Mac OS X Snow Leopard Pocket Guide

Mac OS X Snow Leopard Pocket Guide

by Chris Seibold
Released September 2009
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9780596802721

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Book description

Whether you're new to the Mac or a longtime user, this handy book is the quickest way to get up to speed on Snow Leopard. Packed with concise information in an easy-to-read format, Mac OS X Snow Leopard Pocket Guide covers what you need to know and is an ideal resource for problem-solving on the fly.

This book goes right to the heart of Snow Leopard, with details on system preferences, built-in applications, and utilities. You'll also find configuration tips, keyboard shortcuts, guides for troubleshooting, lots of step-by-step instructions, and more.

  • Learn about new features and changes since the original Leopard release
  • Get quick tips for setting up and customizing your Mac's configuration
  • Solve problems with the handy reference to the fundamentals of the Finder, Dock, and more
  • Understand how to manage user accounts
  • Work more efficiently using keyboard shortcuts
  • Take advantage of MobileMe, Apple's online suite of services and tools

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Table of contents

  1. Preface
    1. Conventions Used in This Book
      1. Menu Symbols
    2. Using Code Examples
    3. Safari® Books Online
    4. How to Contact Us
    5. Acknowledgments
  2. 1. What’s New in Snow Leopard?
    1. Grand Central Dispatch
    2. True 64-bit Operating System
    3. Microsoft Exchange Support
    4. OpenCL
    5. Smoking JavaScript
    6. Smaller Footprint
    7. Application and Finder Enhancements
      1. Finder Enhancements
      2. Application Enhancements
        1. iChat
        2. Preview
        3. QuickTime X
    8. System Improvements
      1. Faster Wake Up, Faster Shut Down, Faster Wireless Network Logon
      2. Split Pane Terminal
      3. Gamma Settings
    9. Snow Leopard Offers Even More
  3. 2. Installing Snow Leopard and Migrating Data
    1. Which Macs Are Compatible?
    2. Preparing to Install Snow Leopard
      1. Preparing Your Hard Disk
      2. Beginning the Installation
      3. Customizing Snow Leopard’s Installation
      4. After the Install
      5. Moving Data and Applications from Another Mac
      6. Fine Tuning Data Migration
  4. 3. The Quick Guide to Snow Leopard
    1. What You Need To Know About Mac OS X
      1. Accounts
        1. Setting up accounts
      2. The Home Folder
    2. Using Snow Leopard
      1. Starting Up
        1. Startup key commands
      2. Logging In
      3. Logging Out, Sleeping, and Shutting Down
        1. Shut down and log out key commands
    3. Snow Leopard Basics
      1. The Menu Bar
        1. The Application menu
        2. Standard Application menus
        3. Menu extras
        4. The Accounts menu
        5. Spotlight
        6. Use the menu bar less
      2. The Desktop
      3. Mastering the Finder
        1. The Finder window
        2. Customizing the Finder toolbar
        3. The sidebar
        4. Finder preferences
        5. Finder views
        6. Common Finder tasks
      4. The Dock
        1. Dock Exposé
        2. Dock menus
        3. Stack view options
        4. Trash
        5. Dock preferences
      5. The Application Switcher
    4. Standard Window Controls
    5. Files and Folders
      1. Regular Folders
      2. Burn Folders
      3. Smart Folders
    6. Nonessential But Useful Mac OS X Features
      1. The Dashboard
        1. Personalizing widgets
        2. Adding and removing widgets
        3. Getting more widgets
        4. Making your own widgets
      2. Searching with Spotlight
        1. Controlling Spotlight’s ordering of results
        2. Controlling the results Spotlight displays
        3. Controlling what Spotlight indexes
        4. Spotlight key commands
      3. Managing File Info
        1. Spotlight comments
        2. General
        3. More Info
        4. Name & Extension
        5. Open With
        6. Preview
        7. Sharing & Permissions
      4. Exposé
      5. Spaces
        1. Configuring Spaces
        2. Using Spaces
  5. 4. Quick Guide to Troubleshooting Mac OS X
    1. Common Problems
      1. Misbehaving Applications
        1. An application stops responding
        2. The finder stops responding
        3. Force quitting greedy processes
        4. USB device problems
        5. Battery problems
        6. Display problems
      2. Startup Problems
        1. Your Mac beeps at you instead of starting
        2. Your hard drive is making noises
        3. Startup troubleshooting
        4. Reset your PRAM
        5. AppleJack
  6. 5. System Preferences
    1. Preferences and Your Mac
      1. Searching for Preferences
    2. Preference Pane Rundown
      1. Appearance
      2. Desktop and Screen Saver
      3. Dock
      4. Exposé and Spaces
      5. Language & Text
      6. Security
        1. FileVault tab
        2. Firewall tab
      7. Spotlight
      8. CDs and DVDs
      9. Displays
      10. Energy Saver
      11. Keyboard
        1. Keyboard tab
        2. Keyboard shortcuts
      12. Mouse
        1. Mighty Mouse options
        2. If you’re using a non-Apple mouse
      13. Trackpad
        1. Multitouch trackpads
        2. Older trackpads
      14. Print & Fax
      15. Sound
      16. MobileMe
        1. Account tab
        2. Sync tab
        3. iDisk tab
        4. Back to My Mac tab
      17. Network Preference Pane
      18. Sharing
      19. Accounts
      20. Date & Time
      21. Parental Controls
        1. System tab
        2. Content tab
        3. Mail & Chat tab
        4. Time Limits tab
        5. Logs tab
      22. Software Update
        1. Scheduled Check tab
        2. Installed Software tab
      23. Speech
        1. Speech Recognition tab
        2. Text to Speech tab
      24. Startup Disk
      25. Time Machine
      26. Universal Access
        1. Seeing tab
        2. Hearing tab
        3. Keyboard tab
        4. Mouse tab
    3. Non-Apple Preference Panes
  7. 6. Built-in Applications and Utilities
    1. Applications Installed with Snow Leopard
      1. Address Book
      2. Automator
      3. Calculator
      4. Chess
      5. Dashboard
      6. Dictionary
      7. DVD Player
      8. Font Book
      9. Front Row
      10. iCal
      11. iChat
      12. Image Capture
      13. iSync
      14. iTunes
      15. Mail
        1. Adding new accounts
        2. Add a signature to outgoing mail
        3. Enable junk mail filtering
        4. Manage mailboxes
        5. Quickly delete junk mail
        6. Search your mail
      16. Photo Booth
      17. Preview
      18. QuickTime Player
      19. Safari
        1. Change the home page
        2. Change the default browser
        3. Control which pages are shown in top sites
        4. Find a page you didn’t bookmark
        5. Block pop-up ads
        6. Change where downloaded items are saved
        7. Control cookies
        8. Get rid of Safari’s history
        9. Add a URL to the desktop
        10. Browse privately
        11. Make Safari remember passwords for website logins
        12. Use a different default RSS reader
        13. Customize Safari’s toolbar
      20. Stickies
      21. System Preferences
      22. TextEdit
      23. Time Machine
    2. Utilities Included with Snow Leopard
      1. Activity Monitor
      2. Airport Utility
      3. AppleScript Editor
      4. Audio MIDI Setup
      5. Bluetooth File Exchange
      6. Boot Camp Assistant
      7. ColorSync Utility
      8. Console
      9. Digital Color Meter
      10. Disk Utility
      11. Exposé
      12. Grab
      13. Grapher
      14. Java Preferences
      15. Keychain Access
      16. Migration Assistant
      17. Network Utility
      18. Podcast Capture
      19. RAID Utility
      20. Remote Install Mac OS X
      21. System Profiler
      22. Terminal
      23. VoiceOver
      24. X11
  8. 7. MobileMe
    1. Back to My Mac
    2. Adding or Removing a Computer to/from MobileMe
    3. iDisk
    4. Clearing the MobileMe Sync Slate
  9. 8. Security
    1. Password Management
      1. Recovering a Forgotten Password
      2. Make a Great Password
      3. Storing Secure Notes
      4. Add a Keychain Access Menu Extra to the Menu Bar
  10. 9. Keyboard Commands and Special Characters
    1. Key Commands
      1. Customizing Key Commands
    2. Typing Special Characters in Mac OS X
  11. Index
  12. About the Author
  13. Copyright

Product information

  • Title: Mac OS X Snow Leopard Pocket Guide
  • Author(s): Chris Seibold
  • Release date: September 2009
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9780596802721