The Icons
Icons are the little pictures you see all over the Mac. Below are some of the ones you'll bump into right away and where you can find more information about them. Sometimes you click once on an icon to activate it, sometimes you double-click on it, sometimes you press on it. For all the details about icons, see Chapter 7.
Window Toolbar icons
iDisk: If you
use a telephone
modem, do not
click this button
until you know
what it does.
For details, see
Chapter 33.
Computer: Click
this button to see
all the disks in
the Mac that
your computer
recognizes.
See Chapter 9.
Home: Click
this to go
straight to your
own, personal
home folder.
See Chapter 20.
Favorites: Click
this to see all
of the folders,
documents, web
sites, and other
files you have
designated
as favorites.
See Chapter 23.
Applications:
Click this to go
directly to the
window that
stores all of
your Mac OS X
applications.
See Chapter 28.
Finder window icons
Hard disk icons: This is what a hard
disk case inside your computer looks
like. Think of this as a filing cabinet you look inside of it to find your files.
See Chapter 9.
Network: A "network" is a system of wires and software
that allows different people at different computers to share
files and information. The Internet is a global network; you
might also share files across the office. A click on this icon
(in the "Computer" window) opens files that are available
over a corporate network. (A click on this same icon in the
Toolbar opens something completely different!)
Dock icons
Finder: When you click once on this
icon, the main Finder window opens.
All of the various files on your computer
can be found in this window.
Think of this as your office you look
inside of it to find your filing cabinets
(hard disk) and documents (files).
See Chapter 9.
System Preferences: This opens up a
"pane" with lots of
little utilities that let
you customize your
Mac. See Chapter 21.
Trash: This is where you
throw away files you don't
ever want to see again. Just
drag them into this basket.
See Chapter 17.