i'm a 4-day old powerbook owner today! REPORT
hello all,
thanks to everyone who answered my questions prior to purchase. on thursday night i went to the apple store in ginza, tokyo and purchased my 12" s/drive powerbook
. 10% education discount and the guy who served me was very quirky! he seemed genuinely touched that i wasn't concerned about the japanese keyboard!
\
anyway, luckily i had a long w/e to experiment. had my ups and downs at first. certainly getting over the initial hurdles and then getting around to actually setting up the things i'll need. feeling quite happy at this moment, esp. since i got entourage properly set up with my contacts and old emails last night thanks to a $10 utility called outlook2mac. i really recommend that, have a look at http://www.littlemachines.com/
i only have ONE question at this present time;
as a long time windows user, i already know that there are a couple of features i'm going to miss. i guess the context menu is the no. one thing at the moment. it's available on os x but at the moment it's not so useful. it would be great if it was expandable with freeware add-ons. is it? it would be great to have a send to menu for instance. can anyone provide links for sites with these kinds of little add-ons?
also... it's annoying that folders in osx don't have a status bar to display things like file size. i have to go into get info for this which is rather annoying. am i missing anything?
thanks all!
thanks to everyone who answered my questions prior to purchase. on thursday night i went to the apple store in ginza, tokyo and purchased my 12" s/drive powerbook
. 10% education discount and the guy who served me was very quirky! he seemed genuinely touched that i wasn't concerned about the japanese keyboard!\ anyway, luckily i had a long w/e to experiment. had my ups and downs at first. certainly getting over the initial hurdles and then getting around to actually setting up the things i'll need. feeling quite happy at this moment, esp. since i got entourage properly set up with my contacts and old emails last night thanks to a $10 utility called outlook2mac. i really recommend that, have a look at http://www.littlemachines.com/
i only have ONE question at this present time;
as a long time windows user, i already know that there are a couple of features i'm going to miss. i guess the context menu is the no. one thing at the moment. it's available on os x but at the moment it's not so useful. it would be great if it was expandable with freeware add-ons. is it? it would be great to have a send to menu for instance. can anyone provide links for sites with these kinds of little add-ons?
also... it's annoying that folders in osx don't have a status bar to display things like file size. i have to go into get info for this which is rather annoying. am i missing anything?
thanks all!
Comments
Originally posted by jonnyboy
also... it's annoying that folders in osx don't have a status bar to display things like file size. i have to go into get info for this which is rather annoying. am i missing anything?
Check out "View Options" under the "View" menu in the Finder. In list view you can set an option so folder sizes are calculated. There's a few other things you can do, depending on which view you're in.
And congratulations!
Originally posted by jonnyboy
i only have ONE question at this present time;
as a long time windows user, i already know that there are a couple of features i'm going to miss. i guess the context menu is the no. one thing at the moment. it's available on os x but at the moment it's not so useful. it would be great if it was expandable with freeware add-ons. is it? it would be great to have a send to menu for instance. can anyone provide links for sites with these kinds of little add-ons?
Not sure on the contextual menu stuff (though I'm pretty sure there's stuff out there), but as far as the send to... you can just drag a file onto the Mail icon in the Dock, and it will open up a new mail window with the file attached.
Originally posted by MCQ
Not sure on the contextual menu stuff (though I'm pretty sure there's stuff out there), but as far as the send to... you can just drag a file onto the Mail icon in the Dock, and it will open up a new mail window with the file attached.
You can also place the Mail icon in the Finder toolbar for closer access for drag and drop.
Originally posted by jonnyboy
i guess the context menu is the no. one thing at the moment. it's available on os x but at the moment it's not so useful. it would be great if it was expandable with freeware add-ons. is it? it would be great to have a send to menu for instance. can anyone provide links for sites with these kinds of little add-ons?
Sure thing. OnMyCommand and OMCEdit. You can select from a list of 360 downloadable commands or create your own.
Originally posted by jonnyboy
one other thing... how do i decrease the size of the "grid" when i snap to grid on the desktop?
Click on the desktop... Then again under view..options.... the size of the "grid" is dependent on the size of the desktop icons you choose... IMHO i dont think you can change the size of the grid independent of the size of the icons cause that will violate UserInterface and Usability rules that Mac OS X strongly enforces which you are now becoming familiar with
in fact the grid seems to be designed for the maximum icon size! is there a hack anywhere? i really like to have my icons neatly aligned
Originally posted by jonnyboy
hmmm... that doesn't seem to be the case. the grid size doesn't change. well it seems to change at the smallest icon size, but then as soon as you take your eyes of an icon you've moved it'll pop to another location.
in fact the grid seems to be designed for the maximum icon size! is there a hack anywhere? i really like to have my icons neatly aligned
Just turn the option off an periodically choose the Clean Up Selection option. I personally hardly keep anything on the desktop apart from my drives and one or two files which are there for a short time.
Originally posted by G_Warren
Just turn the option off an periodically choose the Clean Up Selection option. I personally hardly keep anything on the desktop apart from my drives and one or two files which are there for a short time.
nearly the same here (1 to 3 files and 1-2 folders,
very hot folders. i guess this is the macintosh way to
work with the "desktop". Cluttering the desktop
is so much "Windows". No pun intented.
Btw, does anybody remember this "classic"
function "putting away"? I really miss this
function.
And no, CMD-Z is not exactly the same
BTW, johnnyboy, warm welcome and
congrats of course. One tip for you:
Maybe, just maybe, you should reconsider
the way you work with files and folders.
Try drag and drop everywhere.
Originally posted by Vox Barbara
Btw, does anybody remember this "classic"
function "putting away"? I really miss this
function.
And no, CMD-Z is not exactly the same
Ah, good ol' Command-Y if I remember correctly. You could accidentally put something in the Trash, open the trash half an hour later, click on the item, hit Command-Y, and it would whoosh off back to wherever it came from. Legendary stuff.
Originally posted by G_Warren
Decisions, decisions...
get the new iBook 1.4+ ghz with 10.4 when it comes out
i don't think you will regret the portability
it will go well with your 5th gen iPod (photo???)
**passes out from overuse of smileys**
Originally posted by G_Warren
Ah, good ol' Command-Y if I remember correctly. You could accidentally put something in the Trash, open the trash half an hour later, click on the item, hit Command-Y, and it would whoosh off back to wherever it came from. Legendary stuff.
Absolutely
thanks all for your comments. i hear you on the rethinking front. of course having just spent all that money on a totally new platform any anxieties are somewhat amplified, don't you think??
i will probably see about buying a book this weekend. can anyone suggest one? was tempted by the david pogue switcher's missing manual book if i can locate it in tokyo.
Originally posted by sunilraman
get the new iBook 1.4+ ghz with 10.4 when it comes out
i don't think you will regret the portability
it will go well with your 5th gen iPod (photo???)
...
Maybe, just maybe i missed something, but Jonnyboy took
the plunge already.
Originally posted by jonnyboy
hello all,
thanks to everyone who answered my questions prior to purchase. on thursday night i went to the apple store in ginza, tokyo and purchased my 12" s/drive powerbook
Originally posted by Vox Barbara
Maybe, just maybe i missed something, but Jonnyboy took
the plunge already.
hi voxy,
see G_Warren's signature...
Originally posted by sunilraman
hi voxy,
see G_Warren's signature...
Jezz, i'am getting old
Originally posted by Vox Barbara
Jezz, i'am getting old
Voxy, i don't blame yeah. I'm having to use a pee cee because my iBook G4 LCD died and is at the repair shop...
Lets just say this pee cee's CRT is 10 years old and I'm hitting Ctrl-+ a lot in firefox (TO MAKE THE TEXT BIGGER !!)
jonnyboy, you don't really need a "send to" menu. Setup the programs, disks or folders you want in the Dock, and drag the file on them. Generally apps will only accept file types they know, e.g. you can drag .txt and .html on Safari but not .pdf. They will react when you drag over them so you know they are viable drop targets. Try it out...
You see file sizes by switching Finder into list view, cmd-2 or use the small icons on the toolbar.