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Get
Info
It
can be quite important to know some things about your computer and the items
you have stored on it.
To
find out about your system, choose the first item in the Apple Menu "About
This Mac".
 A
window similar to this will open and you will see the basics about my system.
•
I am running OS 10.4.4
•
I have 768 MB (megabytes) of RAM (Random Access Memory) installed
•
The processor is a G4 running at 800 MHz (megahertz)
• Cyclops HD is my startup disk
If
you press the "More Info" button
you can get lots more information about your system.
Selecting
the "More Info" button will open
the Apple System Profiler, which can tell
you all kinds of things about your Mac, much only a tech will understand but the info can be quite valuable if you are experiencing problems and you are talking to a tech, although there is
some info that can be of use to you.
You can get more detailed info about your system, see which devices are attached to your Mac, the frameworks and extensions the operating system is using (tech stuff), what applications (and their version) are in your Applications folder, and view the logs which are saved when your system or an application crashes (pretty handy for getting help figuring out what is happening when bad things happen).
Above
you can see I have a hub attached to one of my USB ports, which in turn has
a Microsoft IntelliMouse Mouse and an Apple Pro Keyboard attached to it. In the bottom panel is more detailed info about those items. By choosing other items in the Contents panel you can find out about most everything attached to and on your computer. Feel free to poke around in the Profiler, there is nothing danerous
about it.
To
get information about a file, folder or any other item, highlight the item in
the Finder and choose 'Get Info' from the
File Menu (or use the keyboard shortcut apple(command)+I). A window will open
like the one below. The information in the windows will vary depending on the
type of item you choose. The first
one is of my hard drive and the two below are of a file. Each has a series of
panels which you can open (or close) by clicking on the triangle.
General:
The pertinent information for the item and the ability to give the item a Color label which makes the item more visable and searches can be performed on these labels.
Name & Extension: Here you can rename the item and can choose whetheror not
to show the extension.
Content
index (10.3): If a folder or volume is indexed the find feature will be able to
search the text of the files. Here you will see if and when the folder was last
indexed.
Spotlight Comments (10.4): Spotlight indexes your files automatically and will search when asked. The comments you place here become part of the indexed info and will be part of the search.
 Preview: Here all you see the icon of the file or folder, unless the file is plain text,
sound, graphic or movie. If so, you will see a thumbnail of what is in that file.
Ownership & Permissions: Here you can control access to the item by others.
Comments (10.3) replaced by Spotlight in 10.4:
You can make notes about the item which are viewable in the List view also
If
the item is a file or folder you will have the opportunity to "Lock" the item to prevent it from accidentally being trashed.
If
the item is a file, you can make it a "Stationery" item. This
saves the file so that when it is opened again, a copy is created and the original
file is preserved.
 Also
if the item is a file, there is the option to choose which application to open
the file with.
Open
with: If the item is a file you will have the opportuinty to change what
application it will open in when double-clicked. You can also change all the
files with this extension to open in your choice by using the "Change
All" button.
•
This can be very handy if you don't have the application the file was created
with.
Suppose you receive a file from a friend that is a .doc and you don't have Word, you can choose to have it open in AppleWorks and if you choose "Change All", then all other .doc files will now open in Appleworks simply by double-clicking on them
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