Mac OS X Unleashed

By John Ray and William C. Ray

• 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
    • Using the Finder
    • Finder Status Bar
    • Finder Toolbar
    • Finder File Operations
    • Getting File Information
    • The Desktop and Finder Preferences
    • Burning CDs
    • Using the Dock
    • Customizing the Dock
    • Process Manager: Force Quitting Applications
    • Summary
  • 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

The Desktop and Finder Preferences

The desktop is, for all intents and purposes, a global Finder window that sits behind all the other windows on the system. You can copy files to the desktop, create aliases on the desktop, and so on. The primary difference is that the desktop is only available in the Icon view mode.

Like other Finder windows, the Desktop layout is controlled by the View Options located in the View menu. Use the Icon Size slider and arrangement settings exactly as you would adjust any other window within Icon View mode.

Desktop: System Preference Panel

A more visually exciting change that you can perform on your Finder Desktop is changing the background image. To do this, you must access the Desktop panel within the System Preferences application (Path: /Applications/System Preferences).

To open the System Preferences, you have a number of options:

1. Click the System Preferences icon in the Dock. (By default, this is the sixth item from the left side of the Dock and features a gray Apple in the icon.)
2. Choose System Preferences from the Apple menu.
3. Launch System Preferences manually. It is located in the system's Applications folder (Path: /Applications/System Preferences).

After System Preferences is running, click the Desktop icon, located within the Personal category of the Preferences window. The Desktop preference panel is displayed in Figure 4.27.

Figure 4.27 Set your background image using the Desktop System Preference Panel.

To change the current background, drag an image file from the Finder into the image-well within the panel. Alternatively, you can browse Collections of images by choosing from the Collection pop-up menu then using the horizontal scrollbar to move through the available files. A collection is nothing more than a folder of images. There are five preset collections: Apple backgrounds, Nature, Abstract, Solid Colors, and Pictures. The Pictures option selects your personal ~/Pictures folder. To browse an arbitrary folder, pick the Choose Folder item, and then select the folder you want to use.

Finder Preferences

The Finder Preferences can be used to adjust a few more settings that control how you will interact with your desktop and icons. Open these settings by choosing Preferences from the Finder's application menu. The available options are shown in Figure 4.28.

Figure 4.28 Finder Preferences control file extensions, Trash warnings, and more.

Use the Finder Preferences to configure these elements:

1. Show these items on the Desktop— Choose whether or not different storage devices will be mounted automatically on the desktop. Use the check boxes beside Hard disks, Removable media, and Connected servers to display the associated devices on the desktop. If an item is not mounted on the desktop, it will be accessible by moving to the Computer level of the file system hierarchy.

2. New Finder Window shows— Determine what location a new Finder window will open in. Choose Computer to open a window displaying all mounted storage devices or Home to start in your home directory.

3. Always open folders in a new window— Clicking this option will force a new window to open each time a folder is double-clicked. This is the only way to make the toolbar-mode Finder windows behave like the traditional Finder.

4. Keep a window's view the same…— This, as explained earlier in the chapter, will prevent the Finder from switching to different views as you move from folder to folder in the file system. For example, if you're using List view and double-click a folder, the Finder will switch to the standard Icon view by default. This behavior can be awkward and confusing, but is easily overridden with this setting.

5. Show warning before emptying the Trash— When emptying the trash can, Mac OS X will display a warning message. To bypass this dialog, deselect this check box. Alternatively, hold down Option when choosing Empty Trash to temporarily bypass the warning.

6. Always show file extensions— Turn this setting on to force all file extensions to be shown in the Finder and other windows. Most Mac users won't want to do this.

Close the Finder Preferences window when you're satisfied with your settings.

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