Quick Start with Mac

This topic contains information for the beginner who are new to MAC and want quick started on mac.

How to power on the machine ?

Press the black button located at the Bottom left behind the monitor screen.

How to shut down or Log off the machine?

Click on the Apple icon: displayed on the top left corner of the screen, which will open the menu with all these options.

How to take screen shots on Mac?

Press the Command+Shift+3 button that will save the screenshot on the desktop or press the Command+Shift+4 that will allow you to select the region of the screen and then after selecting region save the screenshot to the desktop.

How to find the toolbar options like File, Edit, View etc. For any application.

Mac has the common toolbar for all applications, which dynamically gets changed, and it is located at top of the screen.If you want to access the toolbar of the particular application when there are multiple windows opened then just bring the window front for which you want the toolbar and then Mac toolbar will automatically changed according to that application.

How to Forcefully Quit any program that is hanged as we kill the process from Task manager in windows ?

Press the Command+option+Esc button that will launch window to quit any application that is not responding.
OR launch Activity Monitor same as Task manager for window from Macintosh HD> Applications >Utilities>Activity Monitor

Where to find utility programs like terminal windows (command prompt in windows) etc?

Open the Macintosh HD present on desktop then go to Applications>Utilities>Terminal
You can find other installed applications from: Macintosh HD > Applications folder

How to enable root access and why it is required?
The user named "root" is a special user in UNIX-style operating systems that has read and write privileges to all areas of the file system. The root user should only be used for specific administration or monitoring tasks. After completing a task as the root user, you should log out of Mac OS X and log back in using a normal or administrator account. You should disable root access if you do not use it often.

The root user does not appear in Users or Accounts preferences.

Mac OS X v10.5

From the Finder's Go menu, choose Utilities.
Open Directory Utility.
Click the lock in the Directory Utility window.
Enter an administrator account name and password, then click OK.
Choose Enable Root User from the Edit menu.
Enter the root password you wish to use in both the Password and Verify fields, and then click OK.

How to log in as root
Use these steps for Mac OS X v10.2 or later

If you are logged in, choose Log Out from the Apple menu.
If you are logging in from a list of usernames with pictures, click Other.
In the Name field, type: root
In the Password field, type the password you defined in the steps above.

For More Information go to: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1528

Terminal Window

Go to the http://macapper.com/2007/03/08/the-terminal-an-introduction/ for some useful terminal commands

All you need to know about the using Mac application, installation, hardware etc.

Go to Macintosh HD>User Guide and Information>Apple Hardware Test Read Me.pdf to know about the hardware
Go to Macintosh HD >User Guide and Information >IMac Users Guide.pdf