macOS Sierra For Dummies. Bob LeVitus

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      I couldn’t find a dialog or window that included all of the aforementioned dealie-boppers as well as the one other dealie-bopper you should become familiar with, the disclosure triangle. If you see a triangle in a dialog box or sheet, try clicking it. If it’s a disclosure triangle, it will reveal additional options (or its contents if it’s a folder in the Finder’s List view, as you’ll see in Chapter 6).

      

Some applications have tri-state check boxes (and no, I’m not talking geography here). These special check boxes are empty when nothing in the group is selected, sport an X when everything in the group is selected, and sport a minus sign (–) when some items in the group are selected and some are not.

      Working with Windows

      In the following sections, I give you a closer look at windows themselves: how you move them, size them, and use them. And although Sierra windows are similar to windows you’ve used in other versions of Mac OS (and even, dare I say it, Windows), you may just discover a new wrinkle or two.

      

If you’re relatively new to the Mac, you may want to read this section while sitting at your computer, trying the techniques as you read them. You may find it easier to remember something you read if you actually do it. If you’ve been using your Mac for a while, you’ve probably figured out how windows work by now.

      To start peering into windows on your Mac, first you need to know how to open and close them. When you’re working in the Finder, you can choose the following commands from the File menu. Note that you’ll probably find similar commands on the File menu of programs other than the Finder.

      

You’ll use many of these commands frequently, so it would behoove you to memorize the keyboard shortcuts. If you’re not sure how keyboard shortcuts work, check out “Using keyboard shortcut commands,” later in this chapter.

      ❯❯ New Finder Window (

+N): Opens a new Finder window. In other programs, +N might open a new document, project, or whatever that program helps you create.

      ❯❯ Open (

+O): Opens the selected item, be it an icon, a window, or a folder.

      ❯❯ Close Window (

+W): Closes the active window. If no windows are open or if no window is selected, the Close Window command is grayed out and can’t be chosen. Or if you prefer, you can close a window by clicking the red Close button in the top-left corner.

      

+Option+W); otherwise, it remains hidden.

      

Note that several other commands in the File menu transmogrify when you press the Option key. It would be off topic to get into them here, but here’s a tip: Press the Option key, and browse all the Finder menus. At least a dozen useful commands appear only when the Option key is pressed. Press it early and often for hidden (often time-saving) commands.

If you want to see more (or less) of what’s in a window, just hover the pointer over any edge or corner and drag. When the cursor turns into a little double-headed arrow, as shown in Figure 2-5, click and drag to resize the window.

       FIGURE 2-5: Hover the pointer over any corner or edge; when the double-headed arrow (resizer) cursor appears, click and drag to resize the window.

      

Display windows, like those in the Finder, frequently consist of multiple panes. If you look at Figure 2-5, the line divides the Sidebar to the left of it and the actual contents of the window to the right. When your mouse pointer hovers over the resizing area of this bar, the cursor changes to a vertical bar (or it could be horizontal if the panes are one above the other) with little arrows pointing out of both sides, as shown in the margin and Figure 2-5.

      When you see this cursor, you can click and drag anywhere in the dividing line that separates the Sidebar from the rest of the window. Doing so resizes the two panes relative to each other; one gets larger and one gets smaller.

Moving windows

      To move a window, click anywhere in a window’s gray title bar or toolbar (except on a button, menu, or search field) and drag the window to wherever you want it. The window moves wherever you move the mouse, stopping dead in its tracks when you release the mouse button.

      

If you can’t find the cursor on the screen, wiggle your finger on the trackpad or jiggle the mouse. In Sierra, these movements magnify the pointer to make it easier to find onscreen.

Shuffling windows

      I’ve already spent plenty of pages giving you the scoop on how to work with windows. But wait. There’s more! The commands on the Window menu provide tools you can use to manage your windows.

      Here is a brief look at each of the items on the Window menu (and if you’re unfamiliar with menus and keyboard shortcuts, I explain how they work later in this chapter):

      ❯❯ Minimize (

+M): Use this command to minimize the active Finder window to the Dock and unclutter your Desktop. It’s the same as clicking the yellow gumdrop button.

      ❯❯ Zoom: This command does the same thing as the green gumdrop button. If you’ve forgotten what the green gumdrop does already, just turn back a few pages to the “Top o’ the window to ya!” section and read it again.

      ❯❯ Cycle through Windows (

+`): Each time you choose this command or use the keyboard shortcut for it, a different window becomes active. So if you have three windows – call ’em Window 1, Window 2, and Window 3 – and you’re using Window 1, this command deactivates Window 1 and activates Window 2. If you choose it again, the command deactivates Window 2 and activates Window 3. Choose it one more time, and it deactivates Window 3 and reactivates Window 1.

      The next four commands in the Window menu help you manage Sierra Finder window tabs (which were introduced in OS X 10.9 Mavericks). If you’re a fan of tabbed browsing (à la Safari), you’ll love tabs in a Finder window.

Tabs let you view multiple folders and/or disks in a single window, with each folder or disk in its own tab, as shown in Figure 2-6.

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