With Mac OS X Tiger, you have control over the system, even if you share your Mac with others. Each person who uses your Mac can customize his or her experience and maintain those settings separately.

Spotlight Your Preferences

Not sure which preference to use to change your Desktop picture? Perhaps you know the Windows term for what you’re looking for but not the corresponding Mac term. Now you can enter keywords into the System Preferences dialog box to find preferences by what they do, by their Mac terminology or by Windows terminology. As you type, related preferences get highlighted and listed in a drop down menu.

As you type in additional letters, your search narrows and fewer preferences are highlighted. A dynamically updating drop-down menu shows possible completion terms, so if you see what you’re looking for you can simply select it from the list. Related terms also appear in the list, even ones that don’t match the letters you typed.

Once you’ve completed entering your search term, only the most likely preferences remain highlighted. If you choose a preference from the drop down menu, an obvious spotlight falls on the preference you selected. Click on the spotlight to open the preference pane you need.

Design Your Desktop

Mac OS X gives you a tasty selection of images to use for your Desktop and for your Screen Saver. In addition to abstract patterns, you can choose a soothing image from nature or your very favorite solid color. You can also choose photographs from any iPhoto Album or album cover art from iTunes directly from the Desktop system preference.

Ready, Set, .Mac

.Mac now features its own System Preferences panel, giving you lots of settings options for your .Mac account in one handy location. Control what and when you want to sync to your .Mac account and across multiple Macs. View your .Mac account status information including renewal dates for paid and trial memberships.

Get Connected

View network status at a glance and connect easily with Network preferences. Use a convenient push button to renew the IP address for DHCP networks automatically. A handy “Assist me…” button offers help if you need it.

Printing Prefs

Preferences for Printing and Faxing let you receive faxes from the built-in modem as a file, in email or printed to any printer. You can fax any Mac OS X document through built-in modem, allow others to send faxes through your computer using printer sharing and share your fax modem with others on your network. The Preview application lets you view multi-page TIFF fax documents. Mac OS X lets you enter personal notes on a cover page when sending faxes. And when it comes time to reorder printer cartridges and supplies, you can do so with one click, right from the Printing preference pane.

Account for Everyone

Set up accounts for the whole family. Mac OS X Tiger gives you more flexibility when setting up your child’s computer profile. You can create an account for your children, for instance, that prevents them from burning CD-ROMs, changing System Preferences, changing Dock items or launching certain applications. And all users can benefit from FileVault security for their home directory.