1.2. Windows and How to Work Them
In designing Mac OS X, one of Apple's key goals was to address the window-
proliferation problem. As you create more files, stash them in more folders, and launch
more programs, it's easy to wind up paralyzed before a screen awash with cluttered,
overlapping rectangles.
That's the problem addressed by Exposé, a useful feature that's probably worth at least
$34 of Mac OS X's $130 price, and Spaces, which is easily worth another $17.35. They're
described in detail on pages Section 5.3
and Section 5.3.2.3.
There are some handy clutter and navigation controls on the windows themselves, too.
For example:
1.2.1. The Sidebar
The Sidebar is the pane at the left side of every Finder window, unless you've hidden it
(and, by the way, also at the left side of every Open dialog box and full-sized Save dialog
box).
The Sidebar has been overhauled in Leopard. Now this list has as many as four different
sections, each preceded by a collapsible heading:
• Devices. This section lists every storage device connected to, or installed inside,
your Mac: hard drives, CDs, DVDs, iPods, memory cards, USB flash drives, and
so on. The removable ones (CDs, DVDs, iPods, and so on) bear a little gray
logo, which you can click to eject that disk.
• Shared. It took 20 years for an operating system to list all the other computers on
the home or small-office network, right there in every window, without any
digging, connecting, button-clicking, or window-opening. But here it is: a
complete list of the other computers on your network whose owners have turned
on File Sharing, ready for access. See Chapter 13
for complete details.
• Places. This primary section of the sidebar lists places (in this case, folders) where
you might look for files and folders. Into this list, you can stick the icons of
anything at all—files, programs, folders, disks, or whatever—for easy access.
Each icon is a shortcut. For example, click the Applications icon to view the

of smoke (and even a little whoof sound effect). You haven't actually removed
anything from your Mac; you've just unhitched its alias from the Sidebar.

Tip: You can't drag Shared items out of the list. Also, if you drag a Devices item
out of the list, you'll have to choose Finder Preferences to put it back in; see
the box on Section 1.2.3
.

• Rearrange the icons by dragging them up or down in the list. (You're not allowed
to rearrange the computers listed in the Shared section, though.)
• Install a new iconby dragging it off your desktop (or out of a window) into any
spot in the Places list of the Sidebar. Unlike previous versions of Mac OS X, you
can't drag icons into any old section of the sidebar—just the Places place.

Tip: You can also highlight an icon wherever it happens to be and then choose
File Add to Sidebar, or just press -T.

• Adjust the width of the Sidebar by dragging its right edge—either the skinny
divider line or the extreme right edge of the vertical scroll bar, if there is one. You
"feel" a snap at the point when the line covers up about half of each icon's name.
Any covered-up names sprout ellipses (…) to let you know (as in "Secret Salaries
Spreadsh…").

Note: The Leopard Sidebar is a lot less flexible than the old one. For example, you
can no longer drag the divider bar so far to the left that it hides the icons' names. It
stops just to the left of the end of the longest name.Nor can you hide the Sidebar
completely by double-clicking the dividing line, by pressing Control-Option- -
T, or by dragging the line all the way to the left. None of those methods work
anymore; the only way to hide the Sidebar is to use the Old Finder Mode button.


The title bar (Figure 1-4
) has several functions. First, when several windows are open, the
darkened title bar, window name, mini-icon, and colored left-corner buttons tell you
which window is active (in front); in background windows, these elements appear
dimmed and colorless. Second, the title bar acts as a handle that lets you move the
window around on the screen.
TROUBLESHOOTING MOMENT
Fixing the Sidebar
If you've read the preceding paragraphs and gone on a squealing delete-fest just
to see how much damage you could inflict on your Sidebar, it's time for a splash
of cold water. Once you drag the Macintosh HD or iDisk icon out of the top of
the Sidebar, you can't drag them back in. Suddenly you're stuck with the
orphaned horizontal divider, with nothing to divide. The top half of your list is
empty.
That's why Apple gives you a quick way to restore the Sidebar to its factory
settings.
If you choose Finder Preferences, and then click the Sidebar button, you
discover the checkboxes shown here. They let you put back the Apple-installed
icons that you may have removed in haste. Just turn on a checkbox to restore its
icon to your Sidebar. So if something you expect to see in your Sidebar isn't
there, check back here.
On the other hand, you may as well streamline your computing life by turning
off the checkboxes of icons that younever want to see filling your Sidebar.