New guy with list of questions...

[sabre364]

We were forced to buy MBPs for school and running vista in bootcamp there are too many issues to count.

I am here to learn more about osx and enjoy its features the best I can while I run it over the next four years. I just noticed the tutorials and guides in this forum, I will be perusing them over the next couple days.

1. What is a program similar to mspaint for mac

2. is there anyway for itunes to continuously monitor your library instead of having to manually add every new folder/album of music you add? Like if I create a new folder with an album in my 'music' folder, will it automatically add it?

3. Why does my the font in this forum look so thick, on my windows machines it not that way...is there a similar feature to cleartype on the macs?
example:

4. When I maximize a window (the green button), how do I make it smaller (like the middle button on a pc) without minimizing it to the dock (middle button on mac). Is there any way to do this without going to the bottom right corner and dragging resize the window? Its very annoying as I also have set up that a quick mouse movement to the bottom right opens spaces.

5. I need mac similar programs to winrar, poweriso (or imgburn, a burning software + virtual drive), and kmplayer...recommendations?

I realize there is a nice list in the guides, I still have to check this out

I guess poweriso I can run in VMWare, but the others dont want to do that

6. Is there anyway to change around the mac version of word/ppt/excel to have menu bars more similar to windows?

7. torrent software? What to use, there is no utorrent for macs...

I see transmission, is that the best to use. I used to use azureus on the PC but it was very resource intensive

8. Good sites with lots of mac torrents? I am member of torrentleech and supertorrents already.

9. How do I get my logitech mx518's side buttons (forward and backward in a browser) to work?

10. What do yall have set up as your quick move to corner shortcuts? To upper left for me is to show all the windows, but it gets annoying when I accidently opened something and go to close it and instead see the layout of my windows.

11. What is the preview application and whys that always seemingly activated.

12. I have realplayer (and need it for some books for school), how do I prevent it from opening up everytime I watch a youtube video.

13. Where do I see task manager (ram, cpu, processes, etc usage) like ctrl alt delete would do for a windows box

14. How do I delete a file without dragging it to the recycle bin? fn + delete doesnt seem to work like it did in vista...


Thats all I have right at this moment, I'm sure I'll have more later...

 

[fivetoadsloth]

1.) Photoshop is the obvious one, gimp is free and open source. I am sure someone will have a better recommendation.

4.) The green button makes a window 'as big as it wants to be' to make it smaller, but not the size you last had it you have to drag the corner.

10.) Lower left expose

11.) Preview is used to show any image files, or pdfs. Whenever you open an image it opens.

12.) Uninstall real downloader.

13.) Activity Monitor

I hope I lead you in the right track on some of them, If I did not I am sure someone will correct me.

 

[swiftaw]

2) Folder Actions

5) UnRarX

14) Apple+Delete

 

[GGJstudios]

Welcome to Mac ownership and welcome to MacRumors:Forums! You'll find a lot of information both here and on the web. Here are a few resources that may be helpful:

Mac 101 a tour of the Mac OS X
Apple Support search Apple Support and the Knowledge Base
MRoogle for searching the forums with Google (always a good idea before posting new questions)
How to set up a quick right-click search of the MR forums.
MacRumors FAQ
MacRumors Rules
MacRumors Guides Very helpful stuff!
A list of the MR Forums (so you'll know which forum is best to post a new question)
Maximizing your MacRumors troubleshooting experience. (if you really need help, this is valuable to know!)
Apple Find Out How
Apple Keyboard Shortcuts
You can find lists of essential applications here and here and here.

If you search the forums and don't find what you're looking for, just ask! There's lots of friendly help here! Enjoy your new Mac!

 

[Aranince]

Preview lets you to very quickly preview any document. If you have a picture, you can click it once and press spacebar and it will pop up so you can see what it is without opening a heavy program.

 

[Metuas]

We were forced to buy MBPs for school and running vista in bootcamp there are too many issues to count.

I am here to learn more about osx and enjoy its features the best I can while I run it over the next four years. I just noticed the tutorials and guides in this forum, I will be perusing them over the next couple days.

1. What is a program similar to mspaint for mac

2. is there anyway for itunes to continuously monitor your library instead of having to manually add every new folder/album of music you add? Like if I create a new folder with an album in my 'music' folder, will it automatically add it?

3. Why does my the font in this forum look so thick, on my windows machines it not that way...is there a similar feature to cleartype on the macs?
example:

4. When I maximize a window (the green button), how do I make it smaller (like the middle button on a pc) without minimizing it to the dock (middle button on mac). Is there any way to do this without going to the bottom right corner and dragging resize the window? Its very annoying as I also have set up that a quick mouse movement to the bottom right opens spaces.

5. I need mac similar programs to winrar, poweriso (or imgburn, a burning software + virtual drive), and kmplayer...recommendations?

I realize there is a nice list in the guides, I still have to check this out

I guess poweriso I can run in VMWare, but the others dont want to do that

6. Is there anyway to change around the mac version of word/ppt/excel to have menu bars more similar to windows?

7. torrent software? What to use, there is no utorrent for macs...

I see transmission, is that the best to use. I used to use azureus on the PC but it was very resource intensive

8. Good sites with lots of mac torrents? I am member of torrentleech and supertorrents already.

9. How do I get my logitech mx518's side buttons (forward and backward in a browser) to work?

10. What do yall have set up as your quick move to corner shortcuts? To upper left for me is to show all the windows, but it gets annoying when I accidently opened something and go to close it and instead see the layout of my windows.

11. What is the preview application and whys that always seemingly activated.

12. I have realplayer (and need it for some books for school), how do I prevent it from opening up everytime I watch a youtube video.

13. Where do I see task manager (ram, cpu, processes, etc usage) like ctrl alt delete would do for a windows box

14. How do I delete a file without dragging it to the recycle bin? fn + delete doesnt seem to work like it did in vista...


Thats all I have right at this moment, I'm sure I'll have more later...

1. Paintbrush

2. iTunes > Add to Library...

3. Font smoothing is enabled on Macs by default, you can edit it in System Preferences > Appearance

4. The green button is not maximize; it's called zoom. It will make the window as large as it needs to be; it won't fill the screen.

5. Stuffit Expander is a good unarchiver; you can use Disk Utility to burn CD/DVDs for the most part, and OS X's DiskImageMounter lets you mount .iso, .dmg, .cdr, and other formats.

6. No, sorry.

7. Tomato Torrent is decent.

8. -

9. Look up drivers for it or put in the CD that came with it.

10. Hot corners are annoying; I use my Mighty Mouse buttons mostly.

11. It is the default PDF, BMP, PNG, JPEG, TIFF, etc. file viewer. It will open basically any picture file, plus PDFs. It uses so little resources that I don't bother to close it when I'm downloading lots of images or PDFs.

12. Sorry, can't help there; I don't use RealPlayer. Maybe set iTunes as the default online media content player?

13. /Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor.app

14. Command+Delete, or right-click -> Move to Trash

 

[Makosuke]

3. Why does my the font in this forum look so thick, on my windows machines it not that way...is there a similar feature to cleartype on the macs?

As said, this behavior can be adjusted in the System Preferences, but nothing you're going to do is going to make the text smoothing style look the same as Windows.

You can Google for more detail, but basically MS Cleartype puts preference on the pixel grid, and thus "crispness", at the expense of character and shape spacing--that is, it'll make the lines sharper even if it distorts their shape slightly. The MacOS sacrifices crispness for the sake of character shape--that is, even if it needs to make the letters a little heavier to do so, it will keep them looking "correct" shape-wise.

There is no "right" way, just two different ways of approaching the same problem, and amusingly most people used to one system hate the other--I find Windows Cleartype antialiasing so thin it's hard to read in addition to being ugly, while many longtime Windows users like yourself find OSX antialiasing heavy and funny-looking.

Bottom line, though, is that adjust as much as you can in the Prefs, but basically get used to it. On the positive side, after you've used it for a while it probably won't be nearly as noticeable.

5. I need mac similar programs to winrar, poweriso (or imgburn, a burning software + virtual drive), and kmplayer...recommendations?

As said, Disk Utility is actually extremely good when it comes to mounting .iso or other disk image formats in a fully usable system (the Mac has used this "file as disk" idiom for decades, so it's pretty well integrated in the OS), and also quite good for creating images from existing disks. In fact, I use it to make duplicate (and fully bootable) copies of Windows and Office install CDs at work (100% legit--campus license).

There are a number of RAR apps and other, heavier-duty disk image manipulation/creation apps (many free)--search on VersionTracker.com or MacUpdate.com for suggestions. Both those sites list most of what's available (though their search engines are occasionally funky).

7. torrent software? What to use, there is no utorrent for macs...

I see transmission, is that the best to use. I used to use azureus on the PC but it was very resource intensive

I previously used Azureus for its massive capabilities and remote control, but I like Transmission these days--much simpler and prettier. If you do want to stick with Azureus, though, I haven't had trouble with it being resource intensive on any remotely modern Mac--it ran fine for long stretches of time on several-year-old hardware with pretty heavy activity for me.

9. How do I get my logitech mx518's side buttons (forward and backward in a browser) to work?

Download the Logitech Control Center software from their website; it's somewhat funky (I despise Logitech for their weak Mac drivers), but it does provide access to all buttons and plenty of customization on my MX Revolution and MX500, and should work fine for yours as well.

12. I have realplayer (and need it for some books for school), how do I prevent it from opening up everytime I watch a youtube video.

I have Real installed on all the machines at work and have never seen this behavior; do you not have Flash installed, or perhaps did you tell RealPlayer to also handle all SWF content in its prefs? It's certainly not supposed to do that.

 

[fivetoadsloth]

I have Real installed on all the machines at work and have never seen this behavior; do you not have Flash installed, or perhaps did you tell RealPlayer to also handle all SWF content in its prefs? It's certainly not supposed to do that.

I think that real started bundling a 'real downloader' which automatically downloads any real playerable material you view in a web page, it is a little app that shows it and you can hit save if you want the file saved to your computer.

 

[Makosuke]

I think that real started bundling a 'real downloader' which automatically downloads any real playerable material you view in a web page, it is a little app that shows it and you can hit save if you want the file saved to your computer.

Huh. I stand corrected. Looks like that's a feature added in the new v11, and I hadn't tried the betas or updated any systems yet, so hadn't seen that. Looks like to kill the downloader you just need to remove it from the login items for your account (System Prefs -> Accounts -> Your account -> Login Items tab).

On a semi-related note, is it just me or does Real seem to go out of its way to annoy its users?

 

[agentphish]

We were forced to buy MBPs for school and running vista in bootcamp there are too many issues to count.

Ouch...Forced is a harsh word...I assume you're somewhat of a Windows Fanatic, but the school made a very good choice for you.


1. What is a program similar to mspaint for mac
You can use TheGimp, its' free and open source, very easy to use as has been mentioned.


3. Why does my the font in this forum look so thick, on my windows machines it not that way...is there a similar feature to cleartype on the macs?
You can adjust your font settings in the preferences of your browser. Every browser displays them a little different. You can also use Command + or - to enlarge, or make the text smaller.


5. I need mac similar programs to winrar, poweriso (or imgburn, a burning software + virtual drive), and kmplayer...recommendations?
You can use the built in Archiver for OS X to create and extract ZIP files. You can also get BetterZip online and install it with rar for mac...from rarsoft.com, It should handle everything you need. There's also Stuffit Deluxe, but I don't like it personally.

As far as your burning, you want Toast (not free) from Roxio. There are some other free burning apps out there, but Toast is the way to go.

6. Is there anyway to change around the mac version of word/ppt/excel to have menu bars more similar to windows?
No and that's MS's fault, not OS X or Apple.

7. torrent software? What to use, there is no utorrent for macs...
Transmission is where it's at.

8. Good sites with lots of mac torrents? I am member of torrentleech and supertorrents already.
Discussion of piracy on this board isn't permitted. Most of us know the only thing you could need to torrent for a mac would be pirated stuff.

9. How do I get my logitech mx518's side buttons (forward and backward in a browser) to work?
You need to download the logitech software suite for Mac. After checking Logitech's site, I see it isn't listed for download. I would suggest calling their tech line, they can point you in the correct direction. They helped me out with something similar.


10. What do yall have set up as your quick move to corner shortcuts? To upper left for me is to show all the windows, but it gets annoying when I accidently opened something and go to close it and instead see the layout of my windows.
I used to use HotCorners, but not anymore, I just use my mouse buttons to handle Expose' (that's what it's called) The Apple Mighty Mouse is amazing with this...your logitech should be able to be set up as well in the Mouse & Keyboard Properties in System Preferences.

11. What is the preview application and whys that always seemingly activated.
Preview (and other apps) will stay on unless you physically Quit them with Command Q, or Preview > Quit Preview, it's not Windows, where you "x" out a window to close a program. OS X can do this because it handles memory SO well. Leaving things open isn't an issue so much, though I don't personally do it.

12. I have realplayer (and need it for some books for school), how do I prevent it from opening up everytime I watch a youtube video.
Never touched RealPlayer or any alternative for it for Mac. I have always disliked it, even since my Windows days. Your school needs to get with the times son! No one uses that lame crap anymore! (No fault of yours)

13. Where do I see task manager (ram, cpu, processes, etc usage) like ctrl alt delete would do for a windows box
It's Activity Monitor and it's in Applications > Utilities> Activity Monitor...but you really really don't need to be playing around with it at all, it's not like Windows. You can get a program called iStatPro if you're interested in other system stats.

14. How do I delete a file without dragging it to the recycle bin? fn + delete doesnt seem to work like it did in vista...
It's not a recycle bin, it's the Trash. I don't find it nearly as annoying as Recycle bin for one reason or another...on my windows Box I can't stand to use it, in OS X i use Trash all the time. The keyboard shortcut to delete a file is Command+Del

A final word of advice...Learn your keyboard shortcuts for OS X. You will LOVE them.
Oh, and welcome to the Mac community. (a.k.a The Dark Side)

 

[sabre364]

I appreciate all the replies everyone, I will be going through them when I get a little more time...

They start us off with intense classes pretty quick here in dental school.

 

[dukebound85]

wow im amazed at people reccomending the gimp and photoshop for a ms paint alternative talk about overkill

i reccomend this seashore

as far as emulation i saw you were going to use vmware. i suggest you save the money and try this out instead virtualbox

 

[sabre364]

wow im amazed at people reccomending the gimp and photoshop for a ms paint alternative talk about overkill

i reccomend this seashore

as far as emulation i saw you were going to use vmware. i suggest you save the money and try this out instead virtualbox

Yeah I used to have pshop to do image resizing back in the day

What a waste of resources. I then discovered MS had its own resizer app that built into your right click :rofl:

 

[dukebound85]

Yeah I used to have pshop to do image resizing back in the day

What a waste of resources. I then discovered MS had its own resizer app that built into your right click :rofl:

preview though can do some very basic photo manipulation, including resizing fyi

when i think about it, your questions are almost identical to the ones i might have if i switched to windows exclusively lol

 

[savanahrose]

wow im amazed at people reccomending the gimp and photoshop for a ms paint alternative talk about overkill

i reccomend this seashore

as far as emulation i saw you were going to use vmware. i suggest you save the money and try this out instead virtualbox

A coworker just told me about virtualbox. He has it on his mac right now and loves it. You may have been forced to buy the mac but you will love this alot more than windows once you get used to it.