Lesson 0. Four Things You Might Need to Know First

Time

This lesson takes approximately 3 minutes to complete.

Goals

To learn how to navigate around on the screen, double-click to launch an application, and quit an application using the mouse.

Now, I’m guessing that if you bought this book, you’ve already mastered the basics of using a mouse, and you know how to launch (and quit) the software applications on your Mac. But that’s just a guess, and that’s also why I used the word “might” in the lesson title. You might not know that stuff, and if that’s the case, there are four key things that you’re going to need to know before we can start the lessons in this book. They are: (1) How to move around the screen using a mouse; (2) how to double-click the mouse button; (3) how to launch an application; and (4) how to quit out of an application. Now, how hard is it to learn these four things? They’re a breeze, and that’s why I’ve only dedicated four pages in the book to learning them. Yes, these four things are critical things, but they’re also very, very easy, so let’s get right to it—turn the page and we’ll go over all four. Note: If you already know how to use the mouse (double-click, etc.), you can skip the next few pages and catch up with me at Lesson 1.

Moving Around Your Mac Using a Mouse:

If you have a desktop Mac (like an iMac, a Power Mac G5, a Mac mini, or an eMac), you’ll be using a mouse to move around the screen, to select different objects and menus, and to click on things you want to work with. Using a mouse is fairly simple—as you slide the mouse around on your desk, you’ll see an arrow move around onscreen. If you see something you want to work with, just slide your mouse until the onscreen cursor (the arrow) is directly on top of that object, then press down lightly on your mouse and release. You’ll hear a little “click” sound. That’s “clicking,” so in this book when I say something like “click on the icon” that means to move your mouse so the onscreen cursor is directly over the object, then lightly press and release your mouse so you hear the click sound. That’s it.

How to Double-Click (and Why You’d Want to):

Double-clicking is what we do when we want to “start the action” (so to speak). For example, if you just click once on a folder, that folder is selected (it changes color so you know you’ve selected it), but nothing else happens. If you want to actually look inside the folder to view its contents, then you would need to double-click (which just means pressing down on the mouse twice in rapid succession, and by rapid I mean two clicks as fast as you can do them). It shouldn’t be click...click (with a slight pause in between); it should be click-click!

How to Launch an Application:

In this book, we’ll launch all our software applications (except one) by using the Dock that appears along the bottom of your screen (it’s shown above). Each application is represented by a small image called an “icon.” (Note: If you’re not sure which icon represents the application you want to launch, let your arrow cursor hover over the icon and the name of the application will appear near your cursor.) To launch an application from the Dock, you just move your mouse so that the arrow cursor appears right over the application you want to launch, then click (press the mouse down and release) only once. In a few moments, the application will appear onscreen. To know which applications are open, look for a black triangle below each icon. If the icon has a black triangle beneath it, that application has been launched and is open for you to use.

How to Switch Between Applications:

You can switch between open applications anytime by moving your arrow cursor down to the Dock at the bottom of your screen, then moving it directly over the icon for the application you want to switch to and clicking once on it. You can also switch right from the keyboard itself by holding down the Command key (that’s the key with the little Apple logo on it, found on both the immediate left and right of the Spacebar key), then tapping the Tab key on your keyboard. This brings up a large row of icons at the center of your screen for each open application (as shown above). To switch to another open application, keep holding down that Command key, then tap the Tab key. Each time you tap it, you select the next application’s icon. When you’ve selected the one you want, just release the Command key.