iMac For Dummies

Introduction 1
Foolish Assumptions 1
About This Book 2
Icons Used in This Book 3
Beyond the Book 4
Where to Go from Here 4
Part I: Know Your iMac 5
Chapter 1: Okay, This Machine Looks Really, Really Weird 7
An Introduction to the Beast 8
Major parts of your major appliance 8
Important Hidden Stuff 12
Choosing a Home for Your New Pet 13
Picking the right location 14
Considering the convenience factor 15
Unpacking and Connecting 15
Unpacking your iMac For Dummies 15
Connecting cables like a true nerd 16
Discovering All the Cool Things You Can Do 18
What software do I get? 18
Looking forward to fun on the Internet 19
Applications that rock 19
Would you like to play a game? 20
Stuff You Oughta Buy Right Now 21
Chapter 2: Life! Give My iMac Life! 23
Throwing the Big Leaf Switch 23
Mark's Favorite Signs of a Healthy iMac 24
Harriet, It's Already Asking Me Questions! 25
Setting up OS X Mavericks 25
Registering your iMac 27
Importing Documents and Data from Your Old Mac 27
Manually Importing Documents and Data from Windows 29
Chapter 3: Introducing the Apple of Your iMac 31
A Quick Tour of the Premises 31
The Mavericks Desktop 32
What's going on underneath? 35
Similarities with that Windows behemoth 36
Calling for Help 38
The Mavericks built-in Help Center 38
The Apple web-based support center 38
Magazines 38
Mac support websites 39
Local Mac user groups 39
Part II: Shaking Hands with Mac OS X 41
Chapter 4: Opening and Closing and Clicking and Such 43
Working within the Finder 43
Pointing in a Mac World 45
Launching and Quitting for the Lazy iMac Owner 48
Juggling Folders and Icons 51
A field observer's guide to icons 51
Selecting items 53
Copying items 55
Moving things from place to place 56
Duplicating in a jiffy 56
Keys and Keyboard Shortcuts to Fame and Fortune 57
Special keys on the keyboard 57
Using Finder and application keyboard shortcuts 58
Performing Tricks with Finder Windows 59
Scrolling in and resizing windows 59
Minimizing and restoring windows 60
Moving and zooming windows 61
Closing windows 62
Using Finder Tabs 63
Chapter 5: A Plethora of Powerful Fun 65
Home, Sweet Home Folder 65
Arranging Your Desktop 68
Putting the Dock to the Test 69
Adding Dock icons 70
Removing Dock icons 71
Using Dock icon menus 71
What's with the Trash? 72
Working Magic with Dashboard, Mission Control, and Spaces 73
Using Dashboard 73
Switching between apps with Mission Control 75
Switching between desktops with Spaces 76
Printing within OS X 77
Chapter 6: A Nerd's Guide to System Preferences 81
A Not-So-Confusing Introduction 81
Searching for Settings 84
Popular Preference Panes Explained 85
The Displays pane 85
The Desktop & Screen Saver pane 86
The Mission Control pane 88
The General pane 90
The Energy Saver pane 91
The Dock pane 92
The Sharing pane 93
The Time Machine pane 94
Chapter 7: Searching amidst iMac Chaos 97
Doing a Basic Search 97
How Cool Is That!? Discovering What Spotlight Can Do 100
Expanding Your Search Horizons 102
Customizing Spotlight to Your Taste 103
Chapter 8: Using Reminders, Notes, and Notifications 107
Remind Me to Use Reminders 107
Taking Notes the Mavericks Way 110
Staying Current with Notification Center 112
Chapter 9: Keeping Track with Contacts and Maps 115
Hey, Isn't Contacts Just a Part of Mail? 116
Entering Contact Information 117
Using Contact Information 119
Arranging Your Contact Cards 121
Using Network Directories 123
Printing Contacts with Flair 124
Swapping Bytes with vCards 125
Introducing the Maps Window 125
Switching Views in Maps 128
Getting Directions over Yonder 129
Part III: Connecting and Communicating 131
Chapter 10: Going Places with Safari 133
Pretend You've Never Used This Thing 133
Visiting Websites 135
Navigating the Web 137
Setting Up Your Home Page 140
Adding and Using Bookmarks 141
Working with the Reading List and Shared Links 142
Saving pages for later with the Reading List 143
Visiting pages recommended by friends 143
Downloading Files 144
Using Subscriptions and History 145
Tabs Are Your Browsing Friends 145
Printing Web Pages 147
Protecting Your Privacy 147
Yes, there are such things as bad cookies 148
Cleaning your cache 149
Banishing pesky iCloud Keychain passwords 149
Handling ancient history 150
Setting notifications 150
Avoiding those @*!^%$ pop-up ads 151
Chapter 11: Expanding Your Horizons with iCloud 153
So How Does iCloud Work, Anyway? 153
Saving and Opening iCloud Documents 155
Configuring iCloud 156
Chapter 12: Hooking Up with Handy Helpers 159
Connecting Printers 159
USB printers 159
Network printers 162
Connecting Scanners 163
Using Photo Booth 164
Conversing with FaceTime 166
Turning Your iMac into a TV -- And More 168
Part IV: Living the iLife 171
Chapter 13: The Multimedia Joy of iTunes 173
What Can I Play on iTunes? 173
Playing an Audio CD 175
Playing Digital Audio and Video 177
Browsing the Library 179
Finding songs in your Music Library 180
Removing old music from the Library 181
Watching video 181
Keeping Slim Whitman and Slim Shady Apart: Organizing with Playlists 182
Know Your Songs 184
Setting the song information automatically 184
Setting or changing song information manually 185
Ripping Audio Files 186
Tweaking the Audio for Your Ears 187
A New Kind of Radio Station 188
Internet radio 189
Tuning in your own stations 190
Radio stations in your playlists 191
Creating a custom iTunes Radio station 191
iTunes and iCloud Together 192
iSending iStuff to iPod, iPhone, and iPad 193
Sharing Media across a Network 194
Burning Music to Shiny Plastic Circles 195
Feasting on iTunes Visuals 196
Exercising Parental Authority 196
Buying Digital Media the Apple Way 198
Chapter 14: The Masterpiece That Is iPhoto 201
Delving into iPhoto 201
Working with Images in iPhoto 204
Import Images 101 204
Organize mode: Organizing and sorting your images 206
Edit mode: Removing and fixing stuff the right way 214
Producing Your Own Coffee-Table Masterpiece 218
Putting Photo Stream to Work 222
E-Mailing Photos to Aunt Mildred 223
Chapter 15: Making Film History with iMovie 225
Shaking Hands with the iMovie Window 226
A Bird's-Eye View of Moviemaking 228
Importing the Building Blocks 229
Pulling in video clips 229
Making use of still images 231
Importing and adding audio from all sorts of places 232
Building the Cinematic Basics 235
Adding clips to your movie 235
Marking clips 236
Removing clips from your movie 236
Reordering clips in your movie 237
Editing clips in iMovie 237
Transitions for the masses 238
Even Gone with the Wind had titles 239
Adding maps and backgrounds 240
Creating an Honest-to-Goodness Movie Trailer 241
Sharing Your Finished Classic with Others 243
Chapter 16: Recording Your Hits with GarageBand 245
Shaking Hands with Your Band 246
Composing Made Easy 248
Adding tracks 249
Choosing loops 251
Resizing, repeating, and moving loops 254
Using the Arrangement track 256
Tweaking the settings for a track 257
Sharing Your Songs 259
Creating song files and ringtones in iTunes 260
Exporting a project 261
Burning an audio CD 261
Part V: Getting Productive with iWork and Other Tools 263
Chapter 17: Desktop Publishing with Pages 265
Creating a New Pages Document 265
Open an Existing Pages Document 266
Saving Your Work 267
Touring the Pages Window 268
Entering and Editing Text 269
Using Text and Graphics Boxes 269
The Three Amigos: Cut, Copy, and Paste 270
Cutting stuff 270
Copying text and images 270
Pasting from the Clipboard 270
Formatting Text the Easy Way 271
Adding a Spiffy Table 271
Adding Alluring Photos 273
Adding a Background Shape 274
Are You Sure about That Spelling? 274
Printing Your Pages Documents 275
Sharing That Poster with Others 276
Chapter 18: Creating Spreadsheets with Numbers 277
Before You Launch Numbers 277
Creating a New Numbers Document 278
Opening an Existing Spreadsheet File 279
Save Those Spreadsheets! 280
Exploring the Numbers Window 281
Navigating and Selecting Cells in a Spreadsheet 282
Entering and Editing Data in a Spreadsheet 283
Selecting the Correct Number Format 283
Aligning Cell Text Just So 284
Formatting with Shading 285
Inserting and Deleting Rows and Columns 286
The Formula Is Your Friend 287
Adding Visual Punch with a Chart 289
Chapter 19: Building Presentations with Keynote 291
Creating a New Keynote Project 292
Opening a Keynote Presentation 293
Saving Your Presentation 293
Putting Keynote to Work 294
Adding Slides 295
Working with Text and Graphics Boxes 296
Adding and Editing Slide Text 297
Formatting Slide Text for the Perfect Look 297
Using Presenter's Notes in Your Project 298
Every Good Presentation Needs Media 298
Adding a Background Shape 299
Creating Your Keynote Slideshow 300
Printing Your Slides and Notes 301
Chapter 20: Creating a Multiuser iMac 303
Once Upon a Time (An Access Fairy Tale) 303
Big-Shot Administrator Stuff 304
Deciding who needs what access 305
Adding users 306
Modifying user accounts 309
I banish thee, Mischievous User! 310
Setting up Login Items and Parental Controls 311
Multiuser Rules for Everyone 317
Logging on and off in Mavericks For Dummies 317
Interesting stuff about sharing stuff 320
Encrypting your hard drive can be fun 320
Chapter 21: Building (Or Joining) a Network 323
What, Exactly, Is the Network Advantage? 324
The Great Debate: Wired versus Wireless 325
Sharing Internet Access 326
Using your iMac as a sharing device 326
Using a dedicated Internet sharing device 327
What Do You Need to Connect? 328
Wireless connections 329
Wired connections 334
Connecting to the Network 337
Sharing stuff nicely with others 337
USE YOUR FIREWALL! 339
Part VI: The Necessary Evils: Troubleshooting, Upgrading, Maintaining 343
Chapter 22: It Just . . . Sits . . . There 345
Can You Troubleshoot? Yes, You Can! 345
Basic Troubleshooting 101 346
The Number One Rule: Reboot! 346
Special keys that can come in handy 348
All hail Disk Utility, the troubleshooter's friend 349
Mark's iMac Troubleshooting Tree 353
Okay, I Kicked It, and It Still Won't Work 357
Apple Help Online 358
Local service, at your service 358
Chapter 23: I Want to Add Stuff 359
More Memory Will Help 360
Figuring out how much memory you have 360
Installing memory modules 362
Can I Upgrade My Hard Drive? 365
Consider your external options 366
Gotta have internal 368
Weighing Attractive Add-Ons 368
Game controllers 368
Hard drive arrays 369
Video controllers 369
Audio hardware 369
Chapter 24: Tackling the Housekeeping 371
Cleaning Unseemly Data Deposits 371
Getting dirty (or, cleaning things the manual way) 372
Using a commercial cleanup tool 374
Backing Up Your Treasure 374
Saving Files 375
Backing up to an external hard drive 375
Backing up to CD and DVD 375
Putting Things Right with Time Machine 376
Maintaining Hard Drive Health 378
Automating Those Mundane Chores 379
Creating an application in Automator 380
Running applications at startup 382
Updating OS X Automatically 382
Part VII: The Part of Tens 385
Chapter 25: Ten Ways to Speed Up Your iMac 387
Nothing Works Like a Shot of Memory 387
Hold a Conversation with Your iMac 388
Vamoose, Unwanted Fragments! 388
Keep Your Desktop Background Simple 389
Column Mode Is for Power Users 389
Make the Dock Do Your Bidding 389
It All Started with Keyboard Shortcuts 390
Hey, You Tweaked Your Finder! 390
Keep in Touch with Your Recent Past 391
Go Where the Going Is Good 391
Chapter 26: Ten Things to Avoid Like the Plague 393
Keep Things Cool 394
Phishing Is No Phun 394
Don't Rely on a Single Password 395
Do You Really Want a Submerged Keyboard? 395
Don't Use Antiquated Utility Software 396
Don't Endorse Software Piracy 396
Call It the Forbidden Account 396
Don't Settle for a Surge Suppressor 397
Refurbished Hardware Is No Deal at All 397
iMacs Appreciate iCleanliness 398
Bonus Chapters Online at www.dummies.com/extras/imac
Bonus Chapter 1: Communicating with That Bluetooth Guy BC1
Bluetooth: What a Silly Name for Such Cool Technology BC1
A little Danish history BC2
Is your Mac Bluetooth-ready? BC2
Mavericks and Bluetooth, together forever BC2
Adding Wireless Keyboards and Mice to Your Mac BC5
The Magic of Wireless Printing BC6
Bonus Chapter 2: Running Windows on Your iMac BC9
Figuring Out How Boot Camp Works BC9
Comparing Boot Camp with Windows Emulators BC10
Configuring Boot Camp BC12
Switching to Windows BC14
Checking for Apple Updates BC15
Index 399