Apple 145 manual What’s on the desktop?, Icons represent containers

The window closes, and the Macintosh HD icon reappears in its previous form.

The Trash window (the remaining window on the Macintosh desktop) becomes the active window.

4.Close the Trash window by choosing Close Window from the File menu.

You choose Close Window by pointing to the File menu title, pressing to pull down the menu, dragging to the Close Window command, and, with the command highlighted, releasing the trackball button.

Of course, you can also close the window by clicking its close box.

What’s on the desktop?

Just as a desk’s large flat surface is its work space, the Macintosh “desktop” is the work space on your computer. The desktop metaphor gives you a familiar way of thinking about how to use the Macintosh.

Aside from the field of gray that represents the “surface” of your work space, the Macintosh desktop has icons, windows, and menus.

nIcons represent containers.

nWindows let you view what’s inside the containers.

nMenus list actions that you can apply to selected containers or their contents.

Icons represent containers

Icons can contain other icons, or they can contain information.

For example, the startup hard disk icon contains the System Folder icon. The System Folder icon contains the programs (also represented by icons) that in turn contain the information the Macintosh needs to start itself up and work properly.

46 Chapter 2: Working on the Desktop