A couple of days ago, my PC-based computer decided that it would prefer to be a paperweight or a doorstop. I was on a FaceTime call with my daughter when this became apparent, so she suggested that I replace it with an iMac. So I drove to a computer place and paid a guy to back up crucial stuff from my hard drive. Then I drove to the Goodwill Electronics Store in my county, and picked up an iMac at a pretty good price ($220). It came with a mouse and keyboard, which was a good thing, because my wireless keyboard and mouse don’t seem to have the ability to pair with the Bluetooth in the iMac (and I couldn’t find the wireless dealio that apparently made them work with my PC).
Unfortunately, the Goodwill store only had PC-based keyboards on hand, but I figured this should work. And it mostly does. But I can’t figure out how to perform the keyboard-based commands that are supposed to make the computer easier to use. So, can someone tell me what are the OSX 10.10 Yosemite keyboard commands for:
copy (it’s evidently NOT Ctrl + C)
paste (it’s evidently NOT Ctrl + V)
Shift between browser windows (it’s evidently NOT Alt + TAB)
Jump to end of current line (it’s evidently NOT End)
Toggle between Full Screen and Normal screen (it’s evidently NOT F11)
Also, I assumed the Ctrl keys are interchangeable with Apple’s Cmd key. Is this correct?
You almost have it. The Windows Key is the Apple/Cloverleaf/Command key, and the Alt key is the Mac Option key.
The most critical difference between a Mac HMI and Windows HMI is that the Mac uses the Command key for the accelerators you are most used to - cut copy paste, and almost all of the others as well. Control, and Shift are modifiers, but you almost always start with the Command key. Applications will list the keyboard accelerator next to the men item, much as a Windows application will, the cloverleaf symbol means use the Windows key on a Windows keyboard.
When I made the switch to mac. I found the controls just different enough to be annoying. I googled something like how to make the mac keyboard act more like windows. It was a series of shortcuts, fairly easy, which remaps all that good stuff back to Windows like operation. IIRC the big thing was to swap the command key and control key’s functions. Though you are using the windows keyboard so the command / control keys may be labeled different, but remapping should be the same regardless.
For home I switched to the Mac maybe 10 years ago. Though more expensive, they seem to screw up less often, and there’s no virus issues to mess with. But for work I still regrettably have to use a PC. I probably spend 20 hours a week on the Mac and 30 on the PC. I just accustomed myself to the differences. Since I’ve also had to work on CPM and two different flavors of UNIX, I learned that being able to move between computers is a valuable skill – like getting used to different cars easily if you have to travel and rent them often.
Thanks, all, for the responses. Another issue has arisen. This iMac is my first computer with a camera, and Kayla and I often Facetime one another. The problem is that only the person who initiates the call can do it on their larger screen; the recipient has to receive it on their phone. Is there a workaround for this?
It should also “ring” on your desktop computer. You click on the green Accept button that appears. I took a FaceTime call this way just this morning. If you answer on your phone first, I’m not sure how you then move it to the desktop, but I bet you can.
I’ve been using Macs for my personal computer needs since 1986. At work, I’ve exclusively used PCs (starting with Windows 3.1 in the early ‘90s), so I’m familiar with them as well.
So anyway, I’ve had no trouble whatsoever switching off from one to the other. FWIW, I use keyboard shortcuts for copying and pasting, but that’s about it.
I think most of your questions have already been answered, but I will give you one piece of advice: upgrade your MacOS software to the latest that your Mac will run. Yosemite is pretty old now. Note that Apple comes out with a new macOS just about every year, usually in the fall. I usually upgrade in the late summer right before the new version comes out, so I’m always behind about a year, which is fine for me.
My MacBooks are currently running the macOS that came out in Fall 2018, which is macOS 10.14 (Mojave). I’m getting ready to upgrade them to macOS 10.15 (Catalina). The next version will be macOS 11.0 (Big Sur), which will likely be released in the next month or two.
My 12-year old Mac Pro is currently stuck on OS X 10.11 (El Capitan). I’m pretty sure that anything that will run Yosemite will run El Capitan at a minimum. I strongly recommend upgrading your iMac to the newest OS it will run. Note that macOS upgrades are free — you can (and should) download them directly from Apple. (Actually the downloading and installation is pretty much automatic — very similar to upgrading the software on an iPhone, if you have one of those.)
Yeah, I ignored the phone and waited for the desktop to ring. When it did, I accepted the call, but it never went through. Had to call her back, and she was only able to answer on her phone.
This is not true and could be a damaging concept to promote. Over the last few years there has been a steady increase in Malware and other issues on the MAC platform and users should take proper precautions and protections.
Proper computer viruses, that is self-replicating malware that spreads by altering (“infecting”) other executable code, have been passé for about 15 years regardless of platform. Modern computing practices, including code signing and the outdated practice of peer-to-peer sharing of executable files have made viruses an obsolete type of malware but there is nothing special about macOS that makes it immune to viruses should one be developed for it.
No, just bacteria, fungi, amoeba, arachnids, worms, and bugs. Lots of bugs.
Back in the early days, people just didn’t think in terms of security. Computers were owned by nerds. Who would want to be bad. (The Morris Worm was greeted by the great quote - “We always knew this was possible, we just didn’t think anyone would be so stupid.” - Or words to that effect.) Microsoft took on a whole pile of great new ideas, and basically crafted an operating system that was one huge attack surface. They then spent decades trying to secure it again. Early Macs were just as bad. Heck, everything ran in kernel mode. Hard to be less secure than that. Apple had the luxury of cut and run when updating operating systems. Windows didn’t. A huge part of their appeal was the universality of the platform and legacy support. That meant that security holes were always going to be very difficult to plug. Microsoft’s development system didn’t help. They outgrew it, and it became very hard to manage things.
