. The Trash No single element of the Macintosh interface is as recognizable or famous as the Trash can, which now appears at the end of the Dock. | . The Trash No single element of the Macintosh interface is as recognizable or famous as the Trash can which now appears at the end of the Dock. You can discard almost any icon by dragging it onto the Trash icon actually a wastebasket not a trash can but let s not quibble . When the tip of your arrow cursor touches the Trash icon the little wastebasket turns black. When you release the mouse you re well on your way to discarding whatever it was you dragged. As a convenience Mac OS X even replaces the empty-wastebasket icon with a wastebasket-filled-with crumpled-up-papers icon to let you know there s something in there. Tip Learn the keyboard alternative to dragging something to the Trash Highlight the icon and then press -Delete. This technique is not only far faster than dragging but requires far less precision especially if you have a large screen. Mac OS X does all the Trash-targeting for you. . Rescuing Files and Folders from the Trash File and folder icons sit in the Trash forever or until you choose Finder Empty Trash whichever comes first. If you haven t yet emptied the Trash you can open its window by clicking the wastebasket icon once. Now you can review its contents icons that you ve placed on the waiting list for extinction. If you change your mind you can rescue any of these items by dragging them out of the Trash window. Tip If dragging something to the Trash was the last thing you did you can press - Z the keyboard shortcut of the Edit Undo command. This not only removes it from the Trash but also returns it to the folder from which it came. This trick works even if the Trash window isn t open. . Emptying the Trash I Quick and Easy If you re confident that the items in the Trash window are worth deleting use any of these three options Choose Finder Empty Trash. Press Shift- -Delete. Or if you d just as soon not bother with the Are you sure message throw the Option key in there too. Control-click the wastebasket icon or right-click it or
