The image that appears on your screen behind any files or hard drives that are displayed on your Desktop is called the Desktop background. Because this is the fi rst area that you see on your Mac and because much of your computing time is spent here managing files, it stands to reason that you’d want to customize its appearance with images that reflect your personality or mood.
1. Press the Apple menu button in the upper left corner of your screen and choose System Preferences.
2. Click the Desktop & Screen Saver icon under the Personal section of the System Preferences pane to display the Desktop & Screen Saver preference pane.
3. Make sure that the Desktop button is selected at the top of the pane; you see various options for setting your Desktop background. At the top of the pane, you see that the current Desktop background is Aurora.
4. Select the Nature category in the sidebar, then click the Ladybug image to the right. Your Desktop background changes to that image. You may need to move the Desktop & Screen Saver preference pane out of the way to see your new Desktop background. Choose some other images to see what they look like as Desktop backgrounds.
5. Select the Plants category in the sidebar, then click the Dandelion image to set that image as your Desktop background. Whenever you choose a new image, that image is displayed at the top of the preference pane, indicating that it is the active Desktop background.
6. Continue experimenting with the other categories in the sidebar, which include Black & White, Abstract, and Solid Colors.
Some beautiful images have been provided for you in the categories within the sidebar that are sure to provide inspiration when you are working. However, you are not limited by the default choices provided; you can also use your own images as Desktop backgrounds.
7. At the bottom of the sidebar in the Desktop & Screen Saver preference pane, you see an item called Folders. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the word Folders to expand the Folders category. Within the Folders category there is a folder called Pictures. Select the Pictures folder to display the contents of your Pictures folder. If you have any images in the root of the Pictures folder, they are displayed in the area to the right of the sidebar. Because your images are filed in subfolders of the Pictures folder, they are not displayed. In order to see the images within those subfolders, you need to add those subfolders to the sidebar to make them accessible.
8. Click the plus sign (+) at the bottom of the preference pane.
9. In the sidebar, select your Home folder, click the Pictures folder, then click the Creative folder; press Choose. The Creative folder is now displayed in the sidebar, and the images within that folder are displayed to the right.
10. Select the boat image to make it the active Desktop background.
The bottom of the Desktop & Screen Saver preference pane provides additional options for customizing your Desktop background.
Change picture automatically changes the picture of your Desktop background within the category that you have selected. You can also choose how often the picture is changed from the list to the right.
Random is only available when the Change picture check box is enabled. It randomly chooses the next image within the category that is selected.
Translucent menu bar reduces the opacity of the menu bar at the top of your screen so that the image can be seen through the menu bar.
11. Set the Desktop background back to the default by clicking the Nature category and choosing the Aurora image.
12. Close the Desktop & Screen Saver preference pane by pressing the Close button in the upper left corner.
Screen savers were initially developed because if an image remained in the same position on a screen for long periods of time, it could actually burn into the computer screen and leave a ghosted version of that image on the screen at all times. Fortunately for you, that problem is no longer a factor on modern CRT and LCD displays. Currently, screen savers serve one of two purposes: to provide security so that nobody can access your computer when you have stepped away from your desk and to simply provide an attractive image or animation to look at after your computer experiences a period of inactivity.
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