2.7 Houston, We’re Go to Launch Programs

     The next stop on your introductory tour of OS X is the starting point for your applications. Although Finder is useful, you’ll likely want to actually do something with your Mac as well.

Starting applications from your hard drive

     You can launch an application from your hard drive by

✦ Clicking the Launchpad icon on the Dock (it’s the second one by default, just to the right of the Finder icon) to display all your application icons in a full-screen display. If you have more than one screen (or page) worth of applications, press the arrow keys to move between Launchpad pages. With a Magic Trackpad or Magic Mouse, swipe two fingers to the left or right. To launch an application, just click the icon. Figure 2-15 illustrates Launchpad in action. (If you’re a proud owner of an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, you’ll be familiar with Launchpad already because it corresponds directly to the Home screen on those devices.)

✦ Navigating to the corresponding application folder — by either clicking or double-clicking drive and folder icons — and double-clicking the application icon.
✦ Double-clicking a document or data file that’s owned by the application. For example, double-clicking an MP3 audio file runs iTunes.
✦ Double-clicking an alias that you’ve created for the application. (Get the skinny on aliases in the earlier section, “Aliases.” I’ll wait.)
✦ Clicking the application’s icon on the Dock (more on adding items to the Dock in Book II, Chapter 2).
✦ Selecting the application icon and pressing the ⌘+O keyboard shortcut.
✦ Adding the application to your Login Items list. (I cover the Login Items list in more detail in Book II, Chapter 3.)

Running applications from a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM

     After you load a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM, you can display its contents by double-clicking the disc icon that appears on your Desktop. A Finder window opens and shows the files that reside on the disc, as shown in Figure 2-16.
     After you locate the application you want to run on the disc, you can launch it by double-clicking it, or by selecting it and pressing ⌘+O.