Top 10 things windows switchers don't know about OSX...

[Chundles]

huh, i thought Camino was cocoa application?

Not all Cocoa apps, IJ got a little carried away.

It works in applications that use the system dictionary, Camino doesn't. In fact most 3rd party apps don't use it, I don't know if Apple have disallowed them or they just decide not to, it's a handy feature though.

 

[elfin buddy]

I knew about the "Look Up in Dictionary" menu item, but it never worked for me unless Dictionary was already open. [CMD]-[CTL]-[D] doesn't work at all. Any ideas?

 

[zap2]

I've was in the Apple store a while ago, and over heard a man asking an person working in the Apple store if he could still go to yahoo.com and check his mail if he got an iMac


Some people just don't know

 

[Chundles]

I knew about the "Look Up in Dictionary" menu item, but it never worked for me unless Dictionary was already open. [CMD]-[CTL]-[D] doesn't work at all. Any ideas?

Open Safari, hover your cursor over a word and hold down control-command-D and wait for a second. A small window will open showing the dictionary entry for this word.

Like so:

Parliament.

 

[LoveMacMini]

there is no cut, but apple have almost perfected drag 'n' drop.

so i should use a computer how apple wants me to use it?!

[moses]let me cut command go![/moses]

 

[IJ Reilly]

Not all Cocoa apps, IJ got a little carried away.

It works in applications that use the system dictionary, Camino doesn't. In fact most 3rd party apps don't use it, I don't know if Apple have disallowed them or they just decide not to, it's a handy feature though.

Okay, okay, I stand corrected. Not every Cocoa application implements the dictionary but in order for an application to implement the dictionary, it does have to be a Cocoa application.

yourself!

 

[elfin buddy]

Open Safari, hover your cursor over a word and hold down control-command-D and wait for a second. A small window will open showing the dictionary entry for this word.

It's still not working for me That looks like a pretty cool feature though. I wish I could have it

 

[26139]

Not necessarily...

hot corners are best on the laptops, becuase using hot-keys requires pressing the function key...

Not if you switch that in Sys Prefs. I did and it's way easier.

 

[elppa]

You don't need to quit apps, just closing their window is fine. Esp on things like mail, iCal, Address Book, Safari. The windows will appear almost instantly when you click on them in the dock if they are still running.

I would have thought windows users would have completely the opposite problem - i.e. not knowing how to quit an application.

Most will close the window and think they're done. This gets especially confusing when apps like iPhoto and Photo Booth behaves in this way, yet others like Mail don't.

 

[clevin]

any free method to make safari/webkit single window mode? i.e. always open links in new tab instead of a new window? (i mean default, don't tell me to hold cmd when i click link)

 

[jackc]

Not a "top 10", but something I just discovered. You can choose to whether an app opens at login with its contextual menu in the dock.

I suppose I'm dumb for never noticing this before.

 

[elfin buddy]

Not a "top 10", but something I just discovered. You can choose to whether an app opens at login with its contextual menu in the dock.

I suppose I'm dumb for never noticing this before.

I never noticed that before either Those dock contextual menus are boring.

 

[nsbio]

Nobody around me who is over 40 seem to know about exposé, even people (all scientists!) who have been working on macs since the dawn of time. Finally, I had to put big fat labels on F9-F11 keys with explanations as to what each one does when pushed, but to no avail: each time when they want to switch an application they minimize every single one of their multiple windows, one by one. Every time they "forget" that the F9-F11 keys were even there .

Oh, and don't even get me started on the use of the Alt-tab key combination - it is "too complicated to remember"!

And by the way, PC people all think that exposé is a gimmic. Admittedly, it took me a couple of months to get addicted to it completely...

 

[Shananra]

Nobody around me who is over 40 seem to know about exposé, even people (all scientists!) who have been working on macs since the dawn of time. Finally, I had to put big fat labels on F9-F11 keys with explanations as to what each one does when pushed, but to no avail: each time when they want to switch an application they minimize every single one of their multiple windows, one by one. Every time they "forget" that the F9-F11 keys were even there .

Oh, and don't even get me started on the use of the Alt-tab key combination - it is "too complicated to remember"!

And by the way, PC people all think that exposé is a gimmic. Admittedly, it took me a couple of months to get addicted to it completely...

exposé a gimmic? My god, I already find myself trying to push F9 when in windows... then I remember...

 

[nsbio]

exposé a gimmic? My god, I already find myself trying to push F9 when in windows... then I remember...

I am not saying that it is a gimmic - I am myself addicted to it and more than once pushed F11 on a windows machine. I am just saying that when I show off exposé to windows people they say that it is a gimmic.

 

[elbirth]

so i should use a computer how apple wants me to use it?!

[moses]let me cut command go![/moses]

It's not how Apple wants to you use it, it's how Unix was built. Whether they did this before they built the OS on a Unix core, I don't know (I've only been using Macs since I got my MBP in February and am proud to say so far everything in this thread I already knew about )

Unix has no "cut and paste" option... only "mv" in the command line to move files or "cp" to copy them. You can do this in OS X's terminal as well and the drag 'n drop motion just does this in a windowed environment.
I can't think of the command off-hand, but there is a modifier that lets you delete the original file once the copy is complete. I don't see why it'd be too difficult to implement the drag 'n drop motion to mimic that instead.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Wow There's some pretty awesome stuff hidden in here.

I don't know much myself. The only thing I haven't seen here, possibly because everyone already knows it, is the space bar being page down. Really handy for me not having to scroll reading long documents, or forum threads. No one I've met utilizes it, but I'm in a pretty non-computer-savvy crowd.

 

[elbirth]

Wow There's some pretty awesome stuff hidden in here.

I don't know much myself. The only thing I haven't seen here, possibly because everyone already knows it, is the space bar being page down. Really handy for me not having to scroll reading long documents, or forum threads. No one I've met utilizes it, but I'm in a pretty non-computer-savvy crowd.

and don't forget to hold shift to go back up the page

I actually use it from time to time myself, but with 2-finger scrolling on my MacBook Pro, I find myself using that much more. BTW, it also works on other OSes as well, it's not Mac-specific.

 

[RacerX]

Not all Cocoa apps, IJ got a little carried away.

It works in applications that use the system dictionary, Camino doesn't. In fact most 3rd party apps don't use it,

Lets not go too far in the other direction here either...IJ Reilly is basically correct.

Camino is NOT your standard Cocoa application. In the area of text, Camino doesn't use any of the system services (like spell checking or find)... and this is a Mozilla project choice, and is non-standard for Cocoa apps!

The fact is, most 3rd party Cocoa apps are fully services aware and make use of both system services and services from other applications. I use mostly Cocoa applications and none of the correctly designed apps have issues.

If I was asked to make a list of "Cocoa apps", I surely wouldn't include Camino.

Frankly, Camino does all Cocoa apps a disservice by packaging the Firefox foundation in a Cocoa rapper when the primary area you work in while browsing is not truly Cocoa. If they can't implement the system's spell checking or find within the browser, what is the point of it being Cocoa? It is (functionally) hardly any better than Firefox.

I don't know if Apple have disallowed them or they just decide not to, it's a handy feature though.

I do know, people who know what they are doing when developing Cocoa apps (and even most who don't) can use this feature in their Cocoa apps. If Camino is the breadth of your 3rd party Cocoa experience... then you've really missed out.

 

[IJ Reilly]

I am not saying that it is a gimmic - I am myself addicted to it and more than once pushed F11 on a windows machine. I am just saying that when I show off exposé to windows people they say that it is a gimmic.

Rule of life: Anything you can do on a Mac that you can't do in Windows is a gimmick, until you can do it in Windows, then it turns into a Microsoft innovation.

Lets not go too far in the other direction here either...IJ Reilly is basically correct.

I confess to an error and it turns out I was right all along? Please, don't confuse me.

 

[Squire]

- Changing icons is as easy as copying an icon (cmd+c) (or even a picture) and then pasting it (cmd+v) into the get info window's icon of a file or folder.

This is a great feature, especially if you want to make a folder more recognizable. I did this the other day with some Canon programs. I just copied the Canon logo and pasted it onto the folder.

-Squire

 

[macfreek57]

that there is no cut command in the finder

that alone made me sell my first mac because i couldn't stand it lol. i pray to god leopard fixes that issue.

"Cut" in the finder is actually a hidden command that simply requires activation through global preferences. This is easily done in the terminal if you know what you are doing. if you don't, applications such as Mac Pilot and OnyX allow you to enable this functionality as easily as clicking a checkbox.

Mac Pilot
OnyX

 

[faustfire]

that there is no cut command in the finder

that alone made me sell my first mac because i couldn't stand it lol. i pray to god leopard fixes that issue.

By right clicking on the empty gray spot next to the buttons at the top of your finder window you can add buttons such as eject, get info, and delete.

 

[Donz0r]

By right clicking on the empty gray spot next to the buttons at the top of your finder window you can add buttons such as eject, get info, and delete.

Awesome. I just wish the Delete button had a notification window or something. I know i can just Cmd+z but its still scary for things to disappear so easily

 

[/dev/toaster]

nm just found out how to enable it!

Funny thing is, I have been using a Mac for a few months now and just recently found out that it supports tabs. I use FF mostly, but Safari for a few small things.

I was over a friends house, he was showing me around his iMac when I saw the tabs ... needless to say, he was laughing at me for not knowing about it.