All about icons on your Mac

Computer Basics
for WIT 2001
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All about icons on your Mac

Icons on a computer are pictures that represent -- something. There are four main kinds of icons:

Volume Icons

Volume Icons represent devices that hold files and folders. Floppy disks, CDs, hard drives, Zip disks, these are all examples of volumes. The most common volume icon is that of the Hard Drive icon.


 

Folder Icons

Folder Icons represent collections of documents and other folders. All folders live within some volume, including the Desktop itself.

Folder icons
 

Document Icons

Document Icons represent individual document files -- files you create and edit. As example: if you create a memo to your boss and save that file, you computer will represent that document with an icon, a document icon.

Document icons

Activity 1-Identify Those Icons

(This activity assumes a group setting.)
  1. Double-click to open the hard drive.
  2. Identify each of the kinds of icons you see within the hard drive directory window, based on the images above.
The screenshot below shows an example of a hard drive with my count.

Macintosh Hard Drive image.

 

I count seven folders fully visible and five documents.

  1. Compare your count with your colleague next to you.
Note that individual hard drives are set up differently; expect your count to differ from others.
 

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