Getting Started with OS X Mountain Lion
After installing Mountain Lion, you should spend some time getting comfortable with the interface. If you've never used OS X before, you'll need to learn the basics about getting around the desktop. In this lesson, you'll learn about the Dock , the menu bar , opening files andapps , Launchpad , and multi-touch gestures . If you're familiar with earlier versions of OS X, you'll probably find that the Mountain Lion's interface will be fairly easy to learn.
Watch the video to learn the basics of using Mountain Lion.
The Desktop
The screen that you see when your computer has finished starting up is called the desktop . The OS X Mountain Lion desktop includes a desktop background (or wallpaper ), the Dock , and the menu bar . You can open files or applications from the Dock or Launchpad . You can also display files , folders , or shortcuts on the desktop background area.
Review the interactive to learn about the Mountain Lion desktop.
When you use any operating system, you'll need to know how to open files , folders , and apps . In Mountain Lion, you can open something by clicking it in the Dock or Launchpad , or by double-clicking it if it's on the desktop or inside a folder.
If you're new to Mountain Lion, you may want to practice by doing the following steps:
Open Finder by clicking the Finder icon on the left side of the Dock .
Opening Finder
Close Finder by clicking the button in the top-left corner of the Finder window. Later on, we'll talk more about how to use Finder.
Closing Finder
Open Launchpad by clicking the Launchpad icon on the Dock.
Opening Launchpad
While Launchpad is open, click on any app to open it.
Clicking an app
Quit the app you just opened by clicking the app name in the top-left corner of the screen and selecting Quit .
Quitting an app
If you have any icons on your desktop, double-click one of them to open it, and then close or quit it.
Double-clicking a file to open it
When an app is open, the icon on the Dock will have a light under it. You may notice that the Finder icon always has a light under it - that's because it's always running , even if there are no Finder windows open.
Lights indicating which apps are open
Full-Screen Apps
Some apps in Mountain Lion have a full-screen mode that lets you just focus on one app, with no distractions. These apps have a double-arrow icon in the top-right corner. When you click the icon, the app will zoom to fill the entire screen, and everything else will be hidden. You can then use the keyboard shortcut Control-Command-F to return to the normal view. Not all apps currently support this feature. However, it is used by many of the pre-installed apps such as Calendar , Safari , and iPhoto .
The double-arrow icon
The Menu Bar
The menu bar is located at the top of the screen. It is always visible except when you're running a full-screen app. The options on the menu bar will vary depending on which app you're currently using. The name of the app will appear in bold near the left side of the menu bar, and the options to the right of the name allow you to perform various tasks within the app.
The menu bar, while using FaceTime
The Apple Icon
On the left side of the menu bar is the Apple icon , which you can use to access your System Preferences , recent documents , and more . You'll also use the Apple icon to shut down or restart your computer.
The Apple icon
Spotlight
On the right side of the menu bar is a magnifying glass icon . When you click it, it will open Spotlight , which is a tool you can use to search your computer . If you're having trouble finding a file , app , or folder , you can just type the name in Spotlight, and it will show you a list of results.
Using Spotlight to search for an app
Notification Center
The Notification Center icon is located on the far right of the menu bar. When you click it, the Notification Center will appear on your desktop. It keeps track of all of the alerts you receive for upcoming calendar appointments, tweets, news feeds, and other application events. The Notification Center can be customized to show as many or as few app alerts as you desire.
Notification Center
Multi-Touch Gestures
Mountain Lion allows you to use many different multi-touch gestures with your mouse or trackpad. These includepinches , taps , double-taps , and swipes . Each gesture performs a specific task, and by learning different gestures you can increase your productivity.
In order to use multi-touch gestures, you will need the right equipment. If you have a laptop, the built-in trackpad can be used. For desktop computers, you can either use the Magic Trackpad or the Magic Mouse . One of these may have been included with your computer; if not, they can be purchased separately. Most mice are not touch-sensitive and cannot be used for multi-touch gestures.
A laptop trackpad
The Magic Trackpad
The Magic Mouse
To see gestures in action, watch the following video from Apple.
Examples of Gestures
Some gestures will vary depending on whether you're using a trackpad or a Magic Mouse, and there are a few that only work with trackpads. Some apps may not support all gestures, but apps made by Apple (such as Safari ) tend to use them more. Therefore, you may want to practice the following gestures with Safari before you try them with other apps.
There are many more gestures that you can use. To learn more, check out the About Multi-Touch Gestures page on the Apple website.
Natural Scrolling
By default, Mountain Lion uses natural scrolling , which means that things move in the opposite direction from "traditional" scrolling. To understand this, let's compare traditional and natural scrolling.
Traditional scrolling: When you're viewing a web page, you can scroll down by using a downward swipe on your trackpad (using two fingers), Magic Mouse, or the scroll wheel on a more traditional mouse. Your web browser's scroll bar moves down, but the content on the page moves up . This is the way that most computers handle scrolling.
Traditional scrolling
Natural scrolling: With natural scrolling, you will use an upward swipe, and the content on the page moves up, almost like you are pushing the content up . This is the way that scrolling usually works on touchscreen devices like the iPad and iPhone , and it's the default option in Mountain Lion.
Natural scrolling
To Change the Scrolling Type:
If you've never used Lion before, natural scrolling may seem awkward at first. However, since it mimics the way that mobile devices work, it may not take long to get used to it. You can switch between natural and traditional scrolling in your mouse settings , to see which one you prefer.
Click the Apple icon and select System Preferences .
Opening System Preferences
Select the Mouse icon to go to your mouse settings.
Going to Mouse settings
Next to Scroll direction , uncheck the check box to use traditional scrolling, or check it to use natural scrolling.
Changing the scroll direction
Watch the video (4:25). Need help?