Got A MacBook Pro - What Do I Need To Know?

Question

Well I've finally become a part of what I've seen referred to as "The Mac Family" and I couldn't be more pleased. I got a 15" MacBook Pro for Christmas and I'm still begining to explore what I can do with it.
Of course I've done the iTunes thing and have done some minimal exploring with Safari. It came with OSX Tiger on the MBP but also came with two discs so that I could update to Leopard at some point down the road. Being a recent Windows convert I want to get myself familiar with Tiger before I put in the Leopard disc and upgrade.
That said what sort of advice do you long-time Mac Users have for a long-time Windows, recent Mac Convert? What sort of things do I need(should) to keep an eye out for so that I don't "Trip Over" myself? What are some apps (3rd party or otherwise) should I look into? If it helps at all I'm currently going to school so what sort of programs should I look into? I'm used to using Microsoft Office for things like typing up term papers etc. What's the Mac equivalent? How is it?
Anything else is much appreciated.
Kyle Varnell

Answer 1

Welcome to "The Mac Family". I am sure you are discovering why Mac users are so passionate about their machines. I understand what it's like to switch from PC to Mac. I finally got a MBP in August to replace my ancient 4y.o. PC (although I had purchased used two Macs, now 6 and 19 y.o.). You will become a fanatic shortly. Thursday, nearly five months after getting my new Mac, I was overwhelmed (ie. became instantly happy, heartbeat rose, very happy) to walk into my Physics 2 Lab and see about 15-20 newer white iMacs spread throughout a rather small room. The Mac spirit will get to you very, very shortly.
The first word of advise I can give you is that: "It's a Mac...if you find something hard to do, you're not doing it right!!" Also, you may find some things a little awkward or hard to find, but you will quickly figure out. My first encounter with this came when I clicked the x-bubble in the corner of iTunes (which closes a program in Windows) and music still played...man was I confused, especially when I learned that you had to "quit" applications rather than click that bubble. Another thing is that in Safari, putting your favorites along the menu bar is very ingenious! The MacBook Pro gets warm...at times VERY warm! Learn keyboard shortcuts: Command-q quits applications; Command-h hides open applications; F12 brings up Dashboard; F11 shows the desktop; Fn-F9 displays exposé (shows all open windows); Command-t opens new tabs in Safari; and pressing the power button and then enter (because "shut down" is automatically highlighted) takes less than a second. I'd say I learn a new shortcut about every 1-2 weeks (since I've now had my baby now for 5mo.). NEVER, NEVER, NEVER insert any small disc (like a MiniDVD, etc.) into the optical drive. I haven't had an experience with that and judging from some of these threads, I don't want to. You may not like the Dock, so try positioning it on the sides (the ugly glossy dock becomes a clean-looking black dock when on the sides, oh how I wish I could have this look when it's on the bottom!). Also, I found it helpful to place the applications folder into the Dock besides the default downloads, documents, & folders.
I would DEFINITELY recommend Microsoft Office if you have or anticipate having to share such files with PCs. iWork can export files that can be opened in MS Office, but often there are certain parts of documents that don't easily translate into Office. The biggest problem I had was using Keynote. I had to give a presentation at the end of last semester. I had exported the file as a PowerPoint file, but nevertheless it would not open in Office 07. So I spent 15 or so in front of a class of 50 trying to get my presentation to open. I was able to open it later that day on my roommate's laptop with Office 03 and saved it from that onto my flash drive. In addition to the inability to open, you loose practically all transitions in a presentation going from Keynote to PowerPoint. This problem, however, is because Keynote transitions are much better than PowerPoint's crappy transitions. My final problem was that I have never used Excel before. I bought my MBP one week before starting college, and one of my classes was Computer Applications which focused on Excel and AutoCAD. Needless to say, I was horribly confused when learning how to use Excel commands in class and then trying to do the same things in Numbers with different commands. Anyways, I'm just trying to give you good reasons to get Office instead of iWork. I only have iWork (don't have money now for Office), which I find to be wonderful and visually pleasing but a pain in the rear when sending files to PCs/PC-users.
On to accessories: I would recommend getting a mouse. It's not because the trackpad on the MBP is bad, it's the best on any laptop on the market today, but using the mouse as opposed to the trackpad for long periods of time feels much better. I have a wireless Mighty Mouse. It was a quick decision, and I wanted to hit my self for being so stupid as to buy a $70 mouse the entire hour drive home from the Apple Store. Even after a full week of using it, I was not impressed by it and regretted spending soooo much on it. Yesterday I replaced the battery for the first time...the included batteries had lasted four months! I love it and can't imagine life with a corded Mighty Mouse or a wireless mouse which has a receiving thing to plug into a USB port. Anyways, I definitely recommend buying a mouse. The wireless Mighty Mouse is costly, but I absolutely love it . Another accessory would be the incase neoprene sleeve for $35 at the Apple store. I like it because it fits snug (but not too snug) around my MBP and provides extra protection because I do not have "laptop-backpack". Finally, you've probably discovered that the speakers are not very good. I have a pair of $15 speakers that sound MUCH better!
Hope I could help!!!