Lesson 1 of 10

Your Mac at a Glance

A visual tour of your Mac screen in under 5 minutes

Your Mac Screen

Three areas. That's all you need to know.

Menu Bar
Status Icons
Desktop
The Dock
Finder File Edit View
Tue 10:30 AM
Finder
Outlook
T Teams
Chrome
Safari
Settings
Trash

The Menu Bar

Always at the top. Changes based on the active app.

Apple Menu

System controls: Sleep, Restart, Shut Down, Force Quit, System Settings

Finder

App Name

Shows which app is active. Its menus (File, Edit, etc.) appear beside it.

WB

Status Icons

Wi-Fi, battery, date/time, and Control Center live here (top-right).

Spotlight Search

Press Cmd + Space to search anything: apps, files, math, web.

Try It Now

Look at the top-left corner of your screen. Click the Apple icon () to open the Apple Menu.

The Dock

Your app launcher, always at the bottom.

Finder
Outlook
T
Teams
Chrome
Settings
Try It Now

Move your cursor to the bottom of your screen. Hover over the Dock icons and watch them magnify.

Windows → Mac Quick Map

What you already know, translated.

What's the Mac equivalent of the Start Menu?
Apple Menu () + Launchpad
Where's the Taskbar?
It's called the Dock (bottom of screen)
What replaced File Explorer?
Finder (the smiley face icon)
Where's the Recycle Bin?
It's called Trash (end of the Dock)
Control Panel System Settings
Task Manager Activity Monitor
Windows Search Spotlight (Cmd+Space)
Ctrl key Command (⌘) key
Snipping Tool Cmd+Shift+4
Ctrl+Alt+Del Cmd+Option+Esc

Hands-On Practice

Try It Now

Press Cmd + Space to open Spotlight Search. Type "Calculator" and press Enter.

Try It Now

Click the Finder icon (smiley face) in the Dock. Browse through the sidebar on the left.

Try It Now

Click the date/time in the top-right corner of your screen to open Notification Center.

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