Mac OS® X Snow Leopard™ for Dummies®

Mac OS® X Snow Leopard™ for Dummies®

Released September 2009
Publisher(s): For Dummies
ISBN: 9780470435434

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Book description

Mac OS X Snow Leopard is the newest version of the Macintosh operating system, and “Dr. Mac” Bob LeVitus is the ideal expert to introduce you to Snow Leopard. Mac OS X Snow Leopard For Dummies covers all the cool stuff and prepares you for the quirks, so whether it’s your first Mac or an upgrade, you’ll enjoy a truly rewarding relationship.

From starting up your Mac to setting up a network and keeping in touch via iChat AV, Mac OS X Snow Leopard For Dummies gives you the scoop on the new features and improvements that help you do more work in less time.

  • Learn when to shut down your Mac and when not to, how to secure it, and how to back it up with Time Machine

  • Organize your life with iCal and your stuff with files and folders, and be able to find what you’re looking for

  • Set up your Internet connection and e-mail, manage spam, surf with Safari, and start iChatting

  • Download and organize songs, podcasts, and movies with iTunes and plan a playlist with Genius

  • Create documents with TextEdit, print them, fax then, and make PDFs

  • Set up a network and share files, printers, and Internet connections

  • Find out about operating system updates, firewalls, troubleshooting, and other ways to keep your Mac safe, healthy, and happy

Technology columnist Bob LeVitus has been a Mac guru for nearly two decades. Mac OS X Snow Leopard For Dummies provides just what you need to get up and running with Snow Leopard.

Table of contents

  1. Copyright
  2. About the Author
  3. Author's Acknowledgments
  4. Publisher's Acknowledgments
  5. Introduction
    1. About This Book
    2. What You Won't Find in This Book
    3. Conventions Used in This Book
    4. Foolish Assumptions
    5. How This Book Is Organized
    6. Icons Used in This Book
    7. Where to Go from Here
  6. I. Introducing Mac OS X Snow Leopard: The Basics
    1. 1. Mac OS X Snow Leopard 101 (Prerequisites: None)
      1. 1.1. Gnawing to the Core of OS X
      2. 1.2. A Safety Net for the Absolute Beginner (Or Any User)
        1. 1.2.1. Turning the dang thing on
        2. 1.2.2. What you should see on startup
        3. 1.2.3. Shutting down properly
        4. 1.2.4. A few things you should definitely NOT do with your Mac
        5. 1.2.5. Point-and-click boot camp
      3. 1.3. Not Just a Beatles Movie: Help and the Help Menu
    2. 2. The Desktop and Windows and Menus (Oh My)!
      1. 2.1. Touring the Finder and Its Desktop
      2. 2.2. Anatomy of a Window
        1. 2.2.1. Top o' the window to ya!
        2. 2.2.2. A scroll new world
        3. 2.2.3. (Hyper) Active windows
      3. 2.3. Dialog Dealie-Boppers
      4. 2.4. Working with Windows
        1. 2.4.1. Opening and closing windows
        2. 2.4.2. Resizing windows
        3. 2.4.3. Resizing window panes
        4. 2.4.4. Moving windows
        5. 2.4.5. Shuffling windows
      5. 2.5. Menu Basics
        1. 2.5.1. The ever-changing menu bar
        2. 2.5.2. Contextual menus: They're sooo sensitive
        3. 2.5.3. Recognizing disabled options
        4. 2.5.4. Navigating submenus
        5. 2.5.5. Underneath the Apple menu tree
        6. 2.5.6. Using keyboard shortcut commands
    3. 3. Have It Your Way
      1. 3.1. Introducing System Preferences
      2. 3.2. Putting a Picture on the Desktop
      3. 3.3. Setting Up a Screen Saver
      4. 3.4. Putting Widgets on the Dashboard
        1. 3.4.1. Translation
        2. 3.4.2. Flight Tracker
        3. 3.4.3. Business and People
      5. 3.5. Giving Buttons, Menus, and Windows a Makeover
      6. 3.6. Spaced Out! Defining Screen Spaces
      7. 3.7. Adjusting the Keyboard, Mouse, Trackpad, and Other Hardware
        1. 3.7.1. Keyboard
          1. 3.7.1.1. Keyboard tab
          2. 3.7.1.2. Keyboard Shortcuts tab
        2. 3.7.2. Mouse
        3. 3.7.3. Bluetooth
        4. 3.7.4. Trackpad (notebook Macs only)
      8. 3.8. Styling Your Sound
        1. 3.8.1. Changing sound effects
        2. 3.8.2. Choosing output options
        3. 3.8.3. Choosing input options
    4. 4. What's Up, Dock?
      1. 4.1. A Quick Introduction to Using the Dock
        1. 4.1.1. The default icons of the Dock
        2. 4.1.2. Trash talkin'
        3. 4.1.3. Opening application menus in the Dock
        4. 4.1.4. Reading Dock-icon body language
        5. 4.1.5. Opening files from the Dock
      2. 4.2. Customizing the Dock
        1. 4.2.1. Adding Dock icons
        2. 4.2.2. Removing an icon from the Dock
        3. 4.2.3. Resizing the Dock
        4. 4.2.4. What should you put in YOUR Dock?
        5. 4.2.5. Setting your Dock preferences
          1. 4.2.5.1. Global Dock preferences
          2. 4.2.5.2. Preferences for folder and disk icons in the Dock
    5. 5. The Finder and Its Icons
      1. 5.1. Introducing the Finder and Your Desktop
      2. 5.2. Getting to Know the Finder Menu
      3. 5.3. Navigating the Finder: Up, Down, and Backward
        1. 5.3.1. Belly up to the toolbar
        2. 5.3.2. Moving through folders fast in Column view
        3. 5.3.3. Perusing in Icon view
        4. 5.3.4. Listless? Try touring folders in List view
        5. 5.3.5. You gotta go with the flow
        6. 5.3.6. Like a road map: The current folder's pop-up menu
        7. 5.3.7. Going places with the Go menu
      4. 5.4. Customizing the Finder Window
        1. 5.4.1. Adding folders to the Sidebar
        2. 5.4.2. Setting Finder preferences
        3. 5.4.3. On using View Options
          1. 5.4.3.1. Icon view options
          2. 5.4.3.2. List view (and Cover Flow) options
          3. 5.4.3.3. Column view options
        4. 5.4.4. Customizing the Finder with Folder Actions
      5. 5.5. Knowing Thy Finder Icons
      6. 5.6. Aliases: Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread
        1. 5.6.1. Creating aliases
        2. 5.6.2. Deleting aliases
        3. 5.6.3. Hunting down an alias's parent
      7. 5.7. Digging for Icon Data in the Info Window
  7. II. Snow Leopard Taming (Or "Organization for Smart People")
    1. 6. Organizing and Managing Files and Folders
      1. 6.1. Understanding the Mac OS X Folder Structure
        1. 6.1.1. Understanding nested folders
        2. 6.1.2. From the top: The Computer folder
        3. 6.1.3. Peeking into the Applications folder
        4. 6.1.4. Finding fonts (and more) in the public Library folder
        5. 6.1.5. Let it be: The System folder
        6. 6.1.6. The usability of the Users folder
        7. 6.1.7. There's no place like Home
        8. 6.1.8. Your personal Library card
      2. 6.2. Saving Your Document Before It's Too Late
        1. 6.2.1. Stepping through a basic Save
        2. 6.2.2. Looks like Save, acts like Save — why's it called Save As?
      3. 6.3. Open Sez Me
        1. 6.3.1. With a Quick Look
        2. 6.3.2. With drag-and-drop
        3. 6.3.3. When your Mac can't open a file
        4. 6.3.4. With the application of your choice
          1. 6.3.4.1. Assigning a file type to an application
          2. 6.3.4.2. Opening a file with an application other than the default
      4. 6.4. Organizing Your Stuff in Folders
        1. 6.4.1. Files versus folders
        2. 6.4.2. Organizing your stuff with subfolders
        3. 6.4.3. Creating new folders
        4. 6.4.4. Navigating with spring-loaded folders
        5. 6.4.5. Smart Folders
      5. 6.5. Shuffling Around Files and Folders
        1. 6.5.1. Comprehending the Clipboard
        2. 6.5.2. Copying files and folders
        3. 6.5.3. Pasting from the Clipboard
        4. 6.5.4. Moving files and folders
        5. 6.5.5. Selecting multiple icons
        6. 6.5.6. Playing the icon name game: Renaming icons
        7. 6.5.7. Compressing files
        8. 6.5.8. Getting rid of icons
      6. 6.6. Finding Your Stuff, Fast
        1. 6.6.1. The Search box in Finder Windows
        2. 6.6.2. Using the Spotlight menu
    2. 7. Dealing with Disks
      1. 7.1. Comprehending Disks
        1. 7.1.1. Some disks need to be formatted first
        2. 7.1.2. Moving and copying disk icons
      2. 7.2. Surprise: Your PC Disks Work, Too!
      3. 7.3. Burning CDs and DVDs
        1. 7.3.1. Burning on the fly
        2. 7.3.2. Creating a Burn Folder
      4. 7.4. Getting Disks out of Your Mac
    3. 8. Organizing Your Life
      1. 8.1. Keeping Track with iCal
        1. 8.1.1. Navigating iCal views
        2. 8.1.2. Creating calendars
        3. 8.1.3. Grouping calendars
        4. 8.1.4. Deleting a calendar or group
        5. 8.1.5. In any event
          1. 8.1.5.1. Inviting others to attend an event
          2. 8.1.5.2. Setting an alarm
        6. 8.1.6. To do or not to do
        7. 8.1.7. Are You Available ?
      2. 8.2. Stickies
      3. 8.3. iSync
  8. III. Do Unto Snow Leopard: Getting Things Done
    1. 9. Internet-Working
      1. 9.1. Getting Connected to the Internet
        1. 9.1.1. Setting up your modem
        2. 9.1.2. Your Internet service provider and you
        3. 9.1.3. Plugging in your Internet connection settings
        4. 9.1.4. Starting a MobileMe account
      2. 9.2. Browsing the Web with Safari
        1. 9.2.1. Navigating with the toolbar buttons
        2. 9.2.2. Bookmarking your favorite pages
        3. 9.2.3. Using the terrific Top Sites page
        4. 9.2.4. Simplifying surfing with RSS feeds
        5. 9.2.5. Searching with Google
        6. 9.2.6. Checking out Help Center
      3. 9.3. Communicating via iChat
        1. 9.3.1. Chit-chatting with iChat
        2. 9.3.2. Chatting with audio and video
        3. 9.3.3. Remote Screen Sharing — remarkable and superbly satisfying
    2. 10. E-Mail Made Easy
      1. 10.1. Keeping Contacts Handy with Address Book
        1. 10.1.1. Adding contacts
        2. 10.1.2. Importing contacts from other programs
        3. 10.1.3. Creating a basic group
        4. 10.1.4. Setting up a Smart Group (based on contact criteria)
        5. 10.1.5. Sending e-mail to a contact or group
      2. 10.2. Sending and Receiving E-Mail with Mail
        1. 10.2.1. Setting up Mail
        2. 10.2.2. Composing a new message
        3. 10.2.3. A quick overview of the toolbar
        4. 10.2.4. Working with stationery
        5. 10.2.5. Checking your mail
        6. 10.2.6. Dealing with spam
        7. 10.2.7. Changing your preferences
        8. 10.2.8. Mail rules rule
        9. 10.2.9. Mailboxes smart and plain
          1. 10.2.9.1. Plain old mailboxes
          2. 10.2.9.2. Intelligent smart mailboxes
        10. 10.2.10. Sign here, please
        11. 10.2.11. Take a (Quick) look and (Slide) show me some photos
    3. 11. The Musical Mac
      1. 11.1. Introducing iTunes
      2. 11.2. Working with Media
        1. 11.2.1. Adding songs
        2. 11.2.2. Adding movies and videos
        3. 11.2.3. Adding podcasts
        4. 11.2.4. Listening to Internet radio
      3. 11.3. All About Playlists
        1. 11.3.1. Creating a regular playlist
        2. 11.3.2. Working with smart playlists
        3. 11.3.3. Burning a playlist to CD
        4. 11.3.4. Looking at two specific playlists
          1. 11.3.4.1. Who is the Genius?
          2. 11.3.4.2. What do you say to iTunes DJ?
      4. 11.4. Backing Up Your iTunes Media
    4. 12. The Multimedia Mac
      1. 12.1. Watching Movies with DVD Player
      2. 12.2. Playing Movies and Music in QuickTime Player
      3. 12.3. Viewing and Converting Images and PDFs in Preview
      4. 12.4. Entertaining with Front Row
      5. 12.5. Importing Media
        1. 12.5.1. Downloading photos from a camera
        2. 12.5.2. Downloading DV video from a camcorder
    5. 13. Words and Letters
      1. 13.1. Processing Words with TextEdit
        1. 13.1.1. Creating and composing a document
        2. 13.1.2. Working with text
        3. 13.1.3. Adding graphics to documents
      2. 13.2. Font Mania
        1. 13.2.1. Installing new fonts
        2. 13.2.2. Types of fonts
        3. 13.2.3. Managing your fonts with Font Book
  9. IV. Making This Snow Leopard Your Very Own
    1. 14. Publish or Perish: The Fail-Safe Guide to Printing
      1. 14.1. Before Diving In . . .
      2. 14.2. Ready: Connecting and Adding Your Printer
        1. 14.2.1. Connecting your printer
        2. 14.2.2. Setting up a printer for the first time
        3. 14.2.3. One last thing: Printer sharing
      3. 14.3. Set: Setting Up Your Document with Page Setup
      4. 14.4. Print: Printing with the Print Sheet
        1. 14.4.1. Printing a document
        2. 14.4.2. Choosing among different printers
        3. 14.4.3. Choosing custom settings
        4. 14.4.4. Saving custom settings
      5. 14.5. Preview and PDF Options
      6. 14.6. Just the Fax . . .
    2. 15. Sharing Your Mac and Liking It
      1. 15.1. Introducing Networks and File Sharing
        1. 15.1.1. Portrait of home-office networking
        2. 15.1.2. Three ways to build a network
      2. 15.2. Setting Up File Sharing
      3. 15.3. Access and Permissions: Who Can Do What
        1. 15.3.1. Users and groups and guests
        2. 15.3.2. Creating users
          1. 15.3.2.1. Changing a user
          2. 15.3.2.2. Removing a user
          3. 15.3.2.3. Limiting a user's capabilities
        3. 15.3.3. Mac OS X knows best: Folders shared by default
        4. 15.3.4. Sharing a folder or disk by setting permissions
          1. 15.3.4.1. Contemplating permissions
          2. 15.3.4.2. Sharing a folder
        5. 15.3.5. Useful settings for permissions
          1. 15.3.5.1. Allow everyone access
          2. 15.3.5.2. Allow nobody but yourself access
          3. 15.3.5.3. Allow all administrative users of this Mac access
          4. 15.3.5.4. Allow others to deposit files and folders without giving them access (a Drop Box)
          5. 15.3.5.5. Read-only bulletin boards
          6. 15.3.5.6. One more privilege
        6. 15.3.6. Unsharing a folder
      4. 15.4. Connecting to a Shared Disk or Folder on a Remote Mac
      5. 15.5. Changing Your Password
        1. 15.5.1. Changing your account password on your Mac
        2. 15.5.2. Changing the password of any account but your own on your Mac
        3. 15.5.3. Changing the password for your account on someone else's Mac
      6. 15.6. Five More Types of Sharing
        1. 15.6.1. Printer Sharing
        2. 15.6.2. Internet Sharing
        3. 15.6.3. Web Sharing
        4. 15.6.4. Bluetooth Sharing
        5. 15.6.5. Screen Sharing
    3. 16. Features for the Way You Work
      1. 16.1. Talking and Listening to Your Mac
        1. 16.1.1. Talking to your Mac
          1. 16.1.1.1. Setting up for Speech Recognition
          2. 16.1.1.2. Using Speech Recognition
        2. 16.1.2. Listening to your Mac read for you
          1. 16.1.2.1. VoiceOver
          2. 16.1.2.2. The VoiceOver Utility
          3. 16.1.2.3. Text to Speech
      2. 16.2. Automatic Automation
        1. 16.2.1. AppleScript
        2. 16.2.2. Automator
      3. 16.3. A Few More Useful Goodies
        1. 16.3.1. Universal Access
          1. 16.3.1.1. The Seeing tab
          2. 16.3.1.2. The Hearing tab
          3. 16.3.1.3. The Keyboard tab
          4. 16.3.1.4. The Mouse & Trackpad tab
        2. 16.3.2. Energy Saver
        3. 16.3.3. Bluetooth
        4. 16.3.4. Ink
        5. 16.3.5. Automatic Login (Accounts System Preferences pane)
        6. 16.3.6. Boot Camp
  10. V. The Care and Feeding of Your Snow Leopard
    1. 17. Safety First: Backups and Other Security Issues
      1. 17.1. Backing Up Is (Not) Hard to Do
        1. 17.1.1. Backing up with Snow Leopard's excellent Time Machine
          1. 17.1.1.1. What does Time Machine back up?
          2. 17.1.1.2. How do I restore a file (or a contact, a photo, an event, and so on)?
        2. 17.1.2. Backing up by using the manual, brute-force method
        3. 17.1.3. Backing up by using commercial backup software
      2. 17.2. Why You Need Two Sets of Backups
      3. 17.3. Non-Backup Security Concerns
        1. 17.3.1. All about viruses
        2. 17.3.2. Firewall: Yea or nay?
        3. 17.3.3. Install recommended software updates
      4. 17.4. Protecting Your Data from Prying Eyes
        1. 17.4.1. Blocking or limiting connections
        2. 17.4.2. Locking down files with FileVault
        3. 17.4.3. Setting other options for security
    2. 18. Utility Chest
      1. 18.1. Calculator
      2. 18.2. Activity Monitor
      3. 18.3. AirPort Utility
      4. 18.4. Audio MIDI Setup
      5. 18.5. ColorSync Utility
      6. 18.6. DigitalColor Meter
      7. 18.7. Disk Utility
        1. 18.7.1. First Aid
        2. 18.7.2. Erase
        3. 18.7.3. Partition
        4. 18.7.4. RAID
        5. 18.7.5. Restore
      8. 18.8. Grab
      9. 18.9. Grapher
      10. 18.10. Java Preferences
      11. 18.11. Keychain Access
      12. 18.12. Migration Assistant
      13. 18.13. System Profiler
      14. 18.14. Terminal
    3. 19. Troubleshooting Mac OS X
      1. 19.1. The Ol' "My Mac Won't Boot" Blues
        1. 19.1.1. The ultimate startup disk: The Mac OS X installation DVD
        2. 19.1.2. Booting from a DVD-ROM
          1. 19.1.2.1. If you can boot from DVD-ROM . . .
          2. 19.1.2.2. If you can't boot from DVD-ROM . . .
      2. 19.2. Question Mark and the Mysterians
        1. 19.2.1. Step 1: Run First Aid
        2. 19.2.2. Step 2: Safe Boot into Safe Mode
        3. 19.2.3. Step 3: Zapping the PRAM
        4. 19.2.4. Step 4: Reinstalling Mac OS X
        5. 19.2.5. Step 5: Take your Mac in for repair
      3. 19.3. If Your Mac Crashes at Startup
  11. VI. The Part of Tens
    1. 20. Almost Ten Ways to Speed Up Your Mac Experience
      1. 20.1. Use Those Keyboard Shortcuts
      2. 20.2. Improve Your Typing Skills
      3. 20.3. Resolution: It's Not Just for New Year's Anymore
      4. 20.4. A Mac with a View — and Preferences, Too
      5. 20.5. Get a New, Faster Model
      6. 20.6. You Can Never Have Too Much RAM!
      7. 20.7. Get an Accelerated Graphics Card
      8. 20.8. Get a New Hard Drive
    2. 21. Ten Ways to Make Your Mac Better by Throwing Money at It
      1. 21.1. RAM
      2. 21.2. Backup Software and/or Hardware
      3. 21.3. A Better Monitor (Or a Second One)
      4. 21.4. A Fast Internet Connection
      5. 21.5. A DVD Burner
      6. 21.6. Games
      7. 21.7. Multimedia Titles
      8. 21.8. Some Big Honking Speakers with a Subwoofer
      9. 21.9. A New Mouse and/or Keyboard
      10. 21.10. A MacBook or MacBook Pro
    3. 22. Ten (Or So) Great Web Sites for Mac Freaks
      1. 22.1. MacFixIt
      2. 22.2. VersionTracker
      3. 22.3. MacInTouch
      4. 22.4. Macworld
      5. 22.5. Alltop
      6. 22.6. Apple Support and Knowledge Base
      7. 22.7. ramseeker
      8. 22.8. Other World Computing
      9. 22.9. EveryMac.com
      10. 22.10. The Mac Observer
      11. 22.11. Inside Mac Games
      12. 22.12. dealmac
      13. 22.13. Dr. Mac Consulting
  12. A. Installing or Reinstalling Mac OS X Snow Leopard (Only If You Have To)
    1. A.1. How to Install (or Reinstall) Mac OS X
    2. A.2. Getting Set Up with Setup Assistant

Product information

  • Title: Mac OS® X Snow Leopard™ for Dummies®
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: September 2009
  • Publisher(s): For Dummies
  • ISBN: 9780470435434