Switcher - need help on a few subjects :-)

new imacnew imac
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
Hi all



I finally received my new Mac Mini and switched. I`ve been playing with OS X for a few hours now and I got a few questions. If anyone knows the answer plz help me



1. I am brazilian, and I therefore use a brazilian layout keyboard (right know I`m using a M$ kb from my old PC), but I can`t get OS X to change its layout to brazilian (it`s called ABNT 2 - don`t know if it helps). This is fairly important, since I work a lot with texts and not having my keyboard set-up properly would be a problem.



ABNT2 Layout picture



2. I have a HUGE amount of pictures of cars (serious petrolhead ) organized in folders and sub-folders by Brand, Model, Year and Picture Number (example - BMW->3 Series->E90->bmw3seriese90-picture1.jpg). I`d like to know what`s the best way to manage this pictures with iPhoto (if possible without changing the folder directory, since my "car pictures" folder is on my "car" folder, where I have movies, photochops, etc. and I`d like to keep it all together, and making a copy of the folder would be impossible since it is about 35Gb and my Mini only has 80Gb )



3. What`s the best way to manage movies? iTunes? I got a great number of movies and I`d like to know what`s the best way to manage`em (again I`d rather not have to move the folder from where it is)



I am really happy with my new mac, and if you guys can help me sort this things out, the experience would be improved a lot



Best regards

Daniel



PS: sorry if my english isn`t that good - remember my native tongue is portuguese

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    rob05aurob05au Posts: 348member
    You would be better off getting an external HD of around 200+ gig these come in Firewire/USB2 or USB2. You could then move the files to it and be able to use them from the external HD and free up some Internal HD space.
  • Reply 2 of 6
    lfe2211lfe2211 Posts: 507member
    new imac,



    For the Portugse keyboard layout problem, go to system preferences, international pane. Click the Input Menu tab. Click Portuguese. Your keyboard layout will now be in portuguese. You can also choose Portuguese in the Language tab and your menus will appear in Portuuese for some (not all) prrograms. And you can switch from P to US language on the fly without computer restart. Read the help file on System Preferences for further info.



    In addition to the good suggestion of getting an external HD, have you considered compressing some or all of your folders. This can save you space on the internal or external HD. Here are 2 links on compression.



    http://www.stuffit.com/mac/standard/



    http://www.macwindows.com/compress.html



    Hope this helps.
  • Reply 3 of 6
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,322moderator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by new imac View Post


    I`d like to know what`s the best way to manage this pictures with iPhoto (if possible without changing the folder directory



    I wouldn't use iphoto. Like itunes, it relies on metadata for arranging stuff and if you have a complex folder layout, this will be ignored and you will need to type all your car types and things into iphoto manually.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by new imac View Post


    3. What`s the best way to manage movies? iTunes? I got a great number of movies and I`d like to know what`s the best way to manage`em (again I`d rather not have to move the folder from where it is)



    itunes is horrible for movies. They play all jittery and it has very limited support for movie types.



    I do things the same way. I store my data the way I like in folder hierarchies. This way I can be assured I'm not wasting space with duplicates and thumbnails and I don't need to worry about libraries getting messed up.



    The best way to search this setup is to use the search tools in the Finder. Spotlight indexes your drive for any changes you make so a search instantly brings up what you are looking for. You can and should limit your search to say your cars folder by selecting it in the Finder and then just start typing in the search box at the top of the Finder window. Type in the name of your favourite car and it will find all images with that name. Then add other options ot narrow down the search. You can also use smart folders to save you building complex searches from scratch every time.
  • Reply 4 of 6
    new imacnew imac Posts: 29member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by lfe2211 View Post


    new imac,



    For the Portugse keyboard layout problem, go to system preferences, international pane. Click the Input Menu tab. Click Portuguese. Your keyboard layout will now be in portuguese. You can also choose Portuguese in the Language tab and your menus will appear in Portuuese for some (not all) prrograms. And you can switch from P to US language on the fly without computer restart. Read the help file on System Preferences for further info.



    Thanks a LOT for the help . But I still can't figure out one thing:



    When I first turned on the mac, and went through the assistant to configure it, I chose the keyboard layout to 101/102 keys and portuguese. But the Mini recognizes it as a ABNT layout keyboard (old layout) as opposed to ABNT 2



    ABNT Layout Picture





    ABNT 2 Layout Picture



    Do you have any idea how can I change the layout to ABNT 2? It it fairly important, since the old layout doesn't have, for instance, the "Ç", so when I press that key, it types " ´ ", and I have to press two different keys in order to obtain the "Ç". Any ideas?
  • Reply 5 of 6
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,322moderator
    From this it seems the Portugese layout is meant for Potugese style keyboards. If you have a US style keyboard then you can get this custom layout:



    http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/29277



    You put it into /Library/Keyboard Layouts.
  • Reply 6 of 6
    john frenchjohn french Posts: 199member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Marvin View Post


    From this it seems the Portugese layout is meant for Potugese style keyboards. If you have a US style keyboard then you can get this custom layout:



    http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/29277



    You put it into /Library/Keyboard Layouts.



    Marvin, I was about to go grab that same thing and post the link here. beat me to it
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