Mac OS X Snow Leopard Pocket Guide

Chapter 6. Built-in Applications and Utilities

Snow Leopard comes with a bevy of useful applications. After installation, you won’t be left with just the operating system; you’ll get an image editing program (Preview), a word processing program (TextEdit), a chat application (iChat), and a lot more. Installing Snow Leopard also installs must-have applications like Safari for browsing, Mail for all your email chores, and iChat AV for carrying on conversations with your friends. You also get some applications that are just plain fun. You can easily kill an afternoon playing with the backgrounds in PhotoBooth, and Front Row makes watching movies or looking at photos a truly engaging experience on your Mac. The Mac OS X version of Chess can give most players a serious challenge.

Not as routinely useful, but just as important in the long run, are the utilities included with Snow Leopard. Activity Monitor sounds painfully dull, but when you’re trying to figure out which application is misbehaving, it is a lifesaver. Likewise, taking shots of your screen may seem like the pinnacle of mundanity. Yet, sooner or later, you’ll want to take a snapshot of your screen and share it, and you’ll be glad Snow Leopard comes with a utility called Grab.

Applications Installed with Snow Leopard

Following are all the applications installed by default with Snow Leopard. Note that the list only covers applications installed with a Snow Leopard install. If you have a brand new Mac or are upgrading an older ...