Mac users?

[funkcicle]

I bit the bullet and bought my first Mac today, a G4 notebook. I know there are some other mac users on the board, so I thought I'd start a thread asking for tips and tricks for new Mac users like myself. Good websites? Useful utilities? Cool downloads? Shortcuts?

I learned Apple-Alt-Drag this evening! (had to go into a chatroom and ask )

[TMurphy]

Ok...two little shortcuts that will make your life about 1,000 easier.

Apple + W to close a window, and Appel + Q to quit a program.

Unlike Windows, these are two seperate things on a Mac. Closing a window does not close the program, just that window of the program.

[Chuck(G)]

Unlike Windows, these are two seperate things on a Mac. Closing a window does not close the program, just that window of the program.

Windows distinguishes between "Minimize" (make the window go away, but leave the program running) and "Close" (end the program).

Basically the same deal.

[corbasse]

Yes, but if you click on the button with the cross in the left/right top corner of the window, Windows will close the application, whereas Apple will only close the window and leave the application running.

[Chuck(G)]

Yes, but if you click on the button with the cross in the left/right top corner of the window, Windows will close the application, whereas Apple will only close the window and leave the application running.

That's what the button with the line in it is for! Or doesn't Apple have a button like that?

[corbasse]

Yes, on a mac you also have three buttons doing basically the same as in Windows.
The only difference is, that as a Windows user, you click on the cross and the program is closed. On Mac it isn't. You *have* to close the application using apple-Q or the menu.
Still gets me confused, since I only use a mac at work, and I've only been there for a year...

[funkcicle]

thanks! That is indeed helpful.. I've been using the menu to manually close apps.

Does anybody know any good 3rd party sites for hardware peripherals? Seems a lot more difficult to find mac specific sites than I thought.

[Carroll]

Just remember:

config.batch.sys

actually... forget that!

http://www.cdw.com/webcontent/land/page/mw_welcome.asp

http://www.macconnection.com/home

http://www.zones.com/cgi-bin/zones/site ... l?zone=mac

http://www.macmall.com[/i]

[funkcicle]

Then I'd be computerless, or stuck with Windows computers on which I just don't have the time to keep up with virus/nuissance removal and innoculation.

[funkcicle]

Just remember:

config.batch.sys

actually... forget that!

{...}

thanks!

[JB]

my advice is emtpy the HD and return it. <3

Highly intelligent response...NOT!!!!

Honestly, why bother wasting time and space uttering such drivel?

[Leland]

Yes, on a mac you also have three buttons doing basically the same as in Windows.
The only difference is, that as a Windows user, you click on the cross and the program is closed. On Mac it isn't. You *have* to close the application using apple-Q or the menu.
Still gets me confused, since I only use a mac at work, and I've only been there for a year...

The reason why is so that, on a Mac, the app and the document are separate "entities" on the user end. You can close the last document of an application, and when you need to open another, you don't have to restart the application again.

Another tip:

Make friends with Exposé. Greatest improvement to the user interface that I've seen in years. It's one step away from the gesture-based stuff that Tom Cruise was doing in Minority Report, especially when you assign Exposé actions to screen corners. I can start dragging something, whip it into a corner to expose all the windows, hover it over the window that I want to drop it into, let it come to the front, and just drop it into place. It's even easier than it is to describe.

You're going to keep finding little things here & there. For example, select some text here. Go up and click the Safari menu (you're not using IE, right?), go to Services, then TextEdit, and choose New Window from Selection. Bingo, a new text document that contains whatever you selected.

Screenshots! Easy. Apple-shift-3 for the whole screen, Apple-shift-4 to select a specific area (and, if you want to take a shot of just one window, press the spacebar... press it again to go back to the area selection cursor).

Ok, I'm going to ramble on for the rest of the night. You'll find a lot of features in Help. You'll also find a lot of features & tricks by just trying them out. If you think, "Hmm.. can I do this...", then try it, and it just might happen.

[Leland]

thanks! That is indeed helpful.. I've been using the menu to manually close apps.

(what am I still doing awake???)

Learn those keyboard shortcuts that are in the menus. Also notice that they will change depending on what modifier keys you have pressed. For example, go click on File. While its menu is visible, press the Option key, and notice what changes.

I'll suggest one thing -- let your computer run all day and all night. Set the display to turn off after a while, but the computer itself doesn't need to go to sleep, or even to be shut down. It'll run regular maintenance on its own.

Oh yeah -- get an iPod, too. Then go find the freeware app Carbon Copy Cloner and duplicate your notebook's HD onto the iPod. I've got my entire iBook backed up on my 40 gig iPod, and I can boot from the iPod itself if I ever need to. My whole computer is in my pocket.

[TMurphy]

I personally have no problem with windows. I just run Adware occasionally when its running odd. And it finds crap and i quarentine it. that's all she wrote.

Why should you have to do that?

Yeah, running Adware from time to time might solve your problems. You also might end up reinstaling Windows 4 times before solving whatever stupid problem you have. When I'm at school, the university makes all Windows students download and run McAffee Antivirus, along with some spyware programs so that they can make sure McAffee is running. If you use a Mac, it is, "suggested you use virus protection." That's all. No requirements, no spyware, no nothing. I like that.

As to the whole minimize/close thing: yes, Mac does have a minimize button. It is the middle yellow button, which minimizes the window into the dock (kinda like the taskbar). The red button, much like the x in windows, closes a window. The difference is, in Windows, if you close the IE window, IE is now closed. In Mac-world, if you close the browser window (hopefully Safari), the window is closed, the program is still active.

[funkcicle]

Thanks for the tips, Leland. I'd started to play around with Exposé a bit when I read your post.. what an innovative concept, really lets you maximise use of your screen real estate. I got the 12.1" iBook, partly because of price, but also the longer batter life. I've got iPod on my xmas list... just bought an iSight camera today.. with close family in a dozen+ cities in 4 countries on 3 continents, this thing will pay for itself!

Apple gives a very nice discount to anybody affiliated with military or higher education institutions.. bring in a student loan receipt and they'll even give you the discount. I got $100 off the iBook and $20 off the iSight..I think they give about $25 off the iPod. Very classy outfit, Macintosh is.. I think my Dell Inspiron might end up on eBay next week!

cheers!

[dopey]

out of curiousity which one did you get? The i books are considerably cheaper, tho im not sure why. Im sure its cause of included ability

I'm not very up on mac's, i've always been a PC guy mainly because I built my own and thats not done int he mac world. However im looking at getting a mac laptop over a pc laptop for college.

[TMurphy]

Eh? Well i foudn mac to be like AOL, they block a lot of your opinions, and dont let you get certain things.

That statement holds no water. In fact, I'm not totally certain what that means. Owning a Mac blocks your opinions???

As for the reason iBooks are cheaper than Powerbooks...Powerbooks are available with much higher end hardware. Video cards, processors, memory, etc....much more variability and quality in the Powerbook than the iBook...and hopefully, Apple will unveil a G5 powerbook soon, making the difference even larger.

[dopey]

not to turn this into a tech thread, but is the g5 release soon? I assume if the G5 is released, G4 prices should drop?

I think it be interesting to see what students now a days use @ college, is there any reason not to use a mac.

[Leland]

not to turn this into a tech thread, but is the g5 release soon?

The absolute soonest would be at MacWorld San Francisco in January, but I seriously doubt that we'll see a portable G5 for a while. It's a significant step up in power consumption and heat (although still not as draining as comparable Intel and AMD 64-bit chips), and IBM is still getting the power needs down to a level that's reasonable enough for portables.

Another usage tip: Get to know the sidebar in your Finder windows. You can configure it like the folder (right-hand) side of the Dock. Say, for example, that I have some documents on my desktop that I want to store on my iPod. I plug in my iPod, navigate to the folder on it that I want to use (for me, it's "New Stuff"), and drag that folder into its own spot on the sidebar. Then I click on the Desktop (also in the sidebar), select the files I want to move, and drag them onto the New Stuff folder that I just added in the sidebar. Once I'm done, I drag New Stuff off of the Sidebar, let go, and it disappears in a puff of smoke.

You can also add folders & things to the blank space in the top of the Finder's windows.

iBook vs. PowerBook? There are just two main things from a user standpoint, really: monitor spanning and available Superdrive. The iBook's external video only mirrors the iBook's own display, while the PowerBooks can span from one monitor to another (like, keep your tools on the PowerBook's display while showing the document on a large external monitor). However, there's a firmware hack that allows monitor spanning on an iBook.

You can send your iBook to a third party to have a Superdrive installed, but that's just more work.

I've got a 12" iBook, too, and like I said, Expose is probably the most useful thing they've come up with yet. I'd also really like to see how Dashboard works itself into daily use in OS 10.4.

[DonShirer]

Despite being one of the original Mac owners, I'm still learning things about the operating system. You might consider subscribing to a user-oriented publication like MacWorld (or just look at their website). They are especially good about giving tips on using OS X.