Mac computers (which are made by Apple) use an operating system (OS) called Mac OS.

Mac OS’s version 1 was invented in 1984 by Apple. Then came versions 2, 3, 4, etc., up through version 9. Version 10 is different: it’s based on Unix and written in Roman numerals: Mac OS X (which is supposed to be pronounced “Mac oh ess ten”, though Apple will be pleased if you accidentally pronounce it “Mac, oh, is sex!”).

Mac OS X has gone through several versions:

This chapter explains how to use OS X version 10.2 (Jaguar). Other OS X versions are similar. If your Mac is so old that its operating system is less than OS X (and therefore less than version 10), phone me at 603-666-6644 to get an older version of this book.

This chapter explains how to use the cheapest modern Mac, which is called an education Mac (eMac). It’s wonderful and costs just $799! Other Macs (such as the iMac, the iBook, the Power Mac, and the PowerBook) are similar; they’re just slightly fancier and cost more.

 

The eMac comes in a big white cardboard box. To warn you that it’s an educational joyride, the box is decorated with education symbols from biology (a freaky flower), astronomy (a freaky Saturn), and chemistry (a freaky molecule).

Open the box and peek inside. You see clear plastic bags. They contain the system unit (the computer’s main circuitry with a built-in 17-inch monitor), keyboard, mouse, 2 speaker covers, power cord, phone cord, CD-ROM disks, a blank CD-R disk, instructions, and 2 decals (which you can put on your window, to brag to your neighbors that you bought a Mac). Most of those items are a gorgeous “white in clear-ice plastic”, which Apple calls Snow White because she was the gorgeous gal who ate an apple from an icy queen and got carried away by princely charm!

Each bag is self-sealing (like a Zip-Lock bag but better), so you can pry each bag open gently, without using a scissors.

Open the bags. (To handle the heaviest bag, which contains the system unit, tilt the box.) For the mouse and keyboard, remove the plastic caps protecting their cords.

System unit

Put the system unit on your desk. The computer’s front has the word “eMac” on it. Position the system unit so you can see the word “eMac” when you’re sitting in your chair. That way, you’ll be facing the eMac’s screen.

Power cord

Plug one end of the power cord into your wall and the other end into the system unit’s right-hand side (toward the rear). Make sure both ends of the power cord are plugged in tightly.

Keyboard

Plug the keyboard’s cord into the system unit’s right-hand side. (The cord can fit into three slots there; choose the frontmost slot. If the cord seems to not fit easily, flip the cord 180 degrees.)

Mouse

Find the mouse. (It looks like a used bar of soap and says “Mouse” underneath.) Plug the mouse’s cable into the keyboard’s side.

Speaker covers

On the system unit’s front, each bottom corner has a silver circular disk. Those disks are the speakers. To protect them from damage by children and pets, cover them with the speaker covers (plastic disks full of small holes, like Swiss cheese).

Whoopee

Congratulations! You’ve installed the computer! Now you can say on your résumé that you’re a “computer expert experienced at installing advanced computer equipment”. Go put that Apple decal on your window!

 

Look at the computer’s right-hand side. Near the power cord, you see a white circular button. (That button shows a picture of a circle interrupted by a vertical line sticking up from it.) That’s the power button. Press it.

The computer will make an overture to you: you’ll hear a musical chord. (If you don’t hear anything, you probably didn’t press the power button hard enough: press it harder.)

On the screen, you’ll seen an Apple. About a minute later, you’ll see “Mac OS X”.

Practice moving the mouse

Make sure the mouse is positioned properly, so it lies flat on the desk, and you see the eaten apple on it, and the apple doesn’t look upside-down or twisted. Practice moving the mouse across the desk. As you move the mouse, an arrow moves on the screen.

While moving the mouse, don’t twist it: make sure the apple on it stays right-side up.

Welcome

If the computer is in the USA and hasn’t been used before, here’s what happens:

Examine the screen

Eventually, you see little pictures, called icons. For example, the screen’s top left corner will show the Apple icon (a blue apple that’s partly eaten); the screen’s bottom right corner will show the trash icon (picture of a trash can). Those icons mean the Finder (the fundamental part of the Mac’s operating system) is ready.

At the screen’s top right corner, you also see the day of the week (such as Tue) and the time, like this:

Try this experiment: click that time. (To click it, move the mouse until its on-screen arrow’s tip is in the time’s middle, then tap the mouse with your finger, near the mouse’s cord.) If you do that successfully, you’ll see the date underneath, such as:

The date appears just temporarily: when you click the time again (or click anywhere on the screen), the date disappears.

A gray bar stretches across the screen’s top, from the top left corner (the Apple icon) to the top right corner (the time). That’s called the menu bar.

Icons stretch across the screen’s bottom, from the bottom left corner to the bottom right corner (the trash). Those icons are called the dock.

Close any window

If your screen’s middle shows a window (a big white box), do this (which will make the window disappear):

Try this experiment: click the Apple icon (at the screen’s top left corner). You see this Apple menu:

About This Mac

On the Apple menu, if you click “About This Mac”, the computer will show you a window (rectangle) that tells you about your Mac.

For example, on my Mac, the window says this:

That means:

That’s what my Mac says. What does your Mac say? Is your Mac better than mine? If so, I’m jealous!

When you finish reading the message about your Mac, close the message’s window (by clicking the red circle in the window’s top left corner).

Shut Down

When you’re done using the Mac, choose Shut Down from the Apple menu. (To do that, click the Apple icon, so the Apple menu appears, then click “Shut Down”).

The computer will ask, “Are you sure you want to shut down your computer now?” The computer will also show two buttons, marked “Cancel’ and “Shut Down”. To confirm that you really want to shut down your computer now, click the “Shut Down” button. That makes the Mac shut itself off.

While shutting itself off, the Mac tidies up the files on the hard disk and then turns off its own power.

The screen goes black. The white power light (which is next to the bottom right speaker) goes off.

System Preferences

To make your computer easy to use, adjust the “System Preferences”. To do that, say “System Preferences” by using one of these methods:

You see the System Preferences window.

In that window, click “Displays”. You see these 5 choices for screen resolution:

The computer typically refuses to let you choose 640 ´ 480 (and shows its refusal by writing that choice in gray instead of black). Choose one of the others instead. Apple’s factory sets the eMac for 1024 ´ 768, but the eMac will be easier to use if you choose 1280 ´ 960 instead, since that lets you see the most dots on the screen so you can see more writing at once. A lot of Mac software assumes you’ve chosen 1280 ´ 960, so you should typically click 1280 ´ 960, which will make your software easier to use. Exception: if your eyesight is poor (or you’re showing the computer to a big audience sitting far away or your eyes are very annoyed by a slight flicker), you’ll have to stay with a lower resolution.

If you’re sharing the computer with your friends, get their permission before changing the resolution.

When you finish adjusting, click the “System Preferences” that’s next to the Apple icon (at the screen’s top left), then click “Quit System Preferences”.

Sleep

If you’ll be gone from the Mac for a few minutes (to go to the bathroom or grab a snack), you can make the screen be completely black during your absence, so the screen will consume less electricity and neighbors won’t peek at your work. To do that, choose “Sleep” from the Apple menu (or press the POWER button on the computer’s right side).

Then the screen will go black (and the white power light will pulsate instead of being solidly on), until you return and awaken the computer by pressing the RETURN key (or pressing any other key on the keyboard or clicking the mouse or pressing the POWER button).

Automatic sleep If you don’t touch the keyboard or mouse awhile, the computer will notice you’re inactive, so the computer will assume you’ve walked away. After 5 minutes of inactivity, the computer will put the screen to sleep (so it turns black until you move the mouse); after 10 minutes of inactivity, the computer will put the rest of the system unit to sleep (so the power light pulsates until you press a key or click the mouse or press the POWER button).

If you don’t like the numbers “5 minutes” and “10 minutes”, change them by doing this:

 

To find out what’s on your computer’s hard disk (HD), double-click the Macintosh HD icon (which is at the screen’s top right corner, just below the time). Here’s how to double-click the icon:

Then you’ll see the Macintosh HD window. In that window, you’ll see icons for 8 folders.

Double-click the “Applications” folder for OS X. You see the Applications window, which tries to show these 32 icons:

At first, you see just some of those icons — because the window is too small to show them all. To see more of the icons, make the window bigger, by clicking the window’s zoom button (the green circle near the window’s top left corner). If you click the zoom button again, the window will become small again. Each time you click the zoom button, the window switches from small to big or back to small again. But even if the window is big, it’s still not big enough to show you all 32 icons at once: you see just the top few rows of icons. To see the bottom rows instead, choose from these methods:

 

To do calculations, double-click the Calculator icon (which is in the Applications window, near the top right corner).

You’ll see a window that looks and acts like a pocket calculator. For example, here’s how to compute 42+5:

Instead of using the mouse, you can do that calculation a different way, by using the keyboard. On the keyboard’s right-hand side, you see the numeric keypad, which looks just like the on-screen calculator. On that numeric keypad, tap the 4 key, then the 2 key, then the + key, then 5, then either = or ENTER. The on-screen calculator will show 47.

Try fancier calculations! Use these symbols:

If you make a mistake, you can click the C button (by using the mouse) or press the CLEAR key (on the keyboard). That resets the calculator to 0, so you can start over.

Advanced button

The on-screen calculator has an Advanced button. If you click that button, you’ll see a calculator that’s more advanced and has extra buttons, such as these:

If you click the 7 button and then say “squared” (by pressing the x² button), the computer will multiply 7 by itself and say 49 (which is called “7 squared”). If you click the 7 button and then say “cubed” (by pressing the x³ button), the computer will do “7 times 7 times 7” and say 343 (which is called “7 cubed”). If you click the 7 button and then say “factorial” (by pressing the x! button), the computer will multiply together all the numbers up to 7 (1 times 2 times 3 times 4 times 5 times 6 times 7) and say 5040 (which is called “7 factorial”).

If you say pi (by pressing the p button), the computer will say 3.141592654.

After making the calculator be advanced, you can make it become basic again by clicking the Basic button.

Quit

When you finish using the calculator, click the word “Calculator” that’s next to the Apple icon (at the screen’s top left), then click “Quit Calculator”.

 

Here’s how to do word processing simply.

In the Applications window, find the TextEdit icon. That icon is toward the right, near the bottom. If you don’t see it in the Applications window, make the Applications window bigger (by clicking the zoom button, which is the green circle) or scroll down.

Double-click that icon. Then type whatever sentences you wish to make up. For example, try typing a memo to your friends, or a story, or a poem. Be creative! Whatever you type is called a document.

How to type

These tricks will help you type.…

Capitals To capitalize a letter of the alphabet, type that letter while holding down the SHIFT key.

Above the E key, you see a key that says 4 and also says $. If you press that key, you’ll normally be typing 4. If you want to type $ instead, tap that key while holding down the SHIFT key. Here’s the rule: if a key has two symbols on it, and you want to type the top symbol, tap the key while holding down the SHIFT key.

To capitalize a whole passage, tap the CAPS LOCK key (so its green light starts glowing), then type the passage. The computer will automatically capitalize the passage as you type it. When you finish typing the passage, tap the CAPS LOCK key again: that tells the computer to turn off the key’s light and stop capitalizing.

DELETE key If you make a mistake, press the DELETE key. That makes the computer erase the last character you typed. To erase the last two characters you typed, press the DELETE key twice.

Word wrap If you’re typing near the window’s right edge, and you type a word that’s too long to fit in the window, the computer will automatically move the word to the line below. Moving the word to the line below is called word wrap.

RETURN key When you finish a paragraph, press the RETURN key. That makes the computer move to the line below so you can start typing the next paragraph. If you want to double-space between the paragraphs, press the RETURN key twice.

TAB key If you want to indent a line (such as the first line of a paragraph), begin the line by pressing the TAB key, which makes the computer indent.

Nudge a phrase To move a phrase toward the right, press the TAB key several times before typing the phrase. To move a phrase down, press the RETURN key several times before typing the phrase.

Red dots While you’re typing, the computer automatically examines each word you type. The computer puts red dots under any word that’s not in the computer’s dictionary.

If you see red dots under a word, you misspelled it — or you forgot to put a space between words, or you know more words than the computer. So if you see red dots under a word, look carefully at that word to make sure it’s really what you want.

Scroll through documents

If your document contains too many lines to fit in the window, the window will show just part of the document. To see the rest of the document, drag the scroller (the tall blue bubble at the window’s right edge) up or down, or press the PAGE UP key or PAGE DOWN key.

Insert characters

To insert extra characters anywhere in your document, click where you want the extra characters to appear (by moving the mouse’s pointer there then tapping the mouse with your finger, near the mouse’s cord). Then type the extra characters.

For example, suppose you typed the word “fat” and want to change it to “fault”. Click between the “a” and the “t”, then type “ul”.

As you type the extra characters, the screen’s other characters move out of the way, to make room for the extra characters.

While you’re inserting the extra characters, you can erase nearby mistakes by pressing the DELETE key or the DEL key.

Split a paragraph

Here’s how to split a long paragraph in half, to form two short paragraphs.

Decide which word should begin the second short paragraph. Click the left edge of that word’s first letter.

Press the DELETE (to erase the space before that word), then press the RETURN key. Now you’ve split the long paragraph in two!

If you want to double-space between the two short paragraphs, press the RETURN key again. If you want to indent the second paragraph, press the TAB key.

Combine paragraphs

After typing two paragraphs, here’s how to combine them, to form a single paragraph that’s longer.

Click at the end of the first paragraph. Press the DEL key several times, to delete unwanted RETURNs and TABs. Now you’ve combined the two paragraphs into one!

Then press the SPACE bar (to insert a space between the two sentences).

Arrow keys

To move to different parts of your document, you can use your mouse. To move faster, press the arrow keys instead:

Select text

Suppose the document contains a phrase you mistyped. Here’s how to edit the phrase.

First, make the phrase be blue, by using any of these methods:

Making the phrase be blue is called selecting the phrase.

Then say what to do to the phrase. For example, if you want to erase the phrase, press the DELETE key. If you want to replace the phrase instead, just type whatever words you want the phrase to become. If you want to move the phrase instead, choose Cut from the Edit menu (by clicking “Edit”, which is at the screen’s top, then “Cut”), then click where you want the phrase to be, then choose Paste from the Edit menu.

Notice that the Cut command makes sense only if you’ve selected some text (by turning that text blue).

If you don’t select any text — if no phrase is blue — the computer refuses to let you say Cut. In that situation, when you pull down the Edit menu, you’ll notice that the word “Cut” appears on the menu very faintly: the word “Cut” is dimmed; it’s grayed instead of being written in sharp black.

Here’s the rule: when a word on a menu is dimmed,
the computer refuses to let you choose that word. The usual reason for the refusal is that you haven’t selected a phrase (or icon or other part of the screen).

Start over

If you mess up the entire document and want to erase it all (so you can start over again, fresh, from scratch), choose
Select All from the Edit menu, then press the DELETE key.

Alignment buttons

Near the window’s top left corner, you see these alignment buttons:

Align Left                     Center                         Justify                  Align Right

────             ────           ──────          ──────

──────          ──────          ──────            ────

────             ────           ──────          ──────

──────          ──────          ──────            ────

────             ────           ──────          ──────

──────          ──────          ──────            ────

While typing a line, you can click one of those alignment buttons.

Clicking the Center button makes the line be centered,

Clicking the Align Right button makes the line be at the window’s right edge,

Clicking the Align Left button makes the line be at the window’s left edge,

Clicking one of those buttons affects not just the line you’re typing but also all other lines in the same paragraph.

Clicking the Justify button makes the paragraph be justified, so the paragraph’s bottom line is at the window’s left edge, and each of the paragraph’s other lines is at both edges (by inserting extra space between the words),

When you click one of those alignment buttons, you’re activating it, and it turns gray. That button deactivates when you click a different alignment button instead.

When you start typing a new document, the computer assumes you want the document to be aligned left, so the computer activates the Align Left button. If you want a different alignment, click a different alignment button instead.

Examples:

Clicking one of those alignment buttons affects the entire paragraph you’re typing. (The paragraphs you typed earlier remain unaffected.)

To change the alignment of a paragraph you typed earlier, click in the paragraph’s middle then click the alignment button you wish.

When you start typing a new paragraph, the computer gives that paragraph the same alignment as the paragraph above, unless you say differently (by clicking one of the alignment buttons).

Here’s how to type a centered title:

Save

To copy the document onto the hard disk, choose Save from the File menu.

Then invent a name for your document. For example, you can invent a short name such as —

or a long name such as:

The name can be as long as you wish. It shouldn’t contain a period, a colon, or a slash, but it can contain any other characters you wish. At the end of the name, press the RETURN key. That makes the computer copy the document onto the hard disk.

Afterwards, if you change your mind and want to do more editing, go ahead! Edit the document some more. When you finish that editing, save it by choosing Save from the File menu again.

Finish

When you finish working on a document, click the
close button (the red circle at the window’s top left corner).

(The computer might ask, “Do you want to save changes to this document before closing?” If you reply by clicking “Don’t Save”, the computer won’t copy your latest changes to the disk. If you click “Save” instead, the computer will chat with you, just as if you chose Save from the File menu.)

The document disappears from the screen, but you’re still in the middle of using TextEdit. To prove you’re still in the middle of using TextEdit, notice that at the screen’s top left corner, you still see “TextEdit” next to the Apple icon on the menu bar.

Then choose one of these activities:

Final two steps When you finish using the computer, remember to take these two steps:

COMMAND key

Next to the SPACE bar, you see a key that has an apple on it. That key has many names. It’s called the APPLE key, but it’s also called the CLOVERLEAF key (because it also has a cloverleaf on it), the SQUIGGLE key (because its cloverleaf looks like a squiggle), and the COMMAND key (because it helps you command the computer).

Actually, your keyboard also has two command keys: one is left of the SPACE bar; the other is to the right of the SPACE bar. Use either one.

Try holding down a COMMAND key; and while you hold down that key, tap one of these keys:

Here are the details.…

Underline To underline a phrase (like this), you can use two methods:

Bold To make a phrase be bold (like this), you can use two methods:

Italic To make a phrase be italicized (like this), you can use two methods:

Enlarge Here’s how to enlarge a phrase (like this):

Shrink Here’s how to shrink a phrase (like this):

Zap If you make a mistake (such as accidentally deleting a phrase, or accidentally making a phrase look ugly), immediately hold down the COMMAND key; and while you keep holding down that key, tap the Z key. That makes the computer undo your last activity, so your document returns to the way it looked before you made your boo-boo. To undo your last two activities, do that tapping twice.

Time savers To accomplish the most popular activities, beginners choose from the File, Edit, or TextEdit menus (by using the mouse). Experts save time by avoiding such mousing around: while holding down the COMMAND key, they just tap the A, S, N, O, Q, W, X, V, or C key, as shown in the chart.

Colors

Normally, the characters you type appear black on a white background. Here’s how to make them a different color, such as red.

Drag across the phrase you want to color (so the phrase’s background becomes blue). While holding down the COMMAND and SHIFT keys, tap the C key. You see the Colors window. (If the window isn’t tall yet, enlarge it by clicking its resize button, which is left of the word “Colors”.)

You should see a big color wheel, which is a circle full of colors. (If you don’t see a big color wheel yet, make it appear by clicking the small color wheel at the window’s top left corner.)

Click the color you want instead of black; for example, click red. Then the phrase will turn red. Next to the color wheel, you see a tower (vertical bar) showing many shades of red (from light red to dark red); click your favorite shade. Then the phrase will turn that shade (and so will the color circle).

To color a different phrase, drag across it, then choose a color for it by clicking the color wheel and the shade tower. (If the colors in the color wheel are too dark to see clearly, brighten them by clicking the shade tower’s top.)

When you finish using the Colors window, close it (by clicking its close button).

Speech

The Mac has a voice! Here’s how to make your Mac’s voice read your entire document out loud:

Try it! You’ll enjoy the sound of the Mac’s voice, especially if you’re blind or lonely.

The voice assumes your document is written in English. (If your document is written is some other language, such as Spanish, the voice will mispronounce some of the words.)

To speak well, the Mac analyzes each sentence’s punctuation and grammar. For example, at the end of a sentence, a period makes the voice’s pitch drop, but a question mark makes the voice’s pitch rise.

How do you pronounce the word “read”? In sentences such as “I will read it” and “I can read it”, the Mac will correctly pronounce the word as “reed”. In the sentence “I have read it”, the Mac will correctly pronounce the word as “red”.

The Mac understands political titles: it knows that “Pres.” should be pronounced “President”, “Gov.” should be pronounced “Governor”, “Sen.” should be pronounced “Senator”, and “Rep.” should be pronounced “Representative”.

The Mac isn’t shy: if you type dirty words, the Mac will say them.

Notice that the Mac operating system can speak, but Microsoft Windows cannot. That’s one reason why Mac lovers say “Microsoft Windows is dumb.”

Different voices The Mac is bisexual: it can speak in male and female voices. In fact, it can speak in 22 different voices! The Mac assumes you want it to speak in “Victoria’s” voice. Here’s how to switch to a different voice.…

Say “System Preferences” (by choosing “System Preferences” from the Apple menu or by clicking the System Preferences icon, which is in the dock). Double-click the Speech icon (which looks like a microphone). Click “Default Voice”.

Click one of these 22 voices:

Click “Play” to hear a sample of that voice. Whichever voice you choose will affect all future speaking, until you switch to a different voice instead.

Long melodies For a fun time, create a composition that contains just the word “la” about 40 times (separated by spaces but no punctuation), then choose one of the singing voices.

Sharing? If you’re sharing the computer with friends, return to “Victoria” (or whatever other voice your group agrees on) before you leave the computer.

 

Your Mac is an amazing pet: it can perform tricks!

iTunes

Before 1980, music came on records or tapes. Nowadays, music comes on a compact disc (CD).

If you’ve gone to a music store and bought a CD containing music, you can shove that disk into your Mac, which will play the CD as background music, while you continue your work. Here’s how.

Press the EJECT key (which is at the keyboard’s top right corner and says �). That makes the Mac “open its mouth and stick out its tongue”: more precisely, it makes the Mac open its CD door (which is below the screen) and stick out its CD tray.

Put the CD onto the Mac’s “tongue” (the CD tray), as follows:

Press the EJECT key again. That makes the Mac retract its tongue, close its mouth, and taste your CD.

If the computer says “iTunes Setup Assistant” (because nobody has played music on your Mac yet), do this:

You see the iTunes window. Click “Audio CD” (which is at the Window’s left edge). You see a list of songs (tracks) that are on the CD. (If the list is too long to fit in the window, make the window taller by dragging its bottom-right corner down.)

Which songs? If you want to hear all the songs on the CD, just click the play button (the „ at the window’s top left corner).

If you want to hop to a particular song, double-click its number. The computer will start playing that song and the songs after it.

If you hate some songs and want the computer to skip them, remove their check marks (by clicking them).

Volume To adjust the volume, you can use three methods:

Interruption To pause the music, click the pause button (the II at the window’s top left corner, where the play button used to be). To resume playing, click that spot again.

To start the current song over again, click ƒƒ. To skip ahead to the next song, click „„. To skip to a faraway song, double-click its number.

Visual Near the window’s bottom right corner, you see the Visual button (which has starburst or snowflake on it). If you click it, you’ll see an animated abstract cartoon that thumps to the music’s beat.

While you’re watching the cartoon, try pressing COMMAND with F. (That means: while holding down the APPLE key, tap the F key.) That makes the cartoon change size, so it consumes the full screen — or become small again, so it fits in the iTunes window.

When you finish admiring the cartoon and it fits in the iTunes window, you can cancel the cartoon by pressing the Visual button again.

Finish When you finish listening to the CD, do this:

When you finish using iTunes, say “quit” (by pressing COMMAND with Q).

Upgrade

If your eMac came with an CD to upgrade iTunes, iPhoto, iMove, and iDVD, here’s how to install the upgrade:

DVD Player

Before 1990, movies came on film or videotape. Nowadays, movies often come on a digital versatile disk (DVD).

If you’ve gone to a video store and bought a DVD containing a movie, you can shove that disk into your Mac, which will play the movie (if your Mac contains a DVD drive, which all modern Macs do).

Here’s how.

Press the EJECT key (which is at the keyboard’s top right corner and says �). That makes the Mac “open its mouth and stick out its tongue”.

Put the DVD onto the Mac’s “tongue” (the tray), as follows:

Press the EJECT key again. That makes the Mac retract its tongue, close its mouth, and taste your DVD.

(If the computer says “Drive Region Code”, because nobody has played movies on your Mac yet, click “Set Drive Region” then “OK”.)

Controls Click „ (which is near the screen’s bottom left corner). The DVD will start running.

Follow the instructions on the screen. (You’ll probably see an intro, then the movie’s title, then click “Play movie”.)

As you watch the movie, you can use the controls near the screen’s bottom left corner. You can click II to pause the movie (and make the screen show the current frame), n to stop the movie temporarily (and make the screen be blank), „ to resume playing, „„| to skip ahead to the next scene, |ƒƒ to hop back to the beginning of the current scene.

You can raise the volume by dragging the slider toward the right. Lower the volume by dragging to the left.

Press the Esc key (at the keyboard’s top left corner) to make the controls disappear. Press the Esc key again to make the controls reappear.

While the movie plays, pressing the SPACE bar makes the computer pause (as if you clicked II). Pressing the SPACE bar again makes the computer resume playing (as if you clicked „).

Window size Press COMMAND with 1 to make the movie fit in a small window, COMMAND with 2 for a medium window, COMMAND with 3 for a big window.

Press COMMAND with zero to make the movie consume the whole screen. To return to a window again, press COMMAND with 1 (for small window), 2 (for medium window), 3 (for big window), or 0 (for previous window size).

Menu While the movie is in a window, the screen’s top shows the menu bar. (While the movie is full-screen, you can make the menu bar appear by moving the mouse pointer to the screen’s top.)

While the movie is playing, try this experiment: click “Controls” on the menu bar. You’ll see the Controls menu. On that menu, you can choose “Fast Forward”, “Rewind”, “Mute”, “Stop”, “Play” and other choices.

Finish When you finish watching the movie, quit the DVD Player program (by pressing COMMAND with Q). The movie will stop running.

Press the keyboard’s EJECT key. The Mac will stick out its tongue. Remove the DVD. (If you want to listen to a different DVD instead, put it on the Mac’s tongue.) Press the EJECT key again to make the Mac put its tongue back in its mouth.

Manipulate the desktop

When you turn the Mac on, the screen shows you the desktop, which is the blue area on which you see the hard disk icon. The hard disk icon might be opened, to show you what’s on the disk.

Try this experiment.…

Use TextEdit to create some documents. Save them. Then quit running TextEdit and close any open window.

Double-click the Macintosh HD icon (which is near the screen’s top right corner). Then double-click the Users icon, then the icon that has your name on it, then the Documents icon. You see the Documents window. In it you see the documents you created and saved! Each document has its own icon.

Now I’m going to explain how to manipulate the icons. If you’re a beginner, experiment with just the icons that stand for junky documents (such as “Stupidest Memo of 1999”); if you fiddle with files that are more serious, you might be sorry!

Rename If you want to change an icon’s name, click the name (which is below the icon) and then type a different name instead.

Back & forward To go back and see the previous window, click “Back” (which is near the window’s top left corner) or the Back button (which is above the word “Back”). When you finish looking at that previous window, resume looking at the newer window by clicking “Forward”.

Double-click Each thing on the disk is called an item. The Mac can handle three kinds of items: folders (such as the Applications folder), application programs (such as TextEdit), and documents (such as “Stupidest Memo of 1999”).

If you double-click an icon, here’s what happens:

Trash If you want to erase a document (or any other item), drag its icon to the trash can (which is at the screen’s bottom right corner). You’ll hear a thump as the icon hits the trash can, and you’ll see crumpled paper in the trash can. If you want to erase several documents, drag their icons to the trash can.

If you want to peek at what’s in the trash, click the trash icon. You’ll see the Trash window; in it are the items you’ve put in the trash. (If you change your mind and wish you hadn’t trashed an item, drag that item back into the Documents folder.) When you finish peeking in the trash, close the Trash window.

Later, if you’re sure you don’t want those items anymore, choose “Empty Trash” from the Finder menu, then click “OK”. That makes the computer empty the trash, so you don’t see any crumpled paper in the trash can and the Trash window contains nothing.

Dock At the screen’s bottom, you see a box called the dock. In the dock, at the dock’s right edge, you see the trash can.

The dock is divided into two parts, separated by a vertical line:

The dock lets you access its items easily, since the dock is always visible on the screen, and since items in the dock activate immediately when you click them (you don’t have to double-click them).

To make an application program (such as TextEdit) easier to access, drag its icon to the dock’s left part. To make a folder (such as the applications folder) or document (such as “Stupidest Memo of 1999”) easier to access, drag its icon to the dock’s right-hand part: drag to the blank spot that’s between the vertical line and the trash can.

After you’ve dragged an icon to the dock, the icon is in two places: it’s in the dock but also remains in its original location.

The icon will stay in the dock permanently. Even if you shut down the Mac and turn off the Mac’s power, the icon will stay in the dock: you’ll see it’s still there when you turn the Mac back on.

To remove an icon from the dock, drag the icon out of the dock (by dragging the icon slightly up). Once the icon is out of the dock, it disappears in a puff of smoke (and you even hear the smoke blow in your face).

Though the dock’s icon vanishes, the icon’s other copy persists in its original folder. You have not erased the document or folder or application program: you erased just the dock’s copy of the icon.

Duplicate Here’s how to make a duplicate copy of an item:

That creates a new icon. For example, if the original icon was called “Joe”, the new icon is called “Joe copy”. If the original icon was called “Stupidest memo of 1999”, the new icon is called “Stupidest memo of 1999 copy”.

Drag the new icon wherever you wish. Rename it however you wish.

If you accidentally wreck the original icon, the new icon will still be there.

Copy to a CD-R or CD-RW Here’s how to copy an item to a blank CD-R or CD-RW disk.

Press the EJECT key. Grab a blank CD-R disk (such as the one that came with your eMac) or CD-RW disk and put it onto the tray. Press the EJECT key again, so the Mac tastes the disk.

The Mac will say, “You inserted a blank CD”.

Invent a name for the CD (such as “Joan’s memos”); type the name. Then click “OK”.

At the screen’s right side, you see the CD’s icon. To copy an item onto the CD, drag the item’s icon to the CD’s icon. Drag as many items as you wish to the CD’s icon.

Double-click the CD’s icon. You’ll see the CD’s window. The items should be in that window. When you see the items there, finalize the process by doing this:

Once the CD has been burned, you can’t copy any more items to the CD.

Here’s how to remove the CD:

In the future, whenever you want to use the CD, do this:

Erase a CD-RW Here’s how to erase a CD-RW disk so you can reuse it.

Make sure the CD-RW disk is in the Mac. Close all windows and quit all programs.

Double-click the Macintosh HD icon then Applications then Utilities (which is at the Applications window’s bottom left corner after you scroll down) then Disk Utility.

You see the Disk Utility window. Click “Erase” (at the window’s top), then “904.00 KB PHILIPS” (which is the CD-RW drive), then the “Erase” at the window’s bottom right corner then the “Erase” next to “Cancel”.

The computer will say “Please Wait …Erasing Disc.” When that message goes away, close the Disk Utility window.

The computer will say “You inserted a blank CD”. Follow the rest of the procedure for how to “Copy to a CD-R or CD-RW”.

OPTION key

In the middle of typing a document, try this experiment.…

While holding down the OPTION key, try tapping another key. Here are examples of what you get:

Keycaps For more examples of what the OPTION key can do, double-click the Macintosh HD icon then Applications then Utilities (which is at the Applications window’s bottom left corner after you scroll down) then Keycaps.

You see a picture of the keyboard. Whatever you type will appear above the keyboard’s picture.

Hold down the OPTION key to see how the keyboard’s picture changes. For example, when you hold down the OPTION key, the “a” key becomes the “å” key. When you hold down the OPTION and SHIFT keys, the “a” key becomes the “Å” key.

When you finish using Keycaps, click its close button.