Important Macintosh Differences

If today is your first day in front of a Macintosh, here are ten difference most likely to trip you up:

Turning the machine on and off. Every modern Macintosh-laptop or desktop-has a power key on the keyboard. It's marked by a triangle or, on recent models, by a circle with a vertical line in the middle. Push this button to turn the Macintosh on; push it again to summon the "Are you sure you want to shut down?" dialog box.
Mouse buttons. The Macintosh mouse's single button corresponds to the left mouse button on a Windows PC. To summon pop-up contextual menus-the right mouse button's traditional job-you Control-click something on the Macintosh.
Menu bars. On the Macintosh, a single menu bar appears at the top of the screen at all times. The commands in it change as you switch from one application to another. You won't find a separate menu bar inside every window, as you do in Windows.
Keyboard shortcuts. Most keyboard shortcuts are the same on the Macintosh as in Windows - except that you should substitute the Command key (which has clover leaf and Apple logos on it) for the Ctrl key, and the Option key for the Alt key.
Window controls. To close a window, click the tiny square in the upper-left corner of a Macintosh window. To move a window, drag the title bar as usual. And to resize it, drag the lower-right corner, exactly as you would in Windows. (Dragging the fat edges of a window moves the window instead of resizing it, as it would in Windows.) The two squares in the upper-right corner of the Macintosh window are the zoom box (makes the window exactly large enough to reveal all of its contents) and the collapse box (makes the window vanish into its title bar).
The Application menu. The Macintosh has no Taskbar. Instead, you switch from one application to another using the Application menu, which appears at the far right of the menu bar and is marked by the icon of the current application. If you're running Mac OS 8.3 or later, this menu may also display the name of the current running application; you can switch from one application to another by pressing Command-Tab.
Application windows. Quitting a Macintosh application (by choosing Quit, the Macintosh equivalent of Exit) closes all of its windows. No stray windows remain on the screen, as they sometimes do in Windows. Also, closing the last window in an application generally won't quit the application, as happens with some Windows programs.
The Apple menu. The Apple menu, whose icon appears at the top-left corner of the screen, resembles the Start menu in many ways. You should know about a few important differences, however: first, only the most recently used applications appear in the Recent Applications submenu; the Macintosh offers no complete list of every application on the hard disk. Second, adding new documents, applications, disks, or even networked servers to the Apple menu is extremely easy.
Disks. The Macintosh has no My Computer icon. The hard disk icon always appears at the upper-right corner of the screen; icons for other kinds of disks-floppies, CDs, or Zip disks, for example-don't appear on the Desktop until you insert such a disk into the machine. Ejecting a disk is also very different on the Macintosh: there's no manual-eject button on the front panel for most kinds of disk drives. Instead, eject a disk by highlighting its icon and then choosing Special Eject Disk. Or use the time-honored Macintosh shortcut: drag the disk's icon onto the Trash can (the equivalent of the Recycle Bin). Doing so does not erase the disk! Instead, the disk pops out of the drive.
Emptying the Trash. The Mac OS never removes files from the Trash automatically, as Windows does with files in the Recycle Bin. To remove files from the Trash manually, choose Special ® Empty Trash.

Other things of note to Windows Users:

Alt Key

On the Macintosh: Option Key

As with the Alt key in Windows, you can use the Mac's Option key to enter hidden characters that don't normally appear on your keyboard, such as Q: and c£. Many of these are clever maps: where Shift-4 produces the $ character, Option-4 creates a Q: symbol. To look up the full set of available characters, open Apple menu -~ Key Caps, and then press the Option key to view which symbols hide behind which keys.

Accented letters require a different technique. The U, N, I, E, and tilde (~) keys are so-called "dead" keys when used with the Option key-that is, typing Option-U doesn't do anything until you type another character to create the accented character. For instance, type Option-U, then 0 to create an O with an umlaut. The table below lists the five possibilities.

Table 1- Accented Characters Available via the Option Key

Option Key Combination

Result

Option-E

acute accent

Option-1

Circumflex

Option-N

Tilde

Option-Tilde

Grave

Option-U

Umlaut

Modified behavior. The Mac's Option key, like the Alt key, can also produce a random assortment of special productivity effects in daily Macintosh use, as summarized in Table 2 below.

Table 2. - Optional Behaviors Using the Option Key

Modified Behavior

Function

Option-click to switch programs

Pressing Option as you switch to another program (by choosing its name from the Application menu, or by clicking in its window) hides all windows of the first program-a handy housekeeping trick.

Option-Empty Trash

The Mac OS deletes locked files in the Trash instantaneously, bypassing the usual confirmation warning.

Option-drag an icon in the Finder

Option-dragging an icon creates a duplicate of the original file.

Option-click a window's close box

Clicking the close box while pressing Option closes all visible windows in the current application (especially on the Desktop).

Option-double-click a folder

Opening a folder while pressing Option automatically closes the previous window (that is, the one that contains the folder you're double-clicking).

Option-drag text

In most word processing and email programs, Option-dragging text into a new location duplicates the original highlighted phrase.

Control (Ctrl) Key

On the Macintosh: Control Key, Command Key

In Windows, the Ctrl key is the primary modifier; though every Macintosh keyboard has a Control key, it's used primarily for triggering contextual menus. Instead, the Mac's Command key is the equivalent of the Windows Ctrl key. The Command key is labeled with an apple and a cloverleaf and sits immediately to the left (and right, on full size keyboards) of the Spacebar.

Table 3 --A list of the common uses of the Command key

Keyboard Shortcut

Function

Command-A

Select All

Command-B

Makes selected text bold in most applications, though not the Finder.

Command-Delete

Moves the selected icons to the Trash. See Recycle Bin.

Command-C

Copy to clipboard. Doesn't work with files on the Macintosh - only highlighted material within an application window.

Command-click items in a list like the Open File dialog box

Selects multiple discontinuous items.

Command-Control-Power

Restarts the Macintosh after a lockup.

Command-D

Duplicates Finder icons. (May have other functions in other applications.)

Command-drag an icon in the Finder

Makes a dragged icon snap into position on an invisible grid.

Command-E

Ejects the selected disk.

Command-F

Brings up the Find File or Sherlock window for searching.

Command-1

Displays the General Information window for the selected item. In text-oriented applications, italicizes the selected text

Command-M

Makes an alias of the selected item.

Command-N

Makes a new Untitled folder. In most applications, creates a new document.

Command-0

Opens the selected items. In most applications, displays the Open File dialog box for opening documents.

Command-Option-drag an icon in the Finder

Makes an alias. (Like a Windows "Shortcut.")

Command-Option-Esc

Forces the current application to quit, even if it's crashed.

Command-P

Prints the selected files. In most applications, opens the Print dialog box.

Command-Q

Quits the application.

Command-R

Displays the original item for a selected alias.

Command-S

Saves the current document.

Command-T

In many applications, removes all styles from styled text.

Command-U

In text-oriented applications, underlines the selected text.

Command-V

Paste from clipboard. Doesn't work with files on the Macintosh, only cut or copied material from application windows.

Command-W

Closes the current window. (Like Alt-F4 in Windows)

Command-X

Cut to clipboard. Doesn't work with files on the Macintosh - only highlighted material within application windows.

Command-Y

Moves an icon back to its previous location after a move to the Desktop or the Trash.

Command-Z

Undo. Doesn't undo icon manipulation in the Finder.

Command-. (period)

Universal "stop" command. Equivalent to Esc.

Table 4 -- A list for the uses of the Control key.

Keyboard Shortcut

Function

Control-click

Displays a contextual menu appropriate to the clicked item.

Control-Command-Power

Restarts the Macintosh after a lockup.

Mouse Right-Click

On the Macintosh: Control-Click

The standard Macintosh mouse has only a single mouse button; as a result, you can't right-click objects to summon contextual menus, as you can in Windows. Instead, press Control while clicking objects to gain access to contextual menus