Welcome to the MacOS. On a campus filled with Unix and Windows workstations, it's not uncommon for students to sit down at our Macs without ever having used one before. With any luck, this page will get you started working with Macintosh computers and allow you to become familiar with this superior operating sysem in short order.

Wait a second, you ask, what do you mean "superior"? Well, from my perspective computers are tools we use to get our work done. Having worked in a computer lab for several years now, I've found that Windows machines require you to spend more time working ON them than working with them. Unix machines, while excellent computers, are pretty specialized (at least here at NCSU.) The MacOS is specifically designed for people who just want to sit down and get their work done without a lot of unnecessary fiddling. As I've always said, PCs are for people who love tinkering with their machines; Macs are for people who simply want to get their work done.

Getting Started

Once you've logged in, you find yourself looking at the Macintosh Finder. Here's a picture:

The area which takes up most of the screen is called the Desktop. The white bar at the top is the Menu Bar. It gives you several options for how you wish to begin. The menu is geared toward working with floppy disks and hard disks, allowing you to rename them, eject them (floppys, anyway!) arrange them by name or date, etc.

On the right side of the Desktop are a series of icons. The topmost icon is your computer's Hard Drive. This is essentially the computer itself, and contains all system and application files and directories. The hard drive can be named anything, from Macintosh HD to, well, Asmodeus, like my home computer. Regardless of what it's named, the hard drive is the center of your Mac. To access any of these icons, just double-click on them. They'll open to reveal their contents.

Other icons on your desktop can include anything from floppy disks to your Unity "Home" directory. You can also creat aliases for frequently used applications, as I've done with JPEGView.

The icon on the bottom should be familiar even to users of Windows machines. The Windows 95 (and NT) Recycling Bin is another version of the Macintosh Trash container. This is where you put things you wish to throw away. You just drag documents or folders to the Trash icon, which will then look "full." Then you go to the menu bar, and under Special select "Empty Trash." This will get rid of the items in the trash can forever. If you're really not sure if you want to throw something away, it's usually best to put it in a folder named "Old" or something until you're really certain you want to get rid of it.

What's that? How do you create your own folders and aliases? Okay, here's how. To create a folder you can do one of two things. You can either go under "File" in the menu bar and select "New Folder," or you can use a Keyboard Shortcut. Keyboard shortcuts are keyboard combinations which allow you to execute commands without using the mouse. Most Mac keyboard shortcuts involve the Command key, which is right next to the spacebar with a small Apple logo on it. Keyboard shortcuts can usually be learned by looking right next to options on the menu bar; they're listed off to the right on the pull-down menus. For this action, strike "command-n" to create the new folder. You'll see a new folder, named "untitled folder," appear in whichever folder or window is active on the desktop.

To create an alias for a folder or an application, you use a similar procedure. Select the item for which you wish to create an alias, go under "File" in the menu bar and select "Make Alias." OR, you can use another keyboard shortcut and strike "command-m" to do the same thing. You can then put the alias anywhere you want (desktop, floppy disk, a different folder) and double-click on the alias to access the original item.

You'll find that, as you become more familiar with the MacOS, there are a number of easy keyboard shortcuts which can help you get your work done very quickly. Here's a brief listing:

• Open = Command + o
• Close Window = Command + w
• Quit = Command + q
• Print = Command + p
• Cut = Command + x
• Copy = Command + c
• Paste = Command + v
• Save = Command + s

You can also get information about an item by striking "Command + i" which does the same thing as going under "File" to "Get Info." Get Info is a great tool which is similar to right-clicking on an object in Windows 95 and selecting "Properties".

One conceptual note about the MacOS: This operating system is very mouse-oriented. There is no command line, like MS-DOS in Windows 95 or Unix on a SunStation. A lot of people interpret this as a loss of control, and wish they could edit system files or automate actions with batch files. But unless you're a real power user who wants the most complete, intimate control over your system, a command line really isn't a necessity. This perceived loss of control can also be viewed as less work for the user; the MacOS doesn't REQUIRE you to edit system files. Part of the beauty of the MacOS is its simplicity, and the fact that ANYONE can sit down at a Mac and find their way around without having to know DOS or Unix.

Getting to Work

Now that you can get around on your Mac, you can start working. Let's say you want to write a paper in a word processor, save it to your "Home" directory, and then copy it to your floppy disk. Let's begin by opening a word processing program, like BBEdit Lite. Most of these programs are pretty similar, so the process should be the same whether you're using a shareware program like I am or commercial juggernauts like Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect.

Opening Your Application: Depending on how your computer is set up, there are several ways you can access an application. Sometimes you may have to open the hard drive folder and search through several directories before you find what you're looking for. Our lab machines list the applications under the Microsoft Office menu in the top left corner of the menu bar. Find the application you want, select it with the mouse cursor, and release the mouse button. The application will then open.

Once you've written your paper, you should save it. Let's save it to your "Home" directory so that it can be accessed from anywhere on campus. The picture above illustrates what you should see as you do this. Go under "File" to "Save As," find your home directory by clicking on "Desktop" to the right in the "Save As" window, name your document, and click "Save." You can check to see if you've been successful by opening your home directory to see if your document is there.

Now let's copy this document to your floppy disk. First, insert your disk into the floppy drive of your computer. It will appear on the desktop as a small picture of a floppy disk. No brainer, huh? Then, drag the document from your home directory to your floppy disk, releasing the mouse button only when your disk icon turns dark grey. Then a small progress window should appear which shows that your document is, indeed, being copied to your disk. Again, check that this has worked by opening your floppy disk to see if the document is there.

Now that you're done, how do you get your disk out of the computer? This is one of those instances where Macs are so simple they're a little confusing. Just drag the disk icon to the Trash. This won't harm the data on your disk at all. If that bothers you, which it does some people, you can either go under the "Special" menu to "Eject Disk," or you can simply use the keyboard shortcut "Command + e." Your disk will pop out and you're ready to go. (*The same method works for CDs as well, in case you ever have occasion to use a CD-ROM or listen to music whilst computing.)

So now you've done it. You've gone from wondering where the "Start" menu is to writing a paper and making a backup copy of it. Any new computer system can be a little intimidating when you first encounter it; hopefully, this brief tutorial has made the getting-to-know-you period a little easier to handle. I've found that Macs are pretty intuitive, and have noticed that a lot of the problems people have when first using a Mac have more to do with un-learning less intuitive features on other computer systems than with any legitimate difficulties built into the MacOS. Part of the reason Macs have hung around for so long is this ease of use.