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All the things about OS X that bug switchers

iMacmatician said:
It's the replacement of BOMArchiveHelper in Leopard. It opens up whenever you open an archive like a .zip file and extracts its contents.
Click to expand...

oh right!

There it is, lurking at the bottom of Apps. Never used it, been using lots of other 3rd party applets for the obscure stuff.

I'm on 10.4.11 for ref, dunno when this little guy turned up.

When I look at the prefs, there's a huge list of basically any and every type of archive you can think of including 7zips :cool: and loads of old Amiga stuff. The trick is, they all have a little tick box next to them to associate files of such type with The Unarchiver. And by default they're all off.

That'll be why I'd never heard of it then... :rolleyes:
 
TEG said:
Lies and Slander. Simply open the keychain.app, and under Preferences, select "Show Keychain Status on Menu Bar". Then all you have to do is click on the little lock icon that appears there and select "Lock Screen". You could even set it to activate with a key combination, much like how you can just use Windows-L to Lock the screen in Windows. Yes, the Windows Key acts like a modifier, just like Alt (Option), Ctrl, and Command :)apple:).

TEG
Click to expand...

TEG: I've know about this feature for quite a while, but have been reluctant to use it on my MacBook, simply because it activates the screen saver which is very very CPU-intensive. Unless, my MacBook is defective. I've been thinking this could because of the onboard GPU.

So far, I've set the MacBook to go to sleep after 30 minutes or manually putting it to sleep when I'm stepping away for a while.
 
One of the various differences between the two OS is clicking on the X button won't completely close the application, except for a few. To completely close the application, use the Quit command.

I have never understood why iPhoto behaves differently. I mean clicking on the X button will close iPhoto completely, unlike iTunes or Mail.app for example.
 
Oddly, I've never missed my right-click mouse. I intend to one when I buy my iMac, but for my Macbook, I almost forgot there even was such a thing as right-clicking!
 
patrickmacrumor said:
One of the various differences between the two OS is clicking on the X button won't completely close the application, except for a few. To completely close the application, use the Quit command.

I have never understood why iPhoto behaves differently. I mean clicking on the X button will close iPhoto completely, unlike iTunes or Mail.app for example.
Click to expand...

because iPhoto is a single window application, so when you close that window there's nothing the app could be doing. iTunes on the other hand continues to play music (as it should) Web browsers, you still have the ability to open new windows. With document editor, like pages, you can still open new documents. But with something like the calculator if you close it, there's not a lot you can do with a calculator running in the background so the whole app closes.
 
whooleytoo said:
Here's a funny (but true one):

There's no "#" on a Mac keyboard.

A friend of mine had this problem when she used a Mac some time ago, and didn't have any Mac users around to ask how to find it, nor had she heard of Key Caps. Not having that key is a bit of an impediment if you're a programmer! She hated Macs as a result!
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:confused:

Shift + 3 = #
 
on a uk apple keyboard shift + 3 = £, the symbol for gbp.

there is indeed no hash sign labelled on any keycap of the uk board.

while we're at it, |\ is in a silly place as is @... :D you get used to it.

@prowlingtiger, you'll get a mighty mouse with your imac which is capable of being a four button mouse already if you go to applications>preferences>keyboard & mouse and change a few boxes... save your money for more RAM... :D
 
...he's right!

alt+3 on a uk keyboard = #

now why isn't that labelled? i know back in the bad old days of line printers and stuff the fact that computer equipment, which was largely made for the US market couldn't do £ was just accepted, and we just put up with using # instead.

what is this, karmic payback? :p
 
This is an observation, not a complaint: Without going into painful, lengthy detail, I find that Mac's Finder app leaves much to be desired, compared to Windows Explorer. It's not nearly as intuitive or flexible and either doesn't provide as much information and functionality as WE, or isn't as straightforward in achieving the same results. It's the only serious shortcoming I've found in Mac OS X. If that's as bad as it gets, I'm very happy with the switch!
 
I'm not a fan of the no background in Photoshop and Illustrator because I find myself constantly clicking out of the program.

I don't like how when you hit Home on the keyboard the cursor doesn't go the beginning of the line, and viceversa with End.

I hope Maya becomes more stable, but that's more an Autodesk issue.

And I concur with the above posters statement about the Finder.

Other than that, its a wonderful machine.
 
actually, reading back up a couple of posts, here's another reason-

Mac users live in the past when it suites them...

The keys are, and have been for a while now, labelled

caps lock,
shift
ctrl alt :apple:/option spacebar

i know old mac keyboards (pre ppc? not sure of history here) had different names (like cmd and so forth) but they aren't there anymore.

using archaic no-longer-existent key names by convention is just annoying.

not quite as annoying as Adobe using the 'delete' key on the pc and the 'clear' key on the apple for the same function! Also, the slight reassignments arounf the numeric pad mean that my preferred alt++ alt+- magnify/reduce (don't ask me why i like the number pad buttons for this) is uncomfortable... :p
 
Captain Pyro said:
actually, reading back up a couple of posts, here's another reason-

Mac users live in the past when it suites them...

The keys are, and have been for a while now, labelled

caps lock,
shift
ctrl alt :apple:/option spacebar

i know old mac keyboards (pre ppc? not sure of history here) had different names (like cmd and so forth) but they aren't there anymore.

using archaic no-longer-existent key names by convention is just annoying.

not quite as annoying as Adobe using the 'delete' key on the pc and the 'clear' key on the apple for the same function! Also, the slight reassignments arounf the numeric pad mean that my preferred alt++ alt+- magnify/reduce (don't ask me why i like the number pad buttons for this) is uncomfortable... :p
Click to expand...

actually on the newest keyboards (in the US) the :apple: key is labeled 'command'... so the reason why we call it the command key is because it is!
 
On mine:

Shift+3=#
Alt+3=§
Shift+4=€
Alt+4=£

But then again, my kb is danish :p
 
tuffluffjimmy said:
actually on the newest keyboards (in the US) the :apple: key is labeled 'command'... so the reason why we call it the command key is because it is!
Click to expand...

Still no "option" key though (at least on my British keyboard).

It's seems silly saying to people "press the option key - that's the one that says Alt on it". At least the command key actually says "cmd" on it now.

This has always struck me as instantly confusing for new users - Apple's own instructions tell you to use a key which is not labelled. Hardly Mac-like.
 
Interesting thread.

I think the feature I want most on OS X which I can't get is the ability to slideshow all pictures in a folder without having to select it all. It's in both XP and Vista.

I usually do Command+A followed by Command+O, but if there are other folders in the Finder window, it'll open as well. Which is annoying.

No, Cover Flow is not an equivalent...not to me anyway.

Nevertheless, I :apple: my Mac
 
maybe some of that famous industrial design expertise should be levelled at keeping important keys like # constant and the bottom left corner needs updating and standardising internationally?
 
Mr Skills said:
Still no "option" key though (at least on my British keyboard).

It's seems silly saying to people "press the option key - that's the one that says Alt on it". At least the command key actually says "cmd" on it now.

This has always struck me as instantly confusing for new users - Apple's own instructions tell you to use a key which is not labelled. Hardly Mac-like.
Click to expand...

sorry but, the American keyborad says 'option'.
 
I have a feeling that older PPC 601 & g2 uk keyboards may have had 'option' on the keycap instead of alt but I might be wrong.

It's Apple's mistake, anyway. It seems an odd one for such a design-led company to have made though. Maybe the whinging, rainy UK market just isn't worth bothering with! :D
 
tuffluffjimmy said:
sorry but, the American keyborad says 'option'.
Click to expand...

Wow. I just googled an image of the American keyboard and it actually says control, option and command!

On the Britsh keyboards we get ctrl, alt and cmd. So when a beginner looks for advice on Apple's website and it says "press the option key", it just confuses them.

American:
apple%20keyboard.jpg



International (although there is cmd instead of the apple symbol now):
page5_blog_entry9_1.jpg



What on earth is the logic of not properly naming the keys on international keyboards?
 
ggjstudios said:
This is an observation, not a complaint: Without going into painful, lengthy detail, I find that Mac's Finder app leaves much to be desired, compared to Windows Explorer. It's not nearly as intuitive or flexible and either doesn't provide as much information and functionality as WE, or isn't as straightforward in achieving the same results. It's the only serious shortcoming I've found in Mac OS X. If that's as bad as it gets, I'm very happy with the switch!
Click to expand...

Can you elaborate more? I love Finder, and after switching, I can't stand WE.
 
Mr Skills said:
Wow. I just googled an image of the American keyboard and it actually says control, option and command!

[…]
What on earth is the logic of not properly naming the keys on international keyboards?
Click to expand...

It's because they figured international users doesn't have the need to have everything s p e l l e d out for them :p

j/k
 
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