How to open an Application Program on your Macintosh

How to open an Application Program on your Macintosh

What is an Application Program?

An application program is a set of software files on your computer that creates an environment where you can create or edit documents.

That's the short version. Here are a few more words about this.

Synonyms Explained

We computer people have developed a set of terms to confound the innocent. Here are some explanations:

Application = Program

The term Application can be used interchangeably with the term Program. Sometimes they'll be used in the same sentence!

Open = Run = Launch

To Open or Run or Launch a Program Application means to startup that program so you can begin using it.

First Method: Activity 1: Hunting up an Application Program

1) Double-click on the icon of the hard drive (usually in the upper right of the desktop). Here's an example of what a hard drive icon might look like:

2) This will open a directory window showing the contents of the hard drive: Note that your particular Mac may differ from the screen shot below! But it may look something like this:

2) Open the Application folder icon and look for an icon named SimpleText. This will open a document window where you can type. (SimpleText is an elementary word processing program.)

You've opened an application!

We'll use SimpleText later to create and save a document.

A cool trick to open programs

Here's a quick way to open programs that have recently been opened.

1) Call down the Apple Menu (the Apple symbol in the upper left of the menu bar at the top of the screen):

2) One of the menu items in the Apple Menu is Recent Applications. This is a cascading menu. If you highlight any of the items in that cascading menu and click the mouse you'll launch that program. Cascading menus look like this:

 

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