Easy Mac OS X Lion - Kate Binder [17]
Click Install to redownload an app.
Click Updates to see whether any of your App Store purchases have new versions that you can download and install.
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Note: You Got It
The App Store figures out what Apple programs you already have installed on your Mac and adds them to your Purchased list. This way you don’t accidentally buy apps you already have, and you can update those apps through the App Store.
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Note: Getting Around
Use the arrow buttons at the upper-left corner of the App Store window to move back and forth from screen to screen, just as you would in Safari or iTunes. On app description pages, you can see screen shots at the bottom of the page—click the thumbnails to see each screen shot at full size.
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Starting Applications with Launchpad
Lion’s new Launchpad feature provides a quick and amazingly intuitive way to see what programs you’ve got installed on your Mac and start up any of them with a single click. Launchpad displays all your apps in a neat grid that disappears as soon as you make your choice, and it adds and deletes apps automatically to match what’s installed.
Click the Launchpad icon in the Dock to see all your applications.
Click a dot to move to another screen full of apps.
Click an app’s icon to start up that program.
Press Esc to exit Launchpad without starting any app.
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Note: Begone
To delete an application downloaded from the App Store, click and hold its icon in Launchpad and then click the X that appears. Sadly, you can’t delete apps installed in other ways so easily.
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Tip: Just Swipe Me
If your Mac has a trackpad, you can swipe to the right or left with two fingers on your trackpad to switch screens in Launchpad.
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Organizing Applications with Launchpad
Even though Launchpad is about as neat a presentation as you could wish for, if you have a lot of apps, it can still be hard to get a handle on what you’ve got and find what you want. Fortunately, you can arrange the Launchpad screens to suit your own organizational preferences, and you can add as many screens as you want.
Click the Launchpad icon in the Dock to see all your applications.
Click an app’s icon and drag it off the right or left edge of the screen to move it to another screen of apps.
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Tip: Begone, App!
If you want to delete an application from your Mac completely, you can click and hold its icon in Launchpad until you see an X at its upper-left corner. Click the X to delete the program. Be careful! Don’t click the X unless you’re absolutely sure you don’t want that app anymore.
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Tip: Folded Space
Combine related apps into folders by dragging one icon over another. Launchpad suggests a name for the folder, but you can change the name to whatever you like. Click a folder to see the apps it contains.
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Using Apps in Full-Screen Mode
Years ago, Apple’s Multifinder was an incredible innovation—you could run more than one program at a time, and you could see windows from all your running apps simultaneously. Now that computers can run dozens of programs at the same time, though, all those windows can really clutter up your screen. Full-screen mode fixes that.
Click the double arrows in the corner of a window to expand that window to fill the whole screen.
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Note: Where’d That Come From?
OS X Lion has borrowed its new full-screen mode from iOS, the system that runs on Apple’s smaller devices such as the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.
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Tip: Full-Screen Spaces
For distraction-free multitasking, which may be an oxymoron, try combining full-screen mode with Spaces to set up multiple workspaces, each focused on a single app.
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Choose View, Exit Full Screen (or press Esc) to shrink the current window and see the rest of your windows.
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Note: Half Full or Half Empty?
Only your default display enters full-screen mode