<p>Hi. I’m a long time PC/Windows user and have never even touched a Mac before. Today, my new 2008 Black MacBook arrived and I’m very excited. I love learning new techy things and thought that it would be fun to get some experience with a different computer/platform.<br>
I’m waiting to take it out of the box until my H.S. senior comes home from school so we can set it up together. Neither of us have used a Mac before but we both want to explore it’s capabilities. Does anyone out there have any advice–hints–suggestions for us? For example–touchpad vs. typical 2 button PC laptop mouse thing, iWork vs. Word (I did buy Word 2008 for Mac also just for the compatibility with our our computers), Safari vs. Mozilla, etc.<br>
Thanks.</p>
<p>Macs are very intuitive, so you shouldn’t have trouble. I’ll tell you about some small, basic things you’ll want to be familiar with. I use Mozilla on my Mac, but I use Safari every once in a while if something on Mozilla isn’t working. You can change the settings on your touchpad so that you can use it however you want to. My favorite feature of the touchpad is the ability to slide two fingers up, down, or across the touchpad in order to scroll down/across a page. You can set it up so that you can click using your touchpad, or you can just leave it so that you use the button below the touchpad for clicking. Right clicking is more of a pain than on PCs, definitely. You can do it by clicking while pressing control on your keyboard. You’ll get used to it. Your “dock” is the thing on the bottom of your screen where icons are. You’ll want to add or delete items on your dock depending on how often you use them and how easily you want to reach them. For example, I took Apple’s email service off of my dock because I don’t use it, but I added a video player to my dock for convenience. You can click those icons at any time to open the application. “Finder” (blue sort of smiley face) is where everything is kept on your computer. You can click on finder to see all of your applications, documents, etc. If you are looking for something specific, such as a particular Word document, click on the magnify glass in the upper right corner of your screen, type in the name of what you want, and it will pop up. The menu bar on the top of your screen will have the menu appropriate to what you’re doing, so when you’re on the internet there will be a Bookmarks tab, and if you’re just on your desktop there will be other appropriate tabs. The little apple is always there and will have options like “Sleep,” “Restart,” or “About this Mac.” Those are the most major things I can think of right now in terms of basic use. I don’t have Word 2008 for Mac, so I don’t know how that works. I’m fine with my version of Word, but it’s a little slow to get started (I’m sure 2008 doesn’t have that problem), and I’m not a big fan of the version of Excel they have going on. </p>
<p>You should take good care of your computer. I hope you bought the extended warranty; I did, and I’m very happy about it. Since the initial warranty expired, I’ve needed my mouse replaced, a new charger, and I just got a new battery. In order to keep the battery going, you should charge your computer all the way to 100%, then unplug it and let the battery run all the way to 0. Then plug it back in and get it up to 100% again. That process will calibrate the battery and improve its lifespan. Apple stores have tons of tutorials on how to use specific Mac features, or you can make a private appointment to go over your own questions. You should definitely take advantage of Apple stores if you have one near you.</p>
<p>I did buy Word 2008 for Mac also just for the compatibility with our our computers)
blah
try this
[NeoOffice</a> Home](<a href=“http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php]NeoOffice”>NeoOffice - Office suite for Mac)</p>
<p>oh clean install</p>
<p>more shareware apps I use
[TubeSock</a> - Save YouTube videos](<a href=“http://stinkbot.com/Tubesock/]TubeSock”>TubeSock: Download YouTube Videos | Stinkbot LLC)
[Hyperbolic</a> Software - Tidy Up!](<a href=“http://www.hyperbolicsoftware.com/TidyUp.html]Hyperbolic”>Tidy Up | Mac duplicate file finder and delete utility from Hyperbolic Software)
[AppZapper</a> - The uninstaller Apple forgot.](<a href=“http://www.appzapper.com/]AppZapper”>http://www.appzapper.com/)</p>
<p>There is also lots of info on the Apple.com website</p>
<p>oh- you have to with a small electronic.
I bought an ipod with extended warranty.
I dropped it the wrong way ( I have dropped it before- but this was on a harder surface) and it stopped working.
They gave me a new one.</p>
<p>With our laptops-
well D had a laptop that had a logic board recalled- when they replaced the logic board, they also had to update the system software ( for free) because the new logic board wouldnt’ run on other system.
( well that was a recall- so it didn’t matter for the warranty)
but with the extended warranty- very easy to get replacement keyboards and any other servicing that a laptop that gets hauled around daily runs into.
( they will also help you with software issues, like when you dump applications or files you need and you can’t get them working again)
The " geniuses" at most APPLE stores are very helpful.</p>
<p>Congrats on your new mac purchase. I too was a long-time PC user and finally gave Mac a try and have never regretted it. They’re easy to use, very stable (my Vista PC crashes all the time), and their Unix derived architecture means they’re really powerful and easy for high-end users to use with techno geeky things that use Unix.</p>
<p>I don’t really have any major tips (it’s easy to pick up everything) so just start using it for a bit and you should figure out the differences. With the trackpad if you want to do a right click just hold down the CTRL key (you can always just plug in a fancy USB mouse with 10 buttons if you want). Keyboard shortcuts are essentially the same as on a PC (save, cut, paste, print, undo) except instead of CTRL you use the option key (also called the ‘open apple key’ as it’s the one with an outline of the apple on it). On the trackpad if you use one finger it operates as normal, but if you use two fingers next to each other you can scroll up and down in the current window like the little roller button on some mice. </p>
<p>Also be sure to explore F9-F12.</p>
<p>F9 spreads all the current window out on the screen.
F10 spreads all the windows from the current application out on the screen (but not windows from other programs).
F11 pushes all the windows off the sides of the screen to see the desktop.
F12 brings up the widgets.</p>
<p>Surprise surprise Microsoft copied all those features into Vista. Also, for added coolness try holding down the shift key when pressing one of those keys and it slows down the animations (not terribly useful but it looks cool).</p>
<p>Here’s a question for all you Mac experts. I have home movies that I burned onto DVD’s by connecting my video camera to the home DVD player/burner. I now want to make copies of the DVD’s using my Mac but can’t figure out how to do it. </p>
<p>Also, is there a way to connect my video camera (uses mini DV tapes) directly to my Mac to create DVD’s that are playable on home DVD players?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I don’t know if you like the feature you can turn on, where you tap the trackpad to click–but an extension of that is being able to right-click by tapping the trackpad with two fingers. Much easier than ctrl-click.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. It took me about 5 minutes to set up and I was good to go. I’m getting a little freaked out by the touchpad. It seems so different. I have to at least figure out how to configure it to do the “double click”. I’m logging off now to try and figure out the “double click”. I’ll be back later.</p>
<p>OK–that was easy. I’m not freaking out anymore now that I enabled the “double-click” and increasing the speed of the “scrolling” feature. The ultimate would be if I could now figure out how to do the equivalent of a “right click”.<br>
Keep the hints coming. They’re very useful. Thank you very much. </p>
<p>How do I get Safari to save my passwords to the sites that I use often?</p>
<p>One more thing. We’re is the “Home” icon on Safari? If I’m on a webpage and I want to go back to my home page, what do I click? I’m so used to Mozilla and the Home button.</p>
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<p>Assuming you only have on DVD-R drive, you’ll have to first copy the DVD contents to a temporary folder on your hard drive and then burn a new disk with those contents. You can probably either do that manually or there are probably some free disc copying programs out there to download that will do it all automatically.</p>
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<p>Does your video camera have a firewire connection? If it uses the mini-DV tapes then it almost surely does. If so you can just then directly import the video into iMovie, edit it (or just leave it all as is), and then export it to iDVD to make the DVDs (where you can even add fancy animated menu screens like on real DVDs).</p>
<p>Hint: Sell it.</p>
<p>I bought my Macbook in November. I got a little annoyed hearing about how “intuitive” it is supposed to be. It’s probably intuitive IF you haven’t already been conditioned to a Windows mindset.</p>
<p>The biggest issue for me was that I bought a Mac mouse, and it didn’t have “right-click.” I right-clicked constantly on my PC. I’m still getting used to that change.</p>
<p>But otherwise, once I’ve adjusted to the Mac, I love it.</p>
<p>Hint - sign up for a class at the local Apple store. The Mac does tons of cool stuff but you won’t know what it can do or how to do it unless someone shows you.</p>
<p>I’ve been playing around with the new Mac for about 2 hours. The lack of the “right click” is very annoying but I guess I’ll just learn to adjust. Importing photos from my camera was a breeze. It’ll take a while for me to adjust. I’ve used windows forever so I’m realistic in the fact that it will take a bit of time for me to learn the mac system.</p>
<p>Right click is easy just put two fingers on the track pad and either tap them simultaneously or click the button. I find it better then a PC but that is just me. Enjoy all your new discoveries.</p>
<p>I was going to go get a Macbook Black today but I hear they might announce a new laptop at the WWDC conference June 9th- 13th so I guess I will wait.</p>
<p>OK–last question of the night. Why doesn’t safari save my passwords? It doesn’t even ask me if it wants to save my passwords.</p>
<p>fairyblood, thanks. That sounds easy enough. I’ll try it. In one day, I went from “not so sure if I liked my Mac” to “this is pretty nice”. My son was hoping that I wouldn’t “adjust” to Mac after being a “windows” user. Guess why–because he was hoping I’d stick with my old laptop and give him the Mac. Too bad. lol</p>
<p>go to preferences in safari and the autofill menu will give you a place to save your passwords</p>