Macintosh Basics

While we can't promise to make you a Mac expert by the end of this tutorial, we're going to give you a primer on navigating through some common tasks.

Scenario 1: You did it. You decided to "think different". You shelled out the dough for a new Macintosh, set it up, and the friendly Mac boot-up sequence just ended. Now you have a fairly barren screen in front of you and a sinking feeling that the real work has just begun. Manuals are daunting in their thickness and your friends are Windows devotees.

Scenario 2: After years of using Windows exclusively, you are confronted with the need to use a Macintosh. Aesthetics aside, this is an alien operating system and you frantically scan the desktop for a Start button.

In this article, we cover:

• Copying files on a Mac
• Ejecting a diskette from your Mac
• Properly rebooting a Mac

Please note-- The iMac, Macintosh's newest and immensely popular model, does not come with a floppy drive as part of its standard configuration. This may change in future versions of the iMac or you may opt to add an external floppy drive.

Copying files

You have files and you need to move them from one disk to another disk (or the Mac's hard drive). Here are the steps for getting this simple task done:

From a floppy to your hard drive:

• Open or create the destination folder on the desktop (Where you want the files to end up)
• Place the floppy in your disk drive. A small disk icon will pop up on the screen. Double-click on this icon and locate the files you want to copy
• Point at the file you want to copy and drag it to the destination folder.
• If you need to move more than one file, hold down the key and click on each file in turn until they are all highlighted. Release the key, then drag the selected files to the destination folder.

From one floppy to another:

• With no floppy in the drive, create a new folder on the desktop by clicking on the File menu and choosing New Folder.
• Insert the disk you want to copy from. Locate the files you want to copy and drag them to the new folder.
• Drag the disk icon to the trash icon to eject it.
• Insert the destination disk. Drag the files from the new folder to the destination disk.

Ejecting a disk (Don't laugh. It can be tricky)

There are two approved methods for ejecting a floppy disk from a Mac:

• Click on the disk icon and drag it to the Trash icon.
• Hold down the Apple key on your keyboard and strike the "Y" key. The Apple key is denoted by a picture of an apple, not the word itself.
• As tempting as it may be to try, do not eject the disk by selecting Eject from the menu labeled Special on the Mac desktop. This will cause problems when you attempt to shut down your Mac for the night. The Mac will demand that you reinsert the disk that was ejected and even if you comply, the error will continue to nag you.

Hey! Wait! My disk won't eject!

If your disk becomes lodged in the disk drive, you may still be able to extract it. Just beneath the opening for the disk drive, you should see a pinhole-sized opening. Find a handy paperclip, bend it straight, insert one end into the opening and push. This will often pop the floppy out of the drive. Pull off this move with the cool demeanor of MacGuyver and impress your friends. Be sure to have the floppy drive serviced so you won't have to repeat this trick.

When bad things happen to good Macs

As user-friendly and intuitive as they strive to be, even the best of Macs will fail on their faithful owners. At some point, you will have to reboot your Macintosh. Make sure you do so in the proper way.

Simply turning off the power is like giving your Mac a heart attack, a shock to the system that can be damaging to your precious software. To reboot, hold down the and keys, and then hit the power key, which has a design of a triangle on it (located in the far upper right-hand corner of your keyboard). This procedure helps your Mac suspend operations before restarting.

With these basic tasks under your belt, you can move ahead and get to know your Mac. Better yet, you can be the hero when a confused colleague turns to you and pleads for help.

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