Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition

116 switching to the mac: the missing manual

The Save and Open Dialog Boxes

When you create a new document and then choose FileÆSave, you get Apple’s version

of the Save dialog box: the Save sheet (Figure 4-14).

Tip: In Mac OS X, a quick glance at the Close button in the upper-left corner of a document window tells

you whether or not it’s been saved (see Figure 4-14). When a small dot appears in the red button, it means

you’ve made changes to the document that you haven’t yet saved. Time to press c-S! The dot disappears

as soon as you save your work.

Figure 4-14:

Top: The Windows Save

dialog box, an inevitable part

of computing, displays a list

of the folders on your hard

drive. But how do you know

where you are? What folder

is this one inside of?

Bottom: In Mac OS X, you

can see a familiar column

display that matches the

Finder, making it much

easier to figure out what

you’re doing and how you

got here.

The Save and Open

Dialog Boxes

chapter 4: programs and documents 117

In Windows, the Save dialog box appears dead center on the screen, where it com-

mandeers your entire operation. You aren’t allowed to do anything more in the current

program until you click Save or Cancel to close the dialog box. Moreover, because it

seems stuck to your screen rather than to a particular document, ...