- Get to Know Your Desktop and Finder
- Get to Know Your Finder Windows
- Get to Know Your Home and its Folders
- Take Advantage of the Sidebar
- Change the View of the Finder Window
- Use the Buttons in the Finder Window
- Select Multiple Items in the Finder
- Use the Dock
- Use the Trash
- Understand the Various Disk Icons
- Understand the Various Library Folders
- Use Mac OS X Together with Mac OS 9
- Look for Contextual Menus
- Work with Keyboard Shortcuts
- Burn a CD or DVD
- Learn Simple Troubleshooting Techniques
- Learn More About Mac OS X
- What You've Learned
Use the Dock
The Dock is that strip of icons across the bottom of the screen. The specific icons that appear in the Dock will change as you open and close applications, view photos, or customize what's in it yourself. Hover your mouse over an icon to see a label appear that tells you the name of the application or file.
- To open an application or document from the Dock, single-click its icon.
The tiny black triangle underneath an icon indicates that particular application is open and available. Even if you don't see it on your screen, you can single-click the Dock icon and that application will come forward, ready for you to work in. Keep an eye on the application menu (as described on page 30) to verify which application is “active” at any moment.
You can rearrange any of the icons. Add or remove applications from the left side of the dividing line (see callout, above). Add or remove folders, documents, and web page locations from the right side of the dividing line. Do all this by dragging:
- To rearrange the icons, press the mouse down on any one and drag it left or right. The other icons will move over to make room for the new one.
- To add an application, first open the Applications folder: single-click on the Applications icon in the Sidebar of any Finder window. Then drag an application icon down to the Dock, to the left side of the dividing line.
- To add a folder or a document, drag it to the right side of the dividing line.
- To add a web page, open your browser application, Safari (see pages 94–97 about Safari). Go to the web page that you want to have easy access to in your Dock. Drag the tiny icon that you see on the left of the web page address in the location field (circled, below) and drop it in the Dock. Make sure to drop it on the right side of the dividing line.
- To remove any icon from the Dock, press on it with the mouse button and drag it upwards, off the Dock. Let go of the mouse and the icon will disappear in a poof of smoke. This doesn't hurt anything! Never will you delete any original item by removing its icon from the Dock.