New Powerbook, New Mac User

[Vash]

Hello everyone,
I'm very pleased to announce my purchase of a my new 15" PB. I have made the Switch and love the new feel. However, I am completely blind as to shortcuts, software, hotkeys, etc. So I'm going to post this in here hoping I'll get answers or a better place I can post. =)

So anyway, this is what I'm asking...

1) Can I keep my PB idle (online and all) while the lid is closed? Everytime I closed it to leave, it'd boot me offline and suspend itself in a deep freeze, I guess. Does it turn off? "Hibernate"? Or are my preferences not where I want them?

2) How do you shut it off?! It seems barbaric (at least in PC-land) to hold the powerbutton. Since I haven't seen the "Start" menu, I'm lost.

3) Is there a list online where I can find shortcuts and hotkey translations? (ie - control,x = cut...what about mac?).

4) Can anyone suggest some software that is commonplace to download? I just switched from AIM to Adium and am very pleased with that. Any other programs available for exclusive Mac users?

As for my other very newbie questions, I'll figure them out by myself. I would be very pleased if someone could help me get started by answering the above ones. =D

Thanks again!
`Vash

 

[andcraig]

ok, i'm a pretty recent switcher myself.

responses in order:
1. I've heard there are programs to do this for you, but i'd basically suggest just not closing the lid, or leaving it a crack open, and set the energy saver settings (under prefs) to not go to sleep or shutdown automatically.
When you close the lid it shuts down most power except a trickle to the little LED light on the lid opening button and a trickle to the RAM to keep your session saved. Opening the lid should automatically put you right back where you were when you closed it. The wireless shuts down, drive heads are parked, etc...but it starts up fast enough that i barely even notice. Much better than windows hibernate. so yeah..thats normal

2. Hit the apple icon on the upper left hand corner on the white bar at the top of the screen. The second to last option is shut down. I wouldn't recommend just hitting the powerbutton as last time i did it it didn't save some settings i altered.

3. Probably just google "mac shortcut keys" or something... basically the ctrl key from windows is changed to the apple key for mac. the letters are pretty universal. C for cut etc...nothing different except changing to the apple key from the ctrl key. Ah, found a site: http://www.computerhope.com/ashort.htm

4. People normally say to go look over at www.versiontracker.com

 

[aaandrewww]

1) it goes to sleep when you close it and wakes up when you open it. the only way to run it while closed is to wake it with an external mouse or keyboard after closing it (only works with power adapter connected).

2) you can shut down using the little apple in the upper left corner. click on it and select from the drop down menu.

3) Go to System preferences: keyboard and mouse. you can even change all the preset shortcuts to whatever you want.

4) I basically use the programs that came with my PB. But here are a couple others.

Stuffit expander is the winzip for macs.
VLC is a video player that works better with divx and xvid than quicktime
Windows media player is vital to play WMV files too.

Others can add to that list. Good luck with the new mac.

EDIT: too slow, but maybe I said something the one above me didnt

 

[HiRez]

2) you can shut down using the little apple in the upper left corner. click on it and select from the drop down menu.

You can also tap the Power button (as opposed to holding it down) and it will pop up a dialog box asking if you want to shut down, reboot, or cancel (on a PowerMac, however, pressing the Power button will either sleep the machine immediately or have no effect, depending on how you have it set in System Preferences...not sure why it should act differently). Additionally, if you're a command-line geek, can type "reboot" or "shutdown" from Terminal.app. I think those work over ssh too, though you might have to "sudo" it.

 

[Vash]

Thanks for all the help. Only thing left to do is get my music and pictures from my PC. Any suggestions on that?

 

[andcraig]

I used an external harddrive..not the best solution but i already had all my PC files on it so it was pretty easy.
Recently i needed some files off the PC..about a gig or so..i did it using ethernet. There's a guide in this section of the site about networking windows and OSX together to do this, i'd recommend you try it out.
Not sure how you'd do it using firewire..but the ethernet method works pretty well.
Or theres always the burn your files to dvd/cd media... or..floppy disks if you're really oldschool