OS X Finder tutorial and customization (Part 1)

Written by: hexley on Wednesday January 09th 2008, 4:21 pm

Filed under: Finder, OS X 10.5

Before you start using any applications or programs, right after you login, OS X will drop you into it’s file manager, known as the Finder.

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.

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