Lesson #8: APPEARANCE

How do I change the desktop appearance of my computer?

Now that you've got a basic understanding of how your computer works, it's time for the FUN STUFF: customizing the way your computer looks and behaves. To change your computer's overall appearance, go "Under the Apple" to CONTROL PANELS and slide up to APPEARANCE, which is at the top of the list.

This will open a window that shows a number of tabs at the top. The first tab is called "THEMES" which makes a number of changes with one click of the mouse. A theme changes the desktop pattern, fonts, and highlight colors. Choose a theme and watch how your computer settings change! Experiment with different themes, explore, have FUN!

You'll notice that each theme shows you three changes:

1) The thick bar in front is called the 'status bar' which appears when you are downloading and installing items on your computer

2) The window behind the status bar shows you what the font will look like. Notice the lettering at the top of the window. Each theme has a unique font associated with it.

3) The window in the back shows you what your desktop pattern will look like. You can choose anything from a solid color to cool 3D patterns that came loaded on your computer.

The next tab at the top is called APPEARANCE. If you see a bar with little up-and-down triangles, you can click and a pull-down menu will appear. "Apple Platinum" is the default setting. You can change this by highlighting a different choice in the pull-down menu.

Highlight color is what appears when you click and drag over text. You have control over the color that is shown when you highlight text. Try it now! Click and drag over some text on this page, and notice the highlight color. Now, try changing the highlight color by using the Appearance Control Panel.

The FONTS tab allows you to change the font of all menu tabs at the top of every page. Experiment with this tab and choose a font that suits your needs.

Large System Font is the fonts that appear at the top of a page. Small System Font is the font that appears in the Control Strip, and other minor menus. Choose a different font from the "Large System Font" pull-down menu and notice the changes to the menu bar at the top of your page. Try it!

You can even adjust the size of the fonts to make things easier to see!

The DESKTOP tab has lots of goodies for changing the background picture of your computer. Choose a pattern on the right side of your screen, and you can see a preview of what the pattern looks like. Click SET DESKTOP and the background will change!

You can even make a personal photo your background picture by clicking "Place Picture". Just be sure you know what the file is called and where it is located on your computer (these are usually files that end in ".jpg")

Watch a movie about changing your desktop THEME! CLICK HERE (:35)

Watch a movie about the other Appearance Tabs! CLICK HERE! (:56)

No QUIZ for this lesson, since it's up to YOU to decide how to customize your computer!

CONGRATULATIONS! You've made it through the lessons! Only two more steps to go:

1) Explore some Internet Links about Macintosh computers.

2) After you've spent some time looking at the links page, be sure to continue to the last step, CONCLUSION / FEEDBACK.

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