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Introduction to the Mac user-interface. The Mac user interface is subtly different from the Microsoft Windows interface So we will spend a few minutes pointing out some of the differences. The Mac desktop. The Menu-bar and the Dock. A key difference: menu-bars.
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Introduction to the Mac user-interface • The Mac user interface is subtly different from the Microsoft Windows interface • So we will spend a few minutes pointing out some of the differences
A key difference: menu-bars • MS Windows and the Mac OS treat menu-bars differently • In MS Windows, each open program window has its own menu-bar • In Mac OS, no program window has its own menu-bar
MS Windows • Each window below has its own menu-bar
Mac OS • No program below has its own menu-bar
The Desktop menu-bar in Mac OS • In Mac OS, there is just one menu-bar • This menu-bar belongs to the desktop • When a program window is active, it takes over the desk-top menu-bar • This means that the options in the desktop menu-bar change when a different program window becomes active
Mac OS -- situation 1 • Below, the active window belongs to VLC Media player • And VLC Media Player "owns" the desktop menu-bar
Mac OS - situation 2 • Below, the active window belongs to iTunes • And iTunes "owns" the desktop menu-bar
Mac OS - situation 3 • No program window below is active • The desktop menu-bar is controlled by a "default" program called Finder
Mac OS - situation 4 • In fact, when no program window is open, Finder controls the desktop menu-bar
Mac OS Finder is a bit like MS Windows Explorer • Consider the situation below • Suppose we click on the icon indicated by the arrow
Finder versus Windows Explorer continued • When we click on the icon, we get a Finder window, as shown below • We can use this window to navigate through the folders on the Mac hard drive
The title-bar in a Mac OS program window • Although no Mac OS program window has a menu-bar, each program window does have a title-bar • The title-bar contains some buttons as well as the program title • These button allow us to maximize, minimize or close the window
The dock on the Mac OS desktop • The dock contains several items, including • icons for launching important programs • an icon for the trash-can • Below, arrows point to dock icons for iTunes, PhotoShop, FinalCut, AfterEffects, Quicktime and the trash-can
The dock on the Mac OS desktop (continued) • The dock also contains icons for minimized program windows • Compare the docks on the two screen-shorts shown here • in the top screen-shot, an iTunes window is open • in the bottom screen-shot, the iTunes window has been minimized • the icon for the minimized window can be seen in the dock, just to the left of the trash-can icon
Programs which open multiple panels • Many programs open several several dis-connected window panels • This is fine, if you run only one program at a time and have a plain desktop which is empty, except for the dock • Below, PhotoShop has three panels open • Note that the blue area is NOT part of any PhotoShop window panel
Programs which open multiple panes (contd.) • Multi-pane programs can be confusing if you run several programs at the same time • Below, PhotoShop has three window panels (see the blue arrows) • And iTunes has one window panel (see the red arrow) • It is easy to be confused into thinking that the blue area and the iTunes window are panels in the PhotoShop window
Programs which open multiple panels (contd.) • Multi-panel programs can be very confusing if you have a picture desktop and have several multi-panel programs running at the same time • Can you tell what is happening below?
The Mac keyboard • There are several different Mac OS keyboards, just as there are several MS Windows keyboards • A few of the keys on Mac OS keyboards are worthy of attention
The command key • This key is often used in combination with other keys to make keyboard shortcuts for executing commands
The option key • This key is also often used in combination with other keys to make keyboard shortcuts for executing commands
A brief note on screen capture in Mac OS • All MS Windows keyboards have a button labelled "print screen" which can be used to capture the current contents of the screen • Mac OS keyboards do not have such a key • Instead, we can use a program called Grab • Or, we can use one of the following keyboard shortcuts cmd+shift+3 saves an image of the entire screen to a file on disk cmd+shift+4 displays a cross-hair cursor which can be dragged over a smaller area if the screen required area (while the cross-hair is showing, a press of the space-bar brings up the further option to select a specific window for the image)