Using Your Mac's System Preferences

Using the Mac Security Preference Pane: The Security preference pane allows you to control the security level of the user accounts on your Mac. In addition, the Security preference pane is where you configure your Mac's firewall, as well as turn data encryption on or off for your user account.

The Mac Trackpad: The glass trackpad on a new MacBook, MacBook Pro, or MacBook Air is certainly fun to play with in the store. An Apple salesperson will quickly show you how to scroll, zoom, and right-click. But once you get your new Mac notebook home, some of the things you remember doing in the store may not seem to work the same way.

Using the Display Preference Pane: The Display preference pane is the central clearinghouse for all of the settings and configurations for your Mac's display. Having all display-related functions in one easy-to-access preference pane lets you configure your monitor and keep it working the way you want it to, without spending a lot of time...

Macs have had built-in support for multi-button mice and right-clicking since Mac OS 8 made its appearance in 1997. You can use the Keyboard & Mouse system preference to enable the function of each mouse button.

When you first turned on your Mac, or installed the OS X software, an administrator account was automatically created. If you're the only one who uses your Mac, then you may not need any of the other user account types. But if you share your Mac with family or friends, you should know how to create additional user accounts, as well as which types of accounts to create.

Adding administrator user accounts to your Mac allows you to specify other individuals who can take on the administrator role. Administrators have an elevated set of privileges that allow them to install applications, change system preferences, and perform a variety of maintenance tasks.

Adding standard user accounts allows you to share your Mac with multiple individuals. It’s easy to add user accounts; all you need is an existing administrative account.

Managed accounts are specialized user accounts that include a parental control feature that allows you (or the Mac administrator) to control which applications can be used and which web sites can be visited. Managed accounts are a good choice if you want to allow younger family members to use your Mac even when youÂ’re not around to supervise them.

The Energy Saver preferences pane controls how your Mac responds to inactivity. You can use the Energy Saver preferences pane to put your Mac to sleep, to turn off your display, and to spin down your hard drives, all to save energy. You can also use the Energy Saver preferences pane to manage your UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply).

Expose’s preferences pane allows you to configure the keyboard shortcuts, mouse buttons, and active screen corners assigned to Expose functions.

You can add a screen saver to your Mac in one of two ways. You can manually copy the screen saver to the appropriate location on your Mac or you can use the installer that's included with many screen savers.

The Dock preferences pane allows you to customize how your Mac's Dock looks and behaves. You can adjust the size and location of the Dock, as well as apply special effects when applications are launched or

The Appearance preferences pane controls the basic look and feel of your Mac’s user interface. By making adjustments in the Appearance preferences pane, you can change the overall look and feel of your Mac.

On the Mac, Parental Controls are Apple's user management system for controlling which system functions and applications are available to a managed user. Parental Controls also offer content filtering, web site filtering, iChat and Mail approval lists, and time management, to prevent your children from using the computer when they should be doing something else.

You can change your Mac’s desktop wallpaper from the standard Apple-supplied image to almost any picture you care to use. You can also set your Mac’s desktop wallpaper to randomly select a picture from a specified folder.

The Mac OS includes screen saver modules. You can use the Desktop & Screen Saver preferences pane to control how your Mac's screen savers operate.