Now that you have your Mac running the latest version of OS X, let's go over how to install applications. Mac applications are packages that gets copied into the Appplications folder. There are a couple of different ways that happens.
Copying the application package into the Applications folder
For some applications, the download will simply be the application pacakge, possibly compressed. If you download the application using Safari, the application will automatically be decompressed when it gets download. In this case, you use Finder to go to your Downloads folder, and then application file into the Applications folder. If you are using another browser such as Chrome or Firefox, you will have to decompress the download by double-clicking on the file in the Downloads folder in Finder, and they you can drag the file into the Applications folder.
Alfred App is an example of an application that is installed this way. It is a free tool that helps you with launching applications, among other things. We'll look at using Alfred later in this guide.
Copying the application package into the Applications folder from a disk image
For some applications, instead of downloading the application file, you download a disk image, which is a file that ends in .dmg. Once the disk image has downloaded, you double-click that in Finder to mount it, and then you will have a window to drag the application into your applications folder. Once you have installed the application, you can eject the disk in Finder and delete the .dmg file that was downloaded.
To see a good example of this, go to getfirefox.com. They have good instructions there with photos to guide you through the process.
Running an installer
Some applications come packaged as an installer that you run, which may set up some system settings in addition to installing the application. We will see an example of this later.
An example of this is Libre Office. Libre Office is a free, open-source suite of applications similar to Microsoft Office. If you want to be able o view and edit word and excel documents, install Libre Office.
From the Mac App Store
The Mac App Store allows you to search for applications, pay for them and install them. We will see an example of this later. This is a common way of installing application that you have to pay for, because you can pay for them using you Apple account directly in the app store.
There are of course free applications in the Mac App Store as well. One example is Twitter, the free social-networking app. To install an app via the Mac App Store, simply click on the App Store icon in the dock and search for Twitter.
If you don't know what the dock is or how to use it, then don't worry! The next section covers the dock and other methods of launching application.