The Finder

The core of the Mac OS X system is the finder. It it is largely like explorer is in Windows operating systems. You can not close the finder when you are running the operating system, and it is the “application” that is running when you start up the computer. As you can see on the screenshot to the right it says “Finder” right at the top of the screen just to the left of the apple logo. This bar ends with the clock and spotlight icon and is also home to the things like volume control, and wireless configuration (rather like that area in windows at the bottom right of your screen). This is bar is called the menu bar.

And it is a pretty significant difference from Windows. Notice that in this menu bar you can see File, Edit, View, Go… etc. These are all pop out menus just like you would expect to find at the top of a window in a windows application. Expect obviously for these words to change as the active application changes. For iChat you need a Contacts menu, for Word you need a Format menu, for Firefox Bookmarks etc. I am not really sure what the advantage of having the menu bar always in the same place and unattached from the window to which it corresponds is. But one thing that does spring to mind is that it rather saves on vertical space on this screen. You never need to be able to see more than one menu bar at once, so why display more than one? Having them attached to the windows showing and hiding everytime you switched applications would be messy. If you think about it the windows would appear to bounce as you switched, so having it along the top of the screen is a good solution.

One thing that is not immediately clear is that the word “Finder” itself is a menu too. This is standard. For every application the name of the application gives a drop down menu and in this menu a pretty standard group of items. The about dialog which is typically found in Help on a windows program is found here. As are the preferences which can always be accessed through that clover leaf (also known as CMD, command, Apple Key) + comma as is shown in the image. You also get the option to hide the program and in every case except the Finder you get the option to quit the program too. These are crucially different things with quitting being the more severe choice. There is no equivalent to hiding in windows, it closes the instance of the program running but not the program itself. This means that you can reopen the program very quickly (it is already in fact open) but in say Firefox you will be back to your homepage not on those pages you were viewing when you hide the program. Obviously having a lot of programs in this state of being hidden will start to lag on system resources after a while. And with programs hidden isn’t it rather tricky to keep track of them all?

The Dock

Enter the dock. That is this thing that lines the bottom of your screen:

This is like your taskbar in Windows. But interestingly it is also like your Programs menu that stems from the start button. Here you can see all the programs that you have chosen to place on the dock. And you can see which ones are active. They are denoted with the black arrow. You will always see that the Finder is active as I stated above, it cannot be closed. You will also see that there is a vertical line and to the right of it you will find minimised programs. The images that are used are live previews of the actual program. If you have a video, it will continue to play in the dock. Clicking on anything minimises reopens it onto the main screen and removes it from the dock. This is unlike windows where maximised windows are still seen in the taskbar. The result is that you can easily see what is minimised but there is no real list of everything that is open you just have to count up the black arrows.

You can play with the dock in the settings. It can be down the side of the screen, or on the bottom as is the default. If you are short of space you can have it autohide too. As you move your mouse along the dock the items can be set to enlarge as you hover over them which is a nice way to see what you are focused on especially if you dock is so full that the items in it are quite small. The enlargement will show you something quite important in OS X. The icons are very high resolution, they look much more glossy than the ones in Windows which is something that we will see throughout the operating system. As you hover the name of the application is also shown.

The trash can on the far right of the dock is like the recycle bin in Windows. But really it plays a much bigger role in OS X. So big in fact, that it is the entire subject of part 3 of this Switchers Guide.

Previously in Mac OS X Switching… Part 1 Basic Differences. View the whole series.