Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition

Get Info

By clicking an icon and then choosing File → Get Info, you open an important window like the one shown in Figure 2-11. It's a collapsible, multi-panel screen that provides a wealth of information about a highlighted icon. For example:

• For a disk icon, you get statistics about its capacity and how much of it is full.

• For a document icon, you see when it was created and modified, and what programs it "belongs" to.

• For an alias, you learn the location of the actual icon it refers to.

  UP TO SPEED: Stuffing, Zipping, and Archiving

  Mac OS X comes with a built-in command that compresses a file or folder down to a single, smaller icon—an archive—suitable for storing or emailing.

  It's just like using StuffIt in previous Mac OS versions, except for two big changes. First, Mac OS X 10.4 creates .zip files, the same compression format used in Windows. That means that you can now send .zip files back and forth to PC owners without worrying that they won't be able to open them. In Tiger, these files open even more reliably in Windows. (Pre- Panther /Tiger Mac owners can open .zip files, too. They just use the free StuffIt Expander as usual.)

  Second, the software that does the compressing is built right in. Control-click a file or folder, and choose "Create Archive of [the icon's name]" from the shortcut menu. (Of course, you can use the Action menu instead.)

  Mac OS X thoughtfully creates a .zip archive, but leaves the original behind so you can continue working with it.

  Opening a .zip file somebody ...