I'll begin by explaining the Mac Color Classic, which is the easiest Mac to understand. (Other Macs are similar but slightly more complex. I'll explain how they differ.)
Set up the Mac
When you buy a Mac Color Classic, the salesperson hands you a big brown cardboard box. Take the box home. Open it and peek inside.
You'll see clear plastic bags. They contain the computer, keyboard, mouse, and little goodies (power cord, keyboard cable, floppy disks, and instruction manuals). Rip the bags open.
Put the computer on your desk. Plug one end of the power cord into your wall and the other end into the back of the computer.
Look at the mouse (a small object the size of a pack of cigarettes). A cable comes out of it. If you're right-handed, plug that cable into the keyboard's right side; if you're left-handed, plug that cable into the keyboard's left side.
Attach the keyboard to the computer, by plugging one end of the keyboard's cable into the side of the keyboard and the other end into the back of the computer.
Congratulations! You've installed the computer! Now you can say on your resumŵ that you're a ``computer expert experienced at installing advanced computer equipment''.
Other Macs For old Macs, the cardboard box is white (instead of brown), the keyboard plugs into the computer's front (instead of back), and the mouse plugs into the computer (instead of into the keyboard). For some Macs, the monitor or hard drive is sold separately and must be cabled to the computer.
The Mac Color Classic has a built-in microphone; for other Macs, the microphone is missing or must be cabled to the computer.
The Mac Powerbook is a notebook computer that's all in one piece and requires no assembly. Turn on the Mac
At the back of the Mac, next to the power cord, you'll see a switch marked ``1'' and ``0''. That's the on/off switch. Put that switch in the ``on'' position by pressing the ``1''. Then press the POWER ON key, which is at the top of the keyboard and has the symbol on it.
The computer will make an overture to you: you'll hear a musical chord. On the screen, you'll briefly see an arrow, then a smile, then this message:
Welcome to Macintosh.
Eventually, you'll see little pictures, called icons. The screen's top left corner will show the Apple icon (a partly eaten apple). The screen's bottom right corner will show the trash icon (picture of a trash can). Those icons mean the Finder (the fundamental part of the Mac's operating system) is ready.
If your Mac's been used by other people, they might have left your Mac in a strange state, with several rectangular windows on the screen. To make sure your Mac is normal, with no windows on the screen, do the following. . . .
Next to the space bar, you'll see the COMMAND key (which has an Apple and a squiggle on it) and the OPTION key. Hold down both of those keys simultaneously; and while you keep them down, tap the W key.
Congratulations! Now you have a turned-on Mac, ready and willing to obey your every command!
Other Macs On expensive Macs, the on/off switch is a button that pops in and out, or it's in the form of a car-ignition key. If you're sharing such a Mac, your friends probably already put that switch in the correct position, so don't touch it: just press the POWER ON key.
Cheap Macs don't use a POWER ON key: just press 1 on the on/off switch.
Some Mac monitors have a separate switch that you must turn on.
If your Mac's hard drive is external, turn that drive on and wait 15 seconds before turning on the Mac.
Old Macs make a beep instead of playing a chord.
On old Macs, the COMMAND key has a squiggle on it but no apple.
Performa Macs make the screen display a Launcher window. To follow the instructions in the book, make sure the Launcher window disappears. Again, here's how to make the Launcher window (and all other windows) disappear: hold down the COMMAND and OPTION keys; and while keeping them down, tap the W key.
If you don't see ``Welcome to Macintosh'', your Mac isn't set up properly. For example, the monitor might be turned off (turn it on!), the hard drive might be missing (buy a hard drive!), your dealer might have neglected to copy the Mac operating system onto the hard drive (ask the dealer to help you!), or a previous user left a floppy disk in the floppy drive (remove the floppy disk).
If your Mac doesn't have a hard drive, you'll have difficultly running modern software and using this book. Either buy a hard drive or phone me to get an older edition of this book.
Although the trash icon is usually in the bottom right corner, it might be in a different place if the previous user moved it. Your computer comes with a mouse. The mouse's tail is a cable that runs from the mouse to the keyboard. The area where the tail meets the mouse is called the mouse's ass or rear.
The mouse's underside ___ its belly ___ has a hole in it, and a ball in the hole.
Put the mouse on your desk and directly in front of your right arm. (If you're left-handed, put it in front of your left arm.) Make the mouse lie flat (so its ball rubs against the desk). Make the mouse face you so the apple on the mouse appears right-side up, and you don't see the mouse's ass.
Other Macs The Mac Powerbook uses a trackball instead of a mouse. The trackball is part of the keyboard.
Move the arrow
Move the mouse across your desk. As you move the mouse, remember to keep it flat and facing you.
On the screen, you'll see an arrow, which is called the pointer or cursor. As you move the mouse, the arrow moves also. If you move the mouse to the left, the arrow moves to the left. If you move the mouse to the right, the arrow moves to the right. If you move the mouse toward you, the arrow moves down. If you move the mouse away from you, the arrow moves up.
Practice moving the arrow by moving the mouse. Remember to keep the mouse facing you at all times.
If you want to move the arrow far, and your desk is small, move the mouse until it reaches the desk's edge; then lift the mouse off the desk, lay the mouse gently on the middle of the desk, and move the mouse across the desk in the same direction as before.
Other Macs If your Mac uses a trackball (instead of a mouse), move the arrow by rotating the trackball. Click an icon
The most important part of the arrow is its tip, which is called the hot spot.
For an experiment, move the arrow so its hot spot (tip) is in the middle of the trash can. That's called pointing at the trash can.
On top of the mouse is a rectangular button that you can press. Tapping that button is called clicking.
While you're pointing at the trash can, try clicking (by tapping the button). That's called ``clicking the trash can'' (or ``clicking on the trash can'' or ``selecting the trash can''). When you do that, the trash can turns black. Try it!
Near the screen's top right corner, you'll see the words ``Macintosh HD''. Above those words, you'll see a rectangle with a black dot in its bottom left corner. That rectangle is supposed to be a picture of a Macintosh hard-disk drive. That rectangle's called the hard-disk icon. Try clicking in the middle of the rectangle. When you do that, it turns black.
Whenever you click an icon, that icon turns black, and the other major icons turn white. For example, when you click the trash icon, the hard disk icon turns white; when you click the hard disk icon, the trash icon turns white.
An icon that's black is selected; an icon that's white is called unselected or deselected. Usually, just one icon is selected (black); all the other icons are deselected (white).
(The Apple icon is a different kind of icon. If you click it, no colors change. I'll explain it later.)
Try this experiment: click in the center of the screen, where there are no icons. All the screen's icons suddenly turn white
