Examine Your Dock

Though you don’t have a start button on a Mac, you do have the Dock—that gray bar with icons at the bottom of your screen that holds short cuts to your programs. This will be your home. You can change its size and placement on the screen by going to system preferences (either on your dock or search for it in Spotlight), and clicking on the Dock icon. You can also tell it to magnify the icons on your dock when you roll your mouse over it. Play around with the settings until you are comfortable with it.

Now that you have placed your Dock in a spot that is pleasing to you, literally open each program on it and figure out how to close the windows. This is a fun way to see exactly what is installed on your new Mac. Opening and closing programs can often be the hardest first step for a new Mac user. After years of being trained to look for the little X on the top right of a window in a PC, it will take some adjustment to seek your new X on the left side of the window. Remember, though, you are only closing out the window when you hit that little X. To close out the program you have to go to the menu at the top and click File-> Quit program.

That little black triangle (or blue light if you're in Leopard)  next to the program icon in your dock is an indicator to you that the program is not fully closed.