Just got my macbook air haswell 13 inch for college! Except im newbie at the whole mac experience. Any tips or things i should know? Thanks guys!!
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New Mac User! Any tips for MacOSX would be appreciated! :D
- Thread starter ashwin4
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Nobody have that much time.
Play with it. Stuck on something? Then post again.
Coming from Windows? Windows let me know there's more than 1 page by showing me the scroll bar. OSX by default doesn't and it drove me batty until I told it ALWAYS SHOW ME SCROLL BAR!
Play with it. Stuck on something? Then post again.
Coming from Windows? Windows let me know there's more than 1 page by showing me the scroll bar. OSX by default doesn't and it drove me batty until I told it ALWAYS SHOW ME SCROLL BAR!
I assume you're coming over from Windows. What were some of your favourite Windows tips and tricks, and what kind of tasks did you usually use the OS for?
Like, we could give you all kinds of tips and hints for working with files in Finder and it turns out you never really do stuff like that.
Like, we could give you all kinds of tips and hints for working with files in Finder and it turns out you never really do stuff like that.
Yeah i have some questions, like how come you cant transfer .txt files from windows mac? or how can i do that 
One of the things I find helps is to learn OS X keyboard shortcuts. It will save you a lot of time once you get use to OS X and will help you learn your new computer.
Yeah i have some questions, like how come you cant transfer .txt files from windows mac? or how can i do that
The method varies whether you are copying from another PC box already on the network, or you are attaching a Windows-formatted hard drive to the Mac.
I find it hard to use a fresh install of OS X without lots of customization. It's nice to enable all the hot corners (to make it easy to get to launchpad, mission control, and the notification center), enable all the trackpad options, and turn on most of the settings in Finder. Use, use use mission control (I usually have 6 desktops between 2 monitors) - I think it's one of the best parts of OS X.
Get the following applications for your Mac, I just converted 1 year ago and these are my favourite applications...Coconut Battery (Battery management), Unarchiver, PixelMator (photoshop alternative), Parallels Desktop (running Windows!), Page (Word, though there's Office), Number (Excel), Keynote (PowerPoint), I use ScreenFlow for screen recording, Final Cut Pro X as Sony Vegas, and Disk Inventory X for file cleaning.
Here are also some extra links that I made for Mac OS X...if you need any help I can make a special tutorial for you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjxZ8rg9U18
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eDcAu6L8Zo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95QfRhKRNzk
Another thing I made as make sure to turn off the scroll thing off of natural, I found it annoying, and I also got GFX card status, but that depends on your version of Mac OS X.
I hope this helps you!
Here are also some extra links that I made for Mac OS X...if you need any help I can make a special tutorial for you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjxZ8rg9U18
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eDcAu6L8Zo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95QfRhKRNzk
Another thing I made as make sure to turn off the scroll thing off of natural, I found it annoying, and I also got GFX card status, but that depends on your version of Mac OS X.
I hope this helps you!
Click on the 
in the top left corner. Click on System Preferences. Go through each item and you will learn volumes about MacOS and customize your settings all at the same time. I recommend spending some time playing around in System Preferences. This helps familiarize the entire user experience.
in the top left corner. Click on System Preferences. Go through each item and you will learn volumes about MacOS and customize your settings all at the same time. I recommend spending some time playing around in System Preferences. This helps familiarize the entire user experience.
Click on the
This is exactly what I would have recommended.
And turn off "natural scrolling" in trackpad settings. I find it to feel very unnatural on anything but a touchscreen, but that's just me
.David Pogue has an excellent book for windows users migrating to the Mac; it's called "Switching to the Mac" and answers lots of questions.
And turn off "natural scrolling" in trackpad settings. I find it to feel very unnatural on anything but a touchscreen, but that's just me
It took me about an hour to get used to the 'natural scrolling' and could never get back to the traditional scrolling on my PC.
haha yeah - that one was an aha! moment for me also. that and the fact that you can hit return to rename a file, but com-o to open it.
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Click on the
yup - i do this in every new piece of tech i buy, all the way from computers and crazy-complicated software suites i use at work down to things like digital recorders.
great advice
That's true, it's all about spending the time and effort to adapt. I use a Windows laptop for work from time to time, and it's just easier keeping the same scrolling movements/gestures on my MacBook.
This may be useful:
I recommend avoiding Sophos, as it can actually increase a Mac's vulnerability, as described here and here. 3rd party antivirus apps are not needed to keep a Mac malware-free, as long as the user practices safe computing, as described in the following link. If anyone insists on running antivirus for some reason, ClamXav (which is free) is one of the best choices, since it isn't a resource hog, detects both Mac and Windows malware and doesn't run with elevated privileges.Install some form of Antivirus. It might be a Mac, meaning viruses are less likely to target OS X vs a Windows-based PC, but there are vulnerabilities and it's better to be safe than sorry.
I use Sophos
Macs are not immune to malware, but no true viruses exist in the wild that can run on Mac OS X, and there never have been any since it was released over 12 years ago. The only malware in the wild that can affect Mac OS X is a handful of trojans, which can be easily avoided by practicing safe computing (see below). 3rd party antivirus apps are not necessary to keep a Mac malware-free, as long as a user practices safe computing, as described in the following link.
Read the What security steps should I take? section of the Mac Virus/Malware FAQ for tips on practicing safe computing.