Switcher Questions Topic

I'm a recent purchaser of a 15" MBP. It's not my first Mac, but it's my first OS X Mac, though I had full time use of a MacBook this summer and I've used Macs a fair amount off and on over the years. I bought this machine right after Leopard was announced, so it's running Tiger. My Leopard disk showed up in today's mail. I'll get that installed soon.

There's been lots of opportunity to work and play with this machine in the ten days that I've had it. I'm a happy customer at this point. The look, the feel, the ease of use of the trackpad, the overall experience is a refreshing change. VMware Fusion is allowing me to use the Windows stuff that I need, which isn't that much.

There are a few things about Windows that I miss, though. Not everything is more user friendly on the Mac. So I have a few questions along these lines and maybe others will, too.

1) On Windows, every program that has the capacity to deal with .zip, .rar and any other compressed archives has the ability to allow the user to view the contents of the archive as if it were a folder full of directories and files. It can then be dealt with as desired. Is this ever possible with OS X? So far, with UnRarX, Stuffit Expander, Unarchiver, Path Finder, all I can do is expand the file. I don't always want to do that. Sometimes, I just want to look. Other times, I only want to extract some of the files or I just want to view something. Is there a way to do this just like one can do it in with all of the various Windows programs?

2) This is more of an observation than a question, but deleting selected items from the Trash is ridiculously inconvenient unless you use the command line or a program like Path Finder. This is not the case in Windows. Open the Trash and delete whatever you want. I found ways around it as described, and for me that's not that such a hassle, but it is for others.

3) Using Windows and Firefox, I can right click a bookmarked item, either from the menu or Bookmark bar and perform various operations on it. I can delete it, move it, open it in the current tab, open it in a different tab, etc. It can also be dragged and dropped. Not with OS X. This is terribly inconvenient and not user friendly. Fortunately, there's a partial workaround, using Quicksilver. From there, I can enter anything that's bookmarked and open it in another tab. Is there a way to make those bookmarks as accessible as they are in Windows?

BTW, one of the many advantages of OS X is that programs like Quicksilver are much more powerful and usable than are their Windows counterparts.

 

Another thing. Say I'm in Thunderbird, though it could be all sorts of programs. After beginning a new email message, I decide to cancel it and click on the close box. A message box appears giving me a few choices, "Don't Save,", "Cancel," and "Save." In Windows, I can use the tab key, arrow keys or first letters of the commands on each button to navigate around the message box. I don't have to use the mouse at all, if I don't want. It seems that on OS X, there's no choice but to use the mouse. Is there a way to change that so that I can use the keyboard instead?