Mac OS X System Preferences

Mac OS X System Preferences

Here are the basics of Mac OS X. This page will famiarize you with the system in general.

What is inside of System Preferences

This is where you can change sounds, the look of the Dock, how the Mac Classic environment changes, and more.

Classic - Change how your Mac OS 9 applications and operating environmnet works. The Advanced tab is shown below, you can turn off all extensions in Classic mode which is helpful if you have one extension that is misbehaving and not letting Classic run.

ColorSync - Change the color calibration settings.
Date & Time - Change the date and time as well as the Time zone.
Displays - Change how large or small everything is on your screen, as well as how many colors are shown.

Dock - Change how the dock works - Turn on magnification or automatically hide it between uses.

Energy Saver - Specify when you Mac goes to sleep, or a certain part of it does.
General - Change the appearance with color or graphite.
International - Change the language of your Macintosh.
Internet - Setup iTools and specify the default e-mail, web browser and newsgroup reader.

Keyboard - Change key repeat rate.
Login - Change how your Macintosh logs you in and to set applications that automatically launch.

Mouse - Change tracking speed and clicking speed.
Network - Change your Airport (wireless), Ethernet or modem settings. One of the most important System Preferences.

QuickTime - Change how QuickTime acts.

Screen Saver - Change your screen saver, gives you a visually appealling display.

Sharing - Setup your file and web sharing (locally or over the Internet).

Software Update - Get updates from Apple's servers over the Internet.

Sound - Change your sound settings.

Speech - Turn on/off speech recognition (control your Mac with your voice) or turn on/off the Mac's voice.

Startup Disk - Select which startup disk you want to boot your Mac with.

Users - This is where you change each individual person (user) settings.

Return to the Mac OS X Basics


	What is inside of System Preferences

	This is where you can change sounds, the look of the Dock, how the Mac Classic environment changes, and more.

	Classic - Change how your Mac OS 9 applications and operating environmnet works. The Advanced tab is shown below, you can turn off all extensions in Classic mode which is helpful if you have one extension that is misbehaving and not letting Classic run.

	ColorSync - Change the color calibration settings. Date & Time - Change the date and time as well as the Time zone. Displays - Change how large or small everything is on your screen, as well as how many colors are shown.

	Dock - Change how the dock works - Turn on magnification or automatically hide it between uses.

	Energy Saver - Specify when you Mac goes to sleep, or a certain part of it does. General - Change the appearance with color or graphite. International - Change the language of your Macintosh. Internet - Setup iTools and specify the default e-mail, web browser and newsgroup reader.

	Keyboard - Change key repeat rate. Login - Change how your Macintosh logs you in and to set applications that automatically launch.

	Mouse - Change tracking speed and clicking speed. Network - Change your Airport (wireless), Ethernet or modem settings. One of the most important System Preferences.