new to osx need help?

[seanr]

I will be getting my first mac soon and no nothing about how to use osx.Are there any free videos on the net for people that are new to mac or do you know of any good books on osx.I would like to learn a much as possible before I get my mac.Thanks

 

[freeny]

There are plenty of "Mac Osx for dummies/beginners/Visual referance etc" books at your local Barnes and Noble or whatever bookstore is nearest you in the computer section. You should look at them before buying seeing that they each have a different approach. Some are very picture based and some more technical. Choose whichever suits you best.

Here is a search I did at Amazon, Its a good place to start.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/s...ve&field-keywords=mac+osx&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Go
Be sure to grab the appropriate version, IE Tiger, Panther etc...

Referance books are great and you can never have too many.
Good luck.

 

[Applespider]

Go to the Apple support site and read through the Mac101 and Switch101 sections. Lots of very useful information before you get your first Mac

 

[miniConvert]

You'll probably think this is OTT, but try watching the Apple Keynotes over the last few years. You learn plenty, and the great thing is you also learn about what it means to be Apple at the same time: http://hosted.filefront.com/MacRumors

 

[GITANAJAVA]

I will be getting my first mac soon and no nothing about how to use osx.Are there any free videos on the net for people that are new to mac or do you know of any good books on osx.I would like to learn a much as possible before I get my mac.Thanks

SEANR,

When I bought my iBook G4 in January '05, my exposure to all things Mac &/or computing was very limited: a TRS 80 hand-me-down on its last of nine lives; the WAP web browser on my cellies (I subscribed for unlimited usage as I had 25-30 bookmarks I'd Googled aside from those my carrier "highly recommended" -- I knew how to accomplish things that even the telecom carrier's techs thought were impossible); and the rare occasion of using a colleague's PC.

I chose Apple/Mac and the iBook G4 with little research or comparison shopping and almost solely on the recommendations of friends and colleagues whose working style and needs are similar to my own. As teknophobic as I am, I was delighted to discover how applicable my WAP experiences and experiments were to operating a real computer. Additionally, choosing a Mac laptop has preserved my ability to go anywhere, do anything, and, in a way I cannot properly express, the logic of Apple/Mac flows seamlessly from the Sony Ericsson celfones' op logic and style. We're all hard-wired differently and somehow, Nokia celfones and PC-style just never "flowed" for me the way Mac and SE did.

All of this to say: the recommendations others have made here for vids, books, and Apple's DIY/FAQ/newbie info will definitely accelerate your start, but speaking as a former lowest-of-the-low newbie, I can reassure you that even a raw recruit to Mac and/or computing can be joy-riding in very little time and with minimal assistance.

Enjoy!

 

[MacSA]

http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/

Also...there are a few videos you can watch here:

http://www.atomiclearning.com/osx_tiger_orientation#

 

[bense27]

I got my first mac a month ago and i learned alot of stuff from the apple discussions on apple.com and this site. And I sort of already had a basic idea of how to use one.

 

[flyfish29]

Don't overlook the help menu item in the finder. when your mac starts up and you get it set up through the easy to set up software and you see your desktop go to 'help' menu and there you can not only find out about making the move from Windows but about the Mac OS as well. Basically it will take you through the best parts of OSx.

Also, before you get it you can simply go to http://www.apple.com/macosx/overview/ to see what is so cool about OSX. Some of it there will make no sense to you (or me) but much of it is simple to understand software and features of OSX.

Enjoy your mac and anytime you have a question it will most likely be answered within minutes on the MacRumors forums.

 

[seanr]

thanks