Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Finally convinced parents to buy iMac – any suggestions to ease the switch?

W

winston1236

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Dec 13, 2010
1,902
319
Like the title says I was finally able to get my parents to buy an iMac after the last of their terrible Windows machines died off.

I work professionally using a Mac so I'm an expert but they've never used one before and I can only go to their house for one day to help with setup. Anyone have any thoughts on the best way to teach OSX to two people who have never touched it? I'm really trying to avoid having them get frustrated with the new system and we all know expertise comes with time and use. Thanks in advance amigos.
 
winston1236 said:
Like the title says I was finally able to get my parents to buy an iMac after the last of their terrible Windows machines died off.

I work professionally using a Mac so I'm an expert but they've never used one before and I can only go to their house for one day to help with setup. Anyone have any thoughts on the best way to teach OSX to two people who have never touched it? I'm really trying to avoid having them get frustrated with the new system and we all know expertise comes with time and use. Thanks in advance amigos.
Click to expand...
I had the same situation with my 84 year old dad. The easiest thing to do is just set yourself up as their tech support. Load up a free program called TeamViewer on both your machine and theirs. Using FaceTime and TeamViewer, you can assist them in just about anything.
 
Those are good suggestions.

One bit of advice comes to mind right away. If they're accustomed to using web mail with Yahoo, Gmail or whatever don't try to make them change to the Mail client!
 
Were any of you able to watch the video?

Weaselboy said:
https://www.apple.com/support/macbasics/pctomac/

Set them up with this link on the Desktop or in the Dock and have them go through the videos etc. Apple has on the site for PC "switchers." If they are comfortable at all with Windows, this site will explain about all they need to know to do the same things on their new Mac.
Click to expand...

I tried to watch the video on all three browsers and none of them succeeded. Chrome said it "required Quicktime", but when clicking on the download link it said "Macs have quicktime built in." Safari simply hung. Firefox seemed to get the farthest, but ultimately couldn't play anything.

It says this video was created in 2013, so the format shouldn't be that out of date.
 
jdiamond said:
I tried to watch the video on all three browsers and none of them succeeded. Chrome said it "required Quicktime", but when clicking on the download link it said "Macs have quicktime built in." Safari simply hung. Firefox seemed to get the farthest, but ultimately couldn't play anything.

It says this video was created in 2013, so the format shouldn't be that out of date.
Click to expand...

Worked for me.

----------

My brother brought over his iMac, installed Office, and put Firefox and Chrome on in the dock and pointed out iPhoto/Apeture and left his 63 year old dad to figure it out.

He figured it out.

----------
AppleFan360 said:
I had the same situation with my 84 year old dad. The easiest thing to do is just set yourself up as their tech support. Load up a free program called TeamViewer on both your machine and theirs. Using FaceTime and TeamViewer, you can assist them in just about anything.
Click to expand...

Teamviewer issue?

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6447067
 
jdiamond said:
I tried to watch the video on all three browsers and none of them succeeded. Chrome said it "required Quicktime", but when clicking on the download link it said "Macs have quicktime built in." Safari simply hung. Firefox seemed to get the farthest, but ultimately couldn't play anything.

It says this video was created in 2013, so the format shouldn't be that out of date.
Click to expand...

Videos are working fine for me. You do need Quicktime, but that comes with OS X. Confirm you are on OS X?
 
BrianBaughn said:
Those are good suggestions.

One bit of advice comes to mind right away. If they're accustomed to using web mail with Yahoo, Gmail or whatever don't try to make them change to the Mail client!
Click to expand...

Ha good point, I was actually going to try to do that but on second thought I'll just give him a bookmark.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back