- Table of Contents
- Copyright
- About the Author
- Acknowledgments
- Tell Us What You Think!
- Introduction
- Part I: Introduction to Mac OS X
- Chapter 1. Mac OS X Component Architecture
- Chapter 2. Installing Mac OS X
- Chapter 3. Mac OS X Basics
- Chapter 4. The Finder: Working with Files and Applications
- Chapter 5. Running Classic Mac OS Applications
- Part II: Inside Mac OS X
- Chapter 6. Native Utilities and Applications
- Chapter 7. Internet Communications
- Chapter 8. Installing Third-Party Applications
- Part III: User-Level OS X Configuration
- Chapter 9. Network Setup
- Chapter 10. Printer and Font Management
- Chapter 11. Additional System Components
- Part IV: Introduction to BSD Applications
- Chapter 12. Introducing the BSD Subsystem
- Chapter 13. Common Unix Shell Commands: File Operations
- Part V: Advanced Command-Line Concepts
- Chapter 14. Advanced Shell Concepts and Commands
- Chapter 15. Command-Line Applications and Application Suites
- Chapter 16. Command-Line Software Installation
- Chapter 17. Troubleshooting Software Installs, and Compiling and Debugging Manually
- Chapter 18. Advanced Unix Shell Use: Configuration and Programming (Shell Scripting)
- Part VI: Server/Network Administration
- Chapter 19. X Window System Applications
- Chapter 20. Command-Line Configuration and Administration
- Chapter 21. AppleScript
- Chapter 22. Perl Scripting and SQL Connectivity
- Chapter 23. File and Resource Sharing with NetInfo
- Chapter 24. User Management and Machine Clustering
- Chapter 25. FTP Serving
- Chapter 26. Remote Access and Administration
- Chapter 27. Web Serving
- Part VII: Server Health
- Chapter 28. Web Programming
- Chapter 29. Creating a Mail Server
- Chapter 30. Accessing and Serving a Windows Network
- Chapter 31. Server Security and Advanced Network Configuration
- Chapter 32. System Maintenance
- Appendix A. Command-Line Reference
- Appendix B. Administration Reference
System Preferences: System
The System section of the System Preferences panel includes panes for customizing system settings. With the controls in this section, you can customize such settings as the date and time display, the startup disk, and a software update schedule. The Users pane, which we looked at earlier in this chapter, is in this section of the System Preferences. In this section, we will look at the Date & Time, Software Update, and Speech panes.
Date & Time
Various aspects of the date and time are specified in the Date & Time pane of System Preferences.
Date & Time
In the Date & Time tab of the Date & Time pane, you actually set the date and time. If your computer gets time from a network time server, you do not need to set anything. Figure 11.50 shows the Date & Time tab. Please note that if you do receive your time setting from a network time server, you might have trouble when your machine boots up if it can't find the network time server.
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Figure 11.50 The current date and time are set in the Date & Time tab of the Date & Time pane.
Time Zone
The Time Zone tab, shown in Figure 11.51, is where the time zone is set. You just click on your approximate area on the map, and then select a time zone from the pop-up window.
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Figure 11.51 Select your time zone in the Time Zone tab of the Date & Time pane.
Network Time
Figure 11.52 shows the Network Time tab, where you can indicate that the machine should use a network time server, and provide an address for the network time server.
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Figure 11.52 You can set your machine to use a network time server and provide the address of the server in the Network Time tab of the Date & Time pane.
Menu Bar Clock
The menu bar clock is turned on in the Menu Bar Clock tab, shown in Figure 11.53. The menu bar clock is turned on by default, but you can turn it off here. If you choose to keep it on, you can set how it is displayed in this tab.
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Figure 11.53 The menu bar clock can be turned on or off in the Menu Bar Clock tab of the Date & Time pane. Here you can also set how the clock is displayed.
Software Update
From the Software Update pane, shown in Figure 11.54, you can update your system software. This is the easiest way to keep your version of OS X current. You can choose to run the software update manually, or you can set Software Update to run on a regular schedule. This does not update any third-party software you have installed. If you would like to see what packages Software Update has updated, click on the Show Log button. Chapter 32, "Maintenance and Troubleshooting," covers the update process in depth.
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Figure 11.54 Software updates keep your machine running with the latest applications and security patches.
Speech
The Speech pane under System Preferences controls speech recognition and text-to-speech conversion.
Speech Recognition
The Speech Recognition portion of the Speech pane has On/Off, shown in Figure 11.55, and Listening tabs, shown in Figure 11.56, for the Apple Speakable Items recognition system. The Apple Speakable Items recognition system is the system that allows you to interact with the computer by speaking certain commands to it.
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Figure 11.55 The On/Off tab of the Speech Recognition tab of the Speech pane.
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Figure 11.56 The Listening tab of the Speech Recognition tab of the Speech pane.
In the On/Off section, you can
- Turn speech recognition on or off.
- View some helpful hints on getting started with speech recognition.
- View the Speakable Items folder.
- Choose to open Speakable Items at log in.
- Select a sound that the computer plays when it understands your spoken command. If you added a new sound to the system, the sound appears here as one of your choices.
- Select whether the Speak text feedback check box is enabled. It is selected by default. So far, we have not observed any difference whether or not this box is checked.
In the Listening section, you can
- Set which key is used as the listening key. The default is the Escape key.
- Set the listening method. The default is to have the machine listen when the listening key is pressed. The listening key can be set to toggle listening on and off. You can then preface a command, if you so choose, with whatever name you list here. I had so hoped to be able to preface my spoken commands with "Hello Computer," but I never got this option to work. The Speakable Items system always failed when I tried the option. Consequently, we recommend that you choose the default method.
- See information on microphone selection. The information on selecting a microphone indicates that when more than one microphone is detected, the system automatically chooses one in this order: external USB microphone, external analog microphone, built-in microphone.
Text-to-Speech
In the Text-to-Speech tab of the Speech pane, shown in Figure 11.57, you set the voice that is used by applications that speak. You can select the voice and rate of speech.
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Figure 11.57 The Text-to-Speech tab of the Speech pane.
Speech Feedback
When you turn on speech recognition, the computer tells you that "Speakable Items is starting," and the Speech Feedback window appears, as shown in Figure 11.58. The Speech Feedback window, a small round window, shows microphone level.
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Figure 11.58 The Speech Feedback window, as it is shown when speech recognition is first turned on.
When you are speaking, the microphone image changes and the horizontal lines, which start as just gray lines, display the microphone level, as shown in Figure 11.59. The bottom line is a blue color. The next two lines are green, and the top line is red. The Helpful Hints recommends that you try to speak in the green levels. The arrow at the bottom of the window has links to the Speech panel and the Speech Commands window. You can open the Speech Commands window by either saying "Open Speech Commands window," or clicking on the arrow. The Speech Commands window shows the commands that you may speak to the computer.
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Figure 11.59 The Speech Commands window, as it appears when you are speaking to the computer.
Unfortunately, it might take you a while to get the Speech Recognition system working. When it does work for you, it will be quite exciting. Figure 11.60 shows what to expect when Speech Recognition finally works for you. The Speech Commands window shows not only which commands you may speak to the computer, but also which commands you have spoken thus far. Apple suggests that you might use the Chess application to familiarize yourself with the Speech Recognition system.
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Figure 11.60 Here Speakable Items was used to open and control Internet Explorer. Note that the Speech Commands window shows which commands have been spoken thus far.
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