Mac Tutorial Tour

Prepared by Albert Rouzie

Hi. Call me Mac. I am a Macintosh computer. Actually, I am a PowerMac. I like the sound of that! But mostly that means you can insert IBM formatted disks and use them in me. Really, I prefer Mac-formatted disks. But I take what I can get.

We Macs are a bit different from our IBM PC clone cousins. Mainly, our operating system is different. Once you get used to it, Macs are easy to use. So, now I am going to show you around my desktop and show you how to use me. I love to be used ;-)

First of all, always bring a diskette to use in class or whenever you want to use me. If you have to, you can buy one from the attendant for a dollar. Save all of your files ("documents" in Mac lingo) to your diskette. If you have to, you can save a file temporarily to the folder ("directory" in IBM lingo) called Save All. But it won't stay there long. By the way, once a student beat me up because the diskette they had all of their papers on crashed and all was lost. So always back your stuff up to two diskettes. You can use the Save All folder to do that.

OK, so insert your diskette into my slot and please be gentle. In a bit, you'll see an icon of your diskette appear on the desktop (the basic screen when no programs are operating). The icon looks like a very tiny diskette and has the name of the diskette on it.

The first thing we are going to do is to eject the diskette. This involves a basic Mac skill called "click and drag." To click and drag something, like an icon of a disk or a file or an application, you move your mouse pointer (the arrow thingie) over to the icon. Then you click on the mouse button and hold it down. The icon will change to a darkened shade. To eject the disk, "drag" the icon down to the Trash--the icon that looks like a little trash can. When the disk icon hits the trash icon, the trash icon will darken. Then let go of the mouse button and the disk should eject. OK. re-insert the disk and try again. Don't worry, putting the disk in the trash won't alter anything on the disk.

You use click and drag with menus too. Click and hold the menu open and drag the pointer down to the item you want to select and let go of the button. In word processing, you use click and drag to select passages for cut. copy, paste and formatting.

Let's open a folder or directory. To do this, double-click on the hard drive icon at the top right of the screen. To double-click, click twice quickly--click click. You'll see a window open. There will be icons in the window. If you'd rather see these items in a list, click on the View menu and select By Name.

You can create folders for your disk. Try this. Open the disk and then select New Folder from the File menu. You'll see a folder icon on your disk window. Type a descriptive name in. To rename a file or folder, click into the name space on the icon and drag until it changes color. Then simply type in the name. Try this, if you like. Use your last name for the title.

OK. Let's find Microsoft Word, Billie Gates' big word processing program. There are two ways of finding stuff in me. One is to go fishing for it. Like if you see the Word folder, you can double-click on it to open it and then open the application. Applications have a different looking icon than a folder or file. The other and best way to find something is to use the Find function. This is under File on the desktop menu array. Choose Find, enter Microsoft Word and click on Find. I will produce the directory with the program. You can click on it from there. Find is very useful.

When you open MS Word application, the Menu up top will change to the MS Word menu. Usually a blank file opens. If not, select New from the File menu. Most of you know how to use a word processing application, so I won't waste your time here. If you are clueless about that, let your instructor know right away.

But do save the file to your diskette. Here's how:
From the File menu, select Save As. A window will pop open that looks like this:

In the little box, Save Current Document as, you type in the name of the file. Name it "test." Now, notice that there's another window inside this window. This tells you where the file will be saved. This is important, because if you just click on Save, it will go to where it says. Above, it is set to save to the desktop layer and you can see that Desktop is on the label. You can direct it anywhere (normally, though you are restricted in the lab to your disk and the Save All folder). Your disk exists at the level of the desktop. Think of layers or the stories of a building. To save a file to your disk, you direct it to be saved to that disk, either by clicking on the Desktop button on the right of the window or by clicking and dragging to it on the little menu on the top of the Save window. Got that? Then you double-click on your disk name to open it and hit Save to save it. Notice that when you have selected Desktop, the folders on the desktop are listed in the center window. Find your diskette name and icon there, double click on it to open it. Click Save. The picture below shows the file "test" about to be saved to the disk called MAXpwer G3. Note that on the right the little disk icon is displayed and the disk name next to it.

Notice that there is a Save File as Type: menu and that in the first example, it says Word Document while in the second it says Text Only. These are called formats. This is important, especially if you will be going back and forth between Macs and our PC cousins . *****ALWAYS save your files as Text Only when you use PCs.***** That way, you can always open the file up in MS Word or any other application when you return to the Macs. These Macs can take PC disks but not the other way around. Bummer, huh?

To make sure you saved your file to the right location, simply click anywhere on my desktop layer, then double-click on your disk icon and check to see if "test" is there. Type a sentence into the test file and save it (File, Save).

By the way, you can move between any open windows simply by clicking once on that window or layer. When you do that, the "active" window darkens and the inactive ones lighten. Try clicking back and forth between your Word window and the desktop surface. Notice how the menu changes?

Yikes. I forgot to tell you about what is called the Finder Menu. This part of the desktop menu really makes life easier for you. It's the part of the desktop menu array all the way over to the upper right. It displays a different icon depending on what is active at the moment. If you are in Word, it displays a W, if on the desktop, a wee computer monitor. Test this by clicking back and forth between the desktop layer and and the word file window. Notice how the icon the Finder Menu changes. Now click and hold on the icon and you will see a pull-down list of all the applications you have open. You should see at least Microsoft Word on that list and Finder (AKA desktop). You can bounce back and forth between applications with this menu item. It also lets you choose to hide some windows with the Hide Others selection. This helps you find an icon or an application file when it's hidden behind a window.

OK, use the finder to go back into Word. You should see your document again. Now, print your file (File, Print). Hey, when in class, you can print free (but don't abuse the privilege--no printing of e-mail, long documents, graphics for the hell of it etc.). Outside of class time, it's 10 cents a page.

OK, let's trash your test file. To throw a file away, you click and drag the file icon to the Trash and let go. Then click and hold on the Desktop menu item Special,and drag down to Empty Trash. Let go and then hit return or click on OK to dump the sucker! If you want to save it, hit Cancel. Now eject your disk.

Open Special again. It has some important features. This is how you shut the computer down and also how you restart it, if necessary. I do crash at times and sometimes I just freeze up like a catatonic. At that point, you can try some things. If you can still move the mouse pointer, you can "force quit" the application that is frozen without rebooting me. Try this in Word. Open Word again. Then press down on and hold down together the keys apple/option/esc. The apple key is the one to the left of the space bar. You'll get a window. Click on Force Quit. Then you can reopen the application.

If I am totally frozen up, you have to reboot. Do this by holding down all at once the apple/control/ and the boot key on the top right of the keyboard. Wait for me to come alive again. To avoid heartbreak, save often and to two disks!


Keyboard shortcuts:

the apple key is like a command key.

apple/s=save
apple/q=quit
apple/c=copy
apple/x=cut
apple/v=paste
apple/b=bold
apple/i=italic
apple/a-select all
apple/p=print

Well, it's been fun. Hope you enjoyed it. If you are still confused, don't bug me, I am just a computer. I just take orders. Talk to the bossman about it.

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