Getting Around your Mac

Introduction: Now that you know which OS you’re using, which macOS you’re using, let’s take a look at how we get around our Mac. Now again, I am using macOS Mojave, but really, the fundamentals of how we get around the Mac have not changed for many years. So even if you’re using an older version of macOS, it should look very familiar and still relevant.

Finder: Now, the way that we get around our Mac is through the Finder. You’re going to see that I have a little smiley face on my far left side of my dock. This is the Finder. It is another application. When we click on the Finder, what we’re going to do is we’re going to get a window that opens up. So I’m going to click on the Finder, and we have a window that opens up. When it opens up, by default, it opens up to your most recent files. So these are my most recent files. What we can do is, we can go over to the left, you’re going to see we have a sidebar here, and I can go and select a specific folder.

Folders: If I just wanted to look at my Documents folder, I click on it, and now I’m looking at my Documents folder. I want to look at my Downloads folder. I click on Downloads, and I’m looking at my Downloads folder. The Desktop, let’s go ahead and click on the Desktop here, the Desktop shows me all of my files and folders on the Desktop.

Desktop: Well, what is the Desktop? Well, let’s close this window. To close a window, click on the red X. Over to the right, you’re going to see we have several files along with a couple of external hard drives. What I am looking at here is my Desktop. When you can see your desktop picture or come from Windows, your wallpaper, if you can see your wallpaper, this is your Desktop. And what we can do is, we can store files and folders on our Desktop. Generally, what I would recommend doing is storing your files and folders that you are currently using on your Desktop. You don’t want to use it as permanent storage. So think of the Desktop as temporary storage. Eventually, once I get done with these files, what I’ll do it, I’ll move them to my Documents folder or create a new folder for them.

Now, if we look here, you’re going to see I have three files, as well as a folder here. When we go back to my Desktop folder in the window, how do we do that? We click on the Finder here, and then we go over to Desktop. You’re going to see I have those same three files, along with my folder. So anything that we see in our Desktop folder here, we’re also going to be able to see on our Desktop – over here to the right. I go and make a change here, if I were to change the name of this, let’s just call this Whitewater Rafting. So I’m just going to add in here Whitewater. If we look here, it also changed the name in my folder here for my Desktop. So we can access our Desktop from two different areas.

Menu Bar: At the top of the screen, I’m going to close this window again. At the top of the screen, we have our menu bar. The menu bar is always located at the top of our screen or at the top of our display. If you’re coming from Windows, you’re used to this being accessible from the top of a window. Well, on the Mac, it’s at the top of the display. The menu bar also always shows your frontmost application. So if I look at this menu bar, you’re going to see that I am in my Finder. If I were to open up Calendar, and I was working in my Calendar, the menu bar would say Calendar here, and I’d see all the menu items for the Calendar app. So this is also how you can see which app you are currently working in.

Dock: At the bottom of our display, by default, we have our Dock. Our Dock has all of our favorite applications, open applications, favorite folders, and documents. So on the left side here, you’re going to see I have a little line here, a vertical line. On the left side, these are all my favorite applications. To my right, I have my recent applications. This includes any open applications that are not a favorite in the dock. And then, if we keep going to the right, again we have another vertical line, you’re going to see that I have my favorite folders, which is my Downloads folder, and it also has my Trash. If you’re coming from Windows, this is your Recycle Bin. On the Mac, it’s called Trash. To open up any one of these, I just click on it. So if I wanted to open up my Notes, I would just click on it. I’ll show you how you can customize the dock and do more with the dock later on in the tutorial.

So that’s how we get around the Mac with macOS Mojave and older versions of macOS.