# Hello and/or HELP



## bridgegirl1524 (Mar 7, 2005)

Hey everyone-

Well, I've done it.  After years of fantasizing about the mac's sleek, beautiful, gorgeous... yeah, I'll stop now...

...and even more years of dealing with PC's that are just mean....

I've broken down and ordered a Mac PowerBook (15", 1.33 GHz, 80GB)

But there's a problem.  I'm now deathly afraid of:
     a) Mac OS X not being as good as what I'm hoping for
     b) Me not having a clue what I'm doing

So I'm now trying to use Macs as often as humanly possible without actually having my own.  Still, if you guys have any advice about how to keep me from having a breakdown while I wait 2 - 6 weeks for my new laptop, it'd be greatly appreciated.  

Particularly, was there anything you wish you had known before you started using Mac OS?  Any neat tricks I should know about?

Lots of thanks,
Meg


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## chornbe (Mar 7, 2005)

Well, the User Interface (GUI) is way simple. It's different than what you're used to, but it's easy to get used to quickly. One thing you'll probably do a lot is quit an app without really quitting it. You'll be tempted to think the Red Circle-X will close an app. It won't, in most cases. It'll close the current window but not necessarily kill the whole app. 

The underlying OS is Unix, so the power is directly proportionate to the crypticity (check out that new word!!  ). Again, once you're used to it and what's available, you'll be terminaling it all over the place.




			
				bridgegirl1524 said:
			
		

> Hey everyone-
> 
> Well, I've done it.  After years of fantasizing about the mac's sleek, beautiful, gorgeous... yeah, I'll stop now...
> 
> ...


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## chemistry_geek (Mar 7, 2005)

You can find neat tricks for Mac OS X over at http://www.macosxhints.com/ if you're not afraid of playing in the command line.  With Mac OS X based on UNIX/BSD, you don't to undertand that part of the operating system to use the computer.  Apple intentionally hides that with the Finder.

There are a lot of neat tricks you can do with Macs if you know how to invoke them.  I think it might be more helpful for people to suggest neat tricks if you ask specific questions about what you would like to do with your new computer.  The help is always here.


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## Natobasso (Mar 7, 2005)

You'll never have an easier time with networking, printing and all the basic tasks you'll want to with your mac. There's a reason there are 90% fewer mac techs than PC techs. You just won't need too much help running your machine!

This website may be all you need. And welcome, by the way!


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## Robn Kester (Mar 7, 2005)

Congrats and welcome to the fray, you will be much happier now!

As far as something to do while you wait... scour this website, apple's website, macintouch.com, versiontracker.com etc. Read up, go look at products at your local Apple Store or similar.

What do you plan to do with the machine? Do you have the apps you want and need lined up? If you can toss us some info we can probably suggest some good solid apps to download and/or purchase to help you along your new path to happiness.

I don't remember being a "new" Mac user - its been a long time (1988). But, I am excited for you! Always fun to get a new toy, especially when its a MAC!

If you are a book kinda person, pick up a good OS X book now. I'm rather fond of the "Missing Manual" series that O'Reilly sells by David Pogue (he's excellent), and they have a OS X version. Sure you can get documentation online but there's nothing like having a book to sift thru and highlight.

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/macxmmpanther/

Ultimately, it's not that different than what you remember from Windows land, just differently better.

That's a start.


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## bridgegirl1524 (Mar 7, 2005)

First of all, can I just send out a BIG thank you to every one of you who's been so willing to help.

Okay, here's some more information about myself, my machine, and how I hope to use it:

1.5 GHz G4, 15.2", 512 MB, 80 GB PowerBook. 

Included with the computer (thanks to my university): Microsoft Office,  IE, Symantec, Aladdin (Stuffit) Expander, Adobe Reader, and RealPlayer.

I'm a Civil Engineering student (hence the name), very comfortable on Windows and somewhat familiar with Unix.  I currently use my PC for programming (already have the apps I'll need for that), email/chat, word processing, and web surfing.  In the near-ish future, I'll have to install some scientific apps for school, but I've already checked and the school will provide them for either PC or Mac.

I also am really dependent on my Hewlett Packard iPAQ Pocket PC.  I've heard it can be synched with a Mac, but I'm not sure which app is best for that.

I have a lot of music and photos on my hard drive currently, which I hope to keep in the switch.  Any ideas on how to facilitate that are welcome - I could just burn CD's, but my PC gets pretty testy when I try to do that.

Thanks again for the warm welcome - if there's any other information you need, just let me know.

oh yeah!  I've also got a rather healthy love for foreign languages.  If anyone knows of any cool apps, I'm always looking....

MG,

Meg


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## andychrist (Mar 8, 2005)

You might get a kick out of CocoaJT.  (Thanks to Chevy for turning me on to this formidable little app.)


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## bridgegirl1524 (Mar 8, 2005)

AndyChrist, that looks positively amazing.

I also found out today that my PowerBook should be here before the end of the month.

::Bouncing in chair, scaring those around me::

-Meg


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## Randman (Mar 8, 2005)

Just don't expect it to be totally like a peecee. Experiment, play around, adapt it for your needs. Enjoy the experience.


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## pds (Mar 8, 2005)

bridgegirl1524 said:
			
		

> 1.5 GHz G4, 15.2", 512 MB, 80 GB PowerBook.
> 
> Included with the computer (thanks to my university): Microsoft Office,  IE, Symantec, Aladdin (Stuffit) Expander, Adobe Reader, and RealPlayer.


Microsoft office, while I do use it, is the program that most often crashes on my machine. You can try an opensource office suite - NeoOfficeJ. It's a free download - but about 12 hours at 56k dialup.

IE - I don't use it - Safari outclasses it completely and for the few neolithic banking sites out there that don't like safari, use firefox

Symantec - Careful. Norton products have been know to totally fudge a MacOS X installation. (that is the Disk Doctor series) I don't have anything from them on my machine in protest.

Stuffit is fine, basic part of the install

Adobe Acrobat Reader? Preview does an excellent job with pdfs - it is my default reader. I have acrobat reader, but almost never see it.

Real Player? I guess it's installed somewhere on my system, as a plugin for firefox I think, but....

You may want to think about your e-mail client. Apple's Mail doesn't cut it for me. It probably will handle a simple one-account installation, but - unless they updated it - it doesn't do personalities well (setting different SMTPs on the same account for example. When I'm at work I need a different SMTP server than when I'm home.) 

I don't like the MS stuff - either Outlook or Entourage. I prefer Eudora, but maybe because I've been using it since '94. To me - it is a great tool for mobile e-mail.


> I have a lot of music and photos on my hard drive currently, which I hope to keep in the switch.  Any ideas on how to facilitate that are welcome - I could just burn CD's, but my PC gets pretty testy when I try to do that.
> 
> Meg


You'll still have the pc I guess. I'd just hook it up through ethernet and set stuff to copy overnight. You just need any ethernet cable (no need for crossover since the PB port is auto-sensing


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## SiRGadaBout (Mar 8, 2005)

Hey, 

There are a couple of daemon apps that i've found very useful.  The first is called Spark (http://shadowlab.free.fr/Creation/) and it's a great Hotkey utility that can add all sorts of useful functions - including hotkeys for system functions, finder calls, application control, and a neat facility that allows you to build exceptions (e.g.. Hotkey Combo XYZ will not function if I'm playing Quake 2 (the F1 key is used in Quake 2 and is also my shortcut to an app)).  The best part is it's Freeware and in active development, so check it out.
The other is called SoundSource and it's made by the nice folks at http://www.rogueamoeba.com.  Basically it's a Finder menu bar shortcut that you should use if you have external speakers that you'll be using with the PB (running from your USB port or FireWire port, NOT your headphone socket).  Then this app lets you channel all sound from the system (such as error beeps and stuff) through the internal speakers, and all other sound through the external speakers.  It also lets you assign separate volumes for the System beeps and the External beeps, and allows you to change the output speakers on-the-fly.  Check out their site for better info - and bookmark it cos RogueAmoeba is one of those cool Mac-only developer sites that has nice, neat apps that do one or two tasks really well.
Other than that i think the sooner you learn all the shortcut keys that are available for most tasks, in both the Finder and most Apps, i think you'll become more productive.  For example, in Safari (which is, as was noted earlier on this thread, vastly superior to IE, which i recommend you to delete or not install in the first place), you can shift left and right through your tabs by holding Shift-Command and then Left Arrow or Right Arrow.  Also, in Safari, Command-Left Mouse Click the heading at the top of the window (e.g. right now you would probably see "MacOSX.com - The Answer to Mac Support...) and it gives you a choice of all the parent directories to the one you're currently in.
Finally, something a PC user might want to know: when using WinXP, when you right click a file or directory XP gives youa broad list of choices such as Mail To: or Archive, etc. etc.  However, in OS X, you generally only have 8 or so basic choices:  Get info, Open with, Open, Label, etc.  To access further choices, select the file or directory, and then choose Finder->Services... from the Menu bar, to receive a broad range of actions to perform with the chosen object.  This is an application-wide facility, so when in, say Photoshop, the Menu bar will say Photoshop->Services... and offer you the same or a greater range of services.
Enjoy the feeling of being in control of your computer again, and never again dread the whole system faling over cos of one silly app....  all hail protected memory space!!!
Cheers, 
SiR G


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## delsoljb32 (Mar 8, 2005)

Welcome bridgegirl, 
About the HP iPaq, I use one daily and sync it to my PB (same as yours, w/ upgraded ROM to 1GB) with MissingSync (made by markspace: http://www.markspace.com ). Sync works great (though notably slower than syncing with a peecee). I was able to get it to sync w/ the bluetooth as well. I've had nothing but success with the PB. About a month ago I took a big step (for me) and did a dual-boot w/ YellowDog Linux. I was also able to do the hack to enable the two-finger trackpad scroll that is touted on the newer 'books.


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## Satcomer (Mar 8, 2005)

Welcome bridgegirl!  I urge you (as a fairly new Mac user ) to read a reall good book by David Pogue called Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Panther Edition. It will help you in understanding OS X. good luck with your new Mac.


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