Tips for a new Mac user

[Crazy Jamie]

Right, as some of you may know my laptop imploded on me about a week ago. There's no use trying to recover it so I had to buy something new. For numerous reasons, I decided on a MacBook Pro (which I'm typing on at the moment). Basically I was sick and tired of only getting three or four years use out of an expensive machine, with the latter half of that being a struggle due to poor performance. I wanted something more reliable.

So far I am very impressed. The performance of this machine is incredible. It does virtually everything better than a PC, and then some. The only weakness is the games library, but it has Football Manager which is all I really need.

I now request some tips from you fine people in order to get the best out of this superb piece of equipment. Obviously there are plenty of things I am yet to discover, and I want to learn. So shower me with your hints and tips, things I should download etc in order to enhance this machine's already considerable performance.

EDIT: Oh, I do also have some specific questions:

1. Is there a shortcut for 'paste'? I used it constantly on my laptop and can't find one for this Mac.
2. Yeah, that's it right now.

[Tiki]

First of all, the shortcut for paste is "command(apple key) V"
About the games...well..that would actually depend, Halo, Call of Duty, and some others work wonderfully on them:^:
Since it is an intel mac, you should get "Bootcamp" available for free at the apple site. It allows you to have Windows on there, which if your really concerned about the games, that fixes yout problem. What kind of questions do you have though? Like your wondering what you need to get a full performance?

P.S. how much RAM does it have?

[Crazy Jamie]

First of all, the shortcut for paste is "command(apple key) V"Thanks. You have no idea how convenient that is.

About the games...well..that would actually depend, Halo, Call of Duty, and some others work wonderfully on them:^:That's true, actually. There are some decent titles. However, what I loved on the PC was the great back catalogue of old games that you can get on the cheap. They are the games that I played the most. I can't remember the last time I bought a game even close to when it first came out on the PC. I'm also more of an RTS man- I leave FPSs for consoles. Having said that, Age of Empires III is available on Mac and I haven't played that yet.

Since it is an intel mac, you should get "Bootcamp" available for free at the apple site. It allows you to have Windows on there, which if your really concerned about the games, that fixes yout problem.I got a programme called 'Parallel' free with my MacBook that apparently allows me to do the same thing, so I'm sorted with that. Doubt I will run Windows on it though.

What kind of questions do you have though? Like your wondering what you need to get a full performance?
Not necessarily full performance, but just general tips and features that a life long PC user wouldn't know about. Things like the Stickies are just so simple and obvious yet had I not decided to just browse the system I might never have found them.
P.S. how much RAM does it have?
2GB.

[Tiki]

Hmm, well, some of the Media programs it comes with are not all that great. Such as iMovie, it doesn't compeare with Final Cut. But iTunes and iPhoto are fairly decent, thay will pretty much fill your needs in that department. Garageband is quite enjoyable, it can give you something to mess with in spare time.
Civ III complete isn't RTS, but its one of the best computer games that I have ever played, so I highly recomend it.
You have quite a lot memory there, so I wouldn't worry about that for at least a while.

Note: iTunes and the iTunes store is very useful, but it can be expensive, like the prices of songs and vids and pretty high, so do it slowly if you are going into that area.

[Crazy Jamie]

Well I already have extensive of iTunes because I've always owned an iPod over any other MP3 player, so I'm familiar with all of that. I'll look into Final Cut if I ever start messing around with movies.

I actually have Civ III for my laptop, so I might well look into getting the Mac version anyway.

[Singin Hobo]

Basically all of your former Ctrl functions are now Command functions.

I'll share some of my favorite things with you... really it's just a handful of little things that make the world a better place when I'm on my Macbook Pro...

Set your trackpad options to use the two-finger functions, specifically scrolling and right-clicking. You basically use two fingers on the trackpad up, down, and sideways to scroll in those directions. The other is placing two fingers on the trackpad and clicking the mouse button to get your right-click. I know I sound like a Mac fanboy by saying the following ridiculous statement, but I must say it: It will make you wonder how you ever did anything else.
Strangely, the two-finger functions might be my absolute favorite things about the Macbook pro. It's also nice because the trackpad never gets worn down and rubbery.
Another cool trick is holding down Ctrl and scrolling up and down... you can zoom in on your mouse which is fun. That's a nice feature when you're on a website with tiny lettering... you can just zoom in on it.


Other cool functions to check out are the expose functions, which I use all the time. Basically setting the corners of your screen (I only use my bottom right to show all windows) and the F-Keys (I only use F11 and F12 so I can keep all the secondary functions active on the other keys). I've got F12 set to activate my dashboard widget screen, and F11 clears all the windows out of the way (without closing them) to just show me my desktop, then pressing it again brings the windows back. I've got the bottom right-hand corner set to show me all of my open windows at the same time so I can see all of my open apps at once.


And iMovie isn't all that bad, really... and it's not $1,000, either. You can cut movies and add music and a handful of cool effects. Unless you're going to be making actual movies it's all you'll ever really need.

EDIT: Oh, and iPhoto sucks... it's basically iTunes, but for pictures, but Apple doesn't seem to understand that pictures are not music and should not be treated as such.

[Crazy Jamie]

Basically all of your former Ctrl functions are now Command functions.I shall remember that.

Set your trackpad options to use the two-finger functions, specifically scrolling and right-clicking. You basically use two fingers on the trackpad up, down, and sideways to scroll in those directions. The other is placing two fingers on the trackpad and clicking the mouse button to get your right-click. I know I sound like a Mac fanboy by saying the following ridiculous statement, but I must say it: It will make you wonder how you ever did anything else.I'll spend a bit of time with that and see how it appeals to me.
Another cool trick is holding down Ctrl and scrolling up and down... you can zoom in on your mouse which is fun. That's a nice feature when you're on a website with tiny lettering... you can just zoom in on it.
See, now that's the sort of cool stuff I want to know about. That's a neat little feature.

Other cool functions to check out are the expose functions, which I use all the time. Basically setting the corners of your screen (I only use my bottom right to show all windows) and the F-Keys (I only use F11 and F12 so I can keep all the secondary functions active on the other keys). I've got F12 set to activate my dashboard widget screen, and F11 clears all the windows out of the way (without closing them) to just show me my desktop, then pressing it again brings the windows back. I've got the bottom right-hand corner set to show me all of my open windows at the same time so I can see all of my open apps at once.
I've already got to grips with those. And again, so simple yet so effective.

[Singin Hobo]

I'll spend a bit of time with that and see how it appeals to me.
Considering that the only alternatives without a mouse are holding down Ctrl+Click for a right-click and using the side-scroll bars it's well worth getting accustomed to it, especially if you're used to functioning with a right-click as much as I was when I got started.

[Crazy Jamie]

Considering that the only alternatives without a mouse are holding down Ctrl+Click for a right-click and using the side-scroll bars it's well worth getting accustomed to it, especially if you're used to functioning with a right-click as much as I was when I got started.
I do actually have a mouse though, which feels much more natural to me at the moment. Though before I realised that my old USB mouse worked with the MacBook the lack of right clicking was irritating me no end.

[Tiki]

yeah, the only way to right click without a mouse is to hold control and then click, which isn't that hard, but it's a pain to do over and over. However, that's good to know if there isn't a mouse in the vicinity.

[jesuslovesosama]

Man I just love the two finger tapping, it works really good.

One thing I found useful myself is to have keychain on the menu bar. It probably sounds weird but my use for it is that it give me access to "Lock Screen", which basically just displays your screen saver and locks the computer. It is useful when you want to leave it on doing stuff while going into asleep yet have some protection.

You can do so by opening /Applications/Utilities/Keychain - Preferrence, check the box with Show in Menubar.

[Crazy Jamie]

I haven't used Keychain yet so don't really know what it is. Is it just something helps you to keep track of your passwords?

On a side note, Mozilla Firefox is not showing up in my Applications menu. I have to click the plug in icon (or whatever it is) to activate it. Is it supposed to be like that?

[Singin Hobo]

No, drag it from the plug-in thingy into your applications folder, then you can put it on your dock.

The worse thing about switching is that everything makes too much sense on a Mac :chuckle: You're so used to fighting with a computer that you keep wanting to duke it out, but it will pass. :)

[Crazy Jamie]

You're absolutely right. That solution was simply too obvious for me to find. And yet that is exactly as it should be.

Thanks :)

[shortkut]

keychain is basically where all your passwords are stored. i don't remember if it includes passwords in cookies though. it can be found in the utilities folder of the applications folder. when you look at it, you can see what programs it has usernames and passwords for.

when you highlight an item in the keychain access window, there will be a button at the bottom of the window with an "i" on it next to one with a "+". if you click on that it gives you more info and there is even a little thing to toggle that lets you see the password for that individual item (you need to type in the computer's master password or the password for the user you are under for extra security. i don't remember which password you type in.)

edit: i briefly looked through it and it does have at least some of the passwords you tell cookies to remember

[jesuslovesosama]

Lol don't worry how does the keychain actually works or does, if you have saved WEP/WPA and passwords like that then you are certainly have used "behind the scenes".

I only have it in the top menubar just so that I can use it to fire up the screen saver and lock the computer quickly

[Kid_A]

Jamie,
I would suggest downloading a little app called Sizzling Keys (link below). It lets you control iTunes quite easily through your keyboard, and it also has a little translucent window that pops up telling you what you're listening to with album art. Very handy. I love it.

http://www.yellowmug.com/sk4it/

Are you loving your macbook? I have a powerbook, and I love it, but at the same time I can't wait until it dies so I can get a macbook (we can't do the two-finger right click function :/ ) I did find that it was really easy to transition from a PC to a mac though. A lot easier than it was for me to go back to a PC after using OS X for so long. Not fun, trust me.

[Crazy Jamie]

Are you loving your macbook?Very much so. I don't know how I managed without it.

[Tiki]

Very much so. I don't know how I managed without it.
Ah, so true....:wink: When I first got one, I felt alive for the first time...heh

[Boots]

Oh man I just had 2 fingers on the touchpad while clicking over the Applications folder... that is so neat! :D