There are several ways of launching an app on your Mac. You can: use the Launchpad, which is found in the Dock; you can open a Finder window and navigate your way to the application you wish to use; or you can click on the Spotlight feature and simply type its name. Here’s how to make use of all these methods.
To open the Launchpad, go to the Dock and click on it, or place four fingers on your trackpad and bring them together. The screen darkens and your apps are shown as icons. To launch an app from this screen, click on it. To close Launchpad, press Esc or click on the desktop.
If you have more than one page of apps, move between them by swiping left and right with two fingers or hold CMD and use the arrow keys. Click and hold on an app and an ‘X’ appears in the top left corner, except for Apple’s own apps. Click the ‘X’ to delete an app.
You can arrange your apps into folders on Launchpad too, just like on an iOS Home screen. Just drag one app onto another and a folder is created. You can click on the name if you wish to change it and to remove an app from that folder, drag it off the grey folder area.
Open and close folders by clicking on and off the folder icon on the Launchpad screen. You can add new apps into the folder by simply dragging them onto the folder. You can also drag apps around the Launchpad window to change the order in which they’re arranged.
Using Spotlight
To launch an app using the Spotlight feature, first click on the magnifying glass found in the top right corner of the screen. A window saying ‘Spotlight Search’ pops up. If it’s inconveniently located, you can drag it around the desktop and move it to wherever you like.
Begin to type the name of the app you want to launch and Spotlight tries to complete it for you. When you see the name of the app, press Enter and it launches. To close the Spotlight search window without launching anything, just click anywhere on the screen.
Using The Finder
You can also launch an app using the Finder. Open a new Finder window (or use one that’s already open) and click on Applications in the sidebar. All of your Mac’s apps are shown. Find the one you want to use and then double click on it to launch.
Using The Dock
You can launch an app from the Dock. If your Dock is hidden, move your pointer to the foot of the screen to reveal it and click on the app you wish to use.
Quitting The Apps
Open apps are shown in the Dock. On the app’s Dock icon, you can click using the right-hand side of a Magic Mouse or trackpad (right- click), hold the Control key and click anywhere (CTRL-click) or click and hold, then click on Quit in the pop-up window.
Alternatively, with the app to the fore in Finder, click on its name in the top left corner and select Quit [app name] from the menu; or hold the Command key and press ‘Q’. Just make sure the app is open on your desktop or you might quit the wrong application.