Mac OS X Basic Tools
Like Windows, the Mac operating system (specifically OS X; we won't be looking at previous versions of the Mac OS) has a number of tools that you can use straight out of the box. These tools are virtually equivalent to the Windows programs mentioned above.
Your Text Editor: TextEdit
While Windows has Notepad, the Mac has TextEdit, which can be found in the Applications folder, as Figure 1.4 illustrates.
Figure 1.4. TextEdit comes as part of Mac OS X's default installation
Unlike Notepad, TextEdit works as what we call a "rich text editor" by default, which means we can work with fonts, make text bold and italic, and so on. However, we want to work with TextEdit as a plain text editor, so you'll need to fiddle with some of TextEdit's preferences. Start TextEdit, then select TextEdit > Preferences from the menu to bring up the Preferences screen. Select Plain text within New Document Attributes, then close the Preferences screen. The next time you create a new file in TextEdit, it will be a plain text document.
Your Web Browser: Safari
Internet Explorer is also available for Mac, but was abandoned by Microsoft when Apple began to make its own web browser, Safari, so it's considerably outdated. You can usually find Safari in the dock, but you can also access it through the Applications folder, as Figure 1.5 illustrates.
Figure 1.5. Internet Explorer and Safari are available via Mac's Applications folder
Note:
Stick it in the Dock
Just as you can drag shortcuts to programs onto the Windows desktop, you can add programs to the dock in Mac OS X (the dock is the bar of icons at the bottom of your screen). To add a program to the dock, just drag it from the Applications folder onto the dock, and presto! The application is now easily accessible [6] whenever you need it.
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