Completely New to OSX

orionetheus · June 4, 2006 3:57PM

I'm getting my Macbook Pro in about a month. I will be dual booting with Windows to ease my transition. Does anyone know of an online guide to aclimating from Win Xp to OS x...I know close to nothing about OS x other than what I've seen playing with OSX in Store. I'm looking for tips on how to keep the computer clean, where to find free applications, how the file management works....

My searches on google showed no results.

Thanks.

noah93 · June 4, 2006 7:52PM

Quote:

Does anyone know of an online guide to aclimating from Win Xp to OS x...

I don't happen to know of one, but if you need any help, thats what we're here for.

Quote:

I know close to nothing about OS x other than what I've seen playing with OSX in Store.

There isn't that much to know. Pretty much everything can be accomplished with drag and drop. Most applications come as a disc image (.dmg) and you just drag the opened image to your hd, although some come as an installer (.pkg) Right click is control-click on a mac. Forward delete is control-delete. IE is replaced with Safari. I would recommend SafariSpeed to make it go a bit faster. Thats pretty much it.

Quote:

I'm looking for tips on how to keep the computer clean,

No viruses, ever. Macs have built in defragmenting, so your system is always up to speed. It will always ask for an admin password to install most anything. Really, there is not much work other than putting your files in the right folders. If you really want to do high maintenance work, which I recommend you don't, there is Onyx. If you want to physically keep the case and screen clean, I recommend iKlear.

Quote:

where to find free applications,

You can check macupdate.com or versiontracker.com Apple has a website of its own which tracks all the (most of) apps for Mac. You can also check this thread for a short list of useful apps.

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how the file management works....

Mostly, you got the finder, kinda like windows explorer or My Computer. A picture of your HD stays on your desktop. At the roots of your drive, it is mostly OS files, so don't delete anything. In your Home Folder, whoch can be found as your username in the finder sidebar, contains a movies folder for iMovie and iDVD projects. A music folder for all your iTunes songs. A documents folder, a shortcut to your desktop, a Sites folder (which is availible over your network, or internet, however you configure it in System Prefs) and a public folder, which contains all the information you want others to be able to open on your computer, and a drop box, so others can give you files. There is also a Library folder, again it belongs to the OS, so don't touch unless you know what you are doing. You also have the spotlight to find files on the fly.

Mac OS X is really easy to learn, and is very straight forward. Enjoy it!

Noah

lundy · June 5, 2006 1:04AM

http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/

k_munic · June 5, 2006 1:11AM

in addition to lundy's post:

http://discussions.apple.com/index.jspa?categoryID=1

is your basic address to get first hand answers to all Mac related topics...

just a very basic rule:

don't transfer "ritual behavior" from Windows to Mac!

e.g. "re-install" is not a solution, it creates trouble on a UNIX system... there are other, more effective ways to solve problems... you get used to it (repair permissions, trash .plist, etc)

most apps on a Mac include a Help function, with zillions of infos, search fields etc.

many apps come along with tutorials... even, if iApps are self-explainatory: read first, click then..

and, believe it or not: you are allowed to use Books... these ugly looking boxes, made of paper?

progmac · June 5, 2006 8:02AM

one windows-learned behavior that you shouldn't really be doing much is minimizing windows. it makes for very inefficient work, especially in OS X. use the familiar command+tab to switch between, and when you want to keep an application out of the way, but don't want to close it, HIDE it. use command(apple)+H to do this. it makes the app disappear until you click on its icon in the dock. minimizing only makes sense if you want to store one window from a program when you have other windows in that program open doing different things. it should be used for window storage, not program storage. if you combine this behavior with expose to view the desktop or switch to a window, you will wonder how you ever survived with windows weak window and application management.

of course, when you are done with a program, don't just push the red x, but click command+Q or quit from the upper menu (program name --> quit)

get used to all the keyboard shortcuts you can handle too.

one other thing, home and end work differently in OS X. if you use home and end in windows to go to the beginning and ends of lines, replace that behavior by using command+left arrow (home) or command+right arrow(end)

k_munic · June 5, 2006 8:34AM

Quote:

Originally posted by progmac

one windows-learned behavior that you shouldn't really be doing much is minimizing windows. ?

good point, but....

vice versa:

when working on a PC, I "throw" the mouse-pointer upper-right corner, to see all windows/Exposé ...

I'm VERY used to MacOsX...

tag me back · June 5, 2006 9:08PM

Quote:

Originally posted by noah93

No viruses, ever.

Ahem... If you expect to use MS word/excel then ignore that statement.

michael_moriarty · June 6, 2006 12:33AM

Here are some online resources I frequent for great Mac OS X tips:

MacOSXHints.com

http://www.macosxhints.com

Mac Hints and Tips

http://mac-hints-tips.com/

---------------

Probably the hardest thing you might have to get used to is the Dock. You are probably very accustomed to using the taskbar and start menu. The Dock is actually very easy to use and works very intelligently when you think about it.

When you launch an application, its icon appears in the dock. The title for each open window of an application appears under its dock menu (available from ctrl+clicking the application's icon). By grouping all your open windows together for an application, it makes it easy to find and switch between them.

I would suggest that one of the first things you do is customize your dock by dragging your applications folder to it. Now you have one click access to all of your applications installed on your system.

project2501 · June 6, 2006 9:20AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Michael_Moriarty

When you launch an application, its icon appears in the dock. The title for each open window of an application appears under its dock menu (available from ctrl+clicking the application's icon). By grouping all your open windows together for an application, it makes it easy to find and switch between them.

I would suggest that one of the first things you do is customize your dock by dragging your applications folder to it. Now you have one click access to all of your applications installed on your system.

Everyone has his/her own way of using computer, so I tell you mine, these are parallel to Michael_Moriarty's. Holding your mouse down over dock icon for 3 seconds also reveals that same "right click" menu, and from finder's(plain desktop) menubar under move you can fast access all important places like applications folder.

vox barbara · June 7, 2006 5:51PM

If you've got some leisure time than activate Exposé mode

while you hold the shift key.

Completely New to OSX

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