Mac OS X Leopard Pocket Guide

Chapter 3. Mac OS X Basics

This part of the book introduces you to the key features of Mac OS X’s interface. Here we’ll cover:

• The menu bar

• The Dock

• Window controls

• The Finder

• Creating new folders

• The Services menu

• Exposé

• The Dashboard

• Spotlight

• Get Info and file permissions

The Menu Bar

Regardless of which application you’re using, Mac OS X’s menu bar is always located across the top of the screen, yet for Leopard, it takes on a new look and feel. If you take a closer look, you’ll notice that the menu bar is transparent and that the Desktop image shows through. You’ll also notice that all of the icons are devoid of color—only black or grayscale here—with the exception of the Input menu, if you’ve turned that on in the International preference panel (System Preferences → International → Input Menu).

There are some standard items you’ll always find in the menu bar, but as you switch from application to application, you’ll notice that the menu names and some of their options change according to which application is active. Figure 3-1 shows the menu bar as it appears when the Finder is active.

Figure 3-1. Mac OS X Leopard’s menu bar (with the Finder active)

As Figure 3-1 shows, the following menus and items can be found in the menu bar; each is covered later in this chapter:

• The Apple menu (1)

• The Application menu (2)

• A default set of application menus (3)

• Menu extras (4)

• The Accounts menu (5)

• Spotlight’s ...