Need tips: User going from PC to Mac

Factual Questions
1

I am the proud new owner (well, my workplace is) of a new iMac. For the last 10 or so years I’ve been using Gateway PCs, although before that I did use Macs, in the older, SE30 incarnation. So, in theory at least, I am familiar with how Macs operate.

I love the look and graphics of my new machine. But, as we creatures of habit are wont to do, I’ve adapted to the limitations/benefits of a PC as I go about my daily tasks and I’m having a tough time finding equivalents on the Mac.

For example, a great deal of what I do involves writing about television programs, and including accurate times and dates is extremely important. I copy these off one of our internal web pages (most accurate and timely info available), and sometimes from other public web pages. It doesn’t matter where. The point is, these pages are formatted and Word just scoops them up and plops them down when I copy and paste. I don’t want that. On the PC, I just pasted it into Notepad and then quickly selected all, copied and pasted back in a Word document. A little cumbersome, but when you do it a million times a day, it become automatic. Problem solved.

Now, I have tried everything imaginable to make Word let me remove formatting. I can’t. Maybe it can be done, but not by me. But … if you have tips for me on how to do that, I’ll listen and try once more.

ALSO … are there other little tips and hints anyone who switch-hits, or who recently made the transition, can give me? I’m having a little trouble moving around. Also, I can’t find out how to make a new folder. I feel like it’s 1989 or something. :smiley:

All my data was imported over from the PC, so everything I’m used it is there it just looks a little different. To this, I can adjust.

But, after a day of getting not much accomplished because I feel like I’m slogging through mud, I thought perhaps I could get the benefit of someone else’s experience.

Oh and did I mention this thing is GORGEOUS. I do love, love love how it looks and displays pictures and graphics. Wowza! :slight_smile:

2

I believe Word Mac has a Paste Special command. That lets you select whether to paste formatted or unformatted text.

Enjoy the Mac! :slight_smile:

3

I agree that Paste Special is your best option to paste unformatted. It was probably your best option on the PC, as well, though most people don’t know about it.

New Folder from the Finder file menu, or Shift-Command-N. In a dialog box, it’s an icon very similar to that used on Windows–a folder with a little star on the upper right corner.

4

Check out this book

Read the user reviews, as there are other options, but it’s a place to start.

Also, if you use the same functions a lot, look into the Automator application built in to your Mac. Let’s you make super simple programs to automate repetitive tasks… like selecting a block of text and changing the formatting.

Welcome to the world of Macs! =)

(SE30? Wow, that was a LONG time ago!)

5

I wish it were the default, although Alt-E-S-CursorDown-CursorDown-CursorDown-Return usually does the trick quickly enough.

6

New Folder = Shift-Command - n (“n” think "new)

New Finder Window = Command - n

Do this! Open up the Application called Dictionary. Then under the Dictionary Menu at the top, select Preferences. At the bottom of this pane, there’s a Contextual Menu option. Click “Open Dictionary Panel”… Now, when you’re in a native OSX app, such as Safari, or Mail, if you hover your cursor over any word, then hold down Control-Command-D on the keyboard, a little nifty definition panel surrounds that word. From there, you can go to the Dictionary app, thesaurus, and even Wikipedia. Too cool.

QuickView = click on any file once, the hit the space bar. Boom, instant reader for almost any file type.

Use Bonjour with iChat in the office! You can drag files onto co-workers names to instantly transfer files, and even share your screen or vice versa, and give over control. Not to mention the IM and vid-chat features are big time savers in the office. Hopefully you’ll have firewall clearance. Also, if you’re holding a vid-chat with someone (or multiple people) you can drag a file, video, or picture into the video window to share it with everyone to see… it’s called iChat Theatre. Very useful too.

In general, usually right-clicking on anything will give you a contextual menu that will allow you to do a number of basic and most-used operations on it.

Cool. I think you’ll be surprised at how fast you’ll get used to things.

Yes. In fact, if you want, just click my AIM icon at the top there, and you can add me to your iChat, and help you with a question every now and then. I’m almost always on.

That’s really where Macs shine! Presentation and aesthetics are important… Enjoy!

ETA: I’m assuming your Mac is installed with OSX 10.5 (Leopard). If you got it new, that’s probably the case.

7

Thanks to all of you! I’m excited about learning new things.

First off, I have created a folder! said in Tom Hanks Cast Away ‘I MADE FIRE’ voice :wink:

cmyk, you’re on my buddy list. I shall bother you frequently. I don’t think I can do video chat at the moment, but I “know somebody” in IT and if it’s a firewall problem, perhaps it can be circumvented. I’m dying to try it out! No one else where I work has it, so all those wonderful sharing options won’t be useful. BUT … I will be sharing InDesign files with one designer … maybe he and I could pass them back and forth this way instead of email? Hm.

The ‘paste unformatted’ command sounds like it was made just for me. I’ll give it a go this morning. It sounds like I could have used it with my Gateway, but if Balthisar is correct, apparently it wouldn’t have saved me any keystrokes.

OK here’s another stupid problem. Although I did indeed make a folder, I made an error in its title. (It was supposed to be 06-June and I typed 05-June. :o ) So, how do I correct it? It won’t let me edit.

I must admit, part of why this seems cumbersome is that I was very used to organizing all my windows using the taskbar at the bottom of the PC. Now I’ve got all these windows open all over the place, some of which are completely hidden and I can’t summon 'em up without closing other windows, yadda yadda yadda. It’s a minor inconvenience, but as I said, it’s just an adjustment and I’ll get used to it eventually. But I’m still having the mud-slogging problem. :slight_smile:

Does anyone use Palm Desktop? The Mac version is very different from the one I was using. Also, I don’t see any pictures. In the old Desktop, pictures from my Contacts were visible, as well as a whole “Media” menu area where I could see all the pictures I have stored on my Treo.

Thanks again!

8

Oh! One more thing. My mouse doesn’t have a right-click! This is really hard for me, for I was a right-clicking fool on the PC. Especially for things like “Open Link in New Tab” (I use FireFox on the Mac and on the PC); also for many functions in Word. I feel like I have one hand tied behind my back!

9

Go into System Preferences->Keyboard & Mouse, and turn it on.

10

Secondary button?

11

I run my MacOS X as a “retro” environment, as do some other old-timers who don’t like unlearning ingrained habits. For example I changed the (hidden) preferences so that ⌘-N creates a new folder, as God intended, and ⌘-Shift-N does the “New Finder Window” thing.

Instrux and other retrohacks here

12

Yep.

13

Sounds like his mouse is missing the right-click. Oh, wait – it’s a Mighty Mouse, right? If you’re left-handed, you may just want to plug in a regular old USB mouse. Right-clicking as a lefty sucks (no, I don’t switch mouse buttons as a lefty; that’s just stoopid).

Also, honestly the alt sequence I mentioned (Windows only) is much, much faster than pasting and copying and switching into other applications. I do it so often, I’ve developed the muscle memory. In fact Windows’ direct ability to totally not require a mouse is about the only thing I envy from the platform.

Try hitting your F9 through F12 keys to see what happens. You’ll find lots of Window management things there. Also check out Spaces if you’re on 10.5 or better.

14

Unless your PC had a non-USB mouse, just plug your two-button PC mouse into your Mac. Unless you did something intentional to disable the right mouse button, it will “just work”.

If you still have old old MacSE/30-vintage software and would like to run it in emulation, say so and I’ll give you the instructions to set it up.

15

⌘-⌥-V (Command-Option-V) will paste unformatted text into 85-90% of all Mac applications that otherwise accept formatted-text when you paste. A tiny handful reserve that for something else (e.g., Eudora uses that combo for “paste as quote” so ⌘–SHIFT-V pastes unformatted text)

16

Whoa, I don’t want to go back into SE30-land. Just mentioning it. I think I might have used a more modern Mac, too … something that wasn’t that little box, but I forget what it was called. Power Mac?

This new one has Leopard, with the additional feature of allowing me to switch to a PC platform (is that the right term?) using Bootcamp. So, for example, if I need to run something that someone here gives me in PC form (99% of our staff has Gateway PCs), I can switch over to the other. I haven’t had this set up yet. I will probably need to use it to run HomeSite, which I use to create my email newsletter. There is no Mac version of it in the software I have. Also maybe with FileMaker. Here we only have an extremely outdated version and no plans to upgrade, so I’m stuck with the old one.

So anyway, I appear to have right-click now set up on my mouse. It came with a Mighty Mouse, I think, but I got a cordless one. Also a coolio coldless keyboard. It’s real tiny and groovy. Very flat. I feel extremely Space The Final Frontier using this system. :stuck_out_tongue: (And psst, Balthisar, I am a goil.)

Am I doing something Wrong Dept.: I tried the Paste Special option, selected Unformatted and got formatted text. Le grrr.

17

Re: changing the name of a file or folder

Click once on the file/folder name but leave your mouse where it is. The name will become selected and you can edit to your hearts content.

18

Also, you all know that you can add extra buttons into your existing toolbars, doncha?

I have a paste special button I added in my toolbar, I put it next to the existing paste icon.

Tools > Customise > Commands tab > “Edit” category > Drag “Paste Special…” into one of your toolbars.

Actually, your job might be better suited to:
Tools > Customise > Commands tab > “Format” category > Drag “Normal Style” into one of your toolbars.
(I haven’t tried it though)

19

Seriously, feel free to hit me anytime on IM.

okay, a few more thangs:

Renameing = Click once on the file/folder to select it. Now punch the Return Key. Voilà!

Exposé* = f8 brings up Spaces, which is just more virtual desktops. Don’t worry about this for now… but it might be useful for you to put InDesign in one space, Word in another, and email and your browser in yet another. f9 = Shrinks up ALL windows open. Select the one you want to bring to the front. f10 = Shrinks all windows open in the app you are currently in, only. f11 = Flings all the windows off to the side so you can get to the desktop fast. f12 = Dashboard.

Red, Yellow, and Green Buttons = In the top of every window should be these traffic light buttons. Red = Close, Yellow = Send to the Dock, and Green = Minimize/Maximize the window

Too bad about no one else having a Mac at the office. Sigh, if only the whole world were on a Mac.

Also, concerning the Mighty Mouse, it has four buttons you can customize. I like to set up the typical left/right click… then make the center roller-ball click do the f9 Exposé feature. You can also squeeze the sides of the mouse for an extra click function… sup to you.
*What is the fascination with Apple and French Words?

20

Ooo I squeezed the mouse and all the windows shrunk down and arranged themselves in an orderly fashion on the desktop. Fun!

A couple more questions … I mentioned all my data has been brought over from my PC. Several folders had folders within them as well as individual documents. These are now all mixed in together, and alphabetized. I would like all the folders at the top, followed by the documents, because I’ve arranged things by subject and I don’t necessarily remember exactly what each thing is called. So, can I do this?

I think I will customize my toolbar. However, I’m still having the problem that Paste Special is not, in fact, pasting special. :mad:

cmyk, I got the mac because I work with graphic artists, and they’re the only ones with the Macs. One of them has this enormous 24-inch screen <swoon> Monitor envy, the affliction of the new millenium. However, I’m not a designer, but a writer and they’re letting me use ID. I may try your virtual desktop idea. It sounds orderly. And HEY I get your name! :slight_smile: