When Apple crated their operating system, they focused on keeping it simple and fun to use. When you first launch OS 10, a strip of colorful icons is the only thing on your desktop. This is known as the dock, and it gives you easy access to your favorite applications. When you mouse over any icon in the dock, the title of the application appears. You can see the first icon is for the finder, then there is the dashboard and so on.
Clicking any icon in the dock launches the application, a tiny blue light shows up beneath the icon when a program is open. Depending on which version of Mac OS 10 you are using, the dock comes with various program icons. In this case, I have the finder, then the dashboard which features useful widgets like real time stock quotes and weather forecast. The Safari web browser, mail, iChat, address book, iTunes which we all know and love. iPhoto, iMovie, iCall, the Quick Time player for audio and video system, Garage Band, iWeb where you can create personal website and iDVD.
Over on the right, there is a dash line that seprates the applications from the recent fies on folders. The trash can also lives here. Depending on your version of OS 10, you might see a link to the Apple Mac OS 10 website or icons for two built in stags. A Stag is a folder of commonly used items.
Newer versions of OS 10 have one stock of folders and one stock for downloads. If you want to add another program or favorite item to the dock, just drag and drop the icon. For example, you can double click the Mac hard drive icon on the desktop and select applications. From the list, click and drag the ones you want down into the dock to create a shortcut. There it is. If you want to delete an application from the dock, click the icon with your mouse, drag it off the dock and let it go. It disappears. Now, this doesn’t actually delete the program, just the shortcut to the program.
Finally, here are couple of other neat tricks. If the dock takes up too much room on your desktop, make it smaller by clicking and holding down the mouse on the line that separates the applications from recent files. When the mouse pointer turns into two arrows, drag down to shrink the dock, make it bigger by dragging the arrows back up.
Of course a smaller dock means more space on the desktop, but smaller icons. Head up to the Apple menu and select dock from the list, choose the option to turn magnification on. Now, when yo hover your pointer over a dock icon, it’s magnified and easier to see.
The Apple menu also lets you move the dock to the left or right side of the screen. Now, the dock is on the left and have more room at the bottom of the screen. There is one more thing you could do if the dock is still in your way. Hide the dock all together. Just go to the Apple menu, select the dock option and choose turn hiding on. Now, the dock disappears. It’s still where you left it but it only shows up if your mouse hovers over that area. And when you move our mouse away, it disappears again. So, you have a nice desktop screen.
Apple created their operating system to be really user friendly, so you can be more efficient using a computer. Have fun and take time to explore everything in the Mac computer has to offer.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services