The System Preferences Window You can open System Preferences in dozens of ways. Most people choose its name from the menu or click its icon in the Dock. | . The System Preferences Window You can open System Preferences in dozens of ways. Most people choose its name from the menu or click its icon in the Dock. But Option-volume key one of the speakeradjustment keys on the top row of the keyboard or Option-brightness keys opens System Prefs too. These tricks open the Sound and Displays panes respectively but you can then click Show All or press -L to see the full spread. Tip If you know the name of the System Preferences panel you want it s often quicker to use Spotlight. To open Energy Saver for example hit -Space type ener and then press -Enter. See Chapter 3 for more on operating Spotlight from the keyboard. At first the rows of icons are grouped according to function Personal Hardware and so on Figure 9-1 top . But you can also view them in tidy alphabetical order as shown at bottom in Figure 9-1. That can spare you the ritual of hunting through various rows just to find a certain panel icon whose name you already know. Quick without looking Which row is Date Time in This chapter describes the various panels following this alphabetical arrangement. Figure 9-1. You can view your System Preferences icons alphabetically top rather than in rows of arbitrary categories bottom just choose View Organize Alphabetically. This approach not only saves space but also makes finding a certain panel much easier because you don t need to worry about which category it s in. Either way when you click one of the icons the corresponding controls appear in the main System Preferences window. To access a different preference pane you have a number of options Fast When System Preferences first opens the insertion point is blinking in the new System Preferences search box. If the insertion point is not blinking there press -F. Type a few letters of volume resolution wallpaper wireless or whatever feature you want to adjust. In a literal illustration of Spotlight s power the System Preferences window darkens except for the icons where .
