So I recently purchased a MacBook Air, which is the first OS X device I own. I've been fiddling around with it and want to clarify one thing.
When I open Finder I can see a list of "favourites." Are the folders that are listen under favourites on the sidebar basically the same as the folders you'd see when you open My Documents on a PC? Also, under favourites I see a folder or tab (not sure what you'd call them) that has the name that I gave the comp when I first turned it on to setup. When I go into that folder I see a list of all the folders that are in the sidebar as well as a new public folder. So I'm thinking that that folder (the one that has the name that I gave my PC) is actually the equivalent of My Documents on a PC.
I'm in the process of manually transferring over all my files over and want to make sure I organize them properly.
I'd appreciate any clarification at all.
Well, the good thing with Mac is that you don't need to read any book to start with. Especially for a switcher that won't mess with command line at the beginning. It is a unix, indeed, but you don't have to get into this if you don't want to.
So, to answer the specific questions:
Under the favorites section of your sidebar (that is the left side of the finder window) you can drag any folders you want to have fast access to. Finder already has added some useful folders like documents etc. Later on, you can add anything else you want fast access. Just drag it from the main area to the sidebar under favorites and it will stay there. Press command key and drag it out and it's gone (it's gone from favorites, not from the disk of course).
As said above, the windows "My Documents" is called "Documents". It should be under favorites by default. If not, you can add it as I described above.
The folder with your username (not the computer name) under favorites, will take you to your home folder. Under your home folder you should see the "Documents", "Public", "Downloads", "Desktop" etc. All these are folders that belong to the user your are logged in with. Therefore they are located in your home.
The most commonly used are:
"Applications" will contain any applications installed for your user only.
"Desktop" will contain your desktop's files. Anything you add here is the same as dragging it on your mac's desktop area.
"Documents" covered above.
"Downloads" will contain anything you download from the internet (or anything else you need to keep there as temporary).
"Public" anything you put there will be publicly available to other users or machines connected to your mac.
...and many more like "Music", "Pictures" etc.
Again, these are just folders created by default to help you organize your data easily. You are not binned to use them, but I'd strongly recommend to do so at least for the start, until you get more comfortable with the OS X.
Also, mind that if you want to work with folders outside your home (i.e. adding an application to your main /Applications folder available to entire system) you'll need to enter your credentials (username/password). That way you are free to decide which data you want to be available only to you, and which data you want them to be available to the entire system. (e.g. I keep my photos,music,documents on my home folder, available only to me while I install the applications on the main /Applications folder meaning they are available to all users on my mac).
