Speech
If you didn’t know this already, let me tell you – your Mac can speak. It can read off text and it can also respond to spoke commands. In the Speech section of System Preferences is where you can control the speech settings of your Mac. Here you can turn on and off Speech Recognition, as well as calibrate the microphone and modify a few other settings. Further, your Mac can read to you. It can read the text of alerts when they are displaced, it can announce when an application requires attention and it can also read selected text. Again, the Speech section of System Preferences is where you can modify the settings that control the speaking ability of your Mac.

Startup Disk
Most user probably will not need to modify any settings in this area of System Preferences. Basically, here you can tell your Mac to use a different Startup disk than your hard drive. You can tell it to use a network drive to load the operating system when starting up or a partition on the internal hard drive. My suggestion is, don’t mess with these settings unless you know what you’re doing.

Universal Access
The Mac is handicap accessible. Universal Access is a group of settings that can modify the way the system works and looks to assist people with various handicaps. There are settings to make the Mac more user friendly for visually impaired or hearing impaired people.

This wraps up the System Preferences series of lessons. System Preferences has another category called “Other.” Settings in this category will vary from user to user. These depend on software utilities that you install on your Mac. As you install utilities that are integrated into the Mac OS X, their preference panes will appear in the Other category of System Preferences.

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Accounts
This is where you control the user accounts on your Mac. If you’re the only user of your Mac you will only have one account in this area of System Preferences. This is where you can set up additional user accounts if you desire to do so. It may be useful to have multiple user accounts if your Mac is used be several people. Multiple user accounts help to keep settings and data organized for each user. In the Accounts are you can set and change user passwords, change the user picture, modify login items and set parental controls. Login Items are programs or services that you want loaded upon login. So, if you’d like to have a particular program load when you login to your user account this is where you would set that up.

Date & Time
Here you can set the date and time of your computer. You can keep the time current manually or you can select an option to automatically set time and date according to a server at Apple. Further, you can set the Time Zone that you live or work in. This will adjust the time accordingly and allow the Apple server to synchronize your computer to the proper time if you’re using that feature. Finally, this is where you can modify Clock settings. You can change if the clock appears in the task bar and how. You can view the clock as digital or analog, 12 or 24 hour format, display the time in seconds and other options.

Software Update
Every Mac comes equipped with a software update utility. This utility periodically checks for new software updates. In Systems Preferences under Software Update you can change the frequency at which the Mac checks for new updates. Here you can also tell the system how you would like it to behave if there are new updates. Software Update can notify you when new updates are available for download or it can download them in the background and let you know when its ready to install. Finally, you can also see a list of all updates installed to date. In case you’re uncertain if you installed a certain update, this is where you can find out.

In the next installment of Mac 101 we will cover Speech, Startup Disk and Universal Access settings. If you’d like to receive these posts and other content from Gustacci.com in your Inbox, please sign up for email delivery.

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Mac 101 – System Preferences: System – Part 2

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.Mac
.Mac is a service that Apple provides. This service includes a number of features. It allows the user to host a web site, sync a variety of data, back up data and share photos. The service comes at a fee of $99 per year. If you have purchased this service this is where you would sign in and set up synchronization, back up and sharing. If you’ve never used the service before, Apple offers a 60-day trial. Which can be accessed from this Systems Preferences panel.

Network
This section contains settings that relate to the network. That’s pretty obvious. Here you can see the status of the network, change settings for Bluetooth, Ethernet, and Firewire connections. Network setup may seem complicated. On a Mac however, this process is usually pretty straight forward and painless.

QuickTime
QuickTime is a video player application that comes pre-installed on your Mac. Here you can adjust some settings for this program. First off, this is where you would register the Pro version of QuickTime if you purchased it. Further here you can modify QuickTime’s behavior in a web browser. This includes settings such as playing movies automatically and caching movies when possible. In addition, you can modify streaming settings, such as streaming speed and play back delay.

Sharing
This is where you have access to modify the sharing settings. Here you will find settings for sharing services, firewall and Internet. This is where you can give your Mac a name that will be displayed on other computers when it is shared. You can turn on and off the firewall and allow or disallow certain access. Furthermore, you can turn on Internet sharing and specify the type of connection to use, such as ethernet, firewire or airport. This is also the area where you can turn on services such as remote login, Windows sharing or Printer sharing.

This concludes the Internet & Network section in the System Preferences. We’ll continue the journey through System Preferences in the next installment of Mac 101. Please return soon. You can also receive these and other posts in your inbox by signing up for email delivery.

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Mac 101 – System Preferences: System – Part 1

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Keyboard & Mouse
This group of preferences has lots of great settings. If you have a laptop, this will also include trackpad settings. Here you can adjust the key repeat rate, illumination of the keyboard if you have a MacBook Pro, trackpad speed, double-click speed, scrolling speed and other miscellaneous options. For the mouse you can set various behaviors for the buttons as well as adjust scrolling and clicking speeds. If you have a wireless mouse or keyboard, this is were you will pair them and set some related bluetooth options. Finally, this is a great resource of keyboard shortcuts. This is a great place to come to learn what they are and to modify them. So, if you’d like to keep your hands on the keyboard a little more than come here to find ways to do that. I’ve also written a separate post on keyboard shortcuts that lists some of the commonly used.

Wow! That was a lot.

Print & Fax
For the most part you will not use this group of options very much. In most cases, Mac OS X will recognize your printer and set it up automatically. However, here is where you can set the default printer or the printer that will be selected in the Print Dialog, as well as the default paper size. If you use a fax, this is where you have some options for that. You can enable receiving faxes on your computer in this area of system preferences. And finally, there’s an option to share your printer with other computers.

Sound
I don’t know about you, but I like sound on my computer. It helps me know if there’s a problem or I’m doing something wrong. In this panel you can select the alert sound for the system, set alert volume, set general output volume and also input volume and sensitivity.

This completes the Hardware category of System Preferences. In future posts we’ll discuss the remaining categories, Internet & Network, System and Other.

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Mac 101 – System Preferences: Internet & Network

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Bluetooth
In this section you can control the Bluetooth functionality of your Mac. This is where you can turn Bluetooth on or off. If you’re using a wireless keyboard or mouse, this is also where you would manage the connectivity of such devices. And finally, here you can also control the sharing settings for bluetooth, including security and folders which connected devices can browse, such as your bluetooth-enabled mobile phone.

CDs & DVDs
In this section you control the behavior of CDs and DVDs that are inserted into your optical drive. You can specify what action should be taken when a blank CD or DVD is inserted or a music CD, picture CD or a video DVD.

Displays
In the Displays section of the Hardware preferences you can adjusted the resolution of your display, the number of colors displayed, the brightness and also select a color profile. If you’re an artist and you need your displayed color calibrated, this is where you would come to do that.

Energy Saver
This is where you can adjust your Mac’s power usage. You’re really not adjusting the wattage that your Mac will use to power itself, but you can adjust how long to keep the display on or when to put the computer to sleep if its idle. If you own a Mac laptop, you will want to be familiar with these settings as they will allow you to adjust power usage to extend battery life. This is where you can set up a schedule for your Mac to power up or shut down at specific times of the day.

If you’d like to receive these and other posts from this blog, sign up for email delivery. Return soon for the next installment in the Mac 101 series. The other parts of this series can be found under the Mac 101 category.

Next Lesson:
Mac 101 – System Preferences: Hardware – Part 2

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International
Here you will find setting for language, format and input menu. This is where you tell your Mac which region of the world you live in, how to format the date, time and which currency symbol to use. In addition, you have options here for which languages you want available in the Input Menu on the Task Bar. The languages you select here under the Input Menu will be available to use in documents. For example, if you need to be able to type in Spanish, you can check of the box by Spanish. You will notice that you have a flag on your Task Bar, when you click on the flag it displays the language you have made available for use in applications. Select the language you want to type in and off you go.

Security
This is the biggie. Mac OS X lets you encrypt your entire home folder. This is great for security. However, it can be very dangerous. If you forget the master password, the encrypted data will be lost. And since a good portions of all the things you save are stored in the home folder, the lost can be substantial. So, use this feature with caution. There are several other options in this area such as requiring password to wake up from sleep or screen saver, log out after a period of inactivity and so on. This is also where you can disable the infrared remote control receiver.

Spotlight
Spotlight is a search tool built into Mac OS X. It searches your entire hard drive. In this area of System Preferences you can select the order in which results appear. For example, results matching an application will appear first and then system preference, followed by documents folder and so on. Here you can modify the keyboard shortcut that activates Spotlight and set privacy for certain areas on the hard drive.

This covers the first category of settings, Personal, in System Preferences. In the next installment of Mac 101 we’ll move on to Hardware. If you’d like to receive these in your Inbox, sign up for email deliver.

Let me know in the comments what you think about these Mac 101 posts. Do you find them helpful? Informative? Or useless? I’d like to hear your opinion.

Next Lesson:
Mac 101 – System Preferences: Hardware – Part 1

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Appearance
As the name of this group indicates, here you can change the way windows, menus and scroll bars appear. First off you can change the overall look of buttons, menus and windows. Your choices are Blue or Graphite (a grayish looking color). Next you can select the highlighting color for selected text. Here you have several more options of colors, ranging from graphite to purple.

Beside changing the color of menus and buttons, you can also change some settings on the appearance of scroll bars. You can select the placement of scroll arrows and the action when clicking in the scroll bar. Here is where you can also activate smooth scrolling. I have this option deactivated because scrolling is smooth enough by default. Plus, when smooth scrolling is activated it requires your computer to work a little harder when you scroll. Further you can select the number of recent items to show on various recent item lists. And finally, you can select the font smoothing style. Mine is set to automatic, which works best for the main display. You may want to modify this setting if you’re using an additional display with your laptop or desktop.

Dashboard & Exposé
In Dashboard & Exposé you have two main settings. First, this is where you can set different functions of screen corners. For example you can set your bottom right corner to activate the screen saver. So, when you place your mouse in that corner the screen saver will immediately activate. Second, here you can modify the shortcut keys for activating Dashboard, clearing the open windows to view the desktop, as well as viewing all windows and application windows.

Desktop & Screen Saver
This one is pretty self-explanitory. This is where you modify the background on your desktop and set a screen saver. Your Mac comes with a set of images preloaded by Apple. You can also use images from your iPhoto library as background for the desktop. Beside these options, you can select a folder on your hard drive to use as a source of images. You can also have the background change automatically at a predetermined interval.

Your Mac comes with a set of screen savers. You can select them in this section of System Preferences. You can also use your iPhoto library as a screen saver. Pictures from iPhoto will be displayed as a full-screen slide show if you choose to use this option. Here you can set how long the computer needs to be idle before the screen saver comes on.

Dock
There are several options for the Dock. You can modify the size of the dock and the amount of magnification when you place your mouse over it. You can deactivate magnification completely, if you find it bothersome. In addition, you can select where the dock should sit. It can be placed along the bottom, where it usually is by default, it can also be placed along the right or left edge of the screen. If you prefer to have the dock out of your way, you can set the dock to automatically hide.

I will address the last 3 groups of settings under the Personal category in the next post as we continue to explore the Mac OS X Systems Preferences. Please return soon for the next edition of Mac 101. You can also sign up for email delivery to receive new content from this blog in your Inbox.

Next Lesson:
Mac 101 – System Preferences: Personal Settings – Part 2

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