Icons on the Dock

Keeping with the theme of icons this post is about the icons on the
dock. The Dock is that horizontal bar at the bottom of your screen
that contains icons for some of the more commonly used programs
(programs are also referred to as "applications"). These are simply
shortcuts to the applications that live in your Applications folder.
Any of the icons can be removed from the Dock. All you have to do is
click and drag them up to a space on the desktop. As you do so,
you'll notice that the icon changes and you can now see a puff of
smoke attached to the icon you are dragging. This is to indicate that
you are deleting the shortcut.
If, instead, you want to add an icon to the dock then simply open your
Applications folder and drag one of the icons from the list and down
onto your dock and let go. This action will not remove the icon form
the Applications folder, but will create a shortcut and place it where
you released your mouse button on the dock.