title: Set environment variables on Mac OS X Lion
body: <p>When someone says "edit your .plist file" or "your .profile" or ".bash_profile" etc, this just confuses me. I have no idea where these files are, how to create them if I have to do that, etc, and also why there seem to be so many different ones (why? Do they do different things?)</p>
  
  <p>So could someone please explain very patiently to a previous Windows user (wanting desperately to become more familiar with the pleasant if initially somewhat confusing OS X world) how to do this step by step?</p>
  
  <p>I need the variables to be set both for GUI applications and command line applications, and at the moment it's for an ant script that needs the variables, but there will most likely be other needs as well.</p>
  
  <p>Please note that I have Lion too, since many of the answers you get Googling seem to be outdated for Lion...</p>
  
  <p>Also note that I have practically zero experience using the Terminal. I'm willing to learn, but please explain for a novice...</p>