Yes, brand new to Mac - a few questions probably useful to anyone!

[WirelessInn]

Yes, brand new to Mac - a few questions probably useful to anyone!

Thanks again everyone: I believe that i am up and running re: basic protocols on the Mac. And then came the Widgets: I hate to say it, but that ALONE took the brass ring. I trust that there are many other neat things lurking beneath the Mac's arguably elegant interface.
Now I can reminisce: long time ago, I wanted to get computers involved in our businesses -especially with office functions. So there was Radio Shack and Apple. I went for the TRS80 and, most importatly, Visicalc and a passel of good word processors. Worked well. I would have liked to get into Apple, but there was a price issue... And then again I was not at all into Logo et al.!
Then came the time for heavier business needs - databases, integrated environments (WP, Spreadhee, database, com) - IBM PS2 line came out c. mid eighties I believe. Went right for it, HDrives and solid construction. Meanwhile, saw and tried the first Macs: nice but useless in my business. Several IBM machines went into our businesses (1 still at work!!). Then of course came Windows, MS Office and a plethora of professional apps. Then came computer driven point of sale equipment... You can see which way we HAD to go - and still have to (just purchased a restaurant POS system - Win based of course).
MEANWHILE, since I was not doing music and art... I passed the whole, advanced Mac period. Got good at Win intricacies instead, and enjoyed communicating with all fellows WinNauts in trying to make Win work for us - and actually achieving surpizing results.
Well, now the Mac seems to be ready for MY prime time. But frankly, the switch to Intel processors AND the looming compatibility with Windows is what is getting me interested. In fact, I suspect that many of the newest sales of Macs will go to Microsofties who do not mind experimenting but want to retain what they have worked with and for for many years (decades?). That's the way it is: I believe the marketing folks at Apple, starting with Jobs, understand that. Hey, I would guess that much of their own advanced business functions at company level are address with wholly non-Apple means and tools anyhow (servers, advanced databases, etc...) Fact is, IMHO, the Apple current ads PC vs MAC are a bit childish and hopefully not indicative of the clientele sought by Apple: hey, many (most) of us do not spend our time only downloading music or massaging photos and making movies, but instead must crunch some numbers and other data! NOTE: a fair number of older folks at the Apple store - retired probably and seeking new, more youthful and artistic way to use cool computers - and of course associating Apple stuff with - much needed at this point of their lives - youth!
Oh well, waxing notalgic here.

jkway: yes, dragging and dropping stuff into folders on the desktop. just did it with a bunch of photos I need to do a complex slide show. iLife OK for presentation of my extensive collection of Family Reunions pics and video snippets? NOTE: can such slide shows be inserted into iMovie or iDVD sequences?

MikeTheC: I think that your statement:
Apple takes the approach of looking at the media, not the interface, as a distinct identity.
does it all re: explaining the fine points of media and device. I now understand for the first time the concept of "volume"!

Dimwhit anf and jwkay and fistful: thanks for the pointers re: app installing. Somewhat tricky indeed at first but all in all probably more orderly that "program files" folder and dll libraries... By the way, any such things as dll files, and other library material in Mac OS???

- Roger T

 

[jwkay]

jkway: yes, dragging and dropping stuff into folders on the desktop. just did it with a bunch of photos I need to do a complex slide show. iLife OK for presentation of my extensive collection of Family Reunions pics and video snippets?

If you've got your photos in iPhoto, you can use the Share->Send to iDVD option to create a slideshow in iDVD. From there you can customise background music, slide duration, transition etc. If you're not using iPhoto, just create a new slideshow in iDVD and drag in photos.

 

[Nym]

Dimwhit anf and jwkay and fistful: thanks for the pointers re: app installing. Somewhat tricky indeed at first but all in all probably more orderly that "program files" folder and dll libraries... By the way, any such things as dll files, and other library material in Mac OS???

- Roger T

Nop, there is no DLL Hell in Mac OS X In most cases the applications are self contained, which means that all the files they need to run are inside the application Icon you see, it's a package with all the stuff inside, and that's one of the reasons why you can launch Firefox (for example) from the DMG volume without "installing" it.

My tips

Installing/ Uninstalling Applications:

Most people can get into a lot of trouble explaining this to former Win users but, what you need to know is that, in most cases, you download a DMG file (which, like someone said, it's just a disk image, with the application inside), you double click it and drag the application to the Sidebar "Applications" icon, that's it
If by any chance inside that DMG is a PKG just double click it to install using the Mac OS X installer, wether it requires a step-by-step install or just dragging the icon to the Apps folder it's up to the people who create such program. But, as far as I know, it's usually just dragging the icon inside the DMG to the Apps folder.
To uninstall, just drag that same icon into the Trash (icon to the right on the Dock) and it's done. Some people say that you need an application for this because deleting a program this way leaves other files within OSX, however, the files it leaves behind are 14 or 40kb in size, they only contain information regarding that same application preferences (ex: Photoshop, the plist file saves user panels location within the app and other user-related files), and it's not like these files are slowing down your system, in fact, they're indifferent in most cases.

Spring Loaded Folders:

I always say this "feature" to new Mac users because it's not easy to discover unless you're told.

Let's say you have a file on your desktop that you wish to put inside a folder that itself is inside the Documents folder.

First, if you have any application window open, press F11 to quickly view your desktop (have you already met the Exposé feature?), then, start dragging the file you wish to move and, while dragging, hover the mouse button over the Macintosh HD icon and wait a second, it will open it up for you. From the Finder window you can keep dragging that file as long and as deep as you want, just hover the folder you want to open and wait a second, it opens, if you want to cancel the dragging just press Esc at any time and the file stays in it's original location. It the best way to Move/Copy files (If instead of moving you wanted to make a copy, all you'd need to do is, while dragging, old down the Alt key until a green orb with a Plus sign appears (Option key in Mac lingo).

I see you've already met "Dashboard"!

Other cool stuff are: Exposé and Spotlight

Spotlight is a complete system search tool, just press the magnifier glass icon on the upper right corner and type what you want to do an instant search.

Exposé is the way to go for managing you Application windows, press F9 to quickly resize all your windows so they can fit on-screen, tap F10 to show only the windows of the application you're currently using, and tap F11 to immediately go to the desktop. You can configure screen corners to activate these functions or 3rd mouse buttons if you happen to buy one.

Also, if you click twice on a application window, instead of maximizing it minimizes, try it, the window is "sucked" to the dock, showing you were it went. Press the thumbnail in the Dock to bring it back.

Don't desperately try to press the Plus green icon in the application windows waiting for it to maximize, Mac OS X generally doesn't maximize windows (although some applications do), instead it Zooms them, what this means is that OSX adapts the window size to the size of the content displayed inside it. Allowing you to put more stuff on-screen and multi-tasking more effectively.

As for the Sidebar, it comes quite in handy, especially with Drag and Drop. In my 24" iMac I keep these items on it: Desktop, Home, Music, Pictures, Movies, Work, Downloads. You can easily create a downloads folder on the desktop and set up you're applications to download everything inside that folder, that way you always stay organized. To add a folder to the Sidebar just drag it there, if you want to remove it just drag it out, it's that simple. Note that when dragging an item off the sidebar (or Dock for that matter) you're not removing the file/folder itself, it's just an alias/shortcut

My advice is, you'll be up and running 100% in no time, Mac OS X Tiger is a rock-solid OS with some of the best features around IMO. Fiddle with it for a week or so and then give us your feedback

BTW, you can run Windows inside the Mac OS X environment (virtualisation) using Parallels, just google it, it should be the first answer,

Anyway, welcome to the community

 

[garybUK]

I'll try and answer one of your earlier questions about networking:

Shared drives using SMB protocol use that language to read/write files over networks so the source/destination file systems don't matter.

Now because Microsoft's protocols for file sharing (SMB) are very closed and propriatary, the only real solution has been SAMBA which reverse engineers Microsoft's protocols to try and make an open-source solution, which in current forms is very stable and in some cases quicker than microsoft's own!!

Because of this you cannot expect 100% compatibility in OSX with Windows networking, blame microsoft for that!!! OSX uses apple's propriatory file sharing (AFP) also available in *nix and Windows and NFS the open source *nix networked file system.


Anyway -- sharing a folder for windows:

Locate the Terminal Application in Applications -> Utilities
type: sudo vi /private/etc/smb.conf

at the bottom of the file press ESC and I to start inserting

and add the following lines (changing to suit)

[ShareName]
Path = /unix/path/to/folder
Public = Yes
Writable = Yes

Press Esc and W Q to save and quit

goto System Prefs and sharing then turn off and back on windows sharing.

The share should be available.


Gary.

 

[kiwi-in-uk]

Re: your family presentations

Yes - iLife is very good. You can create a slideshow within iPhoto, iMovie, and iDVD, although each has some limitations and a slightly different way of achieving almost identical results.

If you want to go even further, try out Comiclife (stills only) to add effects and export as images (to import back to iPhoto), or Quicktime movie (import to iMovie or iDVD).

If you have the time and inclination then I recommend you try Keynote to integrate stills, movies, semi-transparent filters, build effects, slide transitions etc. A bit of a learning curve if you use Powerpoint but WORTH the effort. Then export as a Quicktime movie, Powerpoint (you lose some of the unique properties in that export), flash, PDF, or direct to iDVD.

For example: you might want to integrate some images, photos, document image, movie. Locate those in iPhoto or the Finder (or create a PDFs and put them on the desktop) then just drag them onto your Keynote slide. Now play around with build-in and build-out options for each element, change transparency, add reflections for images, add semi-transparent filters, and so on. So each slide can easily integrate a small number of photos or movie clips around a similar theme, then you can move onto the next slide. If you want some of the iPhoto or iMovie effects (Ken Burns effects, or any of the iMovie clip or soundtrack effects) apply the effects in those programs, create a Quicktime movie, and drag that into a Keynote slide. Magic.

Use all of the above (iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, Comiclife, Keynote) and you will get some stunning results. The downside, of course, is the learning curve and the time involved.

Don't expect miracles (these are not pro editing tools) but for straightforward multimedia integration they produce stunning results.

 

[WirelessInn]

Yes, brand new to Mac - a few questions probably useful to anyone!

Thank you again,all. I am impressed with the response I got here, especially with all those "start up" questions & my attached verbiage!

I had been experiencing a bit of frustration a few moments ago with the seeming inability to start Safari's History items in New Tabs... I tend to prefer to work a lot with tabs indeed. Lo and behold: just upgrading to Safari 3 beta did the trick! I must admit that I m not so much trying to reproduce/duplicate functions as in Windows, but I do like certain functions I have learned to live with and need! One of the folks - MikeTheC - in this forum had mentioned that "Microsoft, since the "good-ole" days of MS-DOS, taken a very arbitrary, technical, and programmer-centric approach to it's design philosophy. and this translate into the fact that the Apple paradigm is a bit more "regimented"/organized in a positive, user oriented way, especially towards simplicity. But, in that process, some things are to be taken as part of the new way for its own sake.

kiwi-in-uk, jwkay: thanks for the pointers re: iLife's components. i am right now plowing thru the online docs and guides and I do like the fluid, tastefully designed interfaces presented by those products. I had been using Pinnacle Studio, a good program under Win, but with some major questions about it, such as WHERE is the stuff produced or used by Studio stored??? Of course, right now, I am trying to find WHERE iMoie stores the clips i imported from my digicam...

garyBUK: thanks for the pointers - I do not have te immediate need/willingess to get into Terminal, etc... But, good to know, and it all helps me understand what's going on as far as inserting a Mac into a network!

Nym: great info on install/uninstall. Much needed since we are lookng and working with a new paradigm! NOTE: what do I need to do with the *.dmg and other image files and installation bundles once they are installed? Any need to keep them?? And then, when DOWNLOADING, a DOWNLOAD window appears: where is such a directory or folder located? I am just trying to locate where the system shoves stuff, in case I need to remove unneeded downloads for example. Got to use EXPOSE and DASHBOARD and SPOTLIGHT. Works well. Seems that VISTA - which I am not going to upgrade to at my business - has adopted such things also.
And zeroed in upon your comment: You can easily create a downloads folder on the desktop and set up you're applications to download everything inside that folder, that way you always stay organized., since I like to download things - such as User Guides and other pertinent, often needed documentation, to a special directory on all my computers. Would you remid me how to set up such a Directory/folder and have all the downloaded stuff go right to it?
MMM.. Still thinking about MS FSX on a BootCamp/Win partition: i wonder is this will be good enough to handle that heavy program?

Oh, MikeTheC again: I am attaching a screen print of the various things involved in this case with the Safari 3 Beta Upgrade. First, of coure, we have the "image file" - *.dmg format - which is the "bundle" we are taking about; Getting Info about this item reveals that it is indeed a "Disk Image" file, which does not bring up the "Eject" icon when dragged twds the TrashCan! When dble clicking on that .DMG file, it produces the "Safari 3 Beta 75.1 MB" at the bottom, which at this point is a VOLUME, which can be - I guess - "unmounted" when dragged twds the TrashCan. Do both of those items need to be onboard the Mac for proper operation of the computer and Safari?

- Roger T

 

[mkrishnan]

since I like to download things - such as User Guides and other pertinent, often needed documentation, to a special directory on all my computers. Would you remid me how to set up such a Directory/folder and have all the downloaded stuff go right to it?

In Safari, Safari menu -> Preferences -> General pane. Save downloaded files to.... the folder that's there now is where your downloaded files are going to automatically. You can name any folder you want, including a new folder you create. I'm like you in this respect, so I put all my downloads in ~/documents/download files/, and then delete things when I wish to (e.g. those disk images, which you generally have no need to keep).

Also when you download a file, if you wish to open a finder window showing that file, wherever it is on the disk, just click the magnifying glass icon next to the file in the downloads window of Safari.

 

[WirelessInn]

Yes, brand new to Mac - a few questions probably useful to anyone!

mKrishnan,

Thanks... Ummm, embarrassing indeed; i had looked into the Pref menu, but did not pay too much attention to the GENERAL section! Gotta study the whole thing again evidently!
then delete things when I wish to (e.g. those disk images, which you generally have no need to keep).: thanks for the detail - another thing I needed to know, even though I notice that in my SAFARI 3 Beta download's image file, there is an Uninstaller package, good i suppose for uninstalling the Upgrade and revert to Safari 2 in case of beta malfunction.
NOTE: can then in my Safari update example, BOTH the Safari..dmg image file AND the AND the Safari 3 Beta volume be discarded once I see that the Safari 3 update is OK - which it seems to be? You can tell, I am trying to get to the bottom of that image/bundle/volume stuff!

- rt

 

[mkrishnan]

NOTE: can then in my Safari update example, BOTH the Safari..dmg image file AND the AND the Safari 3 Beta volume be discarded once I see that the Safari 3 update is OK - which it seems to be? You can tell, I am trying to get to the bottom of that image/bundle/volume stuff!

Okay, I'm just enjoying skitch, so I'll draw you a picture on my iBook and add it to this post in a second. Typically, when you download a program using Safari (for most programs that use disk images), you get a disk image file that gets downloaded to wherever you specified download files go, in Safari prefs. The disk image mounts, and you get a "virtual" disk that appears on your desktop (typically looks like a white disk drive). This is not a *file* -- it's the mounted representation of the disk image file in the other location. The rule is "last in, first out." You drag the white icon on the desktop to the trash. You'll know you have the right one, because the trashcan will change to an eject icon. Then, you can also drag the disk image file that's in your download path into the trash. You'll know you're doing it in the right order for two reasons: one, when you drag the mounted disk image icon, you'll see trashcan become eject icon; two, if you try to do it in the reverse order, I think it fails because the file cannot be deleted while it's mounted.

You should *always* eject the disk image (drag the white icon on the desktop to the eject icon in the dock). Generally, you can feel free to also delete the file, but that's optional. I recommend, in most cases, you go ahead and delete the file.

If you installed Safari 3 Beta, in this limited case, though, I would not do step two. Hold onto that package because you might need it for uninstallation. Special case.

 

[WirelessInn]

Yes, brand new to Mac - a few questions probably useful to anyone!

Well, MKrishnan, I believe that i now have what's needed to find stuff in MBP and ferret it out if necessary! NOTE: another one of y pet peeve - I just found out how to create a ummm "Shortcut" of a URL onto the Desktop by selecting the http:// etc address on top, right clicking on it, select "Make Link" and drag the whole resulting thing onto the Desktop. Oh well...
- rt