fully close a Mac application, you need to click on the application s main menu (named the same as the application, eg Word) on the Mac title bar, right at the top of your screen, and click on the Quit {Application} option (see the Word example on the right). You can also use the Cmd ( ) + Q keyboard shortcut. The Yellow Circle will minimise the window. This leaves the window open but removes it from the desktop. You can restore the Window by: 1. Clicking on the Application s icon in the Dock, or... 2. Clicking on the minimised icon of the window to the left of the trashcan on the right of the Dock. The Green circle will maximise the window and show as much of the document / image as possible within the boundaries of your screen resolution. IMPORTANT: The documents folder listed in the left hand column of the Finder (see right) is the Mac equivalent of the My Documents folder on a Windows PC. This is the default location for applications to save your documents into. It can be accessed from the Finder by clicking the Documents link on the left of the window, or you can click your User Name link on the left and see all your personal default folders on your Mac. These include Documents, Pictures, Music, Movies etc. All applications installed on your Mac can be found in the Applications folder. This can be displayed by clicking on the Application link in the Finder or by clicking on the Applications Stack icon on the right of the Dock. The Applications stack is the one on the far left with an A on it, Printed Thursday, 30 July 2015 Page 7
University of Brighton Information Services The Title / Menu Bar We have already mentioned the Title Bar in previous examples, so we now know that this is where we need to go to close down our applications. Simply clicking on the red Close window button in an application window will only close that window, NOT the application. This is very different to Windows applications where the menus for a piece of software are attached to the applications main window. On the Mac, the applications windows float free of their Title / Menu bar, which always appears at the top of the screen. Try this: If you have more than one application open, you can click on the application windows and observe how the title bar changes to the specific menus for the active application. The name of the active application always appears as the first menu to the right of the Apple menu, for example Outlook in the figure above. On the right hand side of the Title Bar there are some information and status icons. Not all the icons you see above will be on your Mac, it depends on your setup and the software you have installed. You should spot icons that allow you to turn Bluetooth and Wireless networking on or off, or access their preferences. You can also adjust the volume of the built in speakers and see the day and time. Your name appears to show that you are logged in. Page 8 14 th July 2015
Moving to the Mac Searching in OS X You can search across everything in your Mac by using Spotlight Search. This is available from the Magnifying Glass icon in the top right of the Title Bar. This will find applications, files, folders, emails, images, PDFs, web pages and pretty much everything on your Mac. If you just want to search within a particular folder, you can do so in the Finder. When you have the Finder open and the required folder highlighted and displayed, you can search within it by using the Search box in the top right of the Finder window. Some applications also allow you to search within the application only, by using a similar search box in the top right of the window. For instance, you can search through a current document in Word, or search your emails in Outlook. System Preferences The System Preferences dialogue box is the Mac equivalent of the Windows Control Panel. It allows you to set all your preferences for your Mac s setup. This includes: General appearance Desktop background, Language, Dock appearance and functionality, Hardware setup your Display, Mouse, Keyboard, Printers etc. Internet & Wireless setup connections to a wireless network, icloud, Mail, your Network and Bluetooth. System set Date and Time, check for Software Updates etc. You can launch the System Preferences dialogue by clicking the System Preferences icon in the Dock (see left), or by selecting it from the Apple Menu in the Title Bar. Setting up your mouse If you are a Windows PC user, you will be familiar with two button mice which allow you to use a right click to display inline menus etc. Although the Apple mouse looks like a single button mouse, most of them do actually support right clicks too. This may have to be turned on in System Preferences if you wish to use it. To do so, launch the System Preferences dialogue as described above In the row entitled Hardware, click on Mouse Printed Thursday, 30 July 2015 Page 9
University of Brighton Information Services If there is a dropdown label pointing to the right side of the mouse, then click on it and select Secondary Button. That s it! You should now have a functioning two button mouse. Just press on the right side of the mouse, when you want a right-click and the left side of the mouse when you want a left-click. If the above does not work for you, you may have a mouse that does not support right click. In this case, to simulate a right click, you will have to hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard whilst clicking with the single mouse button. General Use 7.1.1 Cut, Copy and Paste Using these tools on the Mac is very similar to the PC with some small differences. o You can use the Edit menu in the Title Bar of most applications to Copy and Paste selected text / items. You can right click on a file and select Copy from the menu You can use keyboard shortcuts. The only difference between the equivalent shortcuts on the PC is that they use the Cmd key rather than the Ctrl key: Cmd ( ) + C to Copy Cmd ( ) + V to Paste, and by the way... Cmd ( ) + P to print o Note that the Cmd (Command) key may be labelled with an apple ( ), or the apple command symbol ( ) as shown here 7.1.2 Saving documents from within Applications Once you have mastered using the Finder, you should have no difficulties with saving your documents to exactly the right location. Here we will use saving a Word document to a location on Departmentdocs as an example. This box shows the folder your file is being saved to. Clicking on the small arrows on the right will show you exactly where this folder is located. Page 10 14 th July 2015
Moving to the Mac In Word, with your document open, click on the Title Bar and select the File menu. Then select Save As... You will see the Save As dialogue box: You will see that it has the same display icons as the Finder. Here, I have chosen the column view. On the left hand side I have selected Departmentdocs from the shared links. In the second column I have selected the folder for my department, Information Services, and finally, in the third column I have selected the folder for IS DOCS source files. This is where I want to save my file. If you click on the Format drop-down below the file list display, you will see all the possible types of file that can be saved, including PDF and earlier versions of Word. To change the name of the file before you save it, click in the Save As box at the very top of the dialogue box and type your new filename. When you are happy, simply click the Save button in the bottom right hand corner. 7.1.3 Ejecting CDs, Memory sticks, External Hard Drives etc. When you plug or slot in one of these items, an icon will appear for it on the Desktop. You can double click on the desktop icon to display the item s files in a Finder window. To remove a CD, or to remove an external storage device, you must eject it first. To do this, you click on the item you wish to eject, hold down the mouse button and drag it down to the Trashcan. When it disappears from your Desktop, it is safe to remove / unplug the item. 7.1.4 Viewing PDF files and Images You will generally find that Adobe Reader is not installed on University Macs, so how do you view PDFs? The PDF file type is automatically linked to a built in file viewer called Preview. This application will allow you to view a PDF or most types of image. To view a PDF or image, simply double click on it in the Finder; it should automatically open for viewing in Preview. You can also launch Preview by clicking once on its icon in the Dock (on the right). 7.1.5 Switching between open applications On the PC, you may have used the Alt ( ) + Tab key combination to see open applications and switch between them. On the Mac, you can hold down the Cmd ( ) Key and press Tab. This will reveal a strip of icons in the centre of the screen showing all active applications currently running on your Mac. If you keep the Cmd ( ) key down, every time you press the Tab key, the highlight will move onto the next application icon. If you want to switch to that application, simply release the Cmd ( ) key. Note: If you switch to an application that you have minimised, it will still be minimised, so you will have to restore it by clicking on its icon in the Dock, or the minimised window icon on the right hand side of the Dock. Another way of switching between running applications (but not minimised ones) is to use a tool called Mission Control. Printed Thursday, 30 July 2015 Page 11
University of Brighton Information Services To switch to Mission Control View, click its icon in the Dock (see right), or simply press the F3 key at the top of your keyboard. Above is Mission Control View. Here you have several options: 1. If you can see the program you want to switch to, just click on it. 2. If you just want to return, you can click on the Desktop thumbnail at the top of the screen, or simply press the Esc key on your keyboard. 3. The other thumbnail you can see at the top in this image is the Dashboard View. The Dashboard The Dashboard is a separate desktop that you can switch to. It contains mini applications called Widgets that run all the time on the Dashboard. These are tools like a calculator, clock, calendar and weather. There are other widgets that you can add, for example a dictionary. An example of the widgets in Dashboard View. Page 12 14 th July 2015
Moving to the Mac To launch the Dashboard, you can simply press the F4 key at the top of your keyboard, or click on its icon in the Dock (see right). This will switch to Dashboard view as above. Pressing the Esc key will return you to your main Desktop at any time, or you can also click on the arrow in a circle that appears in the bottom right corner. To see other widgets that are available for you to use, click on the Plus in a circle in the bottom left corner. This brings up a strip of available widgets that you can install. To manage widgets, click on the Manage Widgets button that appears. This allows you to add / remove widgets from your Dashboard in the management widget that appears (see left). You can remove widgets by unticking the check box to their left. You can delete widgets that you have installed yourself by clicking on the no entry signs to their right. Click the More Widgets... button to go online and find thousands more widgets for download. The Launchpad Apple have recently introduced yet one more way of viewing and launching the applications that you have installed on your Mac. As a result of the runaway popularity of the Operating System for their mobile products (ios for the ipad, iphone and ipod Touch), OS X for the Mac now has the Launchpad. To launch, click the icon on the Dock (see right). The Launchpad View. Each icon is an installed app and can be launched by clicking on it. Small white dots near the bottom of the screen show you how many pages are available. Drag the whole screen to the left to move to the next page of icons. Printed Thursday, 30 July 2015 Page 13
University of Brighton Information Services University Specific Network Locations When you come to use your Mac at the university it should be all set up for you to use straight away. There should be preconfigured links on your desktop to some important university network locations. These are: Departmentdocs where you can access all the shared documents relating to your department Your personal M drive (Personal Folders) for saving and storing all your own documents and files. Any other Department specific network locations that your department may use. If, for some reason, these have not been set up for you, please contact the Service Desk and they will arrange for a technician to come and sort it out for you. You can email the Service Desk at servicedesk@brighton.ac.uk Or you can call them on 01273 644444 or just extension 4444 from a university phone. Useful Links Video Moving from PC to Mac - http://support.apple.com/kb/vi207 Video Introduction to OS X - http://support.apple.com/kb/vi53?viewlocale=en_us Videos http://www.apple.com/findouthow You will find several documents that may help you with using Microsoft Office 2011 on Mac by searching here: http://www.brighton.ac.uk/is/docs Page 14 14 th July 2015