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
  • Chapter 5. Running Classic Mac OS Applications
  • Part II: Inside Mac OS X
  • Chapter 6. Native Utilities and Applications
    • Desk Accessories
    • Disk Utilities
    • Graphic Utilities
    • Other Applications
    • Help Center
    • Summary
  • 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

Help Center

As you've probably noticed by now, many applications include built-in documentation under a Help menu. The Mac OS X Help Viewer provides a simple browser-like interface that any application can use. For example, the basic Finder Help is shown in Figure 6.52.

Figure 6.52 The Help system works exactly like a Web browser.

To locate specific information, type a few keywords, such as displaying PDFs into the field at the top of the window, and then click Ask. A few seconds later, the Help Center application will display all matching documents that it found, along with a relevance rating and the guide that it was in.

Click the blue hyperlinks in the Help Window to open the corresponding documents. The forward and back arrows at the bottom of the window move you forward and backward through the pages you've viewed.

Click the ? button in the lower-left corner of the window to view all the Help guides that are currently installed. This will display an index of installed guides.

Unfortunately, the Mac OS X Help system is extremely sparse. This can only improve with time, but currently the Help system is implemented in only certain applications and often doesn't include detailed usage instructions. That's why you need this book!

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