Scrolling appears to be the wrong way round.
Which version of macOS / OS X / Mac OS X did you upgrade from? Click on the relevant link below and read everything from that point onwards.Īfter Upgrading From Mac OS X 10.6 Q.
Note: Control-click or right-click a Dock item to see a contextual menu of additional choices, including open windows.MacOS 11 Big Sur Post Install Frequently Asked Questions FAQ Article ID = 247Īrticle Title = macOS 11 Big Sur Post Install Frequently Asked Questions FAQįrequently asked questions after installing macOS 11 Big Sur macOS 11 Big Sur Post Install Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) When you quit an application whose icon doesn't reside in the Dock (for example, you just finished playing Chess), its icon disappears from the Dock. When you quit an application whose icon resides in the Dock (such as Safari or Mail), the illuminated activation light disappears, but the icon remains. Portion of the Dock that divides current open apps from stacks or minimized items If you want to rearrange where the icons appear within their line limits, just drag a docked icon to another location on the Dock and drop it. If you look closely, you'll see a vertical separator line that separates them, as shown below. It's really "left" and "right" of a separator line that appears near the far right of your Dock. I say "left" and "right," but that's a liberal usage.
The Dock keeps applications on its left side, while Stacks and minimized windows are kept on its right. If you minimize a window, the window gets pulled down into the Dock and waits until you click its icon to bring up the window again. That means if you've got a lot of applications open, your Dock will grow substantially. In this example, the Finder is the active applicationĪs you open applications (or open files to launch applications), their respective icons appear in the Dock, even if they weren't there originally. To make any currently running application the active one, click its icon in the Dock to switch to it (the active application's name appears in the menu bar to the right of the Apple logo, as shown below). When an application is running, the Dock displays an illuminated indicator light beneath the application's icon. For example, if you want to listen to some music, click the iTunes icon (the icon with music notes) to open iTunes. To select an item in the Dock, simply click its icon. It primarily serves as an application launcher, but also has great tools for choosing specific open windows. The Dock is one of the Mac’s great organizational tools. *Even with a secure deletion, it is theoretically possible to recover some or all of a file that has been deleted. If you are particularly concerned about security, then you can make items deleted from the trash mostly* un-recoverable by choosing "Finder > Secure Empty Trash" from the menu bar. You much drag that item back onto a Finder window or your desktop before you can open it. When it opens, find the item you want to salvage.
Should you wish to retrieve something from the Trash prior to emptying it, just click once on the trashcan icon. Empty it by right-clicking on the trash can icon in The Dock and selecting “Empty Trash.” You can also go to the Finder menu and choose "Empty Trash." Items remain in the Trash can until you purposefully empty it.
Icons for a full and an empty Trash (Mavericks OS) An empty trashcan means just that, your OS X Trash is empty. If you have files, folders, or applications in your Trash, the icon will be full of paper, as shown below. The Trash in OS X is located on the Dock, which comes by default on the bottom of your screen. For the third, you must be in the Finder: select the item you wish to throw away and use the keyboard shortcut Command-shift-backspace. The second is to right-click on the item and select “Move to Trash” from the contextual menu. There are three ways to discard items to the Trash, which is represented as an old fashioned trashcan. So in that spirit, I am covering two basics in this column.
Just consider that a first time Mac user may consider knowing how to effectively use the Dock can be exciting new stuff. Experienced users simply go forward and learn exciting new stuff. A lot of that is due to the fact that each version of our computers and/or operating systems get more complicated and sophisticated with each update.
I got my first Mac about 16 years ago and even though I always try to focus on what first time Mac users need to know, I still forget to periodically review some of the basics.