Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Mavericks Edition

Getting Help in OS X

It’s a good thing you’ve got a book about OS X in your hands, because the only user manual you get with it is the Help menu, a browser-like program that reads a set of help files that reside in your System→Library folder.

Tip

In fact, you may not even be that lucky. The general-information help page about each topic is on your Mac, but thousands of the more technical pages reside online and require an Internet connection to read.

You’re expected to find the topic you want in one of these three ways:

• Use the search box. When you click the Help menu, a tiny search box appears just beneath your cursor; see Figure 2-27.

  Tip

  The results menu shows only the items Apple thinks are most relevant. If you choose Show All Help Topics at the bottom of the menu, the Help browser (described next) opens, showing a more complete list of Help search results.

• Drill down. Alternatively, you can begin your quest for assistance the old-fashioned way: by opening the Help browser first. To do that, choose Help→Help Center. (That’s the wording in the Finder. In other programs, it might say, for example, “Mail Help.” Either way, this command appears only when nothing is typed in the search box. To empty the search box, click the button at the right end.)

  After a moment, you arrive at the Help browser program shown at top in Figure 2-28. The starting screen offers several “quick click” topics ...