Mac+Desktop

Today we will look at the Macintosh desktop.

Toolbar Spotlight Dock Desktop

**Toolbar** - the menu at the far left of the top menu bar that holds log out options, System Preferences, Recent Items list, and other controls.

**Spotlight** - Mac OS X has a great built-in search function called Spotlight. The great thing about it is that it finds stuff inside files, not just the file names. It will find everything from contacts in your address book to words in your e-mails.

**Dock** – gives quick access to commonly used programs. If you see a white dot under an icon, it means the program is open and running.

**Desktop** - The screen you see when you turn your computer on. The desktop can also contain a background image.

**Finder** – “happy” to help you! Any time you need to quickly find your documents, pictures, etc. just click on FINDER and a window like this will open up.



On the left, you will see your name (you will see the house indicating that it is your “home” folder).

Home folder

The Home folder is great. Every user on a Mac has one. It allows you to organize your stuff in a smart and easy way.

When you click your Home folder, you will see a lot of different folders. We'll now explain what they do.



Desktop

Within your Home folder there is a folder called Desktop. It is an exact reflection of your real desktop. All files in that folder are visible on your real desktop.

Movies

Put your movies in this folder. What else needs to be said?

Documents

Put your documents in this folder. Word documents, Excel documents, Pages documents – this is the right folder for them!

Music

This is the place where music will be put. However, when you start iTunes it will automatically create a sub-folder called "iTunes" in the Music folder. If you wish to add songs to iTunes, just drag them to the iTunes icon and they will automatically be organized into the iTunes folder.

Pictures

This is the folder where you should put your images. If you use iPhoto in order to organize your photos, iPhoto will automatically create a folder called "iPhoto" inside your Pictures folder. If you wish to add images to iPhoto, just drag them to the iPhoto icon and they will automatically be organized into the iPhoto folder so you don't have to do it yourself.

The Finder window – how it works

It's quite easy to understand how to use a finder window. We'll now explain the most basic things about it.

Resize it!

If you wish to resize a Finder window, just drag (keep mouse button pressed down) the handle in the lower right corner. Change viewing options

If you wish to change the way things are viewed inside a Finder window, there are a few buttons you should know about.

**Icon View** – shows graphic image and file name.

**Preview** – displays the file name, file path and a preview of the file.

**List View** – displays file name, size, type and last date modified or changed. You can sort by any of these by clicking on the desired column.


 * List View sort by: **

File Name Date Modified Type or Kind