Comments on: Today I’m a Mac User

By: Kevin Koym

Kevin Koym — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 22:12:15 +0000

Check out http://sourceforge.net/projects/webcam-osx/ for a set of drivers that work with most webcams. Congrats on your purchase, and welcome to the Mac world.
Kevin

By: Ian Goss

Ian Goss — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 14:51:36 +0000

For mouse customisation, try USB Overdrive by Alessandro Levi Montalcini.

http://www.usboverdrive.com

By: Aaron Brazell

Aaron Brazell — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 07:34:57 +0000

Don’t forget about Expos?É¬©! Thats a beautiful window switcher!

System Preferences > Dashboard and Expos?É¬©

By: Sharpe

Sharpe — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 06:08:35 +0000

The menu being at the top of the screen is one of the thing that makes Macs great. From the design point of view, it is easier to target an infinitely wide menu strip on the Mac than to target a 22-pixel wide menu strip at the top of a window. Yes, infinitely wide. Keep on moving the mouse up as long as you want and the cursor stays on the menu strip. Thus, the only thing you need to target is the menu selection which is much easier to hit. So, you don’t have to worry about getting to the menu. Simply throw the cursor up as far as you can and you are there. I know it feels strange for Windows users not to have the menu attached on windows, but once you get over it, it works great.

To minimize windows, you can press Command+m or double-click the title bar. I never use the yellow and red buttons. Another combo trick to learn is Command+tab to cycle applications and Command+` to cycle open windows in an application.

By: Brian Christmas

Brian Christmas — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 04:42:17 +0000

G’day, and congratulations.

To use that usb camera, try here…

http://webcam-osx.sourceforge.net/

Many bloggers recommend…

http://www.marinersoftware.com/sitepage.php?page=85

Also, have you tried setting up the mouse using the ‘Keyboard and mouse’ preferences in ‘System preferences’ in the Dock. The keyboard definitely needs to be mac compatible.

As well, there are a lot of little extra thing like the ‘lozenge’ in the top right of a Finder window ‘toggling’ the window tool bars, and the fact that in a finder window you can drag your favourite folders into the left drawer of the window

A few keypress’s worth learning are Command (next to Space Bar) – Shift and either of A, C, H, U

Regards

Santa

By: Jacques Chester

Jacques Chester — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 04:14:39 +0000

I second the remark that you really need an Apple keyboard if you don’t have one. There are also 3rd party keyboards like the Tactile Pro which you can buy instead.

Also, once you’re settled in, get Quicksilver. Even if you just use it launch programs (like I do), you’ll find it saves hours and opening the Application folder, scrolling to an app, and double clicking on it. I open Firefox with alt-space ff these days.

Another one to look at is TextMate. I’m not sure how you write your posts, but the BlogMate plugin comes in handy if you do it in HTML or similar.

By: fog city dave

fog city dave — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 03:26:51 +0000

Congratulations on your Mac Pro. I hope you continue to enjoy it. For device drivers, a good place to start is http://www.versiontracker.com, a great Mac resource. And yes, you are throwing away disc images without installing the apps first (this is, admittedly, one of the less intuitive aspects of OS X). The good news, however, is that installing those apps is a simple matter of dragging them from the disc image to the “Applications” icon on the left-hand column of any open Finder window. The vast majority of apps on Mac are self-contained and require no installation (no registry or any of that nonsense) and those that require no installation also require no un-installation, and can simply be dragged to the trash. But yes, you do want to copy them from the disc image beforehand

By: Brian Clark

Brian Clark — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 02:02:44 +0000

I made the switch this last spring as well, after years of threatening to do it.

I don’t know what took me so long.

By: Peter Cooper

Peter Cooper — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 01:25:45 +0000

Using a Mac was like playing the guitar for me. You get the hang of it really quick, but to be a master takes some time! That said, you’ll inevitable come across things that are “easier on Windows” before you discover you don’t need to do those things on the Mac! One example is where you say this:

“Surprisingly the minimize window buttons on the left aren?¢‚Ç¨‚Ñ¢t a big deal, after half a day I?¢‚Ç¨‚Ñ¢m not even looking on the right hand side anymore.”

I don’t think I’ve ever used it! Perhaps once.. on Macs you just double click anywhere on the title bar to minimize. No need to dig around for the button Ditto for closing.. most seasoned Mac users just use Cmd+W all the time. It’s a simple left-hander.

By: Anthony Agius

Anthony Agius — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 23:54:55 +0000

Check out this link for installing apps on your Mac: http://guides.macrumors.com/Installing_Applications_in_Mac_OS_X

Essentially, you need to drag the icon from the mounted volume, into your Applications folder. Then you can eject the mounted volume and delete the DMG

(oh, and if you need any more help with your Mac, visit http://www.mactalk.com.au and fire away on the forums!)