So we finally get our Macs as part of the innovation wave at Nextpoint (wahoo!). For the past 2-4 or so years I pretty much worked exclusively on PCs and had to re-familiarize myself with the Mac OS as well as learn all the new features that come with Leopard and boy am I happy. I spent about 8 hours straight without wanting to put my 15″ 4GB MacBook Pro down, and being the resident geek I am, I was on a quest to quickly flip over, so the transition between the two operating systems was seemless. Besides being a beautiful, sleek, and convenient horse (my HP desktop replacement laptop from a couple of years ago weights about 11 lbs compared to about 5) the Mac provides a new user focused way of getting things done.
First time computer users who start off with a Mac, will probably get comfortable with the interface in a fraction of the time it will take a seasoned PC user. The switch isn’t exactly seamless. The first thing I did is Google “new mac user” and looked for results that offered “conversion” to how things used to get done on a PC.
Anyway, I’m attaching a few useful tips I’ve come to learn or relearn (lol) along the way of my explorations:
- Ctrl+C/V/Z/X/A/S/F is now Apple+C/V/Z/X/A/S/F
- If you want to Right-Click (oh and you will want to =/ ): You can either press Ctrl+Trackpad click OR just use a two-button mouse (Come on Mr. Jobs, you can split the trackpad button into two)
- The Delete button has two functions: Regular, deletes stuff backwards OR while pressing fn (function key) it deletes forward. So the delete button alone works like the Backspace key, and fn+delete works like Delete key… I know confusing right lol
- If you go to System Preferences (control panel) then click on Keyboard Shortcuts it will give you some common ones.. Like how to do a Screen shot (the upward outlined arrow Symbol is for the Shift key, the little open triangle facing up is for the fn key) so screen shot is Apple+Shift+3… It will create a picture# file on your desktop instead of copying it for pasting
- Alt+Tab (moving between running applications) is now Apple+Tab
- Clicking the little Red X doesn’t “Quit” applications, and rather leaves them running while Hidden. When quitting you have to press Apple+Q OR use the toolbar menu ie click Entourage drop down menu will give you the option to quit (This is important to remember so you don’t end up running all the possible applications at the same time eating up RAM…. it’s a Mac not a miracle worker)
- To force deleting of locked items hold the Option key while pressing “Empty” in the trash can
Useful applications
Stuffit Expander : http://my.smithmicro.com/mac/stuffitexpander/index.html… You need this for zipped files
Flip4Mac and Windows Media Player: http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/flip4mac.mspx…. You need this for viewing wmv movie files which quicktime doesn’t support
Useful links
10 Apps that every mac user should download
Troubleshoot your mac (This page will help you troubleshoot common problems)
Switch to Mac from PC (This will help you further understand the OS if you were a previous PC user)
Video Tutorials (Videos of how to do stuff on your Mac)
Leopard Guided Tour , Video (Tutorial of new features in the Leopard OS like Time Machine and iChat, I highly recommend this)
Good tips, thanks for sharing.
You can also right-click using your trackpad. Mine is setup so that if I put two fingers on the pad and click it’s a “right-click”. You can see/change your settings at: System Preferences -> Keyboard & Mouse -> Trackpad -> “Clicking”.
… although, getting a two button mouse is the real solution.
I’m gonna have to try that out thanks Jim.
Also, you can use the trackpad as a mouse wheel for scrolling. If you hold one finger on the trackpad area and then use another finger moving up and down.