Installing Applications

Jan 21

To every Switcher whom I explain this, they respond, “That’s it?”
Unlike Windows, where applications litter your hard drive with all sorts of files, the Mac was designed to have its applications installed as “bundles”, essentially including everything the app needs to run in a single file.

For nearly all applications on the Mac, installing and uninstalling applications is as simple as a drag and drop action.

Let’s look at one:

Here’s an application that I’ve downloaded from the web (the Adium IM client). It has been packaged up as a “Disk Image” file. Disk Images end with the file extension “.dmg”.

Double-click the Disk Image and your Mac will “mount” it as if it were a hard drive or USB thumb drive - you’ll see what appears to be a disk on your desktop.

Double-click to open it. Inside you’ll find the application and other supporting documents or files.

The application needs to be placed in your “Applications” folder. Double-click the “Macintosh HD” on your desktop. One of the folders in that window will say “Applications.”

Double-click this folder to open it. You will see a list or group of all your applications.

Drag the application from the Disk Image (in this case, the Duck labeled “Adium”) into your Applications folder, then depress the mouse. The application will be copied to your Applications folder, then appear in the group or list.

You’re done! Your application is installed. Now, ask yourself this question: Am I going to use this application frequently?

If the answer is no, then you really don’t need to do anything further. When you want to launch it, open your Applications folder, find the application and double-click to launch it. If the answer is yes, you may want to put its icon in your Dock.

Select the application and drag it anyplace on your Dock to the left of the vertical line that appears in the Dock.

(The above image is a snapshot of my dock. I’ve already changed the Dock icon to be a blue duck instead of a green one. More on this later.)

Now, you need to do a little clean up.

Unmounting the Disk Image

Select the mounted Disk Image on your desktop and drag it over the Trash Can in the Dock. The Trash Can icon will turn into an upward facing arrow, known as the “Eject” icon. Depress the mouse. Your Disk Image will disappear from your desktop.

Trashing the .dmg file

One final thing. Remember that file we started with that ends in file extension “.dmg”? Let’s throw it in the trash. Drag the file into the trash can.