Simply press Command+Control+D while hovering your mouse over any word, and a little window pops up with the definition. No need to hold down the keys, as it has already been activated. However, if you do continue to hold the keys, you can move your mouse over another word to see its definition as well.

As I mentioned before, this is a separate application than the Dictionary App, and works on most applications in OS X, however not all. Older applications, most from the OS 9 era, were developed with a technology called Carbon. Newer applications use a technology called Cocoa. The pop up dictionary should work in all Cocoa applications such as Safari, Mail, iChat and TextEdit, but it will fall short in a few like iTunes and Word. I find it to be a lot quicker than copying and pasting the word in question into the Dictionary.app to look it up. Hope you all like it as much as I do.

With all the power iTunes offers, it can become overwhelming. iTunes desires to be your default player for near all media types. An amusing audio clip from Family Guy or The Simpsons ends up getting imported into iTunes. This audio clip then relentlessly follows you around and makes its way to your iPod and iPhone on your next synchronization.

Let’s see what we can do to keep iTunes clear of cruft, and only contain the data you want imported into it.

iTunes auto import and hijack of all media files
Every file has a default application that will open it when you double click on it. In the case of audio files, that default application is iTunes. Let’s take an example case, and step through how the process will work.

A friend emails you an mp3 to check out. You download it, and double click on it. Immediately, iTunes is launched, and the file is imported into iTunes. iTunes has now become the method by which you listen to this mp3 file.

If you have not made any changes to the default settings in iTunes, you now have a copy of the mp3 in your downloads folder. In addition, a copy of the file has been carried into iTunes as well. What most people do not know, is it is more than safe to delete the file from your downloads folder, as iTunes has made a copy of the file.

The trouble is, in many cases, users will not want to keep the file at all. They delete the file from the downloads folder, and a copy still remains in iTunes. You now have to delete the file from iTunes to get rid of it. This is an awful lot of work to just sample an mp3 a friend thought you would be interested in.

For me, this is even worse, as iTunes was launched, which takes time, and now I am burdened with cleaning up iTunes as well as the local copy in my downloads folder.

A much better default media player
OS X comes with a second media player, you know it as QuickTime. The good news is, if iTunes can play the file, so can QuickTime. What would be nice, is a method that allows you to open your media files in QuickTime, and bypass iTunes. QuickTime can provide this feature, and act as a small, simple, and fast player for you to sample you audio and video files.

If you decide you like the file, then you can take the steps to drop the file into iTunes and import it. 99% of the time, I do not want that 10 second clip of Homer Simpson saying “mmmmmmm donuts” ending up in my iTunes music library.

Forcing a new default media player
The solution is simple. The next time you download an mp3, or any audio or video file that would otherwise get opened in iTunes, hold off on the usual double click you are used to performing.

Instead, select the file and press command-I on your keyboard, or select the file and go to the File menu, and navigate down to Get Info.

This will bring up an information window as seen below:

If you look at this information window, you can see, the “Open with” section is set to iTunes.app. This means, that any time you double click on the file, it will open in that application by default.

We want to change that, from iTunes.app to QuickTime Player.app. Once you change the menu, click “Change All”. Now, any time you download a file of the same type, and double click on it, it will open in QuickTime.

QuickTime is a slim and fast player, which will allow you to evaluate your file before making the decision of wanting to keep it, or toss it.

You will only have to perform this change in the get info window once per file type. So, if someone sends you an mp3, you will need to make the change, and the next time, if someone sends you an aiff file, you will want to make the change for that file type as well.

There really are only about four or five types of files, once you set them, you will no longer need to worry about it, as QuickTime will now be the default player for testing files you download.

Saving your files back into iTunes
If you decide you do in fact want to keep the file and manage it within iTunes, it is a simple matter of dragging and dropping the file right into the iTunes window. You can also drop the file onto the iTunes icon in your dock and it will be imported.

If you have not changed your iTunes preferences, your files will be copied into iTunes. Since the file is copied, you are now safe to delete the original file you downloaded, as iTunes has stored it’s own internal copy of the file.

I find this method of managing audio files very useful. iTunes tends to get a good deal of junk imported into it, much of which cannot even be played on an iPod or iPhone. If you want to just use iTunes as a media player for data you want to save over the long term, this method of changing a files default launching should alleviate most of your organization issues.

First I will start with the basics, customizing the clock, what you can change, and why you may want to. After a small history lesson in how OS 9 was not as smartly multi-threaded as OS X, I can then explain just how you can use your clock as a visual aid to tell you if your computer is stuck.

System clock customization
Unless you have moved your clock elsewhere, it should still be sitting in the upper right corner of your screen. If you click on it, you can select the last item in the list: Open Date & Time.

Once the Date & Time preference pane is open, you should see there are three “tabs” at the top. The first one, Date & Time, allows you to select if you want the clock to set itself automatically. You can also set the date here as well. As long as you have an Internet connection, OS X will poll what is called a time server every now and then. In most cases, you should never have to worry about your date or time being off by more than a few seconds.

The second tab in the Date & Time preference pane allows you to choose your time zone. This is important to do, as we all live in different time zones. Daylight Saving Time has been moved around a bit over the years; the time zone you pick, ensures you never have to think about setting your clock to do the “fall back” or “spring forward” routine.

And finally, the last tab is the Clock tab. And it is this area I will explain how to set in a certain way to help you determine system lock ups. The options here are pretty self-explanatory.

If you use the Analog clock, this tip is not going to be of much help to you.

The key here is to set it to “display the time with seconds”, or at the very least, “Flash the time separators”. Personally, I use both. At this point, just humor me and set your clock to show the seconds and the time separators, which will blink once a second.

A Brief History of Time
Long ago, before OS X, there was Apple OS 9 and earlier. OS 9 supported something called multi-threading. I can say the methods they used to support it were rather crafty, in the end though, less than ideal.

What this meant to a user was that you could do more than one thing at the same time. In real world use, multi-threading on OS 9 worked pretty good, but not perfectly. Using OS 9, you could forget about watching a movie while ripping an mp3. Some applications were written so poorly in this regard, just clicking and holding your mouse would freeze the entire system until you released the mouse.

Those days are long gone, but one of the side effects still remains. On OS 9, your clock would constantly lose time. Because the clock is an application of sorts, if another application got stuck in some way, the clock would get stuck. Over time, day-to-day use, you could lose a few minutes here and there. Not a big deal, because even OS 9 had the ability to reset the clock automatically by asking what the correct time is from a network time server.

Using a stalled clock to your advantage
While not nearly as often, nor as bad, OS X still suffers from the same stalling issues as OS 9. Certain applications can and will stall out your computer. Most of the time, it is for such a short period of time you will never notice. Further, the clock will again get auto reset to a network time server on a schedule.

A perfect example, one of my web servers, has been running for 134 days, in a logged out state; the clock is now 10 full minutes out of sync. Apparently network time servers are not polled on OS X when you are logged out.

Every now and then, my computer will lock up in some way. It could be a single application, or the entire system will freeze. Near all the time, I have mouse control, but I cannot seem to do anything else. Most of the time, I wait it out, and all returns to normal. It is just a badly written application that is stealing all the cycles from my computer, making it appear to be locked up.

And that is the key here, your machine only appears to be locked up, but you have no way of telling. Some of these stalls can last longer than I have patience. Most would reboot. Rebooting is bad because we all forget to save our data, and losing hours of work is no fun at all.

The trick here, if you can call it that, is to glance at your newly customized clock. If you see the seconds ticking by, or the time separator pulsing, more than likely, your machine is not locked up. Wait it out, and things should come back to normal.

If you look at your clock, and the seconds are not moving at all, your machine is locked up hard. You are, in 99% of the cases, going to need to reboot.

I know this seems rather trivial, but I have been using this tactic for years now. Mail.app is a known culprit, and will stall out for thirty seconds or more at times. I cannot switch from mail to another app, or force quit the application, as I am locked into this stall. I just look at the clock, notice the time is still ticking by, and know to at least wait it out.

It is sort of a last resort, but takes nothing more than a glance. At times, you may think your computer is frozen; the system clock is generally a very good indicator that your computer is still able to perform actions. The truth is any application that has constant animation to it is a good candidate to use as a tool like this. I find the system clock is always there, is one of Apple’s single most reliable system applications that provides, and has served me as a lock up detection tool for many years.

The internets were quite upset about this “feature”. In my opinion, rightly so.

Luckily, so much noise was made about the change, that as long as you have ran your software updates, you can finally turn this “feature” off.

Why is it a problem?
I think the image below is a case where a picture tells a thousand words.

If you use the default Apple desktop image, certain applications, such as iTunes, will get a white dot, or a star, in menu item words. This makes it ugly at best, and difficult to read at worst.

Depending on your desktop image, it may not be as apparent, or it could even be worse.

Fixing the translucent menu bar
This one is really simple. Just open your System Preferences, click on Desktop and Screen Saver, look near the bottom, and select the checkbox for “Translucent Menu Bar”.

This may not apply to your hardware configuration
According to Apple support article # 306894

The translucent Leopard menu bar appears on most computers that are equipped with a graphics card which is compatible with Core Image.

Some graphics cards, such as an NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200, may not have the necessary OpenGL capabilities to display a translucent menu bar even though they are compatible with Core Image. Those cards should render most effects, but not the translucent menu bar.

I am sure there are a small handful of you out there who like this feature. That’s ok too. If you recall, one of our first posts was Experiment, modify, customize, so by all means, make your computer look how you want it. I for one am happy Apple was responsive enough to give us an option to change the setting on our own accord.

Quick Look saves time. For every file on your computer, if you want to view the contents of the file, you have to open the file. You then have to wait for it’s parent application to launch, and finally, you get to see what is in the file.

There is a much faster, and easier way.

While this only applies to OS X 10.5 Leopard, that should not be an issue, since you have all upgraded to Leopard by now. Find a file, select it, and press the space bar.

You should see a floating window pop up, allowing you to view the files contents. It can be a Word file, an image, a text file, almost anything.

Even nicer, you can select groups of files; for example, a large chunk of images someone just sent you. It is then simple to move through each image with the small arrows in the Quick Look window.

Quick Look offers other features, such as a thumbnail view, auto-import to iTunes, and much more. For now, enjoy knowing that just pressing the space bar will invoke Quick Look.

Stay tuned for an in-depth tutorial featuring all the aspects of Quick Look. In the mean time, please feel free to discuss Quick Look in the comments.

If you are a new Macintosh user, and you only read one post on OS X Help, please, read this post. Downloading files is something almost all of you will do on a daily basis. From applications to photos, there is no shortage of file downloads to contend with.

Where downloads end up
In all cases, the default settings on Macintosh OS X 10.5 Leopard is to put any file you download into your downloads folder. This of course is located in your home folder. Any file you download, at least through an automated means, will end up in this location.

The many types of files
Some files downloaded are what they seem; they end in .jpg, and are in fact an image. You can open them, and you will see an image. Other times you end up with a file called a Disc Image, or .dmg file. Other times you may end up with a .zip file, others a .sit file. Worse case, you end up with a file that is a combination of all of the above mentioned file types.

The simple .dmg file type
.dmg files are a file format called a Disc Image. It is very much like a real hard drive. The only difference is that it is a small portable file that can be downloaded, or exchanged. For all other intents and purposes, it is a portable hard drive. .dmg files are pretty simple to deal with, once you understand how they work.

Downloading a .dmg
The next time you download a file, and it happens to be a .dmg, OS X should jump into automated mode. The .dmg file will reside in your downloads folder; but, it will also be mounted on your desktop. In nearly all cases, the .dmg will automatically open and a white drive icon will show up on your desktop.

What is inside the white drive icon is what you are after. Those are the files you want to keep.

Dealing with the contents of a .dmg
What is inside the .dmg is where things can become a little fragmented. Most of the time, you have a single file, usually the application. Just drag it out of the white drive icon, and put it into your Applications folder. The application is now installed. Uninstalling is as simple as reversing the process, and moving the file from the applications folder to your trash.

In other cases, the contents of the .dmg will be a full-blown installer. In this case, you launch the installer, and let it do its thing. This usually amounts to a simple double click, which will give you some options as to how to install the file or application.

Some developers who make these .dmg files take an extra step, and automaticity copy the file to your applications folder. They even clean up afterward and delete all the files the .dmg has left laying around.

What to do with the .dmg when you’re done?
Once you have installed your application or file, you are still left with a white drive icon on your desktop, and the original file you downloaded, which should still be in your downloads folder. This is where many new users get confused.

Since you have installed the application, you are free to delete everything else it left behind. First, take the white drive icon, move it to the trash. This will unmount the .dmg. Next, take the .dmg file in your downloads folder, and move it to the trash as well. You can now safely empty your trash if you so desire.

Never be afraid to clean up these files once you have installed the main application. Since you downloaded them from the internet, you can always download them again. In most cases, not cleaning up the files will leave you with duplicates, which can be troublesome when it comes time to perform an update.

I consider my downloads folder a temporary location. At any time, I feel very safe in deleting everything in it, as I know I have already installed, moved, or copied what I needed. I also know, more than likely, I can always just download again.

It is my hope that you only ever run into .dmg files. While I am hopeful, some developers and distributors of software are yet to get a clue. In these cases, you can run into any number of very confusing cases, let’s go through each one.

The Stuffit Archive
Back in the OS 9 days, and the early days of OS X, there was a compressed file format called a Stuffit Archive. You will run into them from time to time. You can tell them apart by the ending part of the file name, called the file extension. It will be either .sit or .sitx. In this case, you need another program just to open the file. Many people end up downloading a program called Stuffit, which will in fact do a very nice job of uncompressing the files.

I am very much against Stuffit, as it tends to install a lot of files deep into your computer. The company also tries hard to push you to buy the “Pro” version of their software, when all you need is the free version. I have found for the rare cases I run into a stuffit file, a simple application called Unarchiver does a wonderful job. It downloads as a single file, a plain, clean application. All you have to do to install it is move it to your applications folder.

The next time you run into a .sit or .sitx file, just open it, and it will be uncompressed. You can then throw away the original .sit or .sitx file, and are left with the file you just uncompressed.

The almost ubiquitous .zip file
If you have come from Windows, you are more than likely familiar with a .zip file. .zip files are more or less the same on a Macintosh, as they are on Windows. Just like a Stuffit file, a .zip file is nothing more than a container file, which holds one or more files inside it. Your goal is to simply get at the files inside that .zip container.

Leopard, and even a few earlier versions of OS X, have the ability to decompress, or unzip these files, built right in. You do not need any additional software to deal with a .zip file. Just open the .zip file, and OS X will unzip the file, leaving you with the contents ready for you to manipulate any way you desire. Again, once you have unzipped the file, feel free to throw away the original .zip file, and just keep the files you most recently unzipped.

If it can be difficult, it will
Once in a blue moon, you will download a file that has been zipped, compressed, and otherwise packed up multiple times. For example, you may download a file called example.dmg.zip. The people who make these files are the worst offenders at confusing a new computer user. Given the above example, you will end up with the following:

example.dmg.zip – original file
example.dmg – disc image once unzipped
example – the file or folder you really wanted

If you run into this case, while it can be confusing, just step through it. Get the main file(s) you want, and delete all the rest. In the above example, you can throw away example.dmg.zip and example.dmg, and simply copy or install the data that is inside the white disc image.

Cleanliness is next to Godliness at times, try your best to keep your downloads folder nice and clean. Over time, you will start to understand the many processes in which files can be distributed.

The programmers at Apple are not perfect; from time to time, bugs will be found, and fixed. Apple’s software update tool is how those bugs are repaired. Oftentimes not only are bugs repaired, but new features are implemented as well.

Today we will cover the Apple Software Update tool. From how it works, when you should run it, to ignoring it and updating manually. If you continue reading, you should be able to keep your Macintosh up to date and in relatively smooth working order.

The easy way
If you have not adjusted any settings, and you are connected to the internet, once a week, your computer will connect to The Mothership. Your computer can then determine if any updates are needed. If updates are needed, you will be prompted with a list of what to install.

Ninety-nine percent of the time, this is fine, and you can safely update everything. I recommend this setting to nearly everyone, and follow this recommendation myself.

The semi-manual way
If you are so inclined, you can force your computer to check if there are available updates. Just head over to the Apple menu in the upper left corner of the menu bar and select “Software Update…”

A progress window will show up as the Software Update program scans your computer’s software against Apples list of up to date software. If any software is found that is out of date on your computer, you will be presented with the option of updating at that time.

It is important to note, just running software update is harmless. You must tell it to actually perform the installation. You can further pick and chose which software you want to update. Worth noting, Software Update only updates Apple software. Third party software is not the responsibility of Apple.

Knowing what to update
Once your computer knows what needs to be updated, you will be presented with a list of software that can be updated.

In the example above, you can see a several updates. A security update, and an update for Airport/Time Machine, among a few others I have not installed at this time.

If you click on each item, you can read some of the details about the update. Some items will list links to more detail if applicable.

In general, I just install all updates. For example, iTunes, I feel pretty safe; I know if it blows up I am only missing out on my music. I still can get real work done, even though perhaps, iTunes may be having issues.

The security update and the Time Machine/Airport update worry me, though only marginally. Since I do not rely on wireless, in my case, I could safely assume if it did break something, it would not affect me. The security update, on the other hand, probably updates many small things and could cause me issues.

In the case of the security update, I may be inclined to read the description, and follow any links to a release date, and maybe even hold off on updating for a few days.

If something goes horribly wrong with Apple released software, news spreads fast. You can use this to your advantage and hold off on certain updates that are not critical.

If everything is working fine on my computer, waiting to update until the more brave have tested things out is not a bad idea.

Call me crazy, I just update everything. I have means to back out of an update if I need to, which we will cover in our section on backups.

Ignoring updates
At times, you may see items show up in your Software Update queue that are not related to anything you ever plan on owning or using. iPod software updates are well known for this. Perhaps you know for sure, you will never own an iPod. In that case, you can select “Ignore Update” from the “Update” menu, and it will disappear from the list.

At any time, you can also select “Reset Ignored Updates” if you want or need any of your ignored updates to come back again.

Take note of the restart option
At the bottom of the Software Update window, can be a small arrow that says, “Restart will be required”. If you see this, it is a good idea, in my opinion, to save all open application data. You never know what could happen. At the very least, be aware, you will be nagged to restart and it will interrupt what you are doing.

Laptop users beware
If you are on a laptop, please, do yourself a favor, and plug it in. Nothing could be worse than having a battery die or fail on you in the middle of a software update. This can be very nasty to recover from. If you cannot get power, hold off on the update until you can in fact plug in.

Software update log and installed updates
I do not want to dig too deep into this, as it is part of our series on System Preferences which has not begun. However, there is a log of software updates. You can find it in your System Preferences under Software Update. You can also change the schedule from once a week to daily, monthly, or even never.

General practice
I suggest, in most cases, just let the tool do as it was intended, and update everything. Even the stuff you think you will never need. I know, you think you will never need an iPod, and never own one. One day, you will, and you will be glad you can just plug it in and it works.

Now go have fun, there is a new version of Safari out, and it is a good deal speedier than the last.

The good news is, you are free to change the sidebar to your liking. You can even close off the sidebar and make it disappear if you are so inclined.

The default sidebar
As seen blow, the default sidebar has three sections. Devices, Places, and Search For. Devices are items such as drives, UEB thumb drives, disc images, or otherwise, any form of “removable media”.

Under devices, is places, which are quick links to places on your computer. Clicking on any of them will bring the window to that location in an instant.

The “Search For” section is a little more complex. For the time being, use what Apple has supplied. It can find all files from today, or yesterday, or even the entire past week. You can further locate all images, documents, or even movies.

The search section uses what are called smart folders. Smart folders are not really folders, but a way to quickly generate a dynamic folder based on search criteria. Smart folders are powerful; we will cover them in detail shortly.

Customizing the sidebar
You have two ways to customize the sidebar. Three, if you include hiding it altogether. If you look at your Finder Preferences, which was covered in OS X Finder tutorial and customizations (Part 2), you can toggle certain items on and off.

Take some time to disable the ones you know you will never use. The less items in your sidebar by default; the more space you will have to add personalized items of your own liking.

Close off or resize the sidebar
The thin vertical line that separates the sidebar from your files is adjustable. You can move your mouse to it, and the cursor will change to a set of cross arrows. Click, hold, and drag, and not only can you resize the width; but you can also shrink it to the far left. This will completely remove the sidebar from that particular window.

Personalize your sidebar
I have found very few people take the time to personalize their sidebar. Perhaps it is just that people are not aware you can make changes to its behavior.

If there are items in the sidebar you do not want, just drag them out. In the usual animated poof, they will disappear. This is a non-destructive action, meaning that no items are deleted. Only the link or shortcut is deleted, your files and folders are safe.

If you want to add a particular file or folder to the sidebar, just drag it in place. While I cannot personally think of any compelling reason to add a single file to the sidebar, many of you may have great reason to. So by all means, do what is best for you.

Finally, you can rearrange items as well. A click, hold and drag with your mouse, and you can put sidebar items alphabetically, or in any order you see fit.

Since the sidebar is customized so little in my experience, along with the methods in which you customize the sidebar being hard to explain in words…

Video example of sidebar customization

If all goes as planned, you can look forward to what I consider one of the most important lessons the site has had to date. Check back tomorrow to demystify file downloading. If you have any questions, as usual, use the contact links to drop us an email.

The items you have as a default will largely depend on your computer. Laptop users will almost all have an Airport icon, and sometimes a Bluetooth icon.

What many people have not learned is that those menulets can be repositioned, deleted, and customized.

Moving a menulet
To move a menulet, just press and hold the command key and drag the menulet from left to right. The other menulets will scurry out of the way. Once you have it where you want, release the mouse and the command key.

I find myself frequently adjusting the volume, so I move the volume control off to the right. With it at the right, I find it easier to target quickly.

Removing menulets
Of course, what good would moving a menulet around be if you couldn’t also completely banish it from your menu bar. Removing is the same process as moving, with the exception of you drag downward and release the mouse. On release, a poof of smoke animation will appear, to let you know you have removed the item.

Adding menulets back
Now that you know how to arrange and remove icons from your menu bar, it is time to add a few back. Most, such as Airport and Bluetooth are controlled in your System Preferences. If for example, you removed the Bluetooth menulet, and you want it back, a quick trip to your Bluetooth preferences will bring it back.

Each menulet is different, but you should find an option that states “Show (item) in menu bar”, where “item” is the name of the item you are trying to bring back.

Menulet customization in action

Hidden menulets
Some menulets seem to evade all attempts at bringing them back. For example, the “Eject Disc” item has no known preference for adding it back in.

If you navigate to your main hard drive, and open the following folders:
System -> Library -> CoreServices -> Menu Extras
Double clicking on any of them will add that item back to your menu bar. Many will be non applicable to your system, but they are all there for your future needs.

I find the Application Switcher to be a pretty handy tool of OS X, which I use now without even thinking about it. It’s not a complex application, but it can make navigating your computer a breeze.

The Application Switcher allows you to easily toggle through all programs you have open, hidden or not, in a clear and rapid manner. For instance, you are copying and pasting from your email program into Word. Instead of using your mouse to move between the two, which can take time, especially on a laptop, a simple keyboard command will bring the other program up in a flash.

By pressing Command + tab, a translucent window appears in the middle of your screen displaying the icons of the applications that are currently running. You will notice the icon of the last application you used will be highlighted and have a white box around it.

The icon of the application you are currently using will appear first, the next icon will be of the application used just before that, and so on. So as you use different applications, the order will then be rearranged.

There are several ways to move through the applications. The one I use, and in my opinion, the easiest, is to continue pressing the tab key while holding down the Command key. You will see it move to the right and then wrap around back to the beginning.

Simply letting go of the tab key while the desired application is highlighted will bring that application to the front.

If you are only toggling between two applications, which is where I find the Application Switcher most helpful, simply pressing Command + tab once, will bring the other application to the front.

There are a couple other ways to move between the applications. I don’t find myself using them, but I will mention them because you may find one you like better depending on your computer setup.

To move through the applications in the reverse order, is to hold down Command + shift and press the tab key. Or by pressing Command + back tick (button above the tab key) will do the same thing.

Another way to toggle through applications is by using the scroll wheel or trackball on your mouse, or the track pad on your laptop. You can also simply use your mouse to click on the desired application. You may even use the left and right arrows on your keyboard. Give each method of toggling a try and stick with whatever feels most comfortable to you.

If you are in the Application Switcher and want to escape without choosing an application, you simply press the Esc key, or the period key, while holding down Command, and the Application Switcher will disappear.

A couple extra features to the Application Switcher are that you can quit and hide programs. To quit a program you simply toggle to the desired application and press “Q”. If you’d like to hide an application, press “H”.

One last feature I would like to point out is the drag and drop feature. You can drag an item from your desktop, say a text document, and while dragging with your mouse, open the Application Switcher and drop the document onto a program like TextEdit or Word. Simply release the mouse while the desired application is highlighted and your document will open in that program.

I tend to use the dock for something like this, since the program I need may not be open, but the Application Switcher is capable of doing this as well, just as long as the program is open.

Play around with the different ways of toggling through programs and see what feels most comfortable to you. I think you’ll find that once you get used to it, it’s quite a quick and convenient way to move around.

Minimize
Selecting “Minimize” will take any finder window, and scale it down into your Dock. Your Dock is the row of icons either on the bottom of your screen, or on the side.

To bring the window back, simply click on it, and it will un-minimize and come back to the front. If you have a window open, and it is in your way, you can minimize it to your dock. The window is now out of your way, but also in a state in which you can get back to it as needed.

Zoom
“Zoom”, do not even get me started! I think what it is supposed to do is toggle your window from the last known largest size, to the last known smallest size. Or perhaps it is supposed to toggle the window from current size to full screen, and then back. The Zoom feature has been a source of argument for too long. I am not sure there is anyone, not even the programmers at Apple that are happy with how it works.

Avoid the Zoom!

Cycle Through Windows
“Cycle Through Windows” is fairly handy. If you find yourself with a large amount of windows on your screen, you can cycle through them. Selecting Cycle Through Windows will move the current front most window backwards, allowing you to see the window behind it. Doing it again, will repeat that process.

Bring All to Front
At times, you will have windows obscured by other applications. For example, your browser may be covering up some, or all of your Finder windows. You cannot see your files and folders that are underneath your browser.

You could minimize your browser, or, perhaps faster, would be to select Bring All to Front. This will move your Finder windows in front of everything. It can come in handy every now and then.

And finally, in the screenshot above, where you see “Downloads”, that is more a dynamically updating list. It will list the name of every single folder you have open. This is a quick way to get to a particular folder, that you know you have open, but is hiding somewhere under other folders.

I think that about covers it, as always ask in the comments, or send us an email. Your feedback is the only way we know we are on the right track.

The “Go” menu controls what Finder windows you can go to. You will find there are folders and places on your Macintosh that you frequent. Apple has made this a simple process. Whether you need to jump to your Applicaitons folder, or access System Utilities, the Go menu helps you get to these folders and locations.

Back
“Back” works just like in a browser, and takes you back to the previous view you were in. This works in all view modes, unless you have set your Finder preferences to “Always open folders in a new window”. If you are partial to list view, icon view, or cover flow, you will never be able to use this feature with your Finder preferences set this way.

If you use your Finder more like a Windows file browser, this will make you feel right at home. There are also forward and backward arrows at the top left of Finder windows that will perform the same thing.

Forward
“Forward”, same rules as Back, only it takes you forward. You of course will have had to just previously gone back in order for it to work, but it should be rather familiar to you.

Enclosing Folder
The “Enclosing Folder” is a handy, interesting, and useful menu item. For example, if you have a file selected, and want to jump up to the folder it is sitting in, simply select Enclosing Folder. The same holds true for folders as well.

In many regards it works the same as the back feature, with the exception of it tends to work everywhere. You can be in list view, or icon view, and it will always take you to the enclosing folder, or as some call it, the parent folder.

Computer, Home, Desktop, Network, iDisk, Applications, and Utilities are all shortcuts to well known folders on your computer. Let’s discuss each one in detail.

Computer
“Computer” will take you to a folder that at the very least, lists your main hard drive. It can also list secondary drives, and other attached media. In a way, it is a virtual area. I am not aware that the Computer menu item is any particular folder on your computer, but more a listing of items attached to your computer. Even network items show up in this area. I find it rare that I ever need to use this menu item.

Home
“Home”, or your Home folder is probably one of the most used areas you will visit on your computer. Your Home folder contains all your personal files. To be more specific, it contains folders for you to organize your personal files in. You will see folders for Music, Documents, Movies and much more.

At this point, put things where you feel they should logically be, with the exception of staying away from the “Library” folder. The Library folder holds special files for making your account work, at this time, it is off limits until you have learned how to use this folder.

Desktop
The “Desktop” is a folder, though many do not think if it as one. All the items you see sitting on your computer screen reside on the Desktop. However, the Desktop is also a folder. If you put an item on the Desktop, it will also reside in your Home folder, in the Desktop Folder.

It should be made clear; there are not two files in two locations. The Desktop folder holds the files, the Desktop view, you see on your main screen, is just a different view of that Desktop folder.

At times, your Desktop can be so cluttered you cannot find anything. Try looking in your Desktop folder. Sort by name, and you should be able to locate the file much easier.

Network
The “Network” menu will open a window that shows you all computers connected to your network. As you understand more about networking, you will learn how to access other computers connected to your same network. Generally you will need a login and password in order to gain access. For now, know this menu is here, and this is how you can remotely share files with other users.

iDisk
The “iDisk” menu is how you can access Apples iDisk feature. You need a .mac account in order to use this menu item. Of course, this costs money, and to be honest, as a new user, I am not sure there is much reason for you buying into this.

When we hit our tutorial on iDisk, you can weigh in on the features that are to your liking and if you think there is value in them.

Applications
The “Applications” menu will bring up your applications folder. This is where all your programs are that let you get work done. You should store any applications you download and intend to keep in this folder.

You should not try to rearrange this folder. Some people will want to put certain applications into certain other folders for organization. At this time, leaving your applications in the order they are in will help Apple know where they are, so they can update them with their software update tools.

Utilities
The “Utilities” menu takes you to a folder inside the Applications folder called Utilities. If you are setting up an Airport wireless network, there is a tool in here for that. If you need to perform some hard drive testing, there is a tool in the Utilities folder for that as well.

For the most part, these are special tools. Nothing to be afraid of, feel free to test them out and play around with them. We will go over the more popular ones and exactly what they do and what value they are to you.

Recent Folders
The “Recent Folders” menu item shows you a list of folders you have most often visited. You can even control how many folders are listed in this menu item. This is done in the System Preferences, which is an upcoming tutorial as well.

For now, the default amount of folders is probably more than enough to get you around.

Go to Folder
“Go to Folder” is a semi advanced menu item. In OS X there are a number of hidden folders. If you were to type in an exact path to such a hidden folder, this menu will bring you to that hidden folder.

For example, you can type in /tmp and it will bring you the hidden temporary items folder of OS X. It is not to say you cannot use it to get to known non-hidden folders, however it is generally reserved for digging around where the finder will not directly let you go.

Connect to Server
The “Connect to Server” menu item brings up a window in which you can enter in a server address, and connect to it. If you wanted to connect to a Windows machine at work, while at home, this is where you would do it.

Connect to Server is relatively advanced for this point in the game. You can do a lot with it. On the other hand, it falls short on many fronts as well. Just make a mental note, if you ever do need to remotely connect to someone else, this is where it will be done. Getting it all working is more than just entering in a server name or address into the window that pops up.

Our next tutorial will cover the last remaining menu called “Window”. From there, I am not sure what is next. Toying with the idea of a Safari multi post tutorial. Browsing on the web seems one of the most often done actions on a computer, I have a feeling many can benefit from knowing every single in and out of your built in web browser.

Each of these selections is dependent on the current window you have selected, or in focus. To the best of my memory, the default, and what you are probably most familiar with is icon view. Let’s go through each view mode.

Icons
Icon view will show you your files and folders in icons. If you tend to work visually, and are able to notice files and folders based on their look, this may be the best view mode for you. It can fall short of you tend to have an abundance of files and folders in one area.

Icon view will generally show you a small picture of the file, or in the case of a folder, it will show you a small picture of the folder. As you can see by the picture below, icon view has a limited ability to show you a lot of data at one time. I also find the ordering and sorting of files and folders to be less than intuitive.

It may be just what you want, if it is, I suggest you select it, as there is no correct view mode, just what works best for your workflow.

List
List view is probably the most widely used view mode. List view will show you your files in a list, sorted alphabetically. You can clearly see the name of each folder or file, and a good deal of folders and files will fit in a relatively small view area.

In this mode you will see there are small triangles to the left of each folder. You can click these, and they will expand to show you the contents of that folder. Click the triangle again, and it will collapse to restore your folder back to a closed view.

As you can see, icons on folders are still legible, as are those on files. The files are forced into a strict alphabetical listing order, making it simple and quick to find files and folders at a glance. All this with a minimal amount of moving your mouse around looking for what you want.

Columns
Column view is something new as of OS X’s release, though has been in OS X since the earliest of pre-release versions.

I would call this a hybrid view. It incorporates list view, with the ability to expand the above-mentioned triangles into a separate pane off to the right. Some would call it file browsing. With each new file or folder you select, your view is traversed to the right, digging in a little deeper into your files.

Once people discover this method, I tend to notice they use it more often than not. I see users getting a little lost, as they do not know where they are in their files, as it tends to hide where you have been. Of course, if you have a large enough monitor, you can open up your window wide enough to see your entire file pat you have traversed.

Cover Flow
Cover Flow is new to System 10.5 (Leopard). Cover flow will render a picture of your current files and folders, and allow you to “slideshow” through them. It has a lot of flare to it, but I am yet to find any truly useful ways in which to take advantage of this view.

If you have a ton of images dropped into a folder, it will be very useful. Why you would not put those images into iPhoto and have an even better means to manage your images is beyond me. However, that alone makes this view mode less useful.

It will prove highly useful when used in combination with “Smart Folders”, which will get an entire post at a later time. Aside from some very specific cases, I do not see users taking advantage of this view mode, and would even suggest you test it with caution, as it can be confusing to some.

Clean Up
The “Clean Up” menu has been around as long as I can remember. It will do it’s best to take a mess of scattered files and folders and make order to them. It only works to files and folders that are in icon view. It further tends to have a mind of it’s own.

Clean up is depended on a many settings. Depending on the file name, its current placement, and your grid preferences, will depends on where the files get moved to in a clean up effort. It further complicates things as there is a good chance that selecting it will perfectly stack a set of files right on top of each other, giving the illusion that some files have gone missing.

Arrange By
The “Arrange By” menu item is actually very handy. The default is to arrange by name, which means sort items by the alphabet. However, there are times when you may want to find the most resent file you worked on, sorting by date modified will do that for you. You can also sort by size, which can help you locate really large files, or really small files.

Hide/Show Path Bar
The “Path Bar” men item will change from either hide or show depending on how it was let set. If you look at any window in the Finder, near the bottom, you can see the path bar. If it is not enabled, turn it on now so you can see what I am talking about, or take a peek at the picture below.

The Path Bar will show you the entire file system path to the current file or folder you are working on. In my example, you can see I started at the hard drive, went into a users folder, and into the Library folder, down into Application Support, and finally into the Calculator folder.

Were it not for the Path Bar, I would have no idea where I was, at least not at a quick glance. As we move on and get into more technical details, you will learn the many other ways of finding out where you are on your computer, for now, the Path Bar is a great time saver. I say turn it, it takes little space, and comes in handy many times a day.

Hide Tool Bar
The “Tool Bar” is the big grey area with the buttons on the top of all windows. It is also the area off to the left that gives you quick access to different areas on your computer. It is also a large space waster to some.

Previous versions of OS X have never been able to set this preference correct. Try as you might, the Tool Bar would sometimes come back, or sometimes disappear. As a result, rather than waste time with it, I left it on. The image below shows you a folder window with the Tool Bar hidden. As you can see, much of the space that was wasted, is now saved, however, you have also lost some quick functionality as well.

Hide/Show Status Bar
With the Tool Bar hidden, you can also hide and show the “Status Bar”. The Status Bar is simply a small bit of text that shows how many files are in the window, and how many, if any, of those files are selected. It also reports how much drive space you have remaining.

The interesting thing is that if you have the Toolbar turned on, this data is shown at the bottom of all windows, whether you want it there or not. I tend to think it is a good thing to have on one-way or the other. Often you will have 50 files in a folder, and know you need to remove half of them. You select half, but are not certain. Seeing the window say “25 of 50 files selected” confirms that you have in fact selected just half.

View Options
The “View Options” are very cool. They are also rarely touched by users, though they should be. They are also darn confusing.

View options affect the window you currently have selected. It is not a global preference, even though I tend to think it should be. Open up your View Options, and you should see in the header it will show the word “Desktop”. Now if you open a new folder, you will see the title changes to the name of that new folder. This is a very subtle note to let you know that you are changing your selected folder, not the entire set of folders on your entire computer.

Within this palette there is icon size. Slide it around, and you will see your icons grow and shrink in size. Of course, this will only work in icon view, or assuming you are working on your Desktop files, it will always work. I tend to think the default size of the icons is too large, so I make them smaller.

People with vision issues may want to make them larger. Which is also a great reason why some people may like icon view over list view as I mentioned earlier.

Grid spacing is the next slider. This is new to System 10.5 (Leopard) as well, and greatly appreciated. I mentioned this with the “Clean Up” command a few paragraphs above. Imagine there is an invisible grid of squares on your computer. This slider defines the size of this grid, or the spaces between each grid item.

It is set to a rather large value, so in icon view, your icons will be very spaces apart. You can fit more icons, and more data into a single view by altering the grid to a smaller value. There is no set rule to an ideal setting; whatever works for you is perfect.

Clean Up also relies on this grid. It is this grid that the Clean Up command uses to decide, in part, where to shove your files and folders, in a futile attempt to clean up your icons for you.

The Text Size menu will let you change the size of the text that files and folders are labeled with. I find the default to be just about right. If you have Superman vision, make is smaller, if you have old man eyes like me, you may want to bump it up a little.

Label Position will move the file names you see on files and folders from their usual position on the bottom, to the right. Again, this only affects you if you are in icon view.

And finally, you can alter the background of a window, from a color, or even put in a custom picture of your own. A nice feature for sure, and I would not get rid of it if I could. I word of caution, the more you tweak, the more you tend to clutter, and the less real work you will get done as your modifications get in the way.

That was a quick run down of your view options. Keep in mind, the view options palette may not look exactly like the one in my screenshot above. It is very dynamic, it will change depending on if you are in list view, icon view, column view, or cover flow view.

Below are shots of each palette and how it changes depending on your view.

View Options when list view is selected:

View Options when icon view is selected:

View Options when cover flow view is selected:

View Options when column view is selected:

Hopefully this sheds some light on what the View menu in the Finder can do for you. We have one menu left, and then we can move onto other things. More than likely Safari, since that is probably the second most used application on OS X.

This is not at all to say we are done in the Finder, there is a lot more to be learned, I just need a break from pages on pages of writing about a few menus at the top of your screen.

Hope you are enjoying, if you are, leave a comment, it helps motivate me to keep on keeping on.

The edit menu provides access to the most widely used commands on any computer. Namely, the copy and paste features.

Undo
Starting at the top, is “Undo”. This will reverse the last operation you performed. If you just moved a folder from one location to another, selecting Undo will put it back. If you just renamed a folder, selecting undo will restore the name to what it was previously.

Near everything you do, can be undone. The Undo feature will take your action, and roll it back by one step.

Cut
The “Cut” feature is used less often, but will prove equally valuable. Cut will remove any selection you have made. If you select a word, then select Cut, it will remove that word. What many people do not realize, is that at the same time the word is removed, it is copied as well.

Cut performs a remove and a copy at the same time. Many people will take a multi-step process and copy, delete, and then paste. This is a large waste of time. Simply selecting cut, and then paste will perform the exact same thing, and save you a full step.

Copy
The “Copy” menu item does what you would expect, it copies. You can copy words, sentences, images, paragraphs, nearly anything you want. A new addition to OS X is the ability to copy files and folders. This means you can copy an item in the Finder, such as a folder of images, and paste them elsewhere.

Copying and pasting files and folders were brought to OS X with a bit of controversy, as this behavior was not part of pre OS X operating systems. It can be useful, but it’s also not the only way to manipulate files and folders.

Paste
The “Paste” menu item takes whatever was last copied and pastes it. Copy operations are stored in what is called the “Clipboard”. Whatever is contained in the clipboard will be inserted when you activate the paste menu item.

Select All
“Select All” is also an often-used command. Nearly any application you are in, including the Finder will support it. If you are in a word processor, it will select everything on the page. If you are in the Finder, it will select all the items in the Finder.

For Finder based select all operations, it will select all items in your current view. For example, if you are selected on your Desktop, it will select all the items you see on your Desktop. If you are in a particular folder, it will simply select all the items in that particular folder.

Show Clipboard
The “Show Clipboard” command will bring up a small window that shows you the last item you copied, or cut. The Clipboard is a quickly changing area, in that every time you copy something, the old contents of the clipboard are deleted, and a new item is put in it’s place.

If you copy something of importance, and then copy something else, the item of importance will be replaced. You will no longer have access to that important item. Showing the clipboard is a great visual way to remember what it was you last copied, to be sure it is safe to copy something new.

It is also a good idea to be careful what you copy. If you copy sensitive data, it will remain until you shut down, restart, log out, or copy/cut something else. Anyone can come along and view your clipboard. While not the largest security risk, it is good to be aware of how the clipboard stores data.

Special Characters
“Special Characters” brings up a small palette called the Character Palette. It floats above all other applications and windows. Here you will find all those special characters you may need in letter writing. From accented characters to obscure math symbols, they are all in this palette.

Simply locate the one you want, click the “Insert” button, and that character will be injected into your current working document.

New Finder Window
Brings up a new file browser window. As you will recall, you set your default for this behavior in your preferences. Mine opens a new window to my “home” folder. Any time you need to get to a new clean window to start moving around files, you can select this.

New Folder
Creates a new, empty folder. Its location will be where your current focus is. So if you have last clicked on the desktop, the new empty folder will be made there. If you last opened a new Finder window, it will be made there. If you are deep into your files, and you have that window open, the new finder window will be made there.

The new folder will be called “Untitled Folder”, just click on it once, and you can rename it.

New Smart Folder
At times, this menu may be a little misleading, as it does not immediately create a new folder of any kind. You will see it pops open a new window though.

In this window, you define search criteria. For now, lets keep it simple. Eventually we will run though an entire post about “smart searches”. For the time being, enter in something in the search field you may frequently search for.

If the results it shows you are to your liking, click “Save” and now you will be asked where you want to save this “New Smart Folder”. It is highly powerful. You can create smart folders that show you all the images you have made today. You could further limit those to just a certain image type. Perhaps you want to locate all the Word files you made during Monday through Friday, you can do that as well.

Specifics will be covered in a future post, but feel free to experiment. Smart Folders have potential to be powerful. The nice thing about them, if you do not like them, just throw the smart folder in the trash, and you are right back where you began.

New Burn Folder
New Burn Folder has to do with CD and DVD burning. Selecting it will create a folder called “Burn Folder”, or “Burn Folder.fpbf”; the later depends on the how your Finder preferences were set in regards to “Show all file Extensions”.

The idea here is you put items in this folder. Do note, no real items are put in the folder, just “aliases” or links to the real files. Once you have all the files you want in the folder, simply click once on the folder, and select “Burn Folder to Disc…” from the File menu.

You will be asked to insert a blank CD, or DVD. Do so, and it should perform the entire CD or DVD burning process for you. Yes, it is that simple to burn CD’s and DVD’s in OS X 10.5, there is no need for additional software so long as you have simple needs.

Once it is done, you can safely delete “Burn Folder” as it is no longer needed. Remember, these are only aliases, or pointers to your real files in the Burn Folder. They are safe to remove. OS X burns the real files to disc, not the aliases.

Open
Selecting “Open” from the File menu will open a selection file or folder. As you can see in the screen shot, I could not select it, as I do not have a file selected. This will change to a menu you can in fact select, if you have selected a file or folder. You can also select multiple files and folders, and they will all be opened at once.

Open With
Open With allows you to force a selected file to be opened in some other application. If you have a text file that is constantly opening in Excel, you can force an alternate behavior here. Perhaps TextEdit would be a better application to use. This menu will allow you to over-ride the default behavior and force an application to open in something other than its default.

Print
The “Print” menu desires to be handy. At times, it can be picky. The idea is you can select a file, or a multitude of files, select Print, and they will be printed.

This is great if you have for example, 30 Word files, they all need printing, and you do not want to open all 30 of them. It should fully automate that. Results are mixed for me, at best. Plain text files, simple files, those seem to work fine. Your mileage may vary.

Remember, you are not going to hurt anything by trying. You may waste a little paper, but give it a whirl; you never know when it will come in handy.

Close Window
“Close Window” will close the current window you have selected. Of course, there are many other ways to do this, and this is just one of those methods. Sometimes you have too many windows open, you can use this menu item to close them.

Get Info
The “Get Info” window, when selected, will pop up an informational palette based on the file or folder you have selected. There are all sorts of goodies in the Get Info window. I suggest you browser it briefly, so you know it is there. In a future post, this window will be covered in detail.

Compress
Compress is one of my favorites. If you have a file selected, you will see it changes to “Compress name-of-file-selected”. You can compress a folder, a file, and a selection of files. The nice part is, you do not need any third party software. You can create Windows and Macintosh compatible .zip files built right in.

Feel free to send these files to Macintosh users, or even Windows users. And feel free to have them send .zip files to you as well, you will be able to decompress them with nothing more than a double click.

One note of caution. You have plenty of drive space; do not feel the need to go around compressing all your personal files. Compressing files is for sharing them with other people. There is no need to compress your personal files.

Duplicate
Duplicate does as it says. Select a file or folder, select “Duplicate” from the File menu, and a copy is made. The words “copy” are added to the file name, so you know the copy has been made.

Make Alias
Select a file or folder, and select “Make Alias”. This will make a link of the file or folder. You are free to move this alias anywhere on your computer you want. It is now a shortcut to the original item. You can rename it, delete it, or do anything you want to it without hurting the original.

For example, if you are working on a project that has a multitude of files in a folder, yet you really only access one file most of the time, make an alias of that file. You then need not dig around for the one file, as you can put the alias in a more convenient location.

Quick Look
Quick Look is awesome. Select a file, or multiple files, activate “Quicklook” from the File menu, and you will get a preview of those files. This saves you opening the original application, which at times can take longer than you want. Quick Look can read images, movies, pdf’s, Word files, you name it, it has a good chance of giving you a quick look at that file or set of files.

Show Original
Show Original will locate the original file linked to an alias. If you have an alias and no longer remember where the original is, select this menu item. The original file will be presented to you.

Add to Favorites
This will also change to “Add to Sidebar” and is something that will be covered in more detail when we talk about all that can be done in a Finder window. Do feel free to test it out; it is harmless to experiment with this menu item.

Move to Trash
Yes, you can drag an item to the trash; this is another method for getting something in the trashcan.

Eject
Certain media, such as USB drives, Firewire Drives, Cameras and any other item where you see an icon pop onto your desktop, will at some point need to be “ejected” This menu item performs that function. When we talk about downloaded files, such as disc images, these also can be ejected as well.

Burn *filename* to Disc…”
This was covered above in the disc burning section. This menu activates burning to DVD and CD media.

Find by Name
As with some of the other menus, this can sometimes read just “Find” or “Find by Name…”. It will pop up a window, much like the “Smart Folder” window, in which you can start searching for files and folders.

Label
Any folder or file can have a colored label. If you have a file or folder selected, you can then pick one of the 7 colors available, and assign a color to it. You can also remove a color assignment by clicking the “x” icon as well.

Seems we are near done on the Finder menus, one or two more posts, and I think we should be able to get into some more interesting tips and tricks. Bear with me, there is a method to this madness. Certain foundations need to be set before I can jump into more advanced topics.

The Finder menu item is to the right of the Apple menu. If you are in another application, you will not see this menu, which at times can be confusing. Just click on your Desktop, which is the main area of your computer screen, and the Finder menu will show up.

About Finder
About Finder is rather lackluster. Most applications have an “About” menu item, generally giving version and credit information.

Preferences
Preferences is where you can start to have a little fun, or at least make your computer more custom to your specific needs. Selecting Preferences will pop open a preference window.

There are four icons at the top, General, Labels, Sidebar, and Advanced.

General
First is a set of checkboxes. These define what is shown on your Desktop. If, for example, you uncheck the “Hard disks” checkbox, you will see your hard drive, usually in the upper right corner of your Desktop, will disappear.

Some people love a super clean desktop, and will turn all of these off. Myself, I like to see what drives and other items are connected, so I leave them on. With one exception, which is “Connected servers”. Most users will rarely connect to a remote server, and when you do, there are other ways to get to that server, which will be covered in a future post.

The second section allows you to define where new Finder windows open. Moving ahead a little, and selecting “New Finder Window” from the “File” menu will open a new window on your screen. You can change this behavior to open to any location you desire. Logically, your “Home” folder is where most people will set it. Another good choice may be your “Documents” folder. Wherever you find yourself going to the most often would be a good choice for this setting.

This is a great example of a user customization that can save you time. If you leave this setting at “Home”, yet always work in your “Documents” folder, you are wasting time. The steps would be to create a new Finder window, then double click on Documents. Save yourself the double click and set it to “Documents”.

Always open folders in a new window. I check this setting as it is how Macintosh’s worked before OS X was around. With this checked, every folder you open will open a new Finder window above the folder you were just in. Most people do not like this, as it tends to clutter up your work experience. Disabling this setting will generally mean you only have one window open at any given time. Opening a new folder will open that folder, and replace the current window you are looking at with the contents of a new window.

Spring-loaded folders are a handy feature from the days of old. Enabling this will allow you to drag a file, or folder, over another folder, hold it there for a period of time, and that folder will pop open. You can continue this process and move a file from one place to another, with only your mouse. The slider sets the duration you need to hold the file over a folder for before the folder pops open.

Spring-loaded folders are an interesting concept. Turn it on and play with it, see if it suits your needs. It has never been something I personally got comfortable with, but there are others who swear by this feature.

Labels
A label is simply a color you can apply to a file or folder. When you look at that file or folder, you will see it colored. Select a file, go to the File menu in the Finder, and apply the color you like.

Labels are also a feature from long ago. In my opinion this preference is rather silly. At any rate, feel free to change the name of each label to suit your liking. Since you cannot change the color, changing the name seems pretty confusing to me though.

Sidebar
The sidebar preferences define what you see in the left most area of a Finder window. This is one of a few ways to change the sidebar items.

In a future post we will talk more about sidebar customizations. Feel free to uncheck items that are of no use to you. This will free up more space in your sidebar for you to put items that are useful to you.

I do not use iDisk, so as you can see, that has been deselected. Since I run my computer on a small home network, and want to see the other computers connected to my network, I have the Servers checked. I rarely use the “Search For” items, and more than likely will be unchecking those soon.

Feel free to remove as many checkboxes as you see fit for your workflow. You can always turn them back on. In many cases, less is more; less is certainly less confusing, so winnow that list down to something that works for you.

Advanced
The Advanced preference area is one of my favorites.

Almost all files on the Macintosh end in a file extension. Something like .mov for movie, or .html for a web file. I want to see these file extensions, so I have enabled that checkbox. Take for example a folder of images:

This is how I see the files with show all file extensions set.
pic1.jpg
pic2.jpg
pic3.jpg

And this is how I see the files with show all file extensions turned off.
pic1
pic2
pic3

While totally up to you, I would suggest you check this setting. You want to see the filename, as it really is, not as an interpretation of the real file name.

Show warnings before changing an extension is a new addition to system 10.5. If you have a file called image.jpg, and change the name to image.txt, you will get a warning. This is good. Changing a files extension can break certain files.

I do a lot of development work, so for me, I have disabled this feature. Often times I need to change a file from .html to .txt, and the warning slowed me down. Another good example of a setting that is not right one way or the other, but great to have the ability to change depending on how you use your computer.

Show warnings before emptying trash will alert you every time you empty the trash. I am of the mindset that since I just told the trash to be emptied, there is little point in nagging me to make sure I want to empty the trash.

However, if you have ever accidentally deleted a file this will add one more layer to prevent that from happening.

Empty trash securely will do the same as a normal empty of your trash, but more thoroughly. Emptying your trash does not technically delete the files, but rather sets the files to be written over by other files. It also hides them from you. This is why you can use special drive recovery software to get files back after you have deleted them.

A secure trash empty will really delete your files. Files will be written over with random data, making the chances of those files being recovered slim. This added layer of security comes at the expense of time. A secure trash empty takes longer.

Since the Finder menu also has a “Secure Empty Trash” menu item, you can perform this function on demand. If you work with sensitive files all the time, you may opt to set this preference, for most users, the extra time is not worth it.

Empty Trash and Secure Empty Trash
Next in the Finder menu are the Empty Trash and Secure Empty Trash menu items. As mentioned above, these control the two ways in which you empty your trash.

Services
The Services menu item could probably justify an article of it’s own. In short, it gives you special access and tools to applications. Some applications will register an item in the Services menu. If it does, you can perform custom routines on data and files. Not all applications will register an item in the Services menu.

The services menu is handy and diverse. Play around with it and see what it does.

Hide Finder, Hide Others, Show All
The last three items allow you to change the visible or hidden state of applications. If you have ten applications open, you can select “Hide Others” and they will all disappear. No data is lost, applications are still open, and they are just moved out of your way. “Show All” brings them back to where you were. This is a fairly useful menu item. Sometimes you have so much going on you need a clean perspective, this will clear your screen up to focus on just one thing.

Hopefully this rather long post has helped to show you a few of the ways you can tweak your computer to better suit your personal needs and tastes. In part 3 we will cover the “File” menu, which is your main access point for working with your files.

The Finder is the first place you can start to customize your computer to your liking.

Starting in the upper left corner of your screen is a small Apple logo. Since the inception of OS X, the Apple logo has resided in this location.

The following items can be found in a current system 10.5 installation:

• About This Mac
• Software Update…
• Mac OS X Software
• System Preferences
• Dock
• Force Quit Finder
• Sleep
• Restart…
• Shut Down…
• Log Out (your username)

Let’s go through each one and see what you can learn.

About This Mac
While a somewhat uninteresting menu, there is more here than meets the eye. Of course, you can see the obvious, which is the version of OS X you are using, the CPU you are using, how much memory is installed, as well as which hard drive the operating system is installed on.

What many people do not know is there are some small hidden tricks to this dialogue box.

Clicking on the “version” will cycle what you see from the exact build number of the operating system you are using to the serial number of the computer. This is extremely handy, as any time you need to talk to Apple; they will want the serial number. I never seem to be able to keep paperwork in order; this provides a simple way to get your serial number at any time.

The Software Update button is a copy of the item in the Apple menu. We will discuss software updates in detail in a future post.

Finally is the “More Info” button. This really is a shortcut to the Apple System Profiler application that is hidden away in your Utilities folder. If you ever need detailed specs about your computer, this is where you should go.

At times it will come in handy as a troubleshooting tool. Once such case may be some external peripheral that is not working. The System Profiler can probe most devices plugged into your computer, and give you a little more detail about them.

Software Update
As I previously mentioned, this menu item will be covered in greater detail in a future post.

Dock
The Dock is something we will cover in a future post, perhaps in a multi-series post, as there is so much you can do with the dock.

Force Quit Finder
Despite what many will tell you about the stability of the Macintosh, there will be times when an application is non responsive. The Force Quit Finder menu item is what is called a dynamic menu item.

Dynamic Menu items change depending on the context you are in. This means it will not always say “Force Quit Finder”, and may simply say “Force Quit”. Either way, if you are stuck in some application that will not respond, this is your last resort.

You need not restart, simply select the menu. A dialogue window will come to the foreground that allows you to see a list of your running applications. You can pick the ill-behaved application and tell it to Force Quit.

In almost all cases, this will return your computer to a stable state. Simply launch the application again, and you are back in business. It should be noted, you will lose any unsaved changes in the event you use Force Quit.

Sleep, Restart, and Shut Down
These three items were already covered in our previous post: The elusive power button.

Log Out (your username)
Finally, the Log Out menu item will log you out of your account. This is a good idea if you are stepping away from your computer and do not want anyone else poking around. Selecting this will start the process of closing all running applications, and eventually return you to the standard OS X login screen.

There are a few more things to be learned about the OS X Finder. Look for a new post tomorrow that covers the a few more Finder customizations.