The Setup Assistant

When the Mac restarts after a basic installation, an Erase & Install installation, or an Archive and Install installation where you didn't also click "Preserve Users and Network Settings," the first thing you experience is some jazzy music and a fancy parade of 3-D, computer-generated translations of the word "Welcome." Once Apple has quite finished showing off its multimedia prowess, you arrive at a Welcome screen.

Once again, you're in for a click-through-the-screens experience, this time with the aim of setting up your Mac's various settings. After answering the questions on each screen, click Continue.

The number and sequence of information screens you'll encounter depend on whether you've upgraded an existing Mac or started fresh, but here are some of the possibilities:

  • Welcome. Click the name of the country you're in.

    (At the bottom of this screen is a special message for visually impaired people: "Do you need to hear instructions for setting up your Mac? To learn how to use VoiceOver to set up your computer, press the Escape key now.")

    If you do so, you're treated to a crash course in VoiceOver, the screen-control/screen-reading software described on Section 15.5.1.1. This, by the way, is the only time you'll be offered this tutorial, so pay attention. (Hint: Here are the basics. Hold down the Control and Option keys and press the arrow keys to highlight different elements of the screen, hearing them pronounced. When a new window opens, press Control-Option-Shift-W ...

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