Macs & OS X

Taking Screenshots with Screen Capture in Mac OS X Panther

Screen Capture is part of the Mac OS X Panther operating system, which means that it is available with every application that works with OS X. You can trigger Screen Capture via several keyboard shortcuts [more…]

Installing (or Reinstalling) Mac OS X Panther

In theory, you should only have to install Mac OS X once. And in a perfect world, that would be the case. But you may find occasions when you have to install/reinstall it, such as the following: [more…]

Fixing a Frozen Mac

A colorful spinning beach ball is an unwelcome sight on your Apple, at least when that ball never seems to leave the screen. A beach ball that just keeps spinning is a sign that a cranky Mac has turned [more…]

Adding Icons to the Dock in Mac OS X (Jaguar)

You can customize your Dock with favorite applications, a document you update daily, or maybe a folder containing your favorite recipes — whatever you need quick access to. The following sections tell [more…]

Adding and Removing Dock Icons in Mac OS X

Take a minute to look at the row of icons at the bottom of your display. That row is the Dock, and those individual pictures are known as icons.

Dock icons are a quick way to bring a hidden window or application [more…]

Starting a Wireless Network with Airport

One of the many things that a new Macintosh does as it starts up is look for a network connection — any network connection — and try to set that connection up. If your Mac has AirPort installed, this startup [more…]

Changing the Desktop Background in Mac OS X

Power users like to tweak their Mac OS X Desktops just so, with that menu color, this background, and those applications in the Dock. Non-computer types just can't understand the importance of the proper [more…]

Setting Up Your Internet Connection in Mac OS X

Okay, so you sign up for Internet access, and your ISP sends you a sheet of paper covered with indecipherable stuff that looks like Egyptian hieroglyphics. Don't worry; those are the settings that you [more…]

Turning the Mac into a Fax Machine

If you bought a Mac with a built-in, dialup fax modem, you don't need a dedicated fax machine. Just connect a telephone cord to the Mac's modem jack and you're all set. Unfortunately, the dialup modem [more…]

Configuring Your Login Screen in Mac OS X

Take a look at the changes that you can make to the login process. First, Mac OS X provides three methods of displaying the login screen: [more…]

Fixing Things with Disk Utility in Mac OS X

An important application in your maintenance toolbox is the Disk Utility, which is located in the Utilities folder within your Applications folder. When you first run this program, it looks something like [more…]

Working with Aliases in Mac OS X

An alias is a tiny file that automatically opens the file that it represents. Although an alias is technically an icon, it's actually an icon that opens another icon automatically. You can put aliases [more…]

Using Apple System Profiler in Mac OS X

Need hard information about your hardware? You may need to determine precisely what hardware is installed in your Mac for the following reasons: [more…]

Setting Icon View Options in Mac OS X

After a few hours of work, a Finder window in icon mode can look something like a teenager's room: stuff strewn all over the place, as demonstrated with the Applications folder in Figure 1. [more…]

Understanding Access Rights and Privileges in Mac OS X (Jaguar)

Before you can share your Mac with other users or share files over a network, you need to tell your Mac who is allowed to do what.

Macintosh file sharing [more…]

Using the Go Menu in Mac OS X

Remember the transporter from Star Trek? Step on the little platform, assume a brave pose, and whoosh! — you're transported instantaneously to another ship or [more…]