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Hmmmmmm...having to use and remember all these keyboard shortcuts and combinations seems like a pretty archaic way of getting around the computer to me. How much easier does a two button mouse make things?.... can your "right click" on a picture and save to any destination for instance?
 
MacSA said:
Hmmmmmm...having to use and remember all these keyboard shortcuts and combinations seems like a pretty archaic way of getting around the computer to me. How much easier does a two button mouse make things?.... can your "right click" on a picture and save to any destination for instance?
No, you have to hold the option/alt key down to get the save as... ;)

(Edit: Using Safari from OS X 10.3.9, that is... in Firefox
I still get the Save as... when ctrl/right-clicking an image or a link...)

One advantage with a Mac is that all the keyboard shortcuts are, not only fairly intuitive, but also consistent throughout the system and most applications, so when you have learned the behaviour of a few you can assume that it will work (in a similar way) no matter which app you're running... :)

Of course it the mouse has more than two buttons, and is programmable, you can assign a button to mean ctrl+alt/option+click... :D
 
When you use an OS for a while you will learn certain ways of doing things that become natural to you, and if you are used to Windows and move to Mac you will soon notice that there will be small things that feel awkward because you're not able to do it the way that you're used to.

The first thing that most will notice is the menu bar that's always at the top, second there is no start button. These are obvious and you're forced to adjust immediately. Other habits will become apparent later on, but for me I've now grown new and even more natural habits on the Mac after I switched 1 and a half year ago. The most noteworthy differences between how I use Windows and how I use a Mac are related to File management, Window management and the use of drag and drop:

On the Mac, the desktop has become a natural temporary storage space for me instead of a place where never used shortcuts to applications live. Everything is downloaded there by default, working files can be put there and filed away in their appropriate place as work gets done.

When organizing files it is very convenient to use two finder windows, navigate and drag files back and forth between them and possibly the desktop and app windows.

This is also where Window management comes in. I find it most efficient to not use full screen windows on the Mac because that helps the drag and drop workflow. Many Mac apps also use floating tool palettes, and if you insist on working with full screen windows the floating tool palettes can get annoying. My advice is to take the plunge and get used to working with smaller windows that can be moved and dragged to fit the workflow. Unfortunately it's not always possible with a screen size of only 1024x768.

Drag and drop can be used in so many ways, open a file in a specific app by dragging the file to the applications dock icon, move text around in and between windows by dragging and most iApps use a lot of drag and drop. Drag addresses from the Address book to the mail you're writing, and so on and so forth. It's not necessary and sometimes not fastest to use drag and drop, but I think my mind likes the way drag and drop gives a visual clue of what is going on. That is also, I think, the reason why I actually prefer the one button mouse. It makes the drag and drop workflow very intuitive.

Try to keep an open mind, play around with the OS, explore different ways of doing things. After a month or two you will have developed your own new Mac habits and will find it a little awkward that you're not able to do the same on Windows.
 
Drag and drop can be used in so many ways, open a file in a specific app by dragging the file to the applications dock icon, move text around in and between windows by dragging and most iApps use a lot of drag and drop. Drag addresses from the Address book to the mail you're writing, and so on and so forth. It's not necessary and sometimes not fastest to use drag and drop, but I think my mind likes the way drag and drop gives a visual clue of what is going on. That is also, I think, the reason why I actually prefer the one button mouse. It makes the drag and drop workflow very intuitive.

That's the best description I've heard of why a one button mouse works on a Mac. It's much more subtle than it just making for a crippled Windows interface. I often, for example, drag a file to Mail on the Dock if I want to send it to someone, and it does what I expect. In Windows, I'd probably right click a file and choose "Send to email recipient".

One thing that I think is often overlooked is the little icon in the title bar of most apps. Hold the mouse button down on it, and the icon can be dragged to places just as if the file were being dragged from the Finder. Beautiful, no?

That said, I do use a three-button mouse with a wheel on my iBook. But mostly, in truth, for the wheel.
 
Next Question - Photos

I've played with iPhoto and the organization seems okay, but how bout altering redeye, cropping, etc.?

I've heard a lot of poz stuff with Adobe PS. Is this the consensus for photo organization and altering. Or PS for altering and iPhoto for organization?
 
Advance The Man said:
I've played with iPhoto and the organization seems okay, but how bout altering redeye, cropping, etc.?

I've heard a lot of poz stuff with Adobe PS. Is this the consensus for photo organization and altering. Or PS for altering and iPhoto for organization?
Redeye and cropping can be done in iPhoto. Just double click an image to enter edit mode. Edit mode lets you do simple editing tasks to fix up your images.

This includes red eye fixing, cropping, rotating, color and brightness adjusting.

When you enter edit mode, the tools are all lined up at the bottom, try them out to see what they do, the images can always be reverted to the original state, so don't be afraid of doing anything wrong.

I use iPhoto for organizing, most editing and not least for presenting slideshows. I only drag a photo to Photoshop Elements (can't afford the full version) for more advanced stuff.
 
^ thanks

I've searched apple.com and couldn't find a sketching software. I utilize a sketching program on Windows to run legal descriptions (i.e. N 89 deg, 45 min, 2 sec W 104'). Anyone know if there is an Apple equivalent?
 
Advance The Man said:
^ thanks

I've searched apple.com and couldn't find a sketching software. I utilize a sketching program on Windows to run legal descriptions (i.e. N 89 deg, 45 min, 2 sec W 104'). Anyone know if there is an Apple equivalent?

I do not understand your example...can you please help some more? What is the Windows software you use? Adobe Illustrator is probably the dominant program for creating "vector" drawings and sketches. It works wonderfully with something like a Wacom or Intuos drawing tablet. If you want to make simple sketches, I and many others get by with Powerpoint (or even AppleWorks for that matter).

But I'm not sure what the geographical coordinates you provided have to do with sketching as I understand the word. Do you mean taking notes? Is the primary content graphical or text?
 
Here's one I completed this morning on Apex IV (the windows software). I converted it to a pdf file for viewing...


mkrishnan said:
I do not understand your example...can you please help some more? What is the Windows software you use? Adobe Illustrator is probably the dominant program for creating "vector" drawings and sketches. It works wonderfully with something like a Wacom or Intuos drawing tablet. If you want to make simple sketches, I and many others get by with Powerpoint (or even AppleWorks for that matter).

But I'm not sure what the geographical coordinates you provided have to do with sketching as I understand the word. Do you mean taking notes? Is the primary content graphical or text?
 

Attachments

  • sketch sample.pdf
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Advance The Man said:
Here's one I completed this morning on Apex IV (the windows software). I converted it to a pdf file for viewing...

I looked up Apex, and I guess it has some technical tools that are oriented towards real estate people? Do you use it just to draw sketches on the computer using a mouse and keyboard, or do you also use it with a tablet or with a scanner (and paper-drawn images)?
 
Computer, mouse and keyboard. I knew it was a long shot for Apple to have something similar. The apple is so publishing oriented, not business or real estate. Anyway, not knocking it - still trying Apple out. Things over the last 2 days have gotten a little easier/better for me with my PB. I'm going to try it out for 2 months before I would give up. Just ordered Virtual PC. My PB has 2 gigs ram so it should run as well as it can. Apex does not require a lot of ram.

mkrishnan said:
I looked up Apex, and I guess it has some technical tools that are oriented towards real estate people? Do you use it just to draw sketches on the computer using a mouse and keyboard, or do you also use it with a tablet or with a scanner (and paper-drawn images)?
 
Have enjoyed tabs in Safari. I learned if I see a link I want to open, I can drag & drop on an existing tab or to the right of one to open in a new tab. Nice feature.

Mitthrawnuruodo said:
Don't open new windows... that's not good... enable tabs, and enter the world of tabbed browsing... (Look in Safari preferences -> Tabs)
 
Advance The Man said:
Computer, mouse and keyboard. I knew it was a long shot for Apple to have something similar. The apple is so publishing oriented, not business or real estate. Anyway, not knocking it - still trying Apple out. Things over the last 2 days have gotten a little easier/better for me with my PB. I'm going to try it out for 2 months before I would give up. Just ordered Virtual PC. My PB has 2 gigs ram so it should run as well as it can. Apex does not require a lot of ram.
I actually mailed the Apex people and asked if they had any sketching software to recommend for Mac OS X. Answer:

"Thanks for the Inquiry about the sketching software.

Right now we only have products that will work in the Windows environment.
We have had people all over the country that use most of our products on a
Mac.
However it really depends on your knowledge of the Mac OS and Windows
emulator mode.
"
In other words, it will run fine in Virtual PC.
 
When I first opened the box and setup the PB 17" I charged the battery, used it for a while to about 60% and then charged it again to 100%. I then read the instructions on 'battery life' and realized I was supposed to drain it to 0% the first time.

I now only get a calculated remaining time max of 3:15. Did I screw this up?
 
Don't worry about it. Just recalibrate it now by taking it from 100% to 0% - Apple recommend you should do this every couple of months anyhow.

3.15 might be about right depending on what you are doing. If you have lots of applications open, bluetooth and/or airport on, screen on full brightness or the optical drive working then your battery capacity will fall.

Try turning off what you don't need (bluetooth/airport), turn the screen brightness down and if you're using a CD/DVD consider burning it to your HD and using it from there. Doing those things you'll see your battery life increase.
 
How do I load a Cd game on the hardrive that has to have the CD in for it to work?

Applespider said:
...if you're using a CD/DVD consider burning it to your HD and using it from there. Doing those things you'll see your battery life increase.
 
Advance The Man said:
How do I load a Cd game on the hardrive that has to have the CD in for it to work?

Some games will work merely by copying the whole CD-ROM to a directory and then running off the launcher in the directory. For others, you can usually...

(Assuming you *own* the game, because MR is not a fan of piracy! :()

Put the disk in the drive, open Disk Utility, which is in your Utilities folder, and then choose File->New->Disk Image from (name of the CDROM).

Then, you will get a .dmg or .iso file of the disk. When you double click it, it will mount as if it were another drive. This should work for the majority of games.
 
yes it's legal. Everyone has to throw in the 'not piracy' lol. I'm a lil old to be downloaded pirated nemo game for my kids. It would be convenient not to have to physically put the game in everytime (which is every day).
mkrishnan said:
Some games will work merely by copying the whole CD-ROM to a directory and then running off the launcher in the directory. For others, you can usually...

(Assuming you *own* the game, because MR is not a fan of piracy! :()

Put the disk in the drive, open Disk Utility, which is in your Utilities folder, and then choose File->New->Disk Image from (name of the CDROM).

Then, you will get a .dmg or .iso file of the disk. When you double click it, it will mount as if it were another drive. This should work for the majority of games.
 
Advance The Man said:
yes it's legal. Everyone has to throw in the 'not piracy' lol. I'm a lil old to be downloaded pirated nemo game for my kids. It would be convenient not to have to physically put the game in everytime (which is every day).

Hehehe, yeah, oh, and don't steal music! ;) :eek: :D

Let us know if it works out for you...occasionally, there might be some games where this doesn't work, but heavy-duty copy protection on video games is pretty rare on Macs, AFAIK.

And yes, inserting the CD/DVD is definitely a PITA. :(
 
My desktop is still an XP machine. It asked me to authentize the OS. wft, I thought. After an hour I got to log in. Now no internet and no email.

I'm done. I will be buying a 20" iMac to complement this PB 17".

What advantage does the Airport Base have over my existing Linksys Wireless router? I'm working on it now and was networking with my defunct XP machine.

Now how hard will the syncing of the two machines be. How specific can I get? Can I have the PB and the iMac have the exact same setup with syncing of all photos, videos, emails, word programs? That would be cool.
 
Windows switchers! Just get a 2 button USB Mouse, you will be so much happier. Even serious Mac users proably have at least a 2 button mouse or some sort of extra device (I have a Tablet).
 
Advance The Man said:
My desktop is still an XP machine. It asked me to authentize the OS. wft, I thought. After an hour I got to log in. Now no internet and no email.

I'm done. I will be buying a 20" iMac to complement this PB 17".

What advantage does the Airport Base have over my existing Linksys Wireless router? I'm working on it now and was networking with my defunct XP machine.

Now how hard will the syncing of the two machines be. How specific can I get? Can I have the PB and the iMac have the exact same setup with syncing of all photos, videos, emails, word programs? That would be cool.
A simple network would do most of that.
 
Plymouthbreezer said:
Windows switchers! Just get a 2 button USB Mouse, you will be so much happier. Even serious Mac users proably have at least a 2 button mouse or some sort of extra device (I have a Tablet).

I am a switcher. I am still waiting for my Power Mac to get here. Anyway, I thought about getting a two button mouse to start with, but now, I have about decided to stick with the single button mouse and do it the Mac way with Command-click to get the right-click options that I would be use to with Windows. :)
 
Windows ME - YIKES! You're in for a treat. with OS X (whatever flavor) btw... you can just click and hold the back or forward buttons in Safari to get the "windows-esque" history menu. ;)
 
Advance The Man said:
Now how hard will the syncing of the two machines be. How specific can I get? Can I have the PB and the iMac have the exact same setup with syncing of all photos, videos, emails, word programs? That would be cool.
When you first start the iMac you will have the option of importing files, programs and settings from another Mac. All you need is a firewire cable (6pin-6pin).

This will start you out with everything synced. Later on, I'm not sure how easy it is to automatically sync everything. It is easy to network the two computers and copy stuff back and forth.

Then of course there is .Mac that lets you sync documents between computers, I think, but I'm not sure how that works. I have .Mac but I haven't set up syncing.
 
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