# Need tips: User going from PC to Mac **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 25, 2008, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-tips-user-going-from-pc-to-mac/442718 "2008-03-25T20:58:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2008, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-tips-user-going-from-pc-to-mac/442718/21 "2008-03-26T18:36:05Z")
[QUOTE=Ellen Cherry] 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 \ 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! 🙂 [/QUOTE] Per the folder/sorting thing, aside from using Smart Folders (which are really great to use, but let’s not overwhelm you)… you can click into List View (from the set of four icons at the top of every finer window). It’s the second one from the right, and looks like 4 horizontal lines. It’ll change the way you view your docs and folders… but this view allows you to sort by Name, Date, Size, Kind, etc. Click on Kind at the top of that column, and that might get you closer to what you want. Also, when you Paste Special, are you selecting **Unformatted Text** from the popup? And yes, I’m an unabashed graphic designer (slash CG artist) – but I’ve got your co-worker beat – I have two 24" monitors. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2008, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-tips-user-going-from-pc-to-mac/442718/22 "2008-03-26T18:57:22Z")
Ooo now I really envy you! But until recently I worked in Production here and the Avids have big old monitors all arrayed in spectacular fashion! Thanks, regarding List View; I think that’s what I need. Maybe I’ll arrange things differently when I figure out where everything is. Yes, duh, I was not checking that box, regarding the formatting. I’ve got it figured out now, but I do think I need to make myself a special button. AHunter, the option-command V doesn’t paste unformatted for me. Cmyk, is your IM name kevsnyde? I don’t see you on. ---
**Author:** ![filmyak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@filmyak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmyak)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2008, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-tips-user-going-from-pc-to-mac/442718/23 "2008-03-26T19:09:16Z")
[QUOTE=Ellen Cherry] Ooo now I really envy you! But until recently I worked in Production here and the Avids have big old monitors all arrayed in spectacular fashion! [/QUOTE] I’m writing this on my Mac Avid system now (shhh.. don’t tell the boss I’m not editing!). Definitely play around with expose and all that fun stuff… F10-F12 I think, I have the functions tied to my mouse buttons. They’ll go a long way toward helping you organize your workspace. And as for Boot Camp, works great… but look into VM Ware Fusion… lets you run PC software without having to reboot your system. ---
**Author:** ![Amblydoper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@Amblydoper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amblydoper)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2008, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-tips-user-going-from-pc-to-mac/442718/24 "2008-03-27T07:04:39Z")
Just a thought, but when I paste in Word (2004) I get a little box below the text that I can click on for some options. One option is “Match destination formatting.” That strips the formatting away from whatever I copied, and applies the font and size used in the rest of the page. Give that a shot next time. Not sure if that option box pops up in Word 2008, but it is sure useful for me. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2008, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-tips-user-going-from-pc-to-mac/442718/25 "2008-03-27T12:39:01Z")
You guys are the best! Aren’t Mac users the smartest, prettiest people on the Dope? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Myglaren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Myglaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myglaren)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2008, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-tips-user-going-from-pc-to-mac/442718/26 "2008-03-27T14:14:27Z")
[QUOTE=Ellen Cherry] You guys are the best! Aren’t Mac users the smartest, prettiest people on the Dope? 😉 [/QUOTE] This thread alone would appear to confirm that theory. I have been enthralled. Keep up the good work. (_not a Mac user_) ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2008, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-tips-user-going-from-pc-to-mac/442718/27 "2008-03-27T19:59:58Z")
[QUOTE=Myglaren] This thread alone would appear to confirm that theory. I have been enthralled. Keep up the good work. (_not a Mac user_) [/QUOTE] Then come on over to the **dark side!** Or, the _light_ side? The etched aluminum side? Which side are we on, again? ---
**Author:** ![Myglaren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Myglaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myglaren)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2008, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-tips-user-going-from-pc-to-mac/442718/28 "2008-03-27T20:33:11Z")
Often tempted but the arcane wizardry of Li-nux is too strong. Not to mention the amount of doubloons and pieces of eight needed. I did use a Mac in college many years ago and it was far better than the much newer and snazzy Windows machines. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2008, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-tips-user-going-from-pc-to-mac/442718/29 "2008-03-27T21:02:10Z")
[QUOTE=Myglaren] Often tempted but the arcane wizardry of Li-nux is too strong. Not to mention the amount of doubloons and pieces of eight needed. I did use a Mac in college many years ago and it was far better than the much newer and snazzy Windows machines. [/QUOTE] Using virtualisation software like Parallels or Fusion, I can run Linux, Windows and Mac OS X [at the same time](http://www.sunspace.org/screen_cap_4_small.png) on my Lappy. Macs really are the most flexible computers out there these days. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2008, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-tips-user-going-from-pc-to-mac/442718/30 "2008-03-27T21:04:28Z")
[QUOTE=filmyak] And as for Boot Camp, works great… but look into VM Ware Fusion… lets you run PC software without having to reboot your system. [/QUOTE] Fusion (and its competitor Parallels) can also use your pre-existing Boot Camp partition. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Myglaren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Myglaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myglaren)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2008, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-tips-user-going-from-pc-to-mac/442718/31 "2008-03-27T21:08:11Z")
Thing is, I already have the hardware and run Ubuntu native so why jump through virtualisation hoops. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2008, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-tips-user-going-from-pc-to-mac/442718/32 "2008-03-27T21:09:16Z")
[QUOTE=Myglaren] Thing is, I already have the hardware and run Ubuntu native so why jump through virtualisation hoops. [/QUOTE] True… but if you have only one computer and it’s a Mac, it’s nice to know that you still can. ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Dubinsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dbc845/32.png) [@Alex\_Dubinsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_Dubinsky)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2008, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-tips-user-going-from-pc-to-mac/442718/33 "2008-03-27T21:27:06Z")
[QUOTE=Balthisar] 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. [/QUOTE] Have you tried Vista? You know the “hide underlined letters” option in Appearance. In win2k they turned it on by default. Fair enough. In Vista, they’ve completely removed the option! Some retard thought that no one should be navigating that way and accelerator keys are “for accessibility only.” Accelerator keys are like the GUI version of keyboard shortcuts. They’re brilliant. Sigh. ---
**Author:** ![Myglaren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Myglaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myglaren)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2008, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-tips-user-going-from-pc-to-mac/442718/34 "2008-03-27T21:28:36Z")
Vista is an abomination - I have it on this laptop but not for much longer. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-tips-user-going-from-pc-to-mac/442718/35 "2008-03-28T02:12:25Z")
[QUOTE=CoG888] Just a thought, but when I paste in Word (2004) I get a little box below the text that I can click on for some options. One option is “Match destination formatting.” That strips the formatting away from whatever I copied, and applies the font and size used in the rest of the page. Give that a shot next time. Not sure if that option box pops up in Word 2008, but it is sure useful for me. [/QUOTE] Man, that’s worse. Putting non-WYSIWYG into a WYSIWYG document serves nothing but to irritate me. Often I don’t want to do anything with the pasted text, and that stupid little box just floats around for no good reason. Same with the grammar and spell check lines (which I like in web forms, though). Luckily all of those are options that can be turned off. Man, I wish I could run Word from 1991. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2008, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-tips-user-going-from-pc-to-mac/442718/36 "2008-04-10T14:40:30Z")
Hi! Me again. One thing I really liked with the PC was the URL mouse-over function. I could mouse over a link and at the bottom of the screen it would show the URL string. Helpful in email, too; I could mouse over a questionable link in a spammy looking email and if it just had numbers for the link, I could rest assured it was a fake. Is this a solely PC thing? Or browser program thing? I am currently using Safari for the browser, but I do intend to go to Firefox. I already have Thunderbird for email running. Thanks again! ---
**Author:** ![Myglaren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Myglaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myglaren)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2008, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-tips-user-going-from-pc-to-mac/442718/37 "2008-04-10T16:30:45Z")
I’m using Safari alongside Firefox 3 and that is something I am also missing. I presume it is a Safari thing as it is there in all the browsers in Linux, as far as I am aware. In comparison to Firefox, Safari is excessively slow. I only use it for two sites usually so it isn’t a problem but Ff3 is far and away superior. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2008, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-tips-user-going-from-pc-to-mac/442718/38 "2008-04-10T18:12:07Z")
[QUOTE=Ellen Cherry] Hi! Me again. One thing I really liked with the PC was the URL mouse-over function. I could mouse over a link and at the bottom of the screen it would show the URL string. Helpful in email, too; I could mouse over a questionable link in a spammy looking email and if it just had numbers for the link, I could rest assured it was a fake. Is this a solely PC thing? Or browser program thing? I am currently using Safari for the browser, but I do intend to go to Firefox. I already have Thunderbird for email running. Thanks again! [/QUOTE] If you are using Safari 3.1, you can go to View-\>Show Status Bar, and URLs will appear at the bottom of the window when the mouse is over them. ---
**Author:** ![Caractacus\_Pott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@Caractacus\_Pott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caractacus_Pott)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2008, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-tips-user-going-from-pc-to-mac/442718/39 "2008-04-10T18:42:50Z")
Another option is to try another browser. I’ll pimp [Opera](http://www.opera.com). I brought it along when I got my iMac in a few months ago. I’d also brought along [VideoLan](http://www.videolan.org/vlc/) for playing multimedia. It’s great not having to worry about codecs. Why am I suggesting these? Well, at some point you may end up with another PC, so you can switch between them without having to learn new software. Slightly off topic, but I must comment that I love that computer. I’ve had nowhere nearly as much drama as with the Windows machines. It just works. ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2008, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-tips-user-going-from-pc-to-mac/442718/40 "2008-04-10T19:02:53Z")
[QUOTE=Alex\_Dubinsky] Have you tried Vista? You know the “hide underlined letters” option in Appearance. In win2k they turned it on by default. Fair enough. In Vista, they’ve completely removed the option! Some retard thought that no one should be navigating that way and accelerator keys are “for accessibility only.” Accelerator keys are like the GUI version of keyboard shortcuts. They’re brilliant. Sigh. [/QUOTE] Try looking in Control Panel \> Ease of Access Center \> Make the Keyboard Easier to Use. There’s a checkbox for “Underline keyboard shortcuts and access keys”. Granted, if you’re using Office 2007 (i.e., an app with a ribbon), it looks like you still need to hit Alt to see the shortcuts…but for non-ribbon apps this will show the underlines. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-tips-user-going-from-pc-to-mac/442718.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-tips-user-going-from-pc-to-mac/442718.md?page=3)