How to use the Apple Mac Finder tool

Menus
Microsoft Windows puts a menu bar on every window but Macs just have a single menu bar at the top of the Desktop. Its menu options change according to the application you’re currently using.

With a Finder window selected, the menu bar displays some useful Finder functions (the File menu lets you create new folders, for example). With a Safari window selected, the menu bar displays options relating to web browsing.

Launching applications
When an application is launched from the Dock, a blue dot appears below its icon to show that it’s running.

Minimised windows appear as icons on the far right of the Dock, next to the Trash icon – just click the window icon to restore it. Or you can open Exposé key (the F3 key on a Mac keyboard) to show all open windows in overview form and just click one with the mouse.

To launch an application that isn’t pinned to the Dock, you need to find it in the Applications folder. Click the Dock’s Finder icon to open a Finder window, then browse to Devices followed by OSX (the name of the Mac hard disk) and then to Applications.

Double-click the icon for the application you want to launch and its icon will also appear on the right side of the Dock (complete with blue dot to show that it’s running) and stay there until it is closed.

You can remove pinned icons from the Dock by dragging them onto the Desktop – they’ll disappear in a puff of smoke. If you want to pin new icons for your favourite applications to the Dock, just drag the icon onto it from the Applications folder to create the necessary shortcut.

Three reminders
There’s more to the Finder than we’ve looked at here but these basics should cover enough to get a Mac beginner off the ground. If you remember only three things from this feature though, make it these.

First, remember the Mac menu bar for an application is only active when that application is active. So, if you can’t see the menu you want, just click the Dock icon for that application to open it.

Second, if an application seems to vanish, you’ve probably closed its last window (which leaves the application running, unlike in Windows) and clicked something else to hide its menu. Clicking its Dock icon will bring it back into view.

Finally, unless you pin an application icon to the Dock, it will disappear when you quit it. So, if you can’t find an application icon, look in the Applications folder instead – all applications are kept there.

Five essential Finder facts
1 Customise the way Finder works by clicking the Desktop to select it and then selecting Finder followed by Preferences from the menu bar.

2 Customise the appearance of a selected Finder window by selecting View then Show View Options from the menu bar.

3 Customise the Dock by selecting Apple menu and then hovering the pointer over Dock to see the available options.

4 Right-click an icon on the Dock to see options for working with the appli cation and its windows.

5 Closing a window doesn’t close the whole application – select the application then choose Quit from its menu bar.

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