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Are you
new to Mac OS X?
| Mac Helps | Affordable
Mac apps for various academic tasks | My paperless
academic workflow |
This page: | Intro to Mac OS X | Basic
setup apps from Apple and others |
If you're new to the Macintosh, it's worth taking a little bit of time to discover
how OS X may help you work more efficiently, and how new software -- much of
it Mac-only -- can help you get things done far more productively than you might
have imagined. On this page I've linked to tutorials for OS X as well as to
affordable, Mac-only software options that might be useful for academic work.
1. Intro to Mac OS X
- Don't forget to use the Help menu for answers to common
questions. This menu is available not only for OS X, but for every application.
- Note: The Help menu will always be the right-most
menu, other than several small icons that populate the remainder of the
menu bar. One of the most obvious differences between Macs and Windows
is the menu bar along the top of the screen, which is part of the active
program. In Windows the menu bar is found on the top of an application
window, but on a Mac it is at the top of the screen where you can move
the mouse to it much faster (because you can't overshoot it), and where
it may be accessed equally from multiple windows of the same application.
After the Apple menu, the next menu on the top-left corner
of the screen will be the Application menu, named after
the current application. When you switch between Applications, check this
menu's name to confirm which application you are currently in. The Application
menu also contains the Preferences for that application.
- Mac OS X videos at Apple.
- Apple has a website, Mac
101, to introduce new users to how the Mac works -- and to guide anyone
in fixing minor problems. A great resource.
- Apple produces a great little video podcast called "Apple Quick Tip
of the Week" available at
.
- Apple's Find out how video tutorials are superb.
- Apple support has searchable help.
- Apple offers a free online video seminar on "New to the Mac and Compatibility with Windows."
- Apple's spectacular iLife
suite ($49 academic; free with every Mac) transforms your Mac into your life's
digital hub. It complements iTunes
music and video jukebox software with five other integrated applications:
iPhoto
for organizing your photos and digital images; iMovie
for producing videos, even in high definition; iWeb
for creating websites, blogs and podcasts; GarageBand
for recording and creating music; iDVD
for producing and burning DVDs. Any one of these powerful, best-in-class applications
would be worth far more than the cost of all of them, yet they are included
on every new Mac. iLife will make your Mac the center of your life! And it
will also make you want to have more hard drive space, because you will be
using your Mac for more than just email, web browsing and office work. Don't
miss Apple's iLife tutorials (including iWeb
-- the easiest to use software for creating beautiful web projects on the
planet) here: http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/
- If you are a .Mac member, in the .Mac
Learning Center you have access to tons of video tutorials for Mac OS
X (Panther and Tiger), iPod, iWork (including Pages, Keynote and Numbers),
.Mac, and the Pro applications (Final Cut, Logic, Aperture, etc.).
- Bookmark Mac
OS X Tips and Tricks (put it in a daily
Safari folder to learn a new tip each day). Here's another list of 20
useful Mac tips.
- If you are an OU student, staff or faculty, consider joining the OU
Mac Users listserv. Traffic is very slight, so it will not clog your Inbox.
Members are quite generous in answering questions.
- Mossberg's Wall Street Journal column on "Some General Tips for Switch to Mac from Windows."
- Laptop Mag's Mac OS X Beginner's Tips.
- SwitchToMac.com has
a 9-part guide, including "Learn
to use Mac OS X."
- It's
About Time to switch to a Mac is a great tutorial for Windows users to
begin using OS X.
- Windows
and Mac keyboard equivalents
- Tip: Become familiar with the Command Key
(it has a 4-loop symbol patterned after a roadway sign for historical
markers used in Scandinavia; on some keyboards it also has an Apple symbol).
The Command key is the most common modifier key on Mac OS X, and works
much like the Alt key in Windows. For example, use Command-Tab
to quickly switch between open applications.
- Remember: There is a conceptual difference between files
(or documents) and the applications which open them.
This conceptual distinction is often lost in Windows, since applications
quit whenever one closes the last document window used by an application.
In other words, Windows makes the decision for you that you are finished
with that application. Yet oftentimes one might wish to keep a regularly-used
application open even when temporarily closing all files opened in that
application. In Mac OS X, closing the last window of an application does
not necessarily quit the application. To close any tab or window, press
Command-W (or choose Close from the File Menu). To quit
an application, press Command-Q (or choose Quit from
the File Menu). To do both, choose Quit (or press Command-Q), which will
close all windows in that app and quit the application.
- "Get a Mac" general info.
- Atomic
Learning's free online orientation tutorials for Mac OS X version 10.3
(Panther) demonstrate how to work more efficiently using Expose
and the Finder. Although the current OS X is 10.5 Leopard, these Panther demos are still helpful to the person who is new to the Mac.
- Spotlight tips: MacWorld.
- MacInstruct has
a useful article on "Indispensible
Tips for New Mac Users."
- The Mac Address
Book is a wonderful contacts utility. These
12 tips will show you how to use it to find directions with Google maps,
print to envelopes, use it with Safari and iChat and other nifty tips.
- iCal
is a great calendar app that also keeps track of "to do" tasks.
- Be sure to check out some of the amazing advanced OS X technologies, not
just for geeks. Here are three of the most important:
- Oh yes, remember: "OS X" is pronounced "oh sss ten,"
not "oh sss ex," and "Mac" is spelled with a lowercase
"ac," not "MAC."
2. Basic setup apps from Apple and others
(This section covers only those apps that Apple provides on new computers, along with some alternatives; for discussions of others see Academic Apps)
Web browsing
- See my general page on browsers (Mac and Windows).
- Internet Explorer has not been supported on Mac OS X for many years.
Besides being bloated and mind-numbingly slow, it has numerous unpatched
security risks; use at your own risk.
- Safari is
the default web browser for OS X. It is fast and feature rich. Here are
some Safari setup tips. Be sure to set
up Safari for tabbed browsing; you'll seldom ever need to wait for a page
to load again! Safari supports Services, on the Safari menu -- be sure
to check them out. For starters, try the free
services from DevonTechnologies (e.g., WordService). Services also
allow one application to pass information (such as sending selected text
or an entire web page) to another. Here are some tips for setting
up Safari. I recommend using Safari 3 on either Macs or Windows. Safari 3 also works better with some websites that were
diabolically designed exclusively for Internet Explorer without regard
for Web standards (like D2L). Safari
3 is the fastest and most standards compliant web browser available
for both Windows and Macintosh.
- Firefox
is another very good browser for both OS X and Windows. Both Firefox and
Safari are fully standards compliant. The main reason to choose Firefox is its support for powerful plugins that can add ftp, screenshot, wordcount and other features (some of which are listed here). Three reasons to choose Safari are: Safari is faster and has a more
Mac-like feel, and Firefox does not support Services. Yet for the few
websites that do not work with Safari, try Firefox. I suggest installing
both both Safari and Firefox, because almost every non-standard website
designed specifically for Internet Explorer will work with one or the
other of these two far better browsers.
Email
- Mail is the default mail application for OS X. Use it to read messages from multiple
email accounts in a single application. (Email messages in Mail are searchable
by Spotlight.)
PDFs
- To create pdfs on a Mac you don't need Acrobat Professional; you can
turn any document into a pdf by choosing Create PDF
from the print dialog.
- To read pdfs, Preview
is the default pdf reader for OS X (much faster and more responsive than
Adobe Reader).
- To annotate pdfs, see suggestions on the affordable
Mac apps for academic tasks page.
Screenshots
Personal finance
- Squirrel
- Moneydance ($30): Personal financial manager that offers an impressive alternative to Quicken. Unlike Quicken, Moneydance supports multiple currencies and OFX standards.
- Quicken
"Macs
for Productivity, Unix for Development, and Windows for Solitaire..."
