Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Panther Edition

Sound

Mac OS X’s sound options are a little on the lean side, but a visit to the Sound panel is still worthwhile. Using the panes of the Sound panel, you can configure the sound system of your Mac in any of several ways.

Tip

Here’s a quick way to jump directly to the Sound panel of System Preferences—from the keyboard, without ever having to open System Preferences or click Sound. Just press Option as you tap one of the volume-adjustment keys on the top row of your Apple keyboard.

Sound Effects Tab

“Sound effects” means error beeps—the sound you hear when the Mac wants your attention, or when you click someplace you shouldn’t.

Just click the sound of your choice to make it your default system beep. Most of the canned choices here are funny and clever, yet subdued enough to be of practical value as alert sounds.

As for the other controls on the Sound Effects panel, they include:

• Alert Volume slider. Some Mac users are confused by the fact that even when they drag this slider all the way to the left, the sound from games and music CDs still plays at full volume.

  The actual main volume slider for your Mac is at the bottom of the Sound panel, called “Output volume.” The slider on the Alert Sounds panel is just for error beeps; Apple was kind enough to let you adjust the volume of these error beeps independently.

Tip

You can also adjust the alert volume by holding down the Option key as you drag the main speaker volume menulet on your menu bar.

• Play user interface sound effects. This option produces ...