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<p><b>I</b>ntroduction 1</p> <p>About This Book 1</p> <p>Conventions Used in This Book 2</p> <p>Foolish Assumptions 3</p> <p>Beyond the Book 3</p> <p>Icons Used in This Book 3</p> <p>Where to Go from Here 4</p> <p><b>Part I: Introducing OS X El Capitan: The Basics 5</b></p> <p><b>Chapter 1: OS X El Capitan 101 (Prerequisites: None) 7</b></p> <p>Gnawing to the Core of OS X 8</p> <p>A Safety Net for the Absolute Beginner (or Any User) 10</p> <p>Turning the dang thing on 10</p> <p>What you should see on startup 10</p> <p>Shutting down properly 13</p> <p>A few things you should definitely not do with your Mac 15</p> <p>Point-and-click boot camp 16</p> <p>Not Just a Beatles Movie: Help and the Help Menu 18</p> <p><b>Chapter 2: Desktop and Windows and Menus (Oh My!) 23</b></p> <p>Touring the Finder and Its Desktop 24</p> <p>Anatomy of a Window 25</p> <p>Top o’ the window to ya! 28</p> <p>A scroll new world 29</p> <p>(Hyper)active windows 31</p> <p>Dialog Dealie-Boppers 32</p> <p>Working with Windows 34</p> <p>Opening and closing windows 34</p> <p>Resizing windows and window panes 35</p> <p>Moving windows 35</p> <p>Shuffling windows 36</p> <p>Menu Basics 38</p> <p>The ever-changing menu bar 39</p> <p>Contextual menus: They’re sooo contextual! 39</p> <p>Recognizing disabled options 41</p> <p>Navigating submenus 42</p> <p>Under the Apple menu tree 43</p> <p>Using keyboard shortcut commands 44</p> <p><b>Chapter 3: What’s Up, Dock? 47</b></p> <p>A Quick Introduction to Your Dock 48</p> <p>The default icons of the Dock 48</p> <p>Trash talkin’ 51</p> <p>Opening application menus on the Dock 53</p> <p>Reading Dock icon body language 55</p> <p>Opening files from the Dock 56</p> <p>Customizing Your Dock 56</p> <p>Adding Dock icons 56</p> <p>Removing an icon from the Dock 59</p> <p>Resizing the Dock 59</p> <p>What should you put on your Dock? 60</p> <p>Setting your Dock preferences 61</p> <p><b>Chapter 4: Delving Deeper into the Finder and Its Desktop 67</b></p> <p>Introducing the Finder and Its Minions: The Desktop and Icons 67</p> <p>Introducing the Desktop 68</p> <p>Bellying up to the toolbar 70</p> <p>Figuring out what an icon is 73</p> <p>Identifying your Finder icons in the wild 74</p> <p>Aliases Are Awesome! 76</p> <p>Creating aliases 78</p> <p>Deleting aliases 79</p> <p>Hunting down an alias’s parent 79</p> <p>The View(s) from a Window 79</p> <p>Moving through folders fast in Column view 80</p> <p>Perusing in Icon view 82</p> <p>Listless? Try touring folders in List view 83</p> <p>You gotta go with the flow 84</p> <p>What’s on the (View) menu? 85</p> <p>Finder on the Menu 86</p> <p>The actual Finder menu 87</p> <p>Like a road map: The current folder’s pop-up menu 89</p> <p>Going places with the Go menu 90</p> <p>Customizing Finder Windows 92</p> <p>Adding folders to the Sidebar 92</p> <p>Setting Finder preferences 93</p> <p>Digging for Icon Data in the Info Window 97</p> <p><b>Part II: Inside El Capitan (or How Stuff Works) 101</b></p> <p><b>Chapter 5: Have It Your Way 103</b></p> <p>Introducing System Preferences 103</p> <p>Putting a Picture on the Desktop 106</p> <p>Setting Up a Screen Saver 107</p> <p>Putting Widgets on the Dashboard 108</p> <p>Translation 111</p> <p>Flight Tracker 112</p> <p>Giving Buttons, Menus, and Windows a Makeover 113</p> <p>Adjusting the Keyboard, Mouse, Trackpad, and Other Hardware 116</p> <p>Keyboard 116</p> <p>Mouse 121</p> <p>Bluetooth 122</p> <p>Trackpad (notebooks and desktops with a Magic Trackpad) 123</p> <p>Styling Your Sound 124</p> <p>Changing sound effects 124</p> <p>Choosing output and input options 125</p> <p><b>Chapter 6: The Care and Feeding of Files and Folders 127</b></p> <p>A Quick Primer on Finding Files 128</p> <p>Understanding the OS X Folder Structure 128</p> <p>Understanding nested folders 129</p> <p>From the top: The Computer folder 130</p> <p>Peeking into the Applications folder 131</p> <p>Visiting the Library folders 131</p> <p>Let it be: The System folder 132</p> <p>There’s no place like Home 132</p> <p>Your personal Library card 135</p> <p>Saving Your Document Before It’s Too Late 137</p> <p>Stepping through a basic Save 138</p> <p>Save As versus Duplicate: Different names for the same result 144</p> <p>Open, Sez Me 146</p> <p>With drag-and-drop 148</p> <p>With a Quick Look 148</p> <p>When your Mac can’t open a file 149</p> <p>With the application of your choice 150</p> <p>Organizing Your Stuff in Folders 152</p> <p>Files versus folders 152</p> <p>Organizing your stuff with subfolders 153</p> <p>Creating new folders 155</p> <p>Navigating with spring-loaded folders 155</p> <p>Smart folders 156</p> <p>Shuffling Files and Folders 159</p> <p>Moving files and folders 159</p> <p>Selecting multiple icons 160</p> <p>Playing the icon name game: Renaming icons 161</p> <p>Comprehending the Clipboard 163</p> <p>Copying files and folders 163</p> <p>Pasting from the Clipboard 165</p> <p>Compressing files 165</p> <p>Getting rid of icons 166</p> <p>The Incredible New iCloud Drive 166</p> <p><b>Chapter 7: Four Terrific Timesaving Tools 169</b></p> <p>With a Quick Look 169</p> <p>Share and share alike with the Share menu 172</p> <p>Slide into Slideshow (full-screen) mode 172</p> <p>Spotlight on Finding Files and Folders Faster 173</p> <p>Using the Search box in Finder windows 174</p> <p>Using the Spotlight menu and window 176</p> <p>Blast Off with Mission Control 178</p> <p>The Mission Control pane: It’s painless 178</p> <p>Hot corners! 181</p> <p>Spaces from 30,000 feet (an overview) 182</p> <p>Getting around in space(s) 186</p> <p>Launchpad: The Place for Applications 187</p> <p>Customizing Your Launchpad 188</p> <p><b>Part III: Getting Things Done in El Capitan 191</b></p> <p><b>Chapter 8: Organizing Your Life 193</b></p> <p>Keeping Track with Calendar 194</p> <p>Navigating Calendar views 194</p> <p>Creating calendars 195</p> <p>Deleting a calendar 196</p> <p>Creating and managing events 196</p> <p>Reminders: Protection Against Forgetting 200</p> <p>Getting started with Reminders 200</p> <p>To do or not to do: Setting reminders 201</p> <p>Everything You Need to Know about the Notification Center 202</p> <p>Use Notes for Making Notes 206</p> <p><b>Chapter 9: (Inter)Networking 209</b></p> <p>Getting Connected to the Internet 210</p> <p>Your Internet service provider and you 210</p> <p>Setting up your modem 211</p> <p>Plugging in your Internet-connection settings 212</p> <p>Browsing the Web with Safari 213</p> <p>Owning your toolbar 214</p> <p>Using the Safari Sidebar 217</p> <p>Using the terrific Top Sites page 220</p> <p>Searching with Google 221</p> <p>Checking out Help Center 223</p> <p>Audio and Video Calls with FaceTime 223</p> <p><b>Chapter 10: Finding People and Places 227</b></p> <p>Collecting Your Contacts 227</p> <p>Adding contacts 228</p> <p>Importing contacts from other programs 230</p> <p>Creating a basic group 231</p> <p>Setting up a smart group (based on contact criteria) 231</p> <p>Deleting a group or smart group 233</p> <p>The view is lovely 233</p> <p>Sync + Contacts = Your contacts everywhere 233</p> <p>Maps Are Where It’s At 235</p> <p>Finding your current location with Maps 235</p> <p>Finding a person, place, or thing 235</p> <p>Views, zooms, and pans 237</p> <p>Maps and Contacts 239</p> <p>Timesaving map tools: Favorites, Recents, and Contacts 240</p> <p>Smart map tricks 241</p> <p><b>Chapter 11: Communicating with Mail and Messages 247</b></p> <p>Sending and Receiving Email with Mail 247</p> <p>Setting up Mail 248</p> <p>A quick overview of the toolbar 249</p> <p>Composing a new message 251</p> <p>Sending email from the Contacts app 253</p> <p>Working with stationery 254</p> <p>Checking your mail 255</p> <p>Dealing with spam 257</p> <p>Mailboxes smart and plain 257</p> <p>Changing your preferences 260</p> <p>Sign here, please 261</p> <p>Mail rules rule 262</p> <p>Relative Newcomers: Markup and Mail Drop 265</p> <p>Communicating with Messages 267</p> <p>What the heck is an iMessage? 267</p> <p>Chit-chatting with Messages 268</p> <p><b>Chapter 12: Sharing Your Mac and Liking It 271</b></p> <p>Introducing Networks and File Sharing 272</p> <p>Portrait of home office networking 273</p> <p>Three ways to build a network 275</p> <p>Setting Up File Sharing 276</p> <p>Access and Permissions: Who Can Do What 278</p> <p>Users and groups and guests 278</p> <p>Creating users 280</p> <p>OS X knows best: Folders shared by default 286</p> <p>Sharing a folder or disk by setting permissions 288</p> <p>Useful settings for permissions 292</p> <p>Unsharing a folder 294</p> <p>Connecting to a Shared Disk or Folder on a Remote Mac 294</p> <p>Changing Your Password 298</p> <p>Changing your account password on your Mac 298</p> <p>Changing the password of any account but your own on your Mac 299</p> <p>Changing the password for your account on someone else’s Mac 300</p> <p>More Types of Sharing 300</p> <p>Screen Sharing 301</p> <p>Internet Sharing 301</p> <p>And yet more ways to share 302</p> <p><b>Part IV: Getting Creative in El Capitan 305</b></p> <p><b>Chapter 13: The Musical Mac 307</b></p> <p>Apple Music and iTunes Match Rock! 308</p> <p>Introducing iTunes 309</p> <p>Working with Media 312</p> <p>Adding songs 312</p> <p>Adding movies and TV shows 314</p> <p>Adding podcasts 315</p> <p>Learning from iTunes U 316</p> <p>Listening to iTunes Radio 316</p> <p>All About Playlists 317</p> <p>Creating a regular playlist 317</p> <p>Working with smart playlists 320</p> <p>Burning a playlist to CD 321</p> <p>Looking at the Genius playlist 322</p> <p><b>Chapter 14: The Multimedia Mac 325</b></p> <p>Playing Movies and Music in QuickTime Player 325</p> <p>iBooks on the Mac 327</p> <p>Buying iBooks 328</p> <p>Shopping for books without Apple 330</p> <p>Reading iBooks 331</p> <p>You’re the Star with Photo Booth 333</p> <p>Viewing and Converting Images and PDFs in Preview 334</p> <p>Importing Media 336</p> <p>Downloading photos from a camera 336</p> <p>Downloading DV video from a camcorder 339</p> <p><b>Chapter 15: Words and Letters 341</b></p> <p>Processing Words with TextEdit 341</p> <p>Creating and composing a document 342</p> <p>Working with text 343</p> <p>Adding graphics to documents 346</p> <p>Font Mania 347</p> <p>Types of fonts 348</p> <p>Managing your fonts with Font Book 348</p> <p>Installing fonts manually 349</p> <p><b>Chapter 16: Publish or Perish: The Fail-Safe Guide to Printing 351</b></p> <p>Before Diving In 351</p> <p>Ready: Connecting and Adding Your Printer 352</p> <p>Connecting your printer 352</p> <p>Setting up a printer for the first time 353</p> <p>One last thing: Printer sharing 355</p> <p>Set: Setting Up Your Document with Page Setup 356</p> <p>Print: Printing with the Print Sheet 358</p> <p>Printing a document 358</p> <p>Choosing among different printers 359</p> <p>Choosing custom settings 359</p> <p>Saving custom settings 362</p> <p>Preview and PDF Options 362</p> <p><b>Part V: The Care and Feeding of El Capitan 365</b></p> <p><b>Chapter 17: Features for the Way You Work 367</b></p> <p>Talking and Listening to Your Mac 367</p> <p>Dictation & Speech System Preferences pane:</p> <p>You talk and your Mac types 368</p> <p>Commanding your Mac by voice 369</p> <p>Listening to your Mac read for you 371</p> <p>Automatic Automation 374</p> <p>Script Editor app: Write and edit AppleScripts 375</p> <p>Automator app: Automate almost anything 376</p> <p>A Few More Useful Goodies 378</p> <p>App Store app: The place to buy Mac apps 378</p> <p>Accessibility System Preferences pane: Make your Mac more accessible 379</p> <p>Energy Saver System Preferences Pane: For energy conservation and sleep 380</p> <p>Bluetooth System Preferences pane: Where Bluetooth lives 382</p> <p>Ink System Preferences pane: Visible to pen-input tablet users only 382</p> <p>Automatic Login in the Users & Groups System Preferences pane: Don’t bother with the login screen 383</p> <p>Boot Camp Assistant app: Run Windows on your Mac really 383</p> <p>AirPlay mirroring 384</p> <p>Handoff 385</p> <p><b>Chapter 18: Safety First: Backups and Other Security Issues 387</b></p> <p>Backing Up Is (Not) Hard to Do 388</p> <p>Backing up with El Capitan’s excellent Time Machine 388</p> <p>Backing up by using the manual, brute-force method 392</p> <p>Backing up by using commercial backup software 393</p> <p>Why You Need Two Sets of Backups 393</p> <p>Non-Backup Security Concerns 394</p> <p>About viruses and other malware 394</p> <p>Firewall: Yea or nay? 397</p> <p>Install recommended software updates 398</p> <p>Protecting Your Data from Prying Eyes 399</p> <p>Blocking or limiting connections 399</p> <p>Locking down files with FileVault 399</p> <p>Setting other options for security 400</p> <p><b>Chapter 19: Utility Chest 403</b></p> <p>Calculator 403</p> <p>Activity Monitor 404</p> <p>Disk Utility 406</p> <p>First Aid button 406</p> <p>Partition button 406</p> <p>Erase button 407</p> <p>Mount/Unmount button 407</p> <p>Info button 408</p> <p>Grab 408</p> <p>Grapher 408</p> <p>Keychain Access 409</p> <p>Migration Assistant 410</p> <p>System Information 411</p> <p>Terminal 411</p> <p><b>Chapter 20: Troubleshooting OS X 413</b></p> <p>About Startup Disks and Booting 413</p> <p>Finding or creating a startup disk 414</p> <p>They call it a prohibitory sign for a reason 414</p> <p>Recovering with Recovery HD 416</p> <p>Step 1: Run First Aid 417</p> <p>Step 2: Safe Boot into Safe Mode 418</p> <p>Step 3: Zapping the PRAM/NVRAM 419</p> <p>Step 4: Reinstalling OS X 420</p> <p>Step 5: Things to try before taking your Mac in for repair 420</p> <p>If Your Mac Crashes at Startup 422</p> <p><b>Part VI: The Part of Tens 423</b></p> <p><b>Chapter 21: Almost Ten Ways to Speed Up Your Mac Experience 425</b></p> <p>Use Those Keyboard Shortcuts 426</p> <p>Improve Your Typing Skills 427</p> <p>Resolution: It’s Not Just for New Year’s Day Anymore 427</p> <p>A Mac with a View — and Preferences, Too 429</p> <p>Get a New, Faster Model 431</p> <p>You Can Never Have Too Much RAM! 432</p> <p>Get an Accelerated Graphics Card 432</p> <p>Get a Solid-State Drive (SSD) 433</p> <p>Get a New Hard Drive 433</p> <p><b>Chapter 22: Ten Great Websites for Mac Freaks 435</b></p> <p>The Mac Observer 436</p> <p>Macworld 436</p> <p>AppleWorld.Today 436</p> <p>TidBITS 437</p> <p>Download.com 437</p> <p>Alltop 438</p> <p>Apple Support 439</p> <p>Other World Computing 440</p> <p>EveryMac.com 440</p> <p>dealmac 440</p> <p>Index 443</p>

<p><b>Bob LeVitus, </b>aka "Dr. Mac," has penned the popular Dr. Mac column for the <i>Houston Chronicle</i> since 1996. He's a regular speaker at tech conferences worldwide and the author of more than 70 popular computer books, including multiple editions of <i>iPhone For Dummies, iPad For Dummies</i>, and every version of <i>OS X For Dummies</i>.

<p><b><i>Learn to:</i></b> <ul> <li>Navigate OS X El Capitan's desktop</li> <li>Find and manage your files and folders with ease</li> <li>Use the Calendar, Contacts, and Messages apps to stay connected</li> <li>Use your Mac^® to play movies and music or read books</li> </ul> <p><b>Set a course to Mac mastery with the help of this guide on OS X El Capitan</b> <p>OS X El Capitan is the engine that makes your Mac run smoothly. Whether you're seeing El Capitan for the first time on a new MacBook or upgrading your trusty old iMac to the latest OS, this is the book that shows you how it all works. Look inside for steps on how to customize your workspace, organize your life, manage your files, and other fabulous features. <ul> <li><b>Find your way around</b> — learn to navigate the desktop, find and manage files and folders, customize keyboard shortcuts, and use Dashboard widgets</li> <li><b>Get organized</b> — take advantage of the new Notes feature, set up and sync Contacts, and communicate with friends using FaceTime^®, Mail, or Messages</li> <li><b>Multimedia magic</b> — import, sort, and organize your music, video, and photo files with help from the iTunes^® and Image Capture apps</li> <li><b>Become more productive</b> — save time and effort by using Mission Control^®, QuickLook, Spotlight^®, and other timesaving tools</li> <li><b>Share with others</b> — set up a wired or wireless network to share files</li> <li><b>Learn to fix it</b> — be ready for the inevitable breakdowns with tips on fixing common OS X^® problems</li> </ul> <p><b>Open the book and find:</b> <ul> <li> How to set Finder preferences</li> <li> Why an iCloud^® account is helpful</li> <li> Cool widgets to add to your Dashboard</li> <li> Tools to organize your files </li> <li> All about the new iCloud Drive</li> <li> How to save time with Mission Control, Spotlight, and QuickLook</li> <li> The answers to when, why, and how to back up your Mac</li> <li> Steps to setting up and managing a home network</li> <li> Advice on keeping your Mac secure from viruses</li> <li> Simple fixes to common OS X problems</li> </ul>

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