Chapter 10

Getting Help for the Big X

In This Chapter

Using the OS X Help Center

Searching for specific help

Getting help in applications

Finding other help resources

Whether the voice echoes from a living room, home office, or college computer lab, it’s all too familiar: a call for help. No matter how well written the application or how well designed the operating system, sooner or later, you’re going to need support. That goes for everyone from the novice to the experienced Mac owner and from the occasional email user to the most talented software developer.

In this short but oh-so-important chapter, I lead you through the various help resources available in OS X as well as native OS X applications. I show you how to tap additional resources from Apple, and I point you to other suppliers of assistance on the Internet and in your local area.

Displaying the Help Center Window

Your first line of defense is OS X Help Center, as shown in Figure 10-1. To display Help Center from the Finder menu, click Help and choose Mac Help. This Help menu is context-sensitive, so it contains different menu items when you’re working inside an application.

As shown in Figure 10-1, Help Center is divided into three sets of controls:

• Toolbar: The toolbar includes navigational controls (Back, Forward, and Show/Hide Sidebar buttons), a Share button (where you can print a topic), and the Search Help text box.
• Quick Clicks: Clicking these links in the Sidebar at the left takes you directly to some of the most frequently asked Help topics for Finder (or the application you’re using), such as Connect to the Internet and Create, Organize, and Print Documents. You can display the contents of a top-level Help topic by clicking the topic name, which displays more specific subtopics — rather like the top level in Microsoft Word’s outline view.
• Topic Links: If a link appears within the text of a Help topic at the right side of the window, you can click the link to display related Help items.

I know that Help Center looks a little sparse at first glance. However, when you realize how much information has to be covered to help someone with an operating system — check out the size of the book you’re holding, for instance — you get an idea of why OS X doesn’t try to cover everything on one screen. Instead, you get the one tool that does it all: the Spotlight search box.

Searching for Specific Stuff

To search for the help topic you need, here are two paths to righteousness:

• From the Finder Help menu: Wowzers! In Yosemite, you don’t even have to open Help Center to search for assistance on a specific topic. Just choose Help from the Finder menu (or press the +Shift+/ shortcut). Click in the Search box right there in the menu, and type a keyword or two.

  Although you can ask a full-sentence question, I find that the shorter and more concise your search criteria, the more relevant your results.

  As when using the Spotlight Search box, you don’t need to press Return; just click the topic that sounds the most helpful.

• From Help Center: Click in the Search Help text box at the right side of the toolbar, type one or two words that sum up your question, and press Return. Figure 10-2 illustrates a typical set of topics concerning the Desktop. Clicking a topic displays the help text, as shown in Figure 10-3.

In the Help Center window, topics that appear in the Search the Web section require an active Internet connection to view.

To move back to the previous topic you viewed, click the Back button on the Help Center toolbar.

Prodding Apple for the Latest Gossip

I heartily recommend that you visit the Apple website at www.apple.com and surf wildly to and fro. You’ll often pick up on news and reviews that you won’t find anywhere else on the Internet.

From the opening web screen, don’t forget to click the Hot News link at the bottom of the page and the Support tab at the top of the page during every visit to the Apple site. These pages give you these things:

• Articles about the latest news from Cupertino
• Downloads of the latest OS X freeware, shareware, and demoware
• The Knowledge Base (an online searchable troubleshooting reference)
• News about upcoming versions of OS X and Apple applications galore

You’ll also find OS X product manuals in Adobe Acrobat PDF format and online discussion forums that cover OS X.

Calling for Help Deep in the Heart of X

A number of different help avenues are available in OS X applications as well, including these:

• The Help button: A number of otherwise upstanding OS X windows, dialogs, and System Preferences panes include a Help button, as shown in the lower-right corner of Figure 10-4. Click the button marked with a question mark (?) to display the text for the settings in that dialog or window.
• Pop-up help for fields and controls: Most OS X applications display a short line of help text when you hover your pointer on top of a field or control. Sometimes the text displays just the name of the item; sometimes it’s a full descriptive line. Them’s the breaks.
• Application-specific help: Applications typically have their own help system, which can use the Help Center window, a separate help display program, or a HyperText Markup Language (HTML; read that web-based) help system.

Other Resources to Chew On

Although Help Center can take care of just about any question that you might have about the basic controls and features of OS X, you might also want to turn to other forms of help when the going gets a little rougher. In this last section, I cover resources that you can call on when Help Center just isn’t enough.

Voice support

As of this writing, Apple provides voice technical support for OS X. You can find the number to call in your Mac’s printed manuals or online in the Support section of the Apple website. However, exactly when you qualify for voice support and exactly how long it lasts depends on a number of factors, such as whether you received OS X when you bought a new machine or whether you purchased a support plan from Apple.

Apple offers a support plan — One to One — for those new Mac owners with an Apple retail store nearby. For a one-year, $99 membership, Apple techs can set up your Mac, provide personal support, demonstrate how to use your software, and provide you with training sessions.

You can also try the general online support site at www.apple.com/support — it’s a great starting point for obtaining OS X help.

Mac publications and resource sites

You can refer to a number of great Mac-savvy publications and resources, both printed and online, for help. These are my favorites:

• Macworld (www.macworld.com), both in archaic hard copy and oh-so-slick online versions
• Inside Mac Games (www.insidemacgames.com), the online gaming resource for the Macintosh
• Download.com (www.versiontracker.com), an online resource for the latest updates on all sorts of Macintosh third-party applications

In some of my books, I mention specific Internet newsgroups that cater to the topic I’m discussing; however, most Mac-specific newsgroups are devoted to illegally swapping pirated games and applications, so I don’t cover them. Also, the help that you receive from individuals in newsgroups is sometimes misguided — and sometimes downright wrong — so take any claims with a grain of salt.

As a general rule, never identify yourself or provide your snail-mail or email addresses in a newsgroup post! These messages are public, and they remain hanging around in cyberspace on newsgroup servers for years, leaving you a prime target for spam (or even worse).

Local Mac outlets and user groups

Finally, you can find local resources in any medium-size to large town or city: A shop that’s authorized by Apple to sell and repair Macintosh computers can usually be counted on to answer a quick question over the phone or provide more substantial support for a fee. (For example, my local Mac outlet sponsors inexpensive classes for new Mac owners, and the Genius Bar is a great resource if you can reach an Apple Store.)

You might also be lucky enough to have a local Macintosh user group that you can join; members can be counted on for free answers to your support questions at meetings and demonstrations. To find a group near you, visit the Apple User Group Support site at www.apple.com/usergroups and click the Find a Group link.