Reprinted from Macworld 1/1984, pp. 16-27. Published with permission. Scans and OCR courtesy of Douglas P. McNutt and Katherine L. Harras from The MacNauchtan Laboratory.

With the Macintosh, Apple has added a new dimension to computing. Based on the concept of a desktop working environment, the Mac allows you to do more with a personal computer – and more importantly, do it more easily and naturally – than ever before.

The Mac desktop contains small pictures, or icons, that represent the programs and documents stored on the disk inserted in the Mac’s disk drive.

Imagine driving a car that has no steering wheel, accelerator, brake pedal, turn signal lever, or gear selector. In place of all the familiar manual controls, you have only a typewriter keyboard.

Any time you want to turn a corner, change lanes, slow down, speed up, honk your horn, or back up, you have to type a command sequence on the keyboard. Unfortunately, the car can’t understand English sentences. Instead, you must hold down a special key with one finger and type in some letters and numbers, such as “S20:TL:A35,” which means, “Slow to 20, turn left, and accelerate to 35.”

If you make typing mistakes, one of three things will happen. If you type an unknown command, the car radio will bleat and you will have to type the command again. If what you type happens to be wrong but is nevertheless a valid command, the car will blindly obey (Imagine typing A95 instead of A35.) If you type something the manufacturer didn’t anticipate, the car will screech to a halt and shut itself off.

No doubt you could learn to drive such a car if you had sufficient motivation and determination. But why bother, when so many cars use familiar controls? Most people wouldn’t.

Most people don’t bother to use a personal computer for the same reasons – they wouldn’t bother with a keyboard-controlled car. Working on a computer isn’t a natural skill, and the benefits hardly seem worth the hassle of learning how to get work done in an unfamiliar environment. If you make a typing mistake, the computer may do nothing, tell you it doesn’t understand, do the wrong thing, shut itself down, or destroy all the work you’ve done and then shut itself down. Who cares if the machine is theoretically thousands of times more efficient than pencil and paper? If using the machine rattles you so much that you can’t get anything done, it is in fact less efficient and may waste more time than it saves.

what it a computer could let you work in a familiar environment, similar to the way you work at your desk? You could put things you wanted to work with on top of the “desk,” move them around, put documents into folders or files, and even throw things into the trash. This description accurately fits the working environment of Apple’s Macintosh computer. The things you work with on your desk appear not as words and numbers in regimented lines, but as graphic objects located on the Mac screen.

Icons

Figure 1. The Mac desktop. The Write/Paint disk icon represents the documents and programs stored on the current disk; the Alternate Disk icon is used for copying files from one disk to another; and the trash can icon holds discarded documents.

The Mac desktop, being somewhat smaller than the average desk it models, doesn’t have room enough for life-sized objects. At first, objects appear on the Mac desktop as small pictures called icons. On the Mac, an icon is a symbol for some concept or object. For example, when you switch on the Mac and insert a disk, the screen shows two disk-shaped icons and a trash can (see Figure 1). As a graphic image, an icon can remind you about what it represents better than words alone.

Each icon represents a specific collection of information. To avoid ambiguity, icons also have labels. The disk icon (labeled Write/Paint in Figure 1) represents the documents and programs stored on the disk inserted into the Mac’s disk drive. The dimmed disk icon labeled Alternate Disk is used for copying files from one disk to another, and the trash can icon labeled Trash holds documents and programs waiting to be purged from the disk.

Pointers and the Mouse

On a real desktop, you move things around. You may work with one document or file for a while, switch to another, do some minor calculations, check the time, and then create a new file. When you finish working on something, you want to put it away somewhere convenient (such as in a file drawer) so you can retrieve it later. The Mac lets you do all these things, but the things you work with exist as graphic images on the Mac’s electronic desktop.

Since you can’t touch things on the Mac desktop, you need some form of remote control. The mouse is the key to working on the Mac desktop. Sliding the mouse on a smooth surface moves a pointer on the screen. Slide the mouse in any direction – up, down, sideways, or diagonally – and the on-screen pointer will move the same distance in the same direction (see A Mouse in the Hand for an in-depth view of the Macintosh mouse).

Figure 2. Dragging an icon. As you hold down the mouse button and move the pointer, an outline of the selected icon moves across the screen.

Moving the mouse moves the pointer, but pressing the mouse button makes things happen. For example, you can move an icon by placing the pointer over it, pressing and holding down the mouse button, and then dragging the icon to a new location. The moment you press the mouse button, the icon is highlighted. As the pointer moves, it drags an outline of the icon and its label along. The outline shows you where the icon will appear when you release the mouse button (see Figure 2).

Moving the pointer over an icon and pressing and releasing the mouse button highlights the icon. This mouse action, called clicking, selects the object but does nothing except highlight it; you still must specify an action. In other words, you must give a command.

Menus

On most computer systems, you issue a command by typing arcane words or symbols on the keyboard. Remembering such commands is difficult enough from day to day. Go to Hawaii for a week, and you can plan on a session with the manual when you return.

The Mac never forces you to remember command words or type commands on the keyboard. All Mac commands are listed in menus, and you choose them with the mouse. Don’t let other menus you have seen or heard about prejudice you against Mac menus. Most people say menus are great when you’re learning something, but they slow you down too much when you know the ropes. Not on the Mac. Most people complain that menus take over the screen, making the information they’re acting on invisible. Not on the Mac. Most people say even with a menu you still end up typing in a code number or letter. Not on the Mac. Mac menus are unobtrusive and fast, and require no typing.

The Mac desktop has five primary menus – Apple, File, Edit, View, and Special – that stretch across the top of the screen. These menus provide all the commands for organizing and working on the desktop. You can do everything from opening and closing files to rearranging icons. The Mac hides its menu commands under the menu titles. When you move the pointer over one of the menu titles and press the mouse button, a list of commands drops down from the menu bar, temporarily overlaying a small part of the screen.

Figure 3. The File menu. To select a command, drag the pointer down the menu and release the mouse button when the command is highlighted.

The Apple menu (represented by the apple symbol) contains a selection of desktop accessories and controls (see Desktop Accessories for a comprehensive look at the Apple menu options). The File menu lists commands for working with files (see Figure 3), and the Edit menu contains basic editing commands. The View menu lets you organize your files by icon, name, date, size, or kind on the desktop. The Special menu includes two options: Clean Up arranges the icons in orderly rows and columns, and Empty Trash deletes files permanently from the disk.

Menus operate as if they were spring-loaded. As long as you hold down the mouse button, the menu choices (commands) stay in view; when you release the mouse button, the menu choices disappear back under the menu bar. While you hold down the mouse button, you can drag the pointer down the menu. Each menu choice is highlighted temporarily as the pointer passes over it. You choose a command from the menu by releasing the mouse button when the command you want is highlighted. Also, some of the menu commands have keyboard equivalents, which are listed next to the corresponding command.

All of the available commands appear in black type. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense to use some of the commands. Commands that are out of context in any particular situation appear in gray, or dimmed, type. They are not highlighted when you move the pointer over them, and you cannot choose them. In the File menu, for example, you cannot Close or Print a document unless you first Open it.

Windows

Figure 4. The disk window. The icons represent the documents and programs on the current disk.

When you want to look at the information that one of the icons represents, you open a window. To open the disk icon, for example, you first select the icon by clicking the mouse button while the pointer is over the disk icon. The icon is highlighted to confirm that you have selected it. Next, you choose the Open command from the File menu. An outline zooms out of the icon and the screen almost fills up with a rectangular “window” containing icons that represent the documents and programs on the disk (see Figure 4). The selected icon becomes hollow (all white) to show that you have opened it, and the disk icon’s name appears in a title bar at the top of the window. The line below the title bar gives information including the number of files, the amount of disk space they take up, and the amount of disk space available.

A more efficient way to open an icon is to double-click the mouse button (quickly press and release it twice); this action selects the icon and opens a window.

Figure 5. A window showing the contents of a folder. Each folder contains documents and programs, which in turn can contain other documents and folders.

Some of the icons represent folders that can contain other programs and documents, similar to file folders on your office desk that combine separate files. You can see the contents of a folder by selecting and opening that folder. A new window will appear on the desktop, displaying the icons that represent the files stored in the folder (see Figure 6). You can store folders within folders and use them to organize your files so that windows don’t get cluttered with too many documents.

Figure 6. Overlapping windows. You can open several windows at once; the topmost window is the active window.

The Mac lets you open several windows simultaneously. Select another icon, choose the Open command from the File menu or double-click on the selected icon, and another window zooms into existence. Each new window you open overlaps the existing windows. You may see the edges of existing windows sticking out underneath the new window, or the new window may completely hide everything under it. Windows can also cover up the icons on the Mac desktop (see Figure 6).

The window on top, or frontmost window, is called the active window. You can bring any window to the top and make it the active window by putting the pointer anywhere on it (even an edge that’s sticking out behind another window) and clicking the mouse button. You can remove the active window from the Mac desktop by choosing the Close command from the File menu. The icon that the window came from sucks the information back, the window disappears, and the icon resumes its normal appearance.

You can also move windows around on the Mac desktop. If you place the pointer over the title bar of a window, press and hold down the mouse button, and slide the mouse, a flickering outline of the window is dragged on the desktop. Let go of the mouse button, and the window jumps to the new location. When you move a window by this method, it becomes the topmost window. However, holding down the key while you drag a window allows you to move the window without disturbing its relative position in the pile. This feature is an example of an “advanced” desktop management skill that you soon learn after a few work sessions with the Mac.

Sometimes windows get buried. Unfortunately, there’s no way to get a side view of the Mac desktop to see what might be under the frontmost window. But you can always relocate windows or change their sizes to uncover the ones underneath.

Window Controls

Think about the appliances you use. They have pushbuttons, knobs, dials, and other types of controls. Because the Mac desktop is a general purpose information processing appliance, it needs many different controls. You’ve seen the way elaborate stereo systems bristle with knobs, buttons, and dials. Imagine adding a television, telephone, and pocket calculator to that collection. Pretty intimidating, but nothing compared to what the Mac would look like if it had separate controls for everything it did.

Figure 7. Window controls enable you to change a window’s size, scroll vertically or horizontally within it, or close an active window using the mouse.

Most computers handle the control problem by overworking the keyboard. A few add some so-called function keys, but you have to be a double-jointed NASA rocket control specialist to use them effectively The Mac displays controls to suit the situation. You use the mouse to activate buttons and adjust control knobs displayed on the screen. For example, the disk window, like most windows, has several controls built in (see Figure 7). The Mac displays the controls only when the window is active, however. To close an active window, you can click the mouse button while the pointer is over the close box at the left side of the title bar. Clicking in this displayed box has the same effect as choosing the Close command from the File menu. (Savvy Mac users will quickly discover many timesaving shortcuts.)

Figure 8. Small and large windows. Changing a windows size affects the amount of information visible at one time.

The small box displayed in the lower-right corner of most active windows gives you control over the size of the window. To make the window narrower, use the mouse to drag this size box to the left. To make the window wider, drag the size box to the right. Drag the size box up and the window gets shorter; drag it down and the window gets taller. Drag the size box on a diagonal to change both height and width simultaneously. Changing the window size does not change the size of what’s displayed, it just changes the amount of information you can see at once (see Figure 8).

Sometimes a window doesn’t show all of its contents, even if you’ve fully extended its size. Fortunately, the scroll bar controls let you scan back and forth over the available information. Most windows have two scroll bars. One, located on the left edge of the window, controls up-and-down movement. The other, located at the bottom of the window, controls side-to side movement.

Figure 9. A dialog box appears when the Mac needs additional information to proceed.

Of the many ways to use scroll bars, the simplest is to click the arrow that points in the direction you want the window to move over the information. (Actually, the window stays put on the screen and the information moves under it, but the effect is the same as if the window had moved in the direction of the arrow used.) If you press and hold the mouse button instead of just clicking it, the window keeps moving. As the window moves, a small white box, the scroll box, also moves. The scroll box gauges the window’s position relative to the top and bottom, left and right edges of the screen.

Dialog and Alert Boxes

Figure 10. An alert box warns of a potentially dangerous situation.

The Mac takes the unexpected in stride. When something unusual happens, it displays a special window to inform you of the exceptional circumstances. You may have to click some buttons to cancel or continue an action, manipulate some other controls, or even type a name on the keyboard. These special windows, called dialog boxes, appear only for the purpose of getting supplemental information from you, information needed to proceed with the task at hand (see Figure 9). If the special window appears because of some potentially dangerous situation (such as when your disk is almost full), it is called an alert box (see Figure 10). The appearance of an alert box may be accompanied by one or two beeps from the Mac’s speaker.

Application Programs

The commands available from the menu bar and the controls displayed on the screen vary depending on the program you use. Every program has an icon, and opening that icon starts the program. Starting a program opens a window in which you can display a document of your choice. You can create a new document or call up an existing document from the disk. The program also displays its own menu bar and controls that you can use to inspect and change the document.

Generally speaking, you can also start a program by opening a document that you created with it. You can start the MacWrite word processing program, for example, by opening a letter you wrote using it. You do this by double-clicking on the icon representing that document.

On the Mac, however, you can run only one program at a time; you can’t open a MacWrite window at the same time you have a MacPaint window open. Apple had to leave something for the Lisa to do better. (You can, however, open and use a desk accessory program while you are using another program, and you can place MacPaint drawings into MacWrite documents as explained below.)

The Universal Interface

Figure 11. The Edit menu. The Cut and Paste commands are used to move text or graphics from one part of a document to another.

Although the specific commands and controls are different from one program to the next, all Mac programs adhere to certain conventions, including the use of icons, windows, menus, and the mouse. Once you discover a way to do something in one program, you can apply the same principles in other Mac programs (see The Mac Way for more information about the Macintosh user interface). For example, the method for moving information from one part of a document to another is uniform, no matter what kind of information is involved. That procedure, called cut and paste, is done entirely with the mouse and the Edit menu (see Figure 11). The steps are as follows:

1. Select the information to be moved.
2. Choose the Cut command from the Edit menu.
3. Select the insertion point.
4. Choose the Paste command from the Edit menu.

You can copy information by choosing the Copy command instead of the Cut command in step 2. Copy and paste is completely analogous to cut and paste but does not delete the original information. Either way, the procedure works if the information comes from one document and goes to another, even if the documents were created by different programs. It doesn’t matter whether you transfer text to text, text to a drawing, a drawing to a drawing, or a drawing to text.

A Personable Computer

The popular notion of computers dates back 15 or 20 years to a time when computers studded with flashing lights hunkered in climate-controlled rooms. People viewed computers either as a force that dehumanized society by monitoring tax returns too closely or as some kind of electronic Einstein that put man into space. The development of personal computers has somewhat modified that perception. Progressive thinkers now regard computers as impersonal machines, just so many keys to press and commands to remember. Rudeness is probably the only characteristic anyone would anthropomorphically attribute to them.

The Mac, on the other hand, is a responsive, active, engaging information processing appliance that is incidentally a computer. It doesn’t intrude. It is quiet, takes little space, and doesn’t ask you to remember anything. When you insert a disk, the screen fills with icons representing objects you find on or around your desk. These graphic images soon become very familiar to you, like the actual papers, folders, trash can, and documents they imitate. You copy a document, choose a command, drag an icon, cut and paste a paragraph, sketch an illustration, sum a column of numbers, all by manipulating objects on the screen with the mouse. You tell the Mac what to do and it reacts, not the other way around. You think, “This electronic desktop may not be so absurd or useless after all.” Finally, a computer that doesn’t act like one.

Lon Poole

Macintosh
Apple Computer, Inc.
20525 Mariani Ave.
Cupertino, CA 95014
800/538-9696; in California 800/662-9238
List price: $2495 (includes Macintosh, keyboard, mouse, owner’s manual, system disk, blank disk, power cord, programmer’s switch, two Apple decals, and tutorial disk and audio cassette)

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