Wow...oh wow

[Abulia]

So here I am, typing this on my just-arrived 17" iMac and I am very impressed. I have a strong IT background so installing the extra 512MB and setting the unit up was a piece of cake. The unit came with 10.2.8 installed so using the upgrade discs (and about 30 minutes) I had 10.3 installed plus iLife. Right now I'm downloading the 80+MB of OS X patches in the background.

Just messing around with the interface I really like the "feel" of the machine. Of course I'm doing everything the hard way, I'm sure, but with time will learn the in's and out's of how to work the machine.

Damn this thing is quiet! Just stunning. Love the display, too!

Only having the unit for just under two hours, really only two complaints:

1. The mouse. Ohmygawd this thing is horrible. The lack of a scroll wheel makes me want to strangle someone at Apple. The mouse -- when compared to the machine itself -- is a travesty. Where are some replacement mouse recommendations?

2. Running programs. Coming from the Windows world, what's the easiest way to see what is running and close them down? Finder? My newbie-ness is really cute, I know.

3. Expose. A highly-touted feature, I'm not sure how it works or what it does for me.

Umm, that's about it. A pretty short list. After the updates install for everything I'm going to install Office 2004. Maybe burn a movie or download a Tears For Fears tune from iTunes.

Very cool. Be interesting to see what the wife thinks... Thanks to all for your help thus far!

Weee!

 

[PlaceofDis]

1. The mouse. Ohmygawd this thing is horrible. The lack of a scroll wheel makes me want to strangle someone at Apple. The mouse -- when compared to the machine itself -- is a travesty. Where are some replacement mouse recommendations?

2. Running programs. Coming from the Windows world, what's the easiest way to see what is running and close them down? Finder? My newbie-ness is really cute, I know.

3. Expose. A highly-touted feature, I'm not sure how it works or what it does for me.

Umm, that's about it. A pretty short list. After the updates install for everything I'm going to install Office 2004. Maybe burn a movie or download a Tears For Fears tune from iTunes.

Very cool. Be interesting to see what the wife thinks... Thanks to all for your help thus far!

Weee!

1. there are a lot of threads on here about wireless mice/bluetooth mice, ect, try a search and if you like the look or apple's mouse check our macmice for sure....

2. all open applications will be in your dock and if they are open then will have a little black triangle underneath them, you can control click on them to close them or just click the icon and hit command+Q to close them (command is the key with the apple on it) or click the icon and to the the menubar to close them....or command+tab to go through programs and when you have the one you want to close selected instead of pressing the tab button hit q...sorry it this is a little confusing, but there are a number or ways to do it...

3. expose works in a number of ways, there are the three programed keys that you can use to activate it...one will clear all the open windows away so you can get to your desktop, another will scale all the open windows down so you can select between apps and another will only scale down the windows open in the currently used app....you can also go to systempreferences and set up hot corners so that when you move the mouse into that corner it will activate expose, i think this is the best way personally

if you have any more questions just post! and i hope you enjoy your machine!

 

[Sweetfeld28]

Not sure myself, but the fastest way that i close programs is using the dock. But first you need to go out and get your self a two-button scroll wheel mouse. With a two button mouse all that you have to do is right click on the program icon in the dock, then a menu will pop-up allowing you to force quit. I think you can hold down the control or command button while clicking to get the same effect.

congrats on the imac, ryan

 

[bousozoku]

You may also use command-option-escape to show running applications in order to force quit them. If you're not trying to do that, you may press escape or command-w or click the close box to close the window.

 

[tjwett]

you can also Cmnd+Tab through open apps and quit them that way as well by pressing Q while still holding Cmnd.

 

[jsw]

So here I am, typing this on my just-arrived 17" iMac and I am very impressed.

Congrats!

Of course I'm doing everything the hard way, I'm sure, but with time will learn the in's and out's of how to work the machine.

One hint that might help in a multi-computer environment like yours: to connect to another machine, just hit Command-K (The Command key is also known as the "Apple" button and is the one right by the spacebar).

Also, all the menu hints use capital letters (i.e., "Command-X"). They really mean lowercase ("Command-k"). If you're supposed to shift, you'll see an "up arrow" in front of the shortcut. This symbol means to use the option key, and this one means to use the control key, and, of course, this one means to use the command key.

Only having the unit for just under two hours, really only two complaints:

1. The mouse. Ohmygawd this thing is horrible. The lack of a scroll wheel makes me want to strangle someone at Apple. The mouse -- when compared to the machine itself -- is a travesty. Where are some replacement mouse recommendations?

You likely can use your favorite Windows mouse; just look for a Mac driver. For Mac mice, I'm partial to the Kensington Wireless Studio Mouse. There are many good ones.

2. Running programs. Coming from the Windows world, what's the easiest way to see what is running and close them down? Finder? My newbie-ness is really cute, I know.

Easiest thing: Hit Command-tab. Use the keyboard arrows (or your mouse, or continuing to hit the tab with the command button depressed) to move between open apps. Pressing 'q' will quit that app (more accurately: command-q, since the command button will already be pressed).

Power user: Use Applications (folder on your hard disk)->Utilities->Activity Monitor. Command-1 brings up all running processes. Go nuts.

3. Expose. A highly-touted feature, I'm not sure how it works or what it does for me.

Press F9 to see all open windows. Move your mouse onto one of them and press F9 again - or just click on it- and that window comes to the front. Nice if you've got lots open. Press F10, and you'll see all windows in your current application. Press F11, and you'll see your desktop. Nice eye candy.


Have fun!

 

[LeeTom]

So here I am, typing this on my just-arrived 17" iMac and I am very impressed. I have a strong IT background so installing the extra 512MB and setting the unit up was a piece of cake. The unit came with 10.2.8 installed so using the upgrade discs (and about 30 minutes) I had 10.3 installed plus iLife. Right now I'm downloading the 80+MB of OS X patches in the background.

Just messing around with the interface I really like the "feel" of the machine. Of course I'm doing everything the hard way, I'm sure, but with time will learn the in's and out's of how to work the machine.

Damn this thing is quiet! Just stunning. Love the display, too!

Only having the unit for just under two hours, really only two complaints:

1. The mouse. Ohmygawd this thing is horrible. The lack of a scroll wheel makes me want to strangle someone at Apple. The mouse -- when compared to the machine itself -- is a travesty. Where are some replacement mouse recommendations?

2. Running programs. Coming from the Windows world, what's the easiest way to see what is running and close them down? Finder? My newbie-ness is really cute, I know.

3. Expose. A highly-touted feature, I'm not sure how it works or what it does for me.
Weee!

1. I recommend the Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer, or Microsoft Optical scrolling mouse. MS makes great mice, and they are fully compatible.

2. The dock on the bottom shows you running programs, they have the black triangle under them. Ways to quit:
a) go up to the program's name, next to the apple (where File would be on windows), and choose Quit.
B) ctrl-click (equivalent to right-click, which you will get with an MS mouse) on the application on the dock.
C) Hit Apple-Q.

3. Expose: Try hitting F9, F10, and F11. Those are the default Expose keys. You'll figure it out when you hit them.

Lee Tom

 

[jimjiminyjim]

It's not a force quit unless something has stalled...

If the application you want to quit is running fine, it will just say "quit"
If the application is not responding, it will say "force quit"

Expose:
Hitting F11 exposes the Desktop by sliding all windows out of the way.
Hitting F11 a second time moves everything back to where it was.
Try it. You'll be able to work on the Desktop.

Hitting F9 exposes every open window by making them fit on your screen.
Hit F9 again to make everything go back to where it was. Try it. "F9," "F9"

Hit F9 once, then click on any window. That one will come to the front for you to work on, while the rest of the open windows assume their previous normal size positions in the background. Try it!

F10 works the same as F9, but only for one application. For example, say you have three windows open in Appleworks, four in photoshop, and another two in safari. If you are currently working in Appleworks, hitting F10 will show the three Appleworks documents, but not the photoshop or safari windows. Try it!

The Finder
The finder is, to the average user, another name for the desktop. The desktop is very much an application, which we call the finder. The finder describes the desktop and all its icons, menus, and functions.

How to tell what apps are open

 

[jimjiminyjim]

Sorry... finishing my post

How to tell what apps are open: Look in the dock. There will be a small triangle at the bottom of the screen pointing to the open applications. The finder will always have one. You see it??

 

[jsw]

One other thing - if you've minimized a window into the dock (it'll appear on the right side of the dock, next to the Trash and other minimized windows) it won't appear when you use F10 to show all windows of an app, or F9 to show all windows period.

Also, command-~ toggles between open windows of a given app when it's the frontmost one. Again, not including minimized windows.

Oh, one other hint: go into Safari->Preferences...->Tabs and "Enable Tabbed Browsing". You can now open pages in new tabs, not just new windows. Familiar to you if you use Netscape and others, not likely familiar to you if you're an IE regular.

 

[Abulia]

Sweetness. Thank you for the information, all.

I almost feel dangerous!

 

[javabear90]

no stay away from micro soft mice... it's a microsloth product!! I like the logitech MX series. I have the mx500 it's very nice, comfortable, fast, lots of buttons to program yourself etc....

 

[Makosuke]

I second the recommendation of Logitech MX-series mice; I absolutely love my MX500, and they have wireless versions (both proprietary and bluetooth) available as well, if you prefer.

I do NOT recommend MS's mice; although they're inexpensive and quite comfy at first, in my experience with them the hardware doesn't hold up well long term, and the drivers are often flaky.

And I second the recommendation of a previous poster (buried in there somewhere) to check out Activity Monitor for all your process-watching needs; since you have an IT background, you'll appreciate both the information it provides (processor usage percentage, RAM useage, thread count, etc) and the fact that you can organize things hierarcically, so you can see what spawned what.

I've found that last feature invaluable for figuring out what started up funky UNIX processes that run in the background, or what some applications are actually doing when they run shell scripts.

 

[neoelectronaut]

Don't bother with 85-button mice, you won't use all the buttons. A nice $10 USB, 2-button mouse will do you just fine.

I use this:

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/US/EN,CRID=3,CONTENTID=4990

Just plug it in, and away you go.

 

[brap]

I do NOT recommend MS's mice; although they're inexpensive and quite comfy at first, in my experience with them the hardware doesn't hold up well long term, and the drivers are often flaky.

Well, I'm currently using a gen.1 Microsoft Intellimouse explorer (the weird looking right-handed one). I got it when it was released, so... coming up to 4 years' service ain't bad.
I've also spilled lemonade in it at least twice

 

[jsw]

Well, I'm currently using a gen.1 Microsoft Intellimouse explorer (the weird looking right-handed one). I got it when it was released, so... coming up to 4 years' service ain't bad.
I've also spilled lemonade in it at least twice

I've had mine (MS Intellimouse) about the same amount of time (now on my other Mac). it works fine and fits my hand. YMMV.

 

[kanker]

If you have a USB mouse with a scroll wheel, plug it in. It should work.

 

[FuzzyBallz]

Logitech Wireless Combo... Navigator Duo or MX Duo.

 

[Abulia]

If you have a USB mouse with a scroll wheel, plug it in. It should work.

Drat, server ate my post.

I'm going to try my MS Wireless Intelliexplorer; I'm addicted to its smooth wheel motion. I can't go back to mice with wheels that have the "ticks" in them anymore.

I'm back at work today on a PC and wasn't struck down! Yea!

The iMac "feels" like I have less working space, however. I think this is partly because of the dock taking up the bottom of the display plus the tendency to center your active window, creating dead space not being used on either side. Something I'm just going to have to work though; I'm not used to a widescreen display.

Wife and I downloaded and created a home movie last night and burned to a DVD. We were very impressed with the ease of doing so. I really like Camino and MS Office 2004 is going to take some getting used to.

Largest complaint is the lack of paper documentation. I'm learning everything from online help (like here), tips, or just plain experimentation. The concept of a "drag and drop" installation, while cool, is totally foreign to a PC user. Took some time to figure that one out!

 

[kanker]

Go up to the Apple menu at the top left hand corner, go to system preferences and use the Dock's preferences to resize, move, and/or hide the dock (so that rolling the mouse in the area of the dock makes it show back up).

 

[wordmunger]

Dock options

One a widescreen monitor, it doesn't make much sense to place the dock on the bottom: you're using up the narrowest dimension of your monitor. So you have two options -- on the right, or on the left.

Problems with the right side: This is where your hard drive icon comes up on the desktop; dock interferes.

Solution: don't display hard drive icon on the desktop. Any new finder window has the HD icon anyway.

Problems with the left side: This is where the Apple menu goes; Apple menu conflicts with dock. Also applications tend to put new windows and/or toolbars there.

Solution: Put your dock on the right hand side

 

[Abulia]

One a widescreen monitor, it doesn't make much sense to place the dock on the bottom: you're using up the narrowest dimension of your monitor. So you have two options -- on the right, or on the left

Great minds think alike; I pretty much came to this conclusion on my own last night. I didn't know you could get rid of the HD icon. (Er, how do you do that?)

I'll play w/ hiding the dock but it'll probably get kept on the right.

 

[kanker]

I would also drag important things into the dock, like the System Pref's icon from the applications folder, and from Applications/Utilities put the Disk Utility, the Terminal (if you think you'll be doing any Unix work or just to run an occasional script), the Printer Setup Utility, and if you're using Bluetooth, you might want to put the Bluetooth Setup assistant in the dock. Run the disk utility if you haven't already by selecting the named volume that you are using, listed under the HD, go to the first aid tab if you aren't there already, and click Repair Permissions. Run it at LEAST once a month, and ideally before and after any major installations. Drag the Icon for any other app you're likely to be using frequently to the dock too.

Edit- I'd also run the Disk utility after starting preinstalled programs for the first time. iTunes is one in particular that I've seen create a mess of permissions issues after the initial run.

 

[RugoseCone]

Getting Rid of HD Icon

Great minds think alike; I pretty much came to this conclusion on my own last night. I didn't know you could get rid of the HD icon. (Er, how do you do that?)

I'll play w/ hiding the dock but it'll probably get kept on the right.

Click on your desktop, a blank area somewhere. Then select the FINDER pull down menu at the top of the screen. Pick PREFERENCES. Under the GENERAL tab unclick hard disks under the heading SHOW THESE ITEMS ON THE DESKTOP.