OS X Mavericks For Dummies®
Visit www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/osxmavericks to view this book's cheat sheet.
Table of Contents
Part I: Getting Started with OS X Mavericks
Chapter 1: OS X Mavericks 101 (Prerequisites: None)
A Safety Net for the Absolute Beginner (Or Any User)
What you should see on startup
A few things you should definitely NOT do with your Mac
Not Just a Beatles Movie: Help and the Help Menu
Chapter 2: The Desktop and Windows and Menus (Oh My!)
Touring the Finder and Its Desktop
Resizing windows and window panes
Shortcut menus: They’re sooo contextual . . .
Underneath the Apple menu tree
Using keyboard shortcut commands
Introducing System Preferences
Putting a Picture on the Desktop
Putting Widgets on the Dashboard
Giving Buttons, Menus, and Windows a Makeover
Adjusting the Keyboard, Mouse, Trackpad, and Other Hardware
Trackpad (notebooks and desktops with a Magic Trackpad)
Choosing output and input options
A Quick Introduction to Your Dock
Opening application menus in the Dock
Reading Dock icon body language
Removing an icon from the Dock
What should you put in YOUR Dock?
Chapter 5: The Finder and Its Desktop
Introducing the Finder and Its Minions: The Desktop and Icons
Identifying your Finder icons in the wild
Aliases: Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread
Hunting down an alias’s parent
Moving through folders fast in Column view
Listless? Try touring folders in List view
Like a road map: The current folder’s pop-up menu
Digging for Icon Data in the Info Window
Part II: Mavericks Taming (Or “Organization for Smart People”)
Chapter 6: The Care and Feeding of Files and Folders
Understanding the OS X Folder Structure
From the top: The Computer folder
Peeking into the Applications folder
Finding fonts (and more) in the public Library folder
The usability of the Users folder
Saving Your Document Before It’s Too Late
Save As versus Duplicate: Different names for same result
When your Mac can’t open a file
With the application of your choice
Organizing Your Stuff in Folders
Organizing your stuff with subfolders
Navigating with spring-loaded folders
Shuffling Around Files and Folders
Playing the icon name game: Renaming icons
Chapter 7: Four Terrific Timesaving Tools
Share and share alike with the Share menu
Slide into Slideshow (full-screen) mode
Spotlight on Finding Files and Folders Faster
Using the Search box in Finder windows
Using the Spotlight menu and window
Finding files by other attributes
Exposé Yourself to Mission Control
The Mission Control pane: It’s painless
Spaces from 30,000 feet (an overview)
Launchpad: The Place for Applications
Some disks need to be formatted first
Moving and copying between disks
Surprise: Your PC Disks Work, Too!
Chapter 9: Organizing Your Life
Reminders: Protection Against Forgetting
Getting started with Reminders
To do or not to do: Setting reminders
Everything you need to know about the Notification Center
Part III: Do Unto Mavericks: Getting Things Done
Getting Connected to the Internet
Your Internet service provider and you
Plugging in your Internet-connection settings
Navigating with the toolbar buttons
Bookmarking your favorite pages
Using the terrific Top Sites page
Chapter 11: Communications Made Easy
Importing contacts from other programs
Setting up a Smart Group (based on contact criteria)
iCloud + Contacts = Your contacts everywhere
Sending e-mail to a contact or group
Sending and Receiving E-Mail with Mail
A quick overview of the toolbar
Take a (Quick) look and (Slide) show me some photos
Finding your current location with Maps
Finding a person, place, or thing
Timesaving map tools: Bookmarks, Recents, and Contacts
Looking at the Genius playlist
Chapter 13: The Multimedia Mac
Playing Movies and Music in QuickTime Player
Shopping for books without Apple
You’re the Star with Photo Booth
Viewing and Converting Images and PDFs in Preview
Downloading photos from a camera
Downloading DV video from a camcorder
Processing Words with TextEdit
Creating and composing a document
Managing your fonts with Font Book
Part IV: Mastering Your Mavericks
Chapter 15: Publish or Perish: The Fail-Safe Guide to Printing
Ready: Connecting and Adding Your Printer
Setting up a printer for the first time
One last thing: Printer sharing
Set: Setting Up Your Document with Page Setup
Print: Printing with the Print Sheet
Choosing among different printers
Chapter 16: Sharing Your Mac and Liking It
Introducing Networks and File Sharing
Portrait of home-office networking
Access and Permissions: Who Can Do What
OS X knows best: Folders shared by default
Sharing a folder or disk by setting permissions
Useful settings for permissions
Connecting to a Shared Disk or Folder on a Remote Mac
Changing your account password on your Mac
Changing the password of any account but your own on your Mac
Changing the password for your account on someone else’s Mac
Chapter 17: Features for the Way You Work
Talking and Listening to Your Mac
Dictation: You talk and your Mac types
Listening to your Mac read for you
Automatic Login (Users & Groups System Preferences pane)
Part V: The Care and Feeding of Your Mavericks
Chapter 18: Safety First: Backups and Other Security Issues
Backing Up Is (Not) Hard to Do
Backing up with Mavericks’ excellent Time Machine
Backing up by using the manual, brute-force method
Backing up by using commercial backup software
Why You Need Two Sets of Backups
About viruses and other malware
Install recommended software updates
Protecting Your Data from Prying Eyes
Blocking or limiting connections
Locking down files with FileVault
Setting other options for security
Chapter 20: Troubleshooting OS X
About Startup Disks and Booting
Finding or creating a startup disk
They call it a prohibitory sign for a reason
Step 2: Safe Boot into Safe Mode
Step 3: Zapping the PRAM/NVRAM
Step 5: Things to try before taking your Mac in for repair
If Your Mac Crashes at Startup
Chapter 21: Almost Ten Ways to Speed Up Your Mac Experience
Resolution: It’s Not Just for New Year’s Anymore
A Mac with a View — and Preferences, Too
You Can Never Have Too Much RAM!
Get an Accelerated Graphics Card
Chapter 22: Ten (Or So) Great Websites for Mac Freaks