Power Up - Shut Down - Sleep - Restart

Power Up
To start things off you will need to turn on your Mac. The placement of the power button depends on the Mac model you own.

For example, it is placed on the front of the Mac Pro, on the back of the iMac and Mac mini, and underneath the lid on the MacBook and MacBook Pro.

Shut Down
It is advised that you use a proper shut down procedure when you would like to turn off your Mac. If you attempt to turn it off by pressing and holding the power button you run the risk of loosing unsaved data and increase the chance of damaging hardware, more specifically the hard drive. There are several ways to shut down your Mac.

Use the Apple Menu

Click the Apple Icon, then click Shutdown ...

A box will appear asking you to confirm your choice to shutdown and begins a two minute countdown. To confirm either click Shut Down or press the Return (Enter) key.

Use the Keyboard

Simultaneously press the Control-Command-Eject keys.

If any applications have unsaved changes you will be asked to make a decision as follows. Note that you will cycle through all applications with unsaved changes one-by-one.

If you click "Don't Save" you will loose any unsaved changes for that application. If you click "Save" and save the changes, your Mac will continue with the shut down sequence. If you click "Cancel" the shut down sequence will be terminate and a dialog box similar to the following will be shown:

Press Control-Eject

Simultaneously press the Control-Eject keys to display the following and then click Shut Down:

Hold the Power Button

Press and hold the power button for several seconds. Your Mac will abruptly turn off.

If you attempt to turn it off by pressing and holding the power button you run the risk of loosing unsaved work and increase the chance of damaging hardware, more specifically the hard drive.

Sleep
Windows users are familiar with the Stanby mode. Mac OS X offers a similar mode called "Sleep. When you put a Mac to sleep you do not loose unsaved work as everything still resides in memory and all open applications remain active. It's as though your Mac is just taking a break by napping. Just like shutting down, there are several ways to put a Mac to sleep. You can use similar procedures as outlined in Shut Down above for:

Use the Apple Menu
Use the Keyboard
Press Control-Eject

Other ways to put your Mac to sleep include a quick press of the power button or leaving your Mac alone. If the Sleep configuration in the Energy Saver in System Preferences is not set to "Never" your Mac will go to sleep depending on the time configuration.

To wake a sleeping Mac just press a key on the keyboard or press the mouse. You may be asked to enter a password before the Mac will "wake up" depending on the security settings in System Preferences.

Restart
If you ever need to restart your Mac you can use one of several procedures. Once again you can use similar procedures as outlined for Shut Down and Sleep: