[alia]

.......new to iMacs and having a hard time figuring out what can and can't be done Vs my old P.C, hated Vista, but kinda liked Windows (when it worked)
wish I knew already what took me ages to learn on P.C. I'm sure I'm not using my lovely, sleek machine to it's best advantage ... so, what did you learn that was mind-blowingly simple and a "A-Ha" moment ?
<3

[Shaddim]

one such moment?

[turtle777]

Someone suggested Woopid for free video tutorials.

http://www.woopid.com/channels.php

I never used them, but it might be something to get you started.

-t

[cybergoober]

Originally Posted by Shaddim 

one such moment?

I see what you did there

[Spheric Harlot]

My canned response:

I have a lot of friends who've switched from Windows (and yes, they're still friends).

The first three weeks are really tough, mostly because you have to get your head around the fact that there is always an easier way. The really big difference between Windows and the Mac is that the Mac actually assumes that you AREN'T stupid. Windows just assumes that you're never going to understand the system and belittles you with wizards to try and alleviate the fundamental structural problems.

The Mac has a design concept, and everything follows from that. Give it a chance.

A couple of basic pointers:

- It's usually the obvious solution. Want to import photos from your digital cam? Just connect it. Want to burn a CD? Just insert one.


- Forget the file system. Apple's approach is centered around *content*, not sorting files on your disk using a generic catch-all file manager. Want to work with images? iPhoto. Want to manage your music? iTunes. Want to sift through your imported home video? iMovie. There are exceptions to this, but the basic approach holds true - you don't interact through some forced "system interface", but work with the content directly. This may seem restrictive (and it is, in a way), but if you can let yourself fall into Apple's concept, you'll find that their solutions are, for the most part, very very well done.


- If you want to put ANYTHING anywhere else, try dragging it there with the mouse. That applies to documents into applications, file paths into open/save dialog boxes, highlighted text onto the desktop to save a text clipping, pictures from Safari onto the desktop to save them to disk, music into iTunes, etc., etc., etc. I've had calls from switchers desperately searching for the command that would open the series of dialog boxes to let them import something..."Have you tried just dragging and dropping it into the window?" - Click...click "Oh".


- Drag and drop works across applications, across formats, across the application switcher (Command-Tab for the equivalent of Windows' Alt-Tab), and across Exposé (F3; there's a preference for it in the System Preferences - use Exposé, you'll love Exposé, seriously...)


- Mac dialog windows aren't like Windows dialogs. There's only about one-tenth as many as one Windows ("You're about to do this" - OK, "Are you sure you want to do this" - YES, "I'm now doing this" - OKTHX, "Successfully done!" - SMASH), and the ones that do come up are meant to be read. The Mac will generally only throw up a dialog if it's important, so the ones that do come up are important. Read them.


- The menu bar always follows a very strict hierarchy.

the Apple menu contains everything that pertains to the entire user/login/computer: System preferences, Dock preferences, shut down, restart, software update, sleep, log out, etc.

The Application menu contains everything that pertains to the entire application you're using: Version info, application preferences, hide, quit.

The File menu contains everything pertaining to an individual document or window: new document/window, print, save, document-specific settings.

The Edit menu contains everything relating to the *currently selected objects* within the frontmost document: copy, paste, select all, etc.

Wherever applicable, you'll have a "View" menu that changes how documents or windows are displayed.

The rightmost menu is always the "Help" menu, which will take you to the Help Viewer application, where you can search individual help files for keywords or switch to different help files ("Library" menu) to browse.

So if you're looking for a setting that pertains to the way the entire GarageBand application deals with audio, you'll find it under the "GarageBand" menu --> Preferences.
If you want to cut up a piece of audio on a single track, select the chunk and look through the "Edit" menu.

Make sense?

The great advantage to this rigorously implemented structure is that, even if you've never used a program before, you can more or less find your way around in a matter of minutes, without ever having touched a manual.


- The keyboard commands are printed right next to the commands in the menus. If those aren't enough, you can invent your own, on a per-application basis or globally, in the Keyboard prefs in the System Preferences.


- USE THE HELP MENU. It's good.


Welcome to Macintosh.

Enjoy your stay.

-chris.

[alia]

[COLOR="rgb(0, 100, 0)"][COLOR="rgb(0, 100, 0)"]Shaddim: har-de-har.

Thanks, Chris, I s'ppose I'll get used to it, the only thing to get my head around is the "right Click" that we used to do a lot to save things, now I can't, I miss that, but what do you do instead?
Sorry if it's a dumb question![/COLOR][/COLOR]

[Cold Warrior]

You can still right click on a Mac. Your apple mouse that came with the iMac can do it or (my preference) you can get a two-button mouse.

[angelmb]

Whoa, Spheric Harlot, that has to be one of the best reads about how better a Mac is.

As Cold Warrior stated, just open System Preferences ---> Keyboard & Mouse and make sure the area of the mouse aimed to be used as right click is indeed set as Secondary Button which is indeed Right Click.



Before the Mac came with the Mighty Mouse you got the right click by holding down the Ctrl key on the keyboard while doing click with the mouse.

[Veltliner]

There are some nice books on the Mac OS on amazon.com

You don't even need additional time to read them.

Just, instead of constantly upgrading your Windows virus collection or searching for some drivers, you can kick back and open a book.

For some time you will miss those weird things happening when you are on Windows.

But, going cold turkey, you will one day notice: why did you ever do it? Take drugs... error, I mean, own a Windows computer.

If you're missing the constant trouble, you can still run Windows on a Mac via Parallels.

There's a software called "Windows Crash Simulator", that can make you feel right at home even on a Mac (the Mac OS will not be affected).

So, after a while ,you'll just get accustomed that a computer just does what is expected: work.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by alia 

Thanks, Chris, I s'ppose I'll get used to it, the only thing to get my head around is the "right Click" that we used to do a lot to save things, now I can't, I miss that, but what do you do instead?
Sorry if it's a dumb question![/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR]

Well, Number 1, as I mentioned above:
If you want to save an image from Safari or Firefox into iPhoto, just grab it and drag it to iPhoto. If you want to save it to a folder on your disk, just drag it to that folder on your disk.

Sure you can do the right-click thing, as others have mentioned, but you don't need to. The Mac assumes that you *already know* what to do.

[64stang06]

But then you'd miss on this!

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by Shaddim 

one such moment?

All I got was some music video there.

[andreas_g4]

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot 

My canned response:

One of the best responses on the internet.

[0157988944]

I'm not even going to say anything after Spheric Harlot. That is 100% what you need to know.

[alia]

OK, so I've been playing, and it's so simple, I think I'm over-thinkingbecause you always had to second guess Windows and I never really trusted when I did something, I'd immediately have to go check to see that it was actually there! (make sense?)
So, now my question is: multiple users on your iMac ... if someone else has a document in their, say Project Gallery and you wanted to get it into your Gallery, how do you do that?.

[0157988944]

Put it in the target users /Public/Drop Box folder. For instance, if the document is on Sara's account and I want to move it to Bob's, I'd go into Sara's account and place it into /Users/Bob/Public/Drop Box, then Bob can get it. I could also put it into my own Drop Box at Users/Sara/Public/Drop Box, and then Bob could get it from there.

[AKcrab]

or use /Users/Shared

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

All I got was some music video there.

A-Ha!

[alia]

A-Ha ... so easy, when you know how! Thanks everyone

[webraider]

Originally Posted by alia 

A-Ha ... so easy, when you know how! Thanks everyone

Did you ever get to enable the right click function on the mouse??? It is there.

[alia]

ohmegodohmegodomegod ... I just this minute did it (took about 10 minutes to find "System Preferences" *blushing* probly shouldn't have let on about that ..... now I can right click!
But, in the mean time, I've just been dragging and dropping

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by alia 

ohmegodohmegodomegod ... I just this minute did it (took about 10 minutes to find "System Preferences" *blushing*

uhuh?

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot

- The menu bar always follows a very strict hierarchy.

the Apple menu contains everything that pertains to the entire user/login/computer: System preferences, Dock preferences, shut down, restart, software update, sleep, log out, etc.

[alia]

OK, so I'm not very bright.
This is why I'm here.

[dimmer]

That's why we all are... really.