OS X Basics

Source: www.lewebinformatique.fr

I am sometimes asked to give some basic help with Mac computers and I've come up with this short list of items that may help some be a little more familiar with their computer.  This is by no means a know all, tell all post or comprehensive list of all features or even highly detailed explanation of the topics covered but will provided a little "oh ok" moments.


System Preferences

System Preferences is where you go to adjust user and system settings, it is somewhat similar to the Windows control panel.  System Preferences is divided into four or five separate rows, each row is a different category.

Source: www.macworld.co.uk

The first row are preferences that usually affect settings for the active user signed in.  Here you can adjust settings for the screensaver, language, security, notifications, etc.

The second row are hardware settings.  Here you can adjust display settings, energy settings, install or remove a printer, etc.  Since these settings affect every user it requires an administrator password to make changes.

On the third row are preferences used to configure various network and internet services and settings.  The settings here affect either just the active user such as iCloud and Internet Accounts or all users such as network and sharing which require ad administrator password to make changes.

The fourth row settings are system wide settings and will require an administrator password, here you can add or delete other users for the computer, change the date/time settings and enable or disable accessibility options.

On a few occasions there may be a fifth row of settings.  These are preferences provided by third-party developers for their specific apps, such as Flip4Mac or Adobe Flash.

If you need help trying to figure where something might by, there is a search bar in the upper right corner of the System Preferences box where you can type a basic idea of what you want and by entering text in this field will automatically highlight possible preferences you are looking for.

On some screens you will notice a pad lock in the lower left.  When it is 'locked' it means no changes can be made.  To 'unlock' it and make changes, click on it and enter the administrator password when prompted.  Some settings remain locked even when signed into the computer with an administrator account.  It helps prevent accidental modifications to the computer or program(s).


System Information

Source: support.apple.com

If you need to know some information about you computer, the system information box will show you.  Click the Apple logo in the upper left corner of your screen, and then select About This Mac.  The version number, processor information, and amount of memory is shown on this screen.  You can click on the version number multiple times to view the system build number and the hardware serial number.  Clicking on the More Info button, reveals even more info!

On this screen, you can see four tabs at the top of the dialog box: overview, display, storage, and memory.  Each of these tabs shows some more detailed information just on that selection.  Clicking the System Report button, produces a report of critical system details.  You can export this information for printing or later viewing by choosing File from the top menu bar then Export As Text from the menu bar.


User Accounts

There are a few different user accounts in OS X: standard, administrative, guest, sharing-only, and the root account.  The standard account is what Apple suggests most people should use for the daily use of their computer because this account is not allowed to make changes to system-wide preferences, system files, or anything which might affect another user's account.  OS X Mavericks brought an exception to the rule of allowing installing and updating items from the Mac App Store and for doing system updates.  As a parent with children, you can enable Parental Controls to restrict usage the Mac App Store and updates.

Administrative accounts are similar to the standard user, only they are part of the admin group and are allowed full access to almost all applications, preferences and system files.  Administrative accounts can install and run any program as long as they authenticate when the installer asks for authorization.

Guest accounts are disabled by default but can be enabled to allow non-authenticated file sharing access or local login access.  Anyone with access to the computer can use it to log in.  When the user logs out, the home folder is removed including any web browsing history.  Each time the guest user is logged in, a whole new home folder is created.  If you use the Find My Mac feature, it will enable the guest account since OS X uses login accounts it will allow the would-be thief to access the computer and get it online with the hopes that the owner will be able to access Find My Mac to locate it.

Sharing-Only account is a special user account which has access only to shared files and folder, there is no home folder and it cannot log into the computer. And finally, the root account has unlimited access to everything on the computer, it can read, write, delete, modify any setting and install any software.  The default settings for OS X do not allow any user to login as root.


Keychain Access

Keychain Access is where OS X keeps all your passwords, certificates, keys, website forms and secure notes in encrypted storage.  Every time you allow the system to remember a password or any other sensitive item, it saves it to the keychain system.  Only your account password is kept separate from the keychain..


Target Disk Mode

Macs have a unique ability of being able to share its internal disks without having the computer actually signed in.  Because this is something built-in the computers hardware, you can perform this on a Mac with a corrupt OS which won't boot as a means to retrieve data.  You can do this using a thunderbolt or firewire cable, depending on what your computer is equipped with.

To setup Target Disk Mode, connect the cable to the two computer and the Mac you want to copy files to (Mac A) powered on and logged in, press and hold the T key on the other Mac (Mac B) until the screen turns gray with a floating "symbol."  Open Finder on Mac A and under the devices section Mac B should appear as an external drive.  Copy what you need and be sure to eject the Mac B when finished.


Keyboard Shortcuts

One of the many questions I am often asked about are what are the keyboard shortcuts on a Mac.  A few of the most used shortcuts for the Windows user trying to use a Mac are, and as with Windows they work on supported programs:

• Command + X to cut the selected item(s) on screen to the clipboard
• Command + C to copy the selected item(s) on screen to the clipboard
• Command + V to paste the previously selected items from the clipboard to the current application
• Shift + Command + Z is the undo previous action
• Command + A selects all items on screen

There are a couple ways of taking screenshots on a Mac that, in my opinion, is better than Windows.  In Windows to get a screenshot, you basically have to tap the "prt sc" button on your keyboard to take a screenshot and then you have to paste it into another program, like Paint, to save it as a file. OS X steps up a bit and saves the screenshot directly to your desktop as a PNG file!

• Press Command + Shift + 3 to take a screenshot of your entire desktop.  If you have more than one monitor, it will take a screenshot of both monitor displays and saves each monitor display as its own PNG file.
• Command + Shift + 4 + Mouse Selection will take a screenshot of only what you have selected with the mouse.
• Command + Shift + 4 + Spacebar will take a screenshot of just the active window or program you are in.  Hover your mouse over the program windows to highlight it and then click the mouse button.

For a more detailed list of keyboard shortcuts, check out Apple support's list by clicking this link.