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Click the Mouse button in the System Preferences window to display mouse preferences.

Drag the Tracking Speed slider to change how quickly the mouse moves across the screen.

Drag the Scrolling Speed slider to change how fast windows scroll when you use a mouse with a scroll wheel.

Drag the Double-Click Speed slider to change the speed at which you must click in order for your Mac to recognize two clicks as a double-click.

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Note: Scrolling, Scrolling, Scrolling

If you haven’t tried a mouse with a scroll wheel yet, you should make a point of checking one out. This handy little control makes scrolling through long documents or long web pages a breeze—and you can also use it to zoom in and out in graphics programs. Check the Zoom using scroll wheel while holding box at the bottom of the Keyboard & Mouse preferences, and then choose a modifier key that will invoke the zoom function.

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Changing Keyboard Settings

Most aspects of the way a keyboard works are determined by the hardware—in other words, the keyboard itself. However, there are a couple of keyboard settings you can adjust, having to do with how quickly your Mac repeats keys when you hold down a key.

Click the Keyboard button in the System Preferences window to display keyboard preferences.

Drag the Key Repeat slider to control how quickly keys repeat when you hold them down.

Drag the Delay Until Repeat slider to control how long the Mac waits before starting to repeat keys when you hold them down.

Click the Show Keyboard & Character Viewers in menu bar box to add a quick access menu for the Character and Keyboard Viewers, which help you type special characters.

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Note: Taking a Shortcut

You can use the Keyboard Shortcuts tab of the Keyboard & Mouse preferences to choose custom keyboard shortcuts for several Mac OS X system functions: taking screen shots; navigating the Finder using the keyboard; using the Dock, Mission Control, and Dashboard; invoking Spotlight; and more.

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Setting Energy Saver Options

You might not think your quiet little computer, sitting over there in the corner not even moving, could eat up that much electricity—but think again. That’s why the Energy Saver settings are important; they enable you to reduce your Mac’s power consumption during times when you’re not using it. Be sure to take as much advantage of Energy Saver as possible.

Click the Energy Saver button in the System Preferences window to display energy preferences.

Drag the top slider to choose when your Mac will sleep and the bottom slider to set a separate time for when your monitor will sleep.

Click the check box if you want the hard drive to sleep.

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Note: Hurry Hurry

If you’re always in a hurry when you come back to your computer, don’t set the hard drive to sleep. The monitor wakes up from sleep instantly, but it takes a few moments for the hard drive to spin back up to speed when it wakes up.

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Click the Schedule button to display scheduled startup and shutdown options.

Check the box and choose when to start up the Mac automatically.

Check the box and choose when to shut down the Mac automatically.

Click OK.

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Tip: Are You Getting Sleepy?

Sleep is a state between powered up and powered down. A sleeping computer consumes much less power, but it’s not completely turned off. Of course, it wakes up more quickly than it boots up from a powered-down state.

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Note: Quick Start

In step 6, you can also set your Mac to sleep at a particular time instead of shutting down. This is a good choice if you keep programs running all the time that you don’t want to have to start up again every day.

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Setting the Time and Date

If you opt to set the date and time yourself, you can do it by clicking a calendar and dragging clock hands—no messy typing needed! If you have a constant or frequent online connection, you