Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition

338 switching to the mac: the missing manual

Logging Out

When you’re finished using the Mac, choose aÆLog Out (or press Shift-c-Q). A

confirmation message appears; if you click Cancel or press Esc, you return to whatever

you were doing. If you click Log Out, or press Return, you return to the screen shown

in Figure 12-1, and the entire sign-in cycle begins anew.

Fast User Switching

The account system described so far in this chapter has its charms. It keeps everyone’s

stuff separate, it keeps your files safe, and, most importantly, it lets you have the

desktop picture of your choice.

Unfortunately, it can go from handy to hassle in one split second. That’s when you’re

logged in, and someone else wants to duck in for just a second—to check email or a

calendar, for example. What are you supposed to do—log out completely, closing all

of your documents and quitting all of your programs, just so the interloper can look

something up? Even Windows doesn’t make you do that.

Figure 12-13:

Top: The existence of

the Accounts menulet

lets you know that

Fast User Switching is

turned on. The circled

checkmark indicates

a person who has

already logged in. The

dimmed account name

shows who’s logged in

right now.

Bottom: Fast User

Switching lets one

account holder “cut

in” without requiring

someone else to log out

first. When the screen

changes from your

account to someone

else’s, your entire world

slides ...