Mac OS X Snow Leopard For Dummies E-Book

Bob LeVitus

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2009

Seitenzahl: 624

Beschreibung

Mac OS X Snow Leopard is the newest version of the Macintosh operating system, and "Dr. Mac" Bob LeVitus is the ideal expert to introduce you to Snow Leopard. Mac OS X Snow Leopard For Dummies covers all the cool stuff and prepares you for the quirks, so whether it's your first Mac or an upgrade, you'll enjoy a truly rewarding relationship. From starting up your Mac to setting up a network and keeping in touch via iChat AV, Mac OS X Snow Leopard For Dummies gives you the scoop on the new features and improvements that help you do more work in less time. * Learn when to shut down your Mac and when not to, how to secure it, and how to back it up with Time Machine * Organize your life with iCal and your stuff with files and folders, and be able to find what you're looking for * Set up your Internet connection and e-mail, manage spam, surf with Safari, and start iChatting * Download and organize songs, podcasts, and movies with iTunes and plan a playlist with Genius * Create documents with TextEdit, print them, fax then, and make PDFs * Set up a network and share files, printers, and Internet connections * Find out about operating system updates, firewalls, troubleshooting, and other ways to keep your Mac safe, healthy, and happy Technology columnist Bob LeVitus has been a Mac guru for nearly two decades. Mac OS X Snow Leopard For Dummies provides just what you need to get up and running with Snow Leopard.

Leseprobe

Mac OS® X Snow LeopardTM For Dummies®

Table of Contents

Introduction

About This Book

What You Won’t Find in This Book

Conventions Used in This Book

Foolish Assumptions

How This Book Is Organized

Icons Used in This Book

Where to Go from Here

Part I: Introducing Mac OS X Snow Leopard: The Basics

Chapter 1: Mac OS X Snow Leopard 101 (Prerequisites: None)

Gnawing to the Core of OS X

A Safety Net for the Absolute Beginner (Or Any User)

Turning the dang thing on

What you should see on startup

Shutting down properly

A few things you should definitely NOT do with your Mac

Point-and-click boot camp

Not Just a Beatles Movie: Help and the Help Menu

Chapter 2: The Desktop and Windows and Menus (Oh My)!

Touring the Finder and Its Desktop

Anatomy of a Window

Top o’ the window to ya!

A scroll new world

(Hyper) Active windows

Dialog Dealie-Boppers

Working with Windows

Opening and closing windows

Resizing windows

Resizing window panes

Moving windows

Shuffling windows

Menu Basics

The ever-changing menu bar

Contextual menus: They’re sooo sensitive

Recognizing disabled options

Navigating submenus

Underneath the Apple menu tree

Using keyboard shortcut commands

Chapter 3: Have It Your Way

Introducing System Preferences

Putting a Picture on the Desktop

Setting Up a Screen Saver

Putting Widgets on the Dashboard

Translation

Flight Tracker

Business and People

Giving Buttons, Menus, and Windows a Makeover

Spaced Out! Defining Screen Spaces

Adjusting the Keyboard, Mouse, Trackpad, and Other Hardware

Keyboard

Mouse

Bluetooth

Trackpad (notebook Macs only)

Styling Your Sound

Changing sound effects

Choosing output options

Choosing input options

Chapter 4: What’s Up, Dock?

A Quick Introduction to Using the Dock

The default icons of the Dock

Trash talkin’

Opening application menus in the Dock

Reading Dock-icon body language

Opening files from the Dock

Customizing the Dock

Adding Dock icons

Removing an icon from the Dock

Resizing the Dock

What should you put in YOUR Dock?

Setting your Dock preferences

Chapter 5: The Finder and Its Icons

Introducing the Finder and Your Desktop

Getting to Know the Finder Menu

Navigating the Finder: Up, Down, and Backward

Belly up to the toolbar

Moving through folders fast in Column view

Perusing in Icon view

Listless? Try touring folders in List view

You gotta go with the flow

Like a road map: The current folder’s pop-up menu

Going places with the Go menu

Customizing the Finder Window

Adding folders to the Sidebar

Setting Finder preferences

On using View Options

Customizing the Finder with Folder Actions

Knowing Thy Finder Icons

Aliases: Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread

Creating aliases

Deleting aliases

Hunting down an alias’s parent

Digging for Icon Data in the Info Window

Part II: Snow Leopard Taming (Or “Organization for Smart People”)

Chapter 6: Organizing and Managing Files and Folders

Understanding the Mac OS X Folder Structure

Understanding nested folders

From the top: The Computer folder

Peeking into the Applications folder

Finding fonts (and more) in the public Library folder

Let it be: The System folder

The usability of the Users folder

There’s no place like Home

Your personal Library card

Saving Your Document Before It’s Too Late

Stepping through a basic Save

Looks like Save, acts like Save — why’s it called Save As?

Open Sez Me

With a Quick Look

With drag-and-drop

When your Mac can’t open a file

With the application of your choice

Organizing Your Stuff in Folders

Files versus folders

Organizing your stuff with subfolders

Creating new folders

Navigating with spring-loaded folders

Smart Folders

Shuffling Around Files and Folders

Comprehending the Clipboard

Copying files and folders

Pasting from the Clipboard

Moving files and folders

Selecting multiple icons

Playing the icon name game: Renaming icons

Compressing files

Getting rid of icons

Finding Your Stuff, Fast

The Search box in Finder Windows

Using the Spotlight menu

Chapter 7: Dealing with Disks

Comprehending Disks

Some disks need to be formatted first

Moving and copying disk icons

Surprise: Your PC Disks Work, Too!

Burning CDs and DVDs

Burning on the fly

Creating a Burn Folder

Getting Disks out of Your Mac

Chapter 8: Organizing Your Life

Keeping Track with iCal

Navigating iCal views

Creating calendars

Grouping calendars

Deleting a calendar or group

In any event

To do or not to do

Are You Available ?

Stickies

iSync

Part III: Do Unto Snow Leopard: Getting Things Done

Chapter 9: Internet-Working

Getting Connected to the Internet

Setting up your modem

Your Internet service provider and you

Plugging in your Internet connection settings

Starting a MobileMe account

Browsing the Web with Safari

Navigating with the toolbar buttons

Bookmarking your favorite pages

Using the terrific Top Sites page

Simplifying surfing with RSS feeds

Searching with Google

Checking out Help Center

Communicating via iChat

Chit-chatting with iChat

Chatting with audio and video

Remote Screen Sharing — remarkable and superbly satisfying

Chapter 10: E-Mail Made Easy

Keeping Contacts Handy with Address Book

Adding contacts

Importing contacts from other programs

Creating a basic group

Setting up a Smart Group (based on contact criteria)

Sending e-mail to a contact or group

Sending and Receiving E-Mail with Mail

Setting up Mail

Composing a new message

A quick overview of the toolbar

Working with stationery

Checking your mail

Dealing with spam

Changing your preferences

Mail rules rule

Mailboxes smart and plain

Sign here, please

Take a (Quick) look and (Slide) show me some photos

Chapter 11: The Musical Mac

Introducing iTunes

Working with Media

Adding songs

Adding movies and videos

Adding podcasts

Listening to Internet radio

All About Playlists

Creating a regular playlist

Working with smart playlists

Burning a playlist to CD

Looking at two specific playlists

Backing Up Your iTunes Media

Chapter 12: The Multimedia Mac

Watching Movies with DVD Player

Playing Movies and Music in QuickTime Player

Viewing and Converting Images and PDFs in Preview

Entertaining with Front Row

Importing Media

Downloading photos from a camera

Downloading DV video from a camcorder

Chapter 13: Words and Letters

Processing Words with TextEdit

Creating and composing a document

Working with text

Adding graphics to documents

Font Mania

Installing new fonts

Types of fonts

Managing your fonts with Font Book

Part IV: Making This Snow Leopard Your Very Own

Chapter 14: Publish or Perish: The Fail-Safe Guide to Printing

Before Diving In . . .

Ready: Connecting and Adding Your Printer

Connecting your printer

Setting up a printer for the first time

One last thing: Printer sharing

Set: Setting Up Your Document with Page Setup

Print: Printing with the Print Sheet

Printing a document

Choosing among different printers

Choosing custom settings

Saving custom settings

Preview and PDF Options

Just the Fax . . .

Chapter 15: Sharing Your Mac and Liking It

Introducing Networks and File Sharing

Portrait of home-office networking

Three ways to build a network

Setting Up File Sharing

Access and Permissions: Who Can Do What

Users and groups and guests

Creating users

Mac OS X knows best: Folders shared by default

Sharing a folder or disk by setting permissions

Useful settings for permissions

Unsharing a folder

Connecting to a Shared Disk or Folder on a Remote Mac

Changing Your Password

Changing your account password on your Mac

Changing the password of any account but your own on your Mac

Changing the password for your account on someone else’s Mac

Five More Types of Sharing

Printer Sharing

Internet Sharing

Web Sharing

Bluetooth Sharing

Screen Sharing

Chapter 16: Features for the Way You Work

Talking and Listening to Your Mac

Talking to your Mac

Listening to your Mac read for you

Automatic Automation

AppleScript

Automator

A Few More Useful Goodies

Universal Access

Energy Saver

Bluetooth

Ink

Automatic Login (Accounts System Preferences pane)

Boot Camp

Part V: The Care and Feeding of Your Snow Leopard

Chapter 17: Safety First: Backups and Other Security Issues

Backing Up Is (Not) Hard to Do

Backing up with Snow Leopard’s excellent Time Machine

Backing up by using the manual, brute-force method

Backing up by using commercial backup software

Why You Need Two Sets of Backups

Non-Backup Security Concerns

All about viruses

Firewall: Yea or nay?

Install recommended software updates

Protecting Your Data from Prying Eyes

Blocking or limiting connections

Locking down files with FileVault

Setting other options for security

Chapter 18: Utility Chest

Calculator

Activity Monitor

AirPort Utility

Audio MIDI Setup

ColorSync Utility

DigitalColor Meter

Disk Utility

First Aid

Erase

Partition

RAID

Restore

Grab

Grapher

Java Preferences

Keychain Access

Migration Assistant

System Profiler

Terminal

Chapter 19: Troubleshooting Mac OS X

The Ol’ “My Mac Won’t Boot” Blues

The ultimate startup disk: The Mac OS X installation DVD

Booting from a DVD-ROM

Question Mark and the Mysterians

Step 1: Run First Aid

Step 2: Safe Boot into Safe Mode

Step 3: Zapping the PRAM

Step 4: Reinstalling Mac OS X

Step 5: Take your Mac in for repair

If Your Mac Crashes at Startup

Part VI: The Part of Tens

Chapter 20: Almost Ten Ways to Speed Up Your Mac Experience

Use Those Keyboard Shortcuts

Improve Your Typing Skills

Resolution: It’s Not Just for New Year’s Anymore

A Mac with a View — and Preferences, Too

Get a New, Faster Model

You Can Never Have Too Much RAM!

Get an Accelerated Graphics Card

Get a New Hard Drive

Chapter 21: Ten Ways to Make Your Mac Better by Throwing Money at It

RAM

Backup Software and/or Hardware

A Better Monitor (Or a Second One)

A Fast Internet Connection

A DVD Burner

Games

Multimedia Titles

Some Big Honking Speakers with a Subwoofer

A New Mouse and/or Keyboard

A MacBook or MacBook Pro

Chapter 22: Ten (Or So) Great Web Sites for Mac Freaks

MacFixIt

VersionTracker

MacInTouch

Macworld

Alltop

Apple Support and Knowledge Base

ramseeker

Other World Computing

EveryMac.com

The Mac Observer

Inside Mac Games

dealmac

Dr. Mac Consulting

Appendix: Installing or Reinstalling Mac OS X Snow Leopard (Only If You Have To)

Mac OS® X Snow Leopard™ For Dummies®

by Bob “Dr. Mac” LeVitus

Mac OS® X Snow Leopard™ For Dummies®

Published byWiley Publishing, Inc.111 River St.Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone]. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, [phone], fax [phone], or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. Mac OS and Snow Leopard are trademarks or registered trademarks of Apple, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. Mac OS X Snow Leopard For Dummies is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple, Inc.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Website may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax [phone].

For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport.

Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2009929459

ISBN: 978-0-470-43543-4

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Author

Bob LeVitus, often referred to as “Dr. Mac,” has written or co-written more than 50 popular computer books, including iPhone For Dummies, GarageBand For Dummies, and Dr. Mac: The OS X Files for Wiley Publishing, Inc.; Stupid Mac Tricks and Dr. Macintosh for Addison-Wesley; and The Little iTunes Book and The Little iDVD Book for Peachpit Press. His books have sold more than a million copies worldwide.

Bob has penned the popular Dr. Mac column for the Houston Chronicle for the past ten years and has been published in dozens of computer magazines over the past 15 years. His achievements have been documented in major media around the world. (Yes, that was him juggling a keyboard in USA Today a few years back!)

Bob is known for his expertise, trademark humorous style, and ability to translate techie jargon into usable and fun advice for regular folks. Bob is also a prolific public speaker, presenting more than 100 Macworld Expo training sessions in the U.S. and abroad, keynote addresses in three countries, and Macintosh training seminars in many U.S. cities. (He also won the Macworld Expo MacJeopardy World Championship three times before retiring his crown.)

Bob is considered one of the world’s leading authorities on Mac OS X. From 1989 to 1997, he was a contributing editor/columnist for MacUser magazine, writing the Help Folder, Beating the System, Personal Best, and Game Room columns at various times.

In his copious spare time, Bob heads up a team of expert technical consultants who do nothing but provide technical help and training to Mac users via telephone, e-mail, and/or a unique Internet-enabled remote control software, which allows the team to see and control your Mac no matter where in the world you may be.

If you’re having problems with your Mac, you ought to give them a try. You’ll find them at www.boblevitus.com or 408-627-7577.

Prior to giving his life over to computers, LeVitus spent years at Kresser/Craig/D.I.K. (a Los Angeles advertising agency and marketing consultancy) and its subsidiary, L & J Research. He holds a B.S. in Marketing from California State University.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my wife, Lisa, who taught me almost everything I know about almost everything I know except computers. It’s also dedicated to my children, Allison and Jacob, who love their Macs almost as much as I love them (my kids, not their Macs).

Author’s Acknowledgments

Special thanks to everyone at Apple who helped me turn this book around in record time: Keri Walker, Janette Barrios, Greg (Joz) Joswiak, Jennifer Hakes, Khyati Shah, Christine Wilhelmy, Teresa Brewer, and all the rest. I couldn’t have done it without you.

Thanks also to super-agent Carole “still Swifty to me” McClendon, for deal-making beyond the call of duty, yet again. You’ve been my agent for over 20 years and you’re still a treasure.

Big-time thanks to the gang at Wiley: Bob “Is the damn thing done yet?” Woerner, Rebecca “Whipcracker VIII” Senninger, Andy “The Big Boss Man” Cummings, Barry “Still no humorous nickname” Pruett, and my technical editor, Dennis R. Cohen, who did a rocking job as always, and all the others.

Thanks also to my family and friends, for putting up with me during my all-too-lengthy absences during this book’s gestation. And thanks to Saccone’s Pizza, Rudy’s BBQ, Taco Cabana, Diet Coke, and ShortStop for sustenance.

And finally, thanks to you, gentle reader, for buying this book.

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form located at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax [phone].

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions and Editorial

Project Editor: Rebecca Senninger

Executive Editor: Bob Woerner

Sr. Copy Editor: Barry Childs-Helton

Technical Editor: Dennis Cohen

Editorial Manager: Leah Cameron

Editorial Assistant: Amanda Foxworth

Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case

Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)

Composition Services

Project Coordinator: Katherine Crocker

Layout and Graphics: Claudia Bell, Christine Williams

Proofreader: Evelyn W. Gibson

Indexer: Infixed Indexing Services, Inc.

Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies

Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher

Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director

Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director

Publishing for Consumer Dummies

Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher

Composition Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

Introduction

You made the right choice twice: Mac OS X Snow Leopard and this book.

Take a deep breath and get ready to have a rollicking good time. That’s right. This is a computer book, but it’s going to be fun. What a concept! Whether you’re brand spanking new to the Mac or a grizzled old Mac vet, I guarantee that reading this book to discover the ins and outs of Mac OS X Snow Leopard will make everything easier. Wiley, Inc. (the publisher of this book) couldn’t say as much on the cover if it weren’t true!

About This Book

This book’s roots lie with my international bestseller Macintosh System 7.5 For Dummies, an award-winning book so good that now-deceased Mac cloner Power Computing gave away a copy with every Mac clone it sold. Mac OS X Snow Leopard For Dummies is the latest revision and has been, once again, completely updated to include all the Mac OS X goodness found in Snow Leopard. In other words, this edition combines all the old, familiar features of previous editions — but is once again updated to reflect the latest and greatest offering from Apple as well as feedback from readers.

Why write a For Dummies book about Snow Leopard? Well, Snow Leopard is a big, somewhat complicated, personal-computer operating system. So I made Mac OS X Snow Leopard For Dummies a not-so-big, not-very-complicated book that shows you what Snow Leopard is all about without boring you to tears, confusing you, or poking you with sharp objects.

In fact, I think you’ll be so darned comfortable that I wanted the title to be Mac OS X Snow Leopard Without Discomfort, but the publishers wouldn’t let me. Apparently, we For Dummies authors have to follow some rules, and using Dummies and Mac OS X Snow Leopard in this book’s title are among them.

And speaking of “dummies,” remember that it’s just a word. I don’t think you’re dumb — quite the opposite! My second choice for this book’s title was Mac OS X Snow Leopard For People Smart Enough to Know They Need Help with It, but you can just imagine what Wiley thought of that. (“C’mon, that’s the whole point of the name!” they insisted. “Besides, it’s shorter our way.”)

Anyway, the book is chock-full of information and advice, explaining everything you need to know about Mac OS X in language you can understand — along with timesaving tips, tricks, techniques, and step-by-step instructions, all served up in generous quantities.

What You Won’t Find in This Book

Another rule we For Dummies authors must follow is that our books cannot exceed a certain number of pages. (Brevity is the soul of wit, and all that.) So I wish I could have included some things, but they didn’t fit. Although I feel confident you’ll find everything you need to know about Mac OS X Snow Leopard in this book, some things bear further looking into, including these:

Information about some of the applications (programs) that come with Mac OS X Snow Leopard: An installation of Mac OS X Snow Leopard includes more than 50 separate applications, mostly found in the Applications folder and the Utilities folder within it. I’d love to walk you through each one of them, but that would have required a book a whole lot bigger, heavier, and more expensive than this one.

This book is, first and foremost, about using Mac OS X, so I brief you on the small handful of bundled applications essential to using Mac OS X Snow Leopard and keep the focus there — namely, iCal, Address Book, Mail, Safari, TextEdit, and the like, as well as important utilities you may need to know how to use someday.

For what it’s worth, many books cover the applications that come with Mac OS X Snow Leopard as well as applications commonly bundled with Snow Leopard on a new Mac, such as iLife; the one my publisher suggested I recommend is Mac OS X Snow Leopard All-in-One For Dummies, written by Mark L. Chambers, which is (by sheer coincidence, of course) also published by Wiley.

Information about Microsoft Office, iLife, iWork, Adobe Photoshop, Quicken, and most other third-party applications: Okay, if all the gory details of all the bundled (read: free) Mac OS X Snow Leopard applications don’t fit here, I think you’ll understand why digging into third-party applications that cost extra was out of the question.

Information about programming for the Mac: This book is about using Mac OS X Snow Leopard, not writing code for it. Dozens of books cover programming on the Mac, most of which are two or three times the size of this book.

For what it’s worth, Dennis Cohen, my technical editor, and his brother Michael wrote a great book about Xcode 3, the development environment included with Mac OS X Snow Leopard. It’s called The Xcode 3 Book and, by sheer coincidence, is also published by (who else?) Wiley.

Conventions Used in This Book

To get the most out of this book, you need to know how I do things and why. Here are a few conventions I use in this book to make your life easier:

When I want you to open an item in a menu, I write something like “Choose File⇒Open,” which means, “Pull down the File menu and choose the Open command.”

Stuff you’re supposed to type appears in bold type, like this.

Sometimes an entire a sentence is in boldface, as you see when I present a numbered list of steps. In those cases, I leave the bold off what you’re supposed to type, like this.

Web addresses, programming code (not much in this book), and things that appear on-screen are shown in a special monofont typeface, like this.

For keyboard shortcuts, I write something like Ô+A, which means to hold down the Ô key (the one with the little pretzel and/or Ú symbol on it) and then press the A key on the keyboard. If you see something like Ô+Shift+A, that means to hold down the Ô and Shift keys while pressing the A key. Again, for absolute clarity, I never refer to the Ô key with the Ú symbol. I reserve that symbol for the Ú menu (Apple menu). For the Command key, I use only the Ô symbol. Got it? Very cool.

Foolish Assumptions

Although I know what happens when you make assumptions, I’ve made a few anyway. First, I assume that you, gentle reader, know nothing about using Mac OS X — beyond knowing what a Mac is, that you want to use OS X, that you want to understand OS X without having to digest an incomprehensible technical manual, and that you made the right choice by selecting this particular book.

And so I do my best to explain each new concept in full and loving detail. Maybe that’s foolish, but . . . oh well.

Oh, and I also assume that you can read. If you can’t, ignore this paragraph.

How This Book Is Organized

Mac OS X Snow Leopard For Dummies is divided into six logical parts, numbered (surprisingly enough) 1 through 6. By no fault of mine, they’re numbered using those stuffy old Roman numerals, so you see I–VI where you (in my humble opinion) ought to see Arabic numbers 1–6. It’s another rule that For Dummies authors have to follow, I think.

Anyway, it’s better if you read the parts in order, but if you already know a lot — or think you know a lot — feel free to skip around and read the parts that interest you most.

Part I: Introducing Mac OS X Snow Leopard: The Basics: This first part is very, very basic training. From the mouse to the Desktop, from menus, windows, and icons to the snazzy-but-helpful Dock, it’s all here. A lot of what you need to know to navigate the depths of Mac OS X safely (and sanely) and perform basic tasks can be found in this part. And although old-timers might just want to skim through it, newcomers should probably read every word. Twice.

Part II: Snow Leopard Taming (Or “Organization for Smart People”): In this part, I build on the basics of Part I and really get you revving with your Mac. Here, I cover additional topics that every Mac user needs to know, coupled with some hands-on, step-by-step instructions. The part starts with a closer look at ways you can organize your files and folders, followed by a chapter about using removable media (which means ejectable discs — mostly CDs and DVDs). Last, but certainly not least, is a chapter about all the Snow Leopard applications (such as iCal, Address Book, and Mail) that help you keep your digital life organized.

Part III: Do Unto Snow Leopard: Getting Things Done: This part is chock-full of ways to do productive stuff with your Mac. In this section, you discover the Internet first — or at least how to get it working on your Mac and what to do with it after you do. Next, you look at the digital-media side of things with chapters about music, video, games, and digital photos. Finally, you look at Snow Leopard’s built-in tools for writing — namely, TextEdit and fonts.

Part IV: Making This Snow Leopard Your Very Own: Here I get into the nitty-gritty underbelly of making Mac OS X Snow Leopard work the way you want it to work. I start with the ins and outs of printing under OS X. Then I move on to somewhat more advanced topics, such as file sharing, creating and using multiple user accounts (and why you might want to), and the lowdown on numerous Mac OS X Snow Leopard features — Text to Speech, speech recognition, automation, and more — that can make your computing experience even more pleasant.

Part V: The Care and Feeding of Your Snow Leopard: This part starts with a chapter about backups and security, which not only stresses the importance of backing up your data, but also shows you how to do it almost painlessly. Then I introduce you to a handful of useful utilities included with Snow Leopard, and explain when and how to use them. Finally, I tell you how to avoid most disasters, as well as what to do in the unlikely event that a major mishap does occur.

Part VI: The Part of Tens: Finally, it’s The Part of Tens, which might have started life as a Letterman rip-off, but does include heaping helpings of tips, optional software, great Mac Web sites, and hardware ideas.

Appendix: Last, but certainly not least, I cover installing Mac OS X Snow Leopard in the appendix. The whole process has become quite easy with this version of the system software, but if you have to install Snow Leopard yourself, it would behoove you to read this helpful appendix first.

Icons Used in This Book

Little round pictures (icons) appear off to the left side of the text throughout this book. Consider these icons miniature road signs, telling you a little something extra about the topic at hand. Here’s what the different icons look like and what they all mean.

Look for Tip icons to find the juiciest morsels: shortcuts, tips, and undocumented secrets about Snow Leopard. Try them all; impress your friends!

When you see this icon, it means that this particular morsel is something that I think you should memorize (or at least write on your shirt cuff).

Put on your propeller-beanie hat and pocket protector; these parts include the truly geeky stuff. It’s certainly not required reading, but it must be interesting or informative, or I wouldn’t have wasted your time with it.

Read these notes very, very, very carefully. (Did I say very?) Warning icons flag important cautionary information. The author and publisher won’t be responsible if your Mac explodes or spews flaming parts because you ignored a Warning icon. Just kidding. Macs don’t explode or spew (with the exception of a few choice PowerBook 5300s, which won’t run Snow Leopard anyway). But I got your attention, didn’t I? I’ll tell you once again: It is a good idea to read the Warning icons very carefully.

These icons represent my ranting or raving about something that either bugs me or makes me smile. When I’m ranting, imagine foam coming from my mouth. Rants are required to be irreverent, irrelevant, or both. I try to keep them short, more for your sake than mine.

Well, now, what could this icon possibly be about? Named by famous editorial consultant Mr. Obvious, this icon highlights all things new and different in Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

Where to Go from Here

Go to a comfortable spot (preferably not far from a Mac) and read the book.

The first few chapters of this book are where I describe the basic everyday things that you need to understand to operate your Mac effectively. If you’re new to Macs and OS X Snow Leopard, start there.

Even though Mac OS X Snow Leopard is way different from previous Mac operating systems, the first part of the book is so basic that if you’ve been using a Mac for long, you might think you know it all — and okay, you might know most of it. But hey! Not-so-old-timers need a solid foundation. So here’s my advice: Skip the stuff you know; you’ll get to the better stuff faster.

I didn’t write this book for myself. I wrote it for you — and would love to hear how it worked for you. So please send me your thoughts, platitudes, likes and dislikes, and any other comments. You can send snail-mail in care of Wiley, but it takes a long time to reach me that way, and I just don’t have time to respond to 99.9% of it. If you want a response your best bet is to send e-mail to me directly at [email protected]. I appreciate your feedback, and I try to respond to all reasonably polite e-mail within a few days.

Did this book work for you? What did you like? What didn’t you like? What questions were unanswered? Did you want to know more about something? Did you want to find out less about something? Tell me! I have received more than 100 suggestions about previous editions, most of which are incorporated here. So keep up the good work!

So what are you waiting for? Go — enjoy the book!

Part I

Introducing Mac OS X Snow Leopard: The Basics

In this part . . .

Because I believe it’s important to crawl before you walk, in this part you get a look at the most basic of basics — such as how to turn on your Mac. Next, I acquaint you with the Mac OS X Finder, with its Desktop, windows, icons, and menus (oh my)! Then you find out how to make this cat your own by customizing your work environment to suit your style. After that is a date with the Dock. And last but certainly not least, you discover some additional tasks that will make life with Snow Leopard ever so much easier.

So get comfortable, roll up your sleeves, fire up your Mac if you like, and settle down with Part I, a delightful little section I like to think of as “The Hassle-Free Way to Get Started with Mac OS X Snow Leopard.”