Robin Williams Mac OS X Book, Jaguar Edition, The

Quit vs. Close

At first it seems a bit confusing—what’s the big deal, quitting or closing. Either way, you’re finished, right? Wrong.

Essentially, this is what happens: Say you open an application like your word processer—that is comparable to putting a typewriter on your desk. Then you start a new document—that is comparable to putting a piece of paper in the typewriter.

When you choose “Close” from the File menu, that is comparable to taking the piece of paper (the document) out of the typewriter. The typewriter, though (the application), is still on the desk! On a computer, both the desk and the “typewriter” are rather invisible so you might think the typewriter (the application) is gone.

But the typewriter—the word processor—stays on the ...