2.1. The Mac OS X Folder Structure
The icon for your hard drive (usually called Macintosh HD) may appear in the upper-
right corner of your screen. But if you begin each morning by double-clicking it, like
millions of other people who've grown used to older versions of the Mac OS, you're in for
a shock: Your stuff isn't there.
All you'll find in the Macintosh HD window is a set of folders called Applications,
Library, and Users—folders you didn't put there. (If you upgraded an existing Mac to
Mac OS X 10.5, you'll also see all your original hard drive folders nestled among them.)
Most of these folders aren't very useful to you, the Mac's human companion. They're
there for Mac OS X's own use (which is why the Finder Preferences dialog box offers
a checkbox that hides their icons entirely). Think of your main hard drive window as
storage for the operating system itself, which you'll access only for occasional
administrative purposes.
2.1.1. Your Home Folder
Instead of setting up your nest—your files, folders, aliases, and so on—in the hard drive
window, Mac OS X keeps all of it in your Home folder. That's a folder bearing your
name (or whatever name you typed when you installed Mac OS X).
One way to find the Home folder is to double-click the Users folder, and then double-
click the folder inside it that bears your name and looks like a house (see Figure 2-1
).
Here, at last, is the window that you'll eventually fill with new folders, organize, back up,
and so on.
But Mac OS X is rife with shortcuts for opening this all-important folder:
•
Choose Go Home, or press Shift- -H.
•
In the Sidebar (Section 1.2), click the Home icon (the little house).
•
In the Dock, click the Home icon.(If you don't see one, consult Section 4.2 for
instructions on how to put one there.)
•

this Mac. In general, nobody is allowed to touch what's inside anybody else's folder.
If you're the sole proprietor of the machine, of course, there's only one Home folder in the
Users folder—named for you. (The Shared folder doesn't count; it's described on Section
12.6.2.)
This is only the first of many examples in which Mac OS X imposes a fairly rigid folder
structure. Still, the approach has its advantages. By keeping such tight control over which
files go where, Mac OS X keeps itself pure—and very, very stable. Other operating
systems known for their stability, including Windows XP and Windows Vista, work the
same way.
Furthermore, keeping all of your stuff in a single folder makes it very easy for you to
back up your work. It also makes life easier when you try to connect to your machine
from elsewhere in the office (over the network) or elsewhere in the world (over the
Internet), as described in Chapter 22
.
2.1.2. What's On Your Hard Drive
When you first run Mac OS X, you'll find the following folders in the main hard drive
window:
•
Applications. The Applications folder, of course, contains the complete collection
of Mac OS X programs on your Mac (not counting the invisible Unix ones). Even
so, you'll rarely launch programs by opening this folder; the Dock is a far more
efficient launcher, as described in Chapter 4
.
•
Desktop. This folder stores icons that appear on the Mac OS X desktop (see the
next page for details). The difference is that you don't control this one; Apple does.
Anything in here also appears on your desktop. (This Apple-controlled one is
usually empty.)
•
Library. This folder bears more than a passing resemblance to the System Folder

folder icons.) Except as noted, you're free to rename or delete them; Mac OS X creates
the following folders solely as a convenience:
•
Desktop. When you drag an icon out of a folder or disk window and onto your
Mac OS X desktop, it may appear to show up on the desktop. But that's just an
optical illusion, a visual convenience. In truth, nothing in Mac OS X is really on
the desktop. It's actually in this Desktop folder, and mirrored on the desktop area.
The reason is simple enough: Remember that everyone who shares your machine
will, upon logging in, see his own stuff sitting on the desktop. Now you know how
Mac OS X does it: There's a separate Desktop folder in every person's Home
folder.
UP TO SPEED
The Computer Window
In your explorations of the Finder's Go menu, you may have wondered about the
command called Computer (Shift- -C). ("Go to my computer? Jeez, I
thought I was already at my computer…")
As in Microsoft Windows, the Computer window holds the icons for all the
disks connected to your machine—the hard drive, a CD that you've inserted, an
iPod, another external hard drive, and so on—as well as an icon called Network.
(The Network icon appears even if you're not, in fact, on a network.) This is the
topmost level of your Mac. This is the stuff that can't be put into any folder at
all.
So what's it for? In some ways, the Computer window is redundant. After all,
Mac OS X displays your disk icons on the desktop and in the Sidebar.
But some people, particularly Windows refugees, don't care for that icons-on-
the-desktop feature. In the interest of creating a neater, cleaner desktop, they
turn it off, in fact (by choosing Finder Preferences and turning off the three
checkboxes under "Show these items on the Desktop"). Furthermore, in the
interest of creating neater, narrower windows, some people also hide the
Sidebar.

You have your own Library folder, too, right there in your Home folder. It stores
the same kinds of things—but they're your fonts, your preferences, and so on.
Once again, this setup may seem redundant if you're the only person who uses
your Mac. But it makes perfect sense in the context of families, schools, or offices
where numerous people share a single machine. Because you have your own
Library folder, you can have a font collection that's "installed" on the Mac only