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I have had my Mac Mini for a few months, having been pushed over the edge by my adult son who is quite proficient in both Mac and PC. He has helped with all of my goofy questions but there are times that I know it isn't convenient for him to answer a phone call or email with a question. For that reason, I am happy to have found this forum and I hope I don't drive you all nuts with my lack of terminology when asking something!

I recall him telling me something about the icons in the dock below and the little white lines underneath them. Does it slow your computer down if there is an icon with a line under it? If so, how do you remove them? And,does it mean that those programs are open and running if there is a white dash mark under the icon, and is it better to leave the icon but remove the white line? Thanks for your help.
 

Raz0rEdge

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Welcome to Mac-Forums

You've not only found the right forum, but also the right sub-forum to help you through your Mac adventure and we are glad to be of as much or as little help with your questions..

The little light, dash or whatever you wanna call it under each of the application icon in your Dock indicates a running program. In Windows, to close a program, you hit the X button in the top bar. In Mac OS, hitting the X (usually) just closes the window while leaving the application running. To quit the application you have to either hit CMD+q or click on the application name on the top menubar when it's active and choose Quit.

Yes, technically, having an application run without showing any windows is taking up resources and could potentially slow your computer down..so it's generally a good habit to get into CMD+q'ing an application if you're done with it..
 
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Just to add a little something... switchers sometimes get a little too concerned with "what will slow my Mac down?". Many of us leave 2 or more applications running all the time and seldom turn off our Macs when not in use. We usually just put them to sleep when not in use. But back to the point... I never quit Safari and Mail. They're always open and running all the time. Now, Safari can be a bit of memory hog and it's not a bad idea to completely quit it once in a while and re-open it. But not a necessity if you're just using your Mac Mini for simple web-browsing and e-mail.
 
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Thanks to both of you!
1 - Regarding the original question. I used both methods to remove the line, or quit the program, and it worked great except it brought up another question. Why did one of the icons totally disappear? I don't even know what it was but I watched it zip away!
2 - I leave my machine on all the time with mail and Safari open. Sometimes I might have 5 or so tabs open that I switch between. Should I not do this? Some of the sites that I frequent are always listed in the gray line under the address bar but not all. I find it easier ti find them by leaving the tab open. I don't play music in the background so is there any reason to keep iTunes running?
3 - I appreciate the tip about including the spec's of my Mac......if only knew where to find that info! I am going to now look for that answer in the one place where I think it might be. BRB
SUCCESS! It is OS X 10.8.2, 2.3 GHz Processor, 8 GB Memory
I feel like I just passed a pop-quiz, lol.
 
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MacInWin

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On question 1, the icons appear in the Dock (That's what it is called) when they are started. Some icons are there so you can start them from the dock, but if the program you start doesn't have an icon there, one appears. When you close the program the icon goes away for those apps.

On 2, I leave my MacBook Pro running 24/7, and my wife leaves her MacMini running the same. You don't need iTunes running, so it's ok to close. Tabs within Safari are ok, I have multiple myself, but as MyMacRox said, Safari can become a memory hog, so I do cycle it off and then restart once a day.

Congratulations on finding the data. It's pretty easy to find more, by clicking on the apple in the upper left corner of the screen and then About This Mac. Welcome to the Mac world, you'll find lots of helpful folks here!
 
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Your answers have been very helpful. When my son switched me over he tried to give me the easiest transition possible since he was visiting from out of state and wanted me to be able to use it when he left. He since has had me install a program where he can control my computer from his. As I originally stated, I feel badly having to bother him with my questions. Now that I have found this forum I will be happy to be able to come here some of the time, although I promise to not abuse that either.
Having explained that, he might have done some things to help me be able to use my Mini on my on. Such as, I have 25 icons in/on my Dock that stay there all the time. Only 7 of them are running, the Finder, Mail. Messages, Evernote, Skitch (haven't a clue what this is or if I've ever used it), Safari, and Firefox which I put on in order to play a word game that needs it. I have consciously used most of the others at one time or another. Can anyone give me insight as to anything that I might have messed up or other programs that could/should be closed?
Thanks again. I will be silent for a while and enjoy reading some of the entries here that will be very helpful, I'm sure!
 
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Hi julieae . . . I have found the Advanced Search feature on this forum to be of the utmost help. I am still relatively new to Mac and this feature has allowed me to find instant answers and prevent unnecessary threads. I am not referring to your thread in any way, shape, or form. I am simply sharing my experience with the Search feature on the forum. It can be a good friend.
 
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MacInWin

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Skitch is a drawing program from the same folks as Evernote. It lets you make marks on documents that Evernote shares. Finder runs 100% of the time, it's a main way to find files, the rest of the running programs are fine to leave running. I would close Safari once a day, as I said. Unlike Windows, the red X does NOT close programs, it just pushes them into the background, still running. To close them fully you have to close them from the top bar when they are visible and active. Or you can right click on the icon on the dock and a menu shows up with "Quit" as one option.

Don't worry about coming here too often, we've all been in your shoes and know how much help it can take to learn the Mac way of doing things.
 
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To quit the application you have to either hit CMD+q or click on the application name on the top menubar when it's active and choose Quit.

...or right click on the icon in the Dock and choose Quit from the contextual menu (it pops up).
 
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On question 1, the icons appear in the Dock (That's what it is called) when they are started. Some icons are there so you can start them from the dock, but if the program you start doesn't have an icon there, one appears. When you close the program the icon goes away for those apps.

If you don't want the icon to disappear when you Quit the program, one way to keep it there (perhaps the easiest way) is to right click the icon and choose Keep in Dock from the menu.
 
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Thanks once again for the good info. So much to learn but what a great resource here!
 

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