Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition

chapter 1: how the mac is different 25

• Click the disk’s icon and then choose FileÆ“Eject [disk’s name]” (or press

c-E).

• Drag the icon of the disk onto the Trash icon at the end of the Dock. (You’ll see its

icon turn into a giant Eject symbol, the Mac’s little acknowledgment that it knows

what you’re trying to do.)

For you, the Windows veteran, the main thing to remember here is that you never eject

a Macintosh disk by pushing the Eject button on the disk drive itself (if there even is

one). Doing so usually has no effect, but on the rare occasion that it does, you could

end up seriously confusing Mac OS X.

Where Your Stuff Is

The folders of Mac OS X bear some resemblance to those in Windows. For ex-

ample:

Applications Folder

Applications is Apple’s word for programs.

When it comes to managing your programs, the Applications folder (which you can

open by choosing GoÆApplications) is something like the Program Files folder in

Windows—but without the worry. You should feel free to open this folder and double-

click things. In fact, that’s exactly what you’re supposed to do. This is your complete

list of programs. (What’s on your Dock is more like a Greatest Hits subset.)

Better yet, on the Mac, programs bear their real, plain-English names, like Microsoft

Word, rather than eight-letter abbreviations, like WINWORD.EXE. Most are self-

Figure 1-6:

The Macintosh provides ...