In my experience, when applications are downloaded onto a mac computer, they 
usually are placed by default in the download folder in your home folder. The 
extension on the file that's just been downloaded is usually dmg. sometimes, 
you will see in your finder a folder related to the downloaded application that 
appears automatically in your finder. Open it and you will find there a file 
with the extension, .app. This is normally the application file which you need 
to copy to clipboard. There also often is in the same folder the "application 
alias", which is really in truth the shortcut to your application folder and is 
there for your convenience. You can open it in the normal way and paste your 
application from the clipboard. You would achieve the same result by opening 
your application folder by pressing the shortcut key combination in the finder 
control+shift+a. Paste your application in either way, and you are done.

There is also another type of files downlaoded, which have the extension .pkg. 
They too will be found in your downloads folder. OPen them with command+down 
arrow which will cause the inherent installation application to launch. This is 
more like your Windows experience. In this case, you will need to follow the 
instructions as they appear. Only rarely do you download an application which 
automatically launches its installer.

Hope this helps. 

Best wishes

Simon
On 22 Mar 2011, at 20:58, Denise Avant wrote:

> hi all,
> i have had some difficulty in downloading and installing programs. for 
> example, i just downloaded the acapella english voices. the folder went to 
> the downloads folder on my mac. i highlighted the folder and opened it, so 
> the install would start. i'm not sure if it did or not. earlier today, i had 
> a similar experience where a program was suppose to install, but instead 
> simply downloaded and i had to again go into the downloads folder. i'm trying 
> to understand how the mac behaves with programs that need to be installed if 
> they are not apple programs.
> 
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