Macs All-in-One for Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Chapter I.2. Starting Up, Sleeping, and Shutting Down

In This Chapter

• Starting your Mac

• Putting your Mac in Sleep mode

• Shutting down a Mac

Before you can use your Mac, you have to start it up — which makes perfect sense. Now, get ready for the counterintuitive part. After you have your Mac up and running, you can just leave it on. Don't worry about wasting electricity; when not in use, the Mac is smart enough to put itself into a low-energy mode — Sleep mode, to be precise — to burn a minimum of energy.

Tip

To adjust the amount of time your Mac sits idle before it goes to sleep, click the Apple menu, choose System Preferences, and then click the Energy Saver icon. To learn more about adjusting your Mac's Energy Saver preferences, check out Book I, Chapter 6.

Note

Now to (kind of) contradict myself. There are times when leaving your Mac on in the wee hours of the morning can actually benefit your Mac's overall performance and usability — sort of the way flossing every night can make for healthier, longer lasting pearly whites. To learn more about exactly what your Mac is up to while you're presumably sleeping, point your Web browser to http://www.osxfaq.com/DailyTips/10-2004/10-04.ws. If, after reading about your Mac's nocturnal habits, you want to make sure yours is awake at the times described in the posting, go to Energy Saver preferences and click the Schedule button to set your Mac to wake at the prescribed hour, as described in the "Adjusting your Mac's Sleep mode and Energy Saver ...