Table of Contents

What’s Really Required

About This Book

Conventions Used in This Book

Stuff you type

Menu commands

Display messages

Links

In case you’re curious about computers

How This Book Is Organized

Book I: Introducing OS X

Book II: Customizing and Sharing

Book III: The Digital Hub

Book IV: Using iWork

Book V: The Typical Internet Stuff

Book VI: Networking in OS X

Book VII: Expanding Your System

Book VIII: Advanced OS X

Icons Used in This Book

Book I: Chapter 1: Shaking Hands with OS X

Convince Me: Why OS X?

Pretty to behold

Stable, stable, stable

Multitasking and multithreading for normal human beings

The definition of Internet savvy

Lots of free goodies

What Do I Really Need to Run the Big X?

Upgrading from Earlier Versions of Mac OS

Back up! — Please, back up!

Snuff out disk errors

Plug it, road warrior

Personalizing the Big X

Book I: Chapter 2: Navigating and Running Programs

Restarting, Sleeping, and Shutting Down

A Window Is Much More Than a Frame: Navigating Windows

Opening and closing windows

Scrolling windows

Minimizing and restoring windows

Zooming windows

Those hard-working toolbars

Moving windows

Resizing windows

Switching windows

Menu Mysteries Explained

Icons ’R Us

Hardware

Programs and applications

Files

Folders

Aliases

Selecting Icons for Fun and Profit

Selecting a single icon

Selecting multiple icons

Keyboard Shortcuts for the True Power User

Houston, We’re Go to Launch Programs

Running applications from your hard drive

Running applications from a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM

Switching ’Twixt Programs with Aplomb

Opening and Saving Your Stuff in an Application

Opening a document

Saving a document

Quitting Applications

Book I: Chapter 3: Basic OS X Housekeeping

The Finder: It’s the Wind beneath Your Wings

Copying and Moving Files and Folders

Cloning Your Items — It’s Happening Now!

Deleting That Which Should Not Be

Dragging unruly files against their will

Deleting with the menus and the keyboard

Emptying That Wastepaper Basket

Wait! I Need That After All!

Renaming Your Items

Adding a Dash of Color

Displaying the Facts on Files and Folders

Adding Spotlight comments

Displaying file extensions

Choosing the application with which to launch a file

Locking files against evildoers

Creating an Alias

Using the Apple Menu

Using Recent Items

Playing with the Dock

Bad program! Quit!

Tracking down your version

Visiting the App Store

Specifying a location

Availing Yourself of OS X Services

Get Thee Hence: Using the Go Menu

Monkeying with the Menu Bar

Using menu bar icons

Doing timely things with the Clock

Eject, Tex, Eject!

Common Tasks Aplenty

Opening and editing text files

Listening to an audio CD

Recording — nay, burning — a data CD

All You Really Need to Know about Printing

Book I: Chapter 4: Searching Everything with Spotlight

Doing a Basic Search

How Cool Is That!? Discovering What Spotlight Can Do

Expanding Your Search Horizons

Customizing Spotlight to Your Taste

Book I: Chapter 5: Fun with Photo Booth

Capturing the Moment with FaceTime HD and Photo Booth

Producing Video on the Spot with iMovie

Book I: Chapter 6: Using Reminders, Notes, and Notifications

Remind Me to Use Reminders

Taking Notes the Mountain Lion Way

Staying Current with Notification Center

Book I: Chapter 7: Keeping Track with Contacts

Hey, Isn’t Contacts Just a Part of Mail?

Entering Contact Information

Using Contact Information

Arranging Your Contact Cards

Using Network Directories

Printing Contacts with Flair

Swapping Bytes with vCards

Book I: Chapter 8: Marking Time with Calendar

Shaking Hands with the Calendar Window

Entering That Special Event

Editing Existing Events

Keeping Track of Multiple Calendars

Sharing Your Attractive Calendar

Putting Your Calendar on Paper

Book I: Chapter 9: The Joys of Maintenance

Deleting Applications the Common Sense Way

Popping the Hood: Using the System Information Utility

Tracking Performance with Activity Monitor

Fixing Things with the Disk Utility

Displaying the goods on your disks

Playing doctor with First Aid

Erasing without seriously screwing up

Partitioning the right way

RAID has nothing to do with insects

Updating OS X

I Demand That You Back Up Your Hard Drive

Hitching a ride on the Time Machine

Using other backup solutions

I Further Demand That You Defragment

Special Start-Up Keys for Those Special Times

Crave the Newest Drivers

Book I: Chapter 10: Getting Help for the Big X

Displaying the Help Center Window

Searching for Specific Stuff

Prodding Apple for the Latest Gossip

Calling for Help Deep in the Heart of X

Other Resources to Chew On

Voice support

Mac publications and resource sites

Local Mac outlets and user groups

Book I: Chapter 11: Troubleshooting the X

Don’t Panic!

The Troubleshooting Process

Step 1: Always try a simple shutdown

Step 2: Check all cable connections

Step 3: Retrace your steps

Step 4: Run Disk Utility

Step 5: Run antivirus software

Step 6: Check the Trash

Step 7: Check online connections

Step 8: Disable troublesome Login Items

Step 9: Turn off your screen saver

Step 10: Check for write protection

Step 11: Check your System Information

Step 12: Reboot with the OS X Recovery HD volume

Do I Need to Reinstall OS X?

It’s Still Not Moving: Troubleshooting Resources

The OS X Help Center

The Apple OS X Support site

Your local Apple dealer

Book II: Chapter 1: Building the Finder of Your Dreams

Will That Be Icons or Lists or Columns . . . or Even a Flow?

Doing the Toolbar Dance

Hiding and showing the toolbar

Hiding and showing the status bar

Giving your toolbar big tires and a loud exhaust

Searching for Files from the Toolbar

Searching for Files from the Find Dialog

Configuring the View Options

Setting Icon view options

Setting List view options

Setting Column view options

Setting Cover Flow view options

Setting Finder Preferences

Book II: Chapter 2: Giving Your Desktop the Personal Touch

Changing the Background

Picking something Apple

I just gotta have lavender

Selecting your own photo

Changing the Screen Saver

Changing Colors in OS X

Adding Stickies

Customizing the Dock

Adding applications and extras to the Dock

Keeping track(s) with Stacks

Resizing the Dock

Stick It on the Dashboard

Getting Social with Game Center

Arranging Your Precious Desktop

Book II: Chapter 3: Delving under the Hood with System Preferences

The Preferred Way to Display the Preferences

Saving Your Preferences

Searching for Specific Settings

Getting Personal

General preferences

Desktop and screen saver preferences

Dock preferences

Mission Control preferences

Language and Text preferences

Security and Privacy preferences

Spotlight preferences

Notifications preferences

It’s All about the Hardware

CDs and DVDs preferences

Displays preferences

Energy Saver preferences

Keyboard preferences

Mouse preferences

Trackpad preferences

Print and Scan preferences

Sound preferences

Sharing the Joy: Internet and Wireless

iCloud preferences

Mail, Contacts and Calendars preferences

Network preferences

Bluetooth preferences

Sharing preferences

Tweaking the System

Users and Groups preferences

Parental Controls preferences

Date and time preferences

Software Update preferences

Dictation and speech preferences

Time Machine preferences

Accessibility preferences

Startup Disk preferences

Book II: Chapter 4: You Mean Others Can Use My Mac, Too?

How Multiuser Works on OS X

Configuring Your Login Screen

Locking Down Your Mac

Starting Applications Automatically after Login

Book II: Chapter 5: Setting Up Multiuser Accounts

Adding, Editing, and Deleting Users

Adding a new user account

Editing an existing account

Deleting an existing account

Tightening Your Security Belt

Setting Parental Controls

Assigning the Simple Finder

Using Keychains — Not!

Book II: Chapter 6: Sharing Documents for Fun and Profit

Sharing over a Network versus Sharing on a Single Mac

No network is required

Relying on a guaranteed lock

Most places are off-limits

Permissions: Law Enforcement for Your Files

Permission and Sharing Do’s and Don’ts

Sharing Stuff in Office 2011

Document-sharing features

File-level sharing features

Book III: Chapter 1: The World According to Apple

First, Sliced Bread . . . and Now, the Digital Hub

What Can I Digitize?

Photographs

Music

Video

DVD

The Software That Drives the Hub

iPhoto

iTunes

iMovie

GarageBand

Can I Use All This Stuff at One Time?

Book III: Chapter 2: Jamming with iTunes and iPod

What Can I Play on iTunes?

Playing an Audio CD

Playing Digital Audio and Video

Browsing the Library

Finding songs in your Music Library

Removing old music from the Library

Watching video

Keeping Slim Whitman and Slim Shady Apart: Organizing with Playlists

Know Your Songs

Setting the song information automatically

Setting or changing the song information manually

Ripping Audio Files

Tweaking the Audio for Your Ears

A New Kind of Radio Station

iTunes Radio

Tuning in your own stations

Radio stations in your playlists

iSending iStuff to iPod

Sharing Your Media across Your Network

Burning Music to Shiny Plastic Circles

Feasting on iTunes Visuals

Exercising Parental Authority

Buying Digital Media the Apple Way

Book III: Chapter 3: Focusing on iPhoto

Delving into iPhoto

Working with Images in iPhoto

Import images 101

Organize mode: Organizing and sorting your images

Edit mode: Removing and fixing stuff the right way

Producing Your Own Coffee-Table Masterpiece

Putting Photo Stream to Work

Book III: Chapter 4: Making Magic with iMovie

The iMovie Window

A Bird’s-Eye View of Moviemaking

Importing the Building Blocks

Pulling in video clips

Making use of still images

Importing and adding audio from all sorts of places

Building the Cinematic Basics

Adding clips to your movie

Removing clips from your movie

Reordering clips in your movie

Editing clips in iMovie

Transitions for the masses

Even Gone with the Wind had titles

Adding Maps and Backgrounds

Creating an Honest-to-Goodness Movie Trailer

Sharing Your Finished Classic with Others

Book III: Chapter 5: Becoming a Superstar with GarageBand

Shaking Hands with Your Band

Composing and Podcasting Made Easy

Adding tracks

Choosing loops

Resizing, repeating, and moving loops

Using the Arrange track

Tweaking the settings for a track

Automatic Composition with Magic GarageBand

Sharing Your Songs and Podcasts

Creating MP3 and AAC files and ringtones

Sending a podcast to iTunes

Burning an audio CD

Book III: Chapter 6: No, It’s Not Called iQuickTime

QuickTime Can Do That?

Playing Media with QuickTime

Opening QuickTime movies

Operating QuickTime Player

Book III: Chapter 7: Turning Your Mac into a DVD Theater

Getting the Right DVD Hardware

Watching Movies with DVD Player

Using the Controller

Keeping your eyes on the Viewer

Taking Advantage of Additional DVD Features

Controller extras

DVD Player preferences

Book IV: Chapter 1: Desktop Publishing with Pages

Creating a New Pages Document

Opening an Existing Pages Document

Saving Your Work

Touring the Pages Window

Entering and Editing Text

Using Text and Graphics Boxes

The Three Amigos: Cut, Copy, and Paste

Cutting stuff

Copying text and images

Pasting from the Clipboard

Formatting Text the Easy Way

Adding a Spiffy Table

Adding Alluring Photos

Adding a Background Shape

Are You Sure About That Spelling?

Printing Your Pages Documents

Sharing That Poster with Others

Book IV: Chapter 2: Creating Spreadsheets with Numbers

Before We Launch Numbers . . .

Creating a New Numbers Document

Opening an Existing Spreadsheet File

Save Those Spreadsheets!

Exploring the Numbers Window

Navigate and Select Cells in a Spreadsheet

Entering and Editing Data in a Spreadsheet

Selecting the Right Number Format

Aligning Cell Text Just So

Format with Shading

Insert and Delete Rows and Columns

The Formula Is Your Friend

Adding Visual Punch with a Chart

Book IV: Chapter 3: Building Presentations with Keynote

Creating a New Keynote Project

Opening a Keynote Presentation

Saving Your Presentation

Putting Keynote to Work

Adding Slides

Working with Text and Graphics Boxes

Adding and Editing Slide Text

Formatting Slide Text for the Perfect Look

Using Presenter’s Notes in Your Project

Every Good Presentation Needs Media

Adding a Background Shape

Creating Your Keynote Slideshow

Printing Your Slides and Notes

Book V: Chapter 1: Getting on the Internet

Shopping for an ISP

Investigating Various Types of Connections

Setting Up Your Internet Connection

Using an external modem

Using broadband or network hardware

Book V: Chapter 2: Using Apple Mail

Know Thy Mail Window

Setting Up Your Account

Add an account

Edit an existing account

Delete an account

Receiving and Reading E-Mail Wisdom

Reading and deleting messages

Replying

Raise the Little Flag: Sending E-Mail

What? You Get Junk Mail, Too?

Attachments on Parade

Fine-Tuning Your Post Office

Add an alert sound

Check Mail automatically

Automate junk mail and message deletion

Add a signature

Changing the status of an account

Automating Your Mail with Rules

Book V: Chapter 3: Staying in Touch with Messages and FaceTime

Configuring Messages

Working with Messages

Changing Modes in Messages

Will You Be My Buddy?

Chat! Chat, I Say!

Conversing with iMessages

Sharing Screens with Aplomb

Sending Files with Messages

Eliminating the Riffraff

Adding Visual Effects

Conversing with FaceTime

Book V: Chapter 4: Expanding Your Horizons with iCloud

So How Does iCloud Work, Anyway?

Configuring iCloud

Managing Your iCloud Storage

Book V: Chapter 5: Going Places with Safari

Pretend You’ve Never Used This Thing

Visiting Websites

Navigating the Web

Setting Up Your Home Page

Adding and Using Bookmarks

Downloading Files

Using Subscriptions and History

Tabs Are Your Browsing Friends

Saving Web Pages

Protecting Your Privacy

Yes, there are such things as bad cookies

Cleaning your cache

Handling ancient history

Avoiding those @*!^%$ pop-up ads

Book V: Chapter 6: Staying Secure Online

What Can Happen if I Don’t Take Security Seriously?

“Shields Up, Chekov!”

Firewall basics

Antivirus basics

A Dose of Common Sense: Things Not to Do Online

Book VI: Chapter 1: Setting Up a Small Network

What Do I Need to Set Up My Network?

Something to network

Network interface card (NIC)

Switch

Cables

Setting Up Your Network

Understanding the Basics of Network Configuration

TCP/IP

Software applications

Configuring Network System Preferences

Using DHCP for automatic IP address assignment

Manually choosing an IP address range

Verifying Connectivity

Troubleshooting Your New Network

Physical problems with your network

Network configuration problems

Book VI: Chapter 2: Using Your Network

It’s All about (File) Sharing

Creating an account

Enabling file sharing

Connecting to a shared resource

Sharing a Connected Printer

Sharing Files with Windows Computers

Accessing File Shares on Windows Computers

Using FTP to Access Files

Using the Built-in Firewall

Remote Control of Your Mac

Using Screen Sharing

Remotely control your Mac (for free, no less!)

How VNC works

Remote control of another computer from your Mac

Book VI: Chapter 3: Going Wireless

Speaking the Wireless Lingo

Figuring Out the Different Flavors of Wireless Ethernet

Basic Wi-Fi: 802.11b

Let’s get Extreme: 802.11g

Raising the bar to 802.11n

The guy with the turquoise teeth

Keeping Your Wireless Network Secure

WPA and WPA2

WEP

The LEAP security standard

Setting Up Your Wireless Network

Setting up an Ad Hoc wireless network

Setting up wireless networks

Book VI: Chapter 4: Sharing That Precious Internet Thing

Sharing the Internet

Using Network Address Translation

Ways to Share Your Internet Connection

Using hardware for sharing an Internet connection

Using software for sharing an Internet connection

Connecting Everything for Wired Sharing

Using the software method

Using the hardware method

Adding Wireless Support

If you already have a cable/DSL router or are using software Internet sharing

If you do not have a cable/DSL router or an AirPort Extreme Base Station

Book VII: Chapter 1: Hardware That Will Make You Giddy

Parading Pixels: Digital Cameras, DV Camcorders, and Scanners

Digital cameras

DV camcorders

Scanners

Incredible Input: Keyboards, Trackballs, Joysticks, and Drawing Tablets

Keyboards

Trackballs

Joysticks and steering wheels

Drawing tablets

Sublime Storage Devices: DVD/Blu-Ray and Flash Drives

Awesome Audio: Subwoofer Systems and MP3 Hardware

Subwoofer speaker systems

MP3 players (well, actually, just the iPod)

Book VII: Chapter 2: Add RAM, Hard Drive Space, and Stir

Adding Memory: Reasons for More RAM

Shopping for a RAM Upgrade

Finding out the current memory in your Mac

Determining the exact model of your computer

The Tao of Adding Hard Drive Territory

Internal versus External Storage

External drives

Internal drives

Determining How Much Space You Need

Shopping for a Hard Drive

Installing Your New Stuff

The easy way

The hard way

Book VII: Chapter 3: Port-o-Rama: Using Thunderbolt, USB, and FireWire

Appreciating the Advantage of a FireWire Connection

Travelling at Warp Speed with Thunderbolt

Understanding USB and the Tale of Two Point Oh

Hey, You Need a Hub!

Uh, My External Device Is Just Sitting There: Troubleshooting

Common FireWire and USB headaches

Check those drivers

Book VII: Chapter 4: I’m Okay, You’re a Printer

Meet the Printer Browser

Adding a Funky Printer

Managing Your Printing Jobs

Sharing a Printer across That There Network

Book VII: Chapter 5: Applications That You’ve (Probably) Gotta Have

The Trundling Microsoft Mammoth

Your OS X Toolbox: TechTool Pro

Image Editing for the Masses

The Morass of Digital Video

Yes, It’s Really Called “Toast”

If You Positively Have to Run Windows . . .

All Hail FileMaker Pro

Utilities That Rock

StuffIt

BBEdit

Real Studio

At Least One Game

OS X Chess

World of WarCraft

Book VII: Chapter 6: Putting Bluetooth to Work

Bluetooth: What a Silly Name for Such Cool Technology

Mountain Lion and Bluetooth, together forever

Adding Wireless Keyboards and Mice to Your Mac

The Magic of Wireless Printing

Book VIII: Chapter 1: Running Windows on Your Mac with Boot Camp

Figuring Out How Boot Camp Works

Comparing Boot Camp with Windows Emulators

Configuring Boot Camp

Switching to Windows

Checking for Apple Updates

Book VIII: Chapter 2: . . . And Unix Lurks Beneath

Why Use the Keyboard?

Unix keyboarding is fast

The Unix keyboard is a powerful beast

Go where no mouse has gone before

Automate to elevate

Remote control

Uncovering the Terminal

Consider yourself prompted

A few commands to get started

Using the mouse skills you already have

Unix Commands 101

Anatomy of a Unix command

Command line gotchas

Help is on the way!

Autocompletion

Working with Files

Paths

Copying, moving, renaming, and deleting files

Opening documents and launching applications

Useful Commands

Calendar

Processes

Unix Cadillac Commands

Finding files

Using pipes

Unix Programs That Come in Handy

Text editors

Creating a new document

Networking with the Terminal

WWW and FTP

Book VIII: Chapter 3: AppleScript Just Plain Rocks

What’s So Great about AppleScript?

Automate common tasks in the Finder

Automate tasks in other applications

Running a Script

Identifying scripts in the field

The AppleScript Editor application

Executing a script

Writing Your Own Simple Scripts

Create a script without touching a key

Building your own scripts

One Step Beyond: AppleScript Programming

Grab the Dictionary

Anatomy of a simple script

I Summon Automator — the Silicon Programmer!

Help Is at Your Fingertips

Built-in AppleScript Help

AppleScript on the web

Book VIII: Chapter 4: Talking with and Writing to Your Macintosh

Using Ink with a Tablet

Computer, Can You Hear Me?

The Speakable Items controls

The Feedback window

The Speech Commands window

Your Mac Talks Back!

Setting Text to Speech options

The Date and Time pane

Configuring VoiceOver within the Accessibility pane

Speaking text through applications

Cheat Sheet