Tips for a NEW mac user

So this is my new thread that started at
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8165450#8165450
I just learned that I can use most any mouse that has right click on my newish iMac G4. It also helps to know that I can control click / control space for the same operation.
Just hooked up different mouse. It is nice to have the scroll wheel again also.
Any other advice...
Thanks

Hiya, and welcome to macintosh!
I converted from PC's 5 years ago and have not looked back. Apart from computer games, software for macs is generally nicer looking, more "malleable" (you can make more adjustments than on PC's) and OS X is a very stable Operating system indeed.
Tips? Well, I think, just explore! A good idea maybe a comprehensive book. I bought "Mac OS X Leopard in depth" which explores many aspects of Leopard, including what is "hiding underneath the nice interface".
Generally, don't be afraid to experiment on OS X. It is difficult to break. A great idea is to password your machine, as well as turning on the file vault:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=mac/10.5/en/8736.html
This will increase security. Also, with a passworded account, you think twice if a window pops up and asks you for your password (e.g. software installation). That way, you think before installing and corruption of the system is less likely.
Maybe THE most important step to remember is "good housekeeping", such as
1) run "disk utility" immediately prior to ANY software update (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1782)
2) If you are updating apple software, and it tells you "+you are not connected to an AC power source+" DO plug in your AC adapter (otherwise there are problems!)
3) To maximise you battery life look at the following: http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html
4) Apart from that, ENJOY!

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Well, I've taken the plunge & decided to buy a new iMac 17" for our study at home. I'm a PC user at work but this will be our first home computer (I know, I'm living in the stone ages).
We want to use it for the normal things; some photo editing, Emailing, internet use, kids homework, storing/playing/streaming music etc.
I'm looking for some advise on a few things:
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Any recommendations for a reasonably priced all in one printer/scanner (I'm expecting very light use - I've heard Epsom are good)?
Are the built in speakers on the iMac any good or should I buy some separate multi-media speakers? I was thinking of either JBL Creatures or Creative iTrigue 3400 - Any thoughts/suggestions?
Any recommendations for a wireless router (I've heard Netgear are good)?
Anything else you'd recommend?
Thanks & sorry for the length of the message.

Here's my tuppeny worth (I seem to be dominating the front page of this forum at the moment - I guess the US hasn't woken up yet
> Well, I've taken the plunge & decided to buy a new
iMac 17" for our study at home. I'm a PC user at work
but this will be our first home computer (I know, I'm
living in the stone ages).
Fine choice of first home computer, sir! Mine was a ZX Spectrum 128+. It came with a tape recorder and everything!
> We want to use it for the normal things; some photo
editing, Emailing, internet use, kids homework,
storing/playing/streaming music etc.
It will be brilliant for all that - and more!
> Do I need to buy any virus protection etc software
for a Mac (I've been told not)? If yes, any
recommendations?
Not really required, but all that might cvhange as Apples market share grows. There was a low-level OS X worm virus in the news recently - an occurence so rare that it actually warranted a news story! However, for your peace of mind, you might want to think about creating a general day to day user account that dos not have admin rights. No need to log in and out when setting up software or making system wide changes - it just asks for the admins user name and password.
> Any recommendations for a reasonably priced all in
one printer/scanner (I'm expecting very light use -
I've heard Epsom are good)?
It depends on software compatibility - some manufacturers havent yet sorted out their Universal Binary drivers and software whereas others already have their drivers included in OS X. I've got a Lexmark X5150 all-in-one - everything worked on the Mac mini I had, yet on my new Intel iMac it runs slower under Rosetta and I can't change some settings like output quality. Still waiting on Lexmark to get back to me about updated drivers.
> Are the built in speakers on the iMac any good or
should I buy some separate multi-media speakers? I
was thinking of either JBL Creatures or Creative
iTrigue 3400 - Any thoughts/suggestions?
The inbuilt speakers are alright, but a bit lacking in power and bass. I've got a nice pair of colour matched iTrigue 3400s and they are pretty good speakers for the price - quite bright, punchy and bassy. Good for music, DVDs and games. The wired control unit is great too - has a headphone socket and a line-in you can plug your iPod or other audio device into.
> Any recommendations for a wireless router (I've heard
Netgear are good)?
I'm running a Belkin but it doesn't seem too brilliant - though I've noticed the connection with the iMac is worse than with the Mac mini so it might not be the routers fault.
By the way, commenting on that other posters points - I'm forced to go wireless as there is not a network point or even a phone line up to my bedroom/study. I'd prefer to be wired but my housemate has the broadband connection going into his office.
> Anything else you'd recommend?
Check out Boot Camp if you want a bit of Windows action on your iMac, and go listen to the #1 podcasts in the world by Ricky Gervais and his mates - they are hilarious!

Help needed for a new Mac user with his photo and video librarys

after swopping my Ericson for an iphone a year ago. then taking delivery of an iPad on launch day. I have finally taken the plunge and swopped my windows pc for a lovely 27" iMac... what have I been doing all these years using windows? using the Mac is a joy.
As I get more involved with their products I am constantly fascinated (and frustrated) by Apples way of doing things. this situation is no exception and I need Apple people with Apple experience to help me make a decision.　
I am looking at software to organise my photos and videos. I have approximately 7000 photos residing on a windows home server. in addition to that there are some 200 or so HD videos taken with either my Sanyo Xacti camcorder or Sony DSC W300 camera. both cameras I think produce MPEG format
my first experience was iPhoto. great for the `price' but not very flexible. single libraries, poor editing facilities. and because I have files referenced and not copied to my iPhoto library, if I deleted from the library its not deleted from the server (and vice versa). this leads to images being displayed in the library that don't exist etc.
then I downloaded the Aperture 3 trial. great until I came across the `Unsupported file format' situation with the MPEG videos that strangely enough, iPhoto will recognise and play (the Apple way of doing things).
1. should I put the photos on the Mac instead of the server?
2. Is there a better way of managing the images for deletions etc
3. should I stick with Aperture because of the editing
4. is there a better software or way of managing the videos
sorry for the ramble but its all new to me

had a good session on all three of the recommended programs and now have a better understanding of the excellent advice I have been given.
iPhoto
great `free' program that is easy to use but somewhat limited on features. think I would always be looking to upgrade from here (feels a bit boring)
Aperture
really enjoyed using this but at £170! a hefty price tag considering its limited file support. fortunately its only my camera video clips (MPEG) that it wont view. my camcorder files (MP4) are fine so this is looking better as a one stop solution.
Elements
much more than just a image touch up. considering what it can do.. very good value at around £60. teamed with iPhoto it becomes even more attractive.
My issue still remains with the masters file location.
I would prefer to keep all my media on the external server to ensure I have a fail safe recovery option. its a 4TB 5 disk affair which contains all the family music, video images and DVD's etc (likely to change to a Mac server in the future!)
one feature that I cant find, (even in Aperture which surprises me), is the ability to automatically manage deletions from referenced locations? i.e. delete a file from the server and when aperture opens up the thumbnails are updated. or, delete a referenced master in Aperture and an option comes up to delete the referenced file on the external drive.
how would a professional photographer or studio using Aperture manage this process (or would they use something else?)
forgot to mention that through our student facilities i can get a discounted copy of Photoshop CS5 for around £175 which is close to Aperture. is this a worthwhile option or overkill
Message was edited by: buttons129

Help for a new MAC user

I just made the move from PC to MAC. I have and need to use my Office 2003. Can someone help a newbie to install it on my new Imac?

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Hi mike and welcome to Discussions and the world of Apple,
4) have a read/look at the following for a better feeling for your Mac
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/
http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/
http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/
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My first computer was a commodore 64 with DOS commands and I've been a PC user ever since. You guessed it, Friday I went to the Apple store and bought an iMac! I was up and using it in minutes so I am impressed. However there are a million little things I just can't figure out or that take hours, for example at the Apple store the docking bar when you ran your mouse over the icons they jumped up. Well after a few hours I figured out how to make mine do that! (so cool).
At the store they showed me "stacks" where i put my mouse on something and I could see, pix or documents or e-mail I had somehow saved there, very handy but if my Mac can do that I sure don't see how.
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Thanks, Susa

Welcome to Mac.
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[email protected]

I am a new mac user and I switch to mac due to the graphics that it brings. I do website in pc and I heard iweb is the best.NOW i heard that iweb will be discontinue. so what is the best application there for website using MAC OSX lion?

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It is now confirmed that iWeb, and iDVD, has been discontinued by Apple. This is evidenced by the fact that new Macs are shipping with iLife 11 installed but without iWeb and iDVD.
On June 30, 2012 MobileMe will be shutdown. However, iWeb will still continue to work but without the following:
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◼ Blog and photo comments
◼ Blog search
◼ Hit counter
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I found that if I published my site to a folder on my hard drive and then uploaded with a 3rd party FTP client subscriptions to slideshows and the RSS feed were broken. If I published directly from iWeb to the FPT server those two features continued to work correctly.
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Click to view full size
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I'm a brand new Mac user. I want to send photos from Iphoto to my local store for printing, like I can do in Picasa. I can't find that option in Iphoto.

I'm a brand new Mac user. I want to send photos from Iphoto to my local store for printing, like I can do in Picasa. I can't find that option in Iphoto. I do not want to order them through Itunes.

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When I power it up, it makes a musical "greeting" power up sound and the monitor goes from dark black (as in "off") to a lighter gray, and then a folder appears in the middle of the screen alternating between a face and a question mark.
Does anyone know what is wrong with this computer so that I can repair it for future use? I am guessing a hard drive malfunction, but do not know for sure. And is it worth fixing? FYI - I do not have any software for this system.
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A 160g hard drive would run you about $70, while OS X would run about $120.
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I'd talk to them at the Apple Store, explain the situation, maybe they might be able to help given the situation. They've got a chance here to nab a new mac user, I'd think that may help your case.

Snow Leopard or Lion for new Mac User?

Hi everyone: I purchased my first Mac (a MacBook Pro) about a month back and shortly thereafter upgraded to Lion for free through the apps store. Since then, using/navigating the new Mac has been somewhat challenging for me and I'm not yet comfortable with using it for all of my computing needs. (I have an old Toshiba that is still my go-to computer--for the moment.) I suspect that part of my challenges stem from being a new Mac user (irrespective of the particular OS) after years of using PCs, but I do wonder if they may also relate to OS Lion, which seems to have complicated the user experience. I was hoping that using a Mac would be more intuitive and simple than it seems to have been thus far.
With that in mind, might there be some utility in me reinstalling Snow Leopard (and if so how?) in order to become more used to the new Mac experience before permanently switching to Lion? If I do, would I be able to, down the road, resintall Lion for free?
I recognize that this suggestion would involve some learning curve redundancy (learning the Mac on Snow Leopard and eventually re-learning it with Lion). However, I have a sense that reverting back to Snow Leopard might ease my transition into the new Mac experience. Either way, I'm looking forward to eventually tossing out that Toshiba!
Thanks for any/all thoughts. Best, DC

If you want to downgrade to Snow Leopard then do the following:
Downgrade Lion to Snow Leopard
1. Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.
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If you have Snow Leopard Time Machine backups, do a full system restore per #14 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions. If you have subsequent backups from Lion, you can restore newer items selectively, via the "Star Wars" display, per #15 there, but be careful; some Snow Leopard apps may not work with the Lion files.
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Printing help for new MAC user

I am a new MAC user trying convince myself this is better than a PC. I have been trying to 3 hours to figure out how to print in color with a document I've created in Pages. I am connected to a HP Photosmart wireless printer. Can someone help me?

jersey45 wrote:
I am a new MAC user trying convince myself this is better than a PC. I have been trying to 3 hours to figure out how to print in color with a document I've created in Pages. I am connected to a HP Photosmart wireless printer. Can someone help me?
Hi jersey,
Welcome to Apple Discussions and the Pages '09 forum.
Is this strictly a Pages/HP Photosmart issue, or do other applications share this inability to print in colour to this printer?
About the only advice I can offer is to:
1.
Check the HP site for any updated drivers for your printer. Download and install if any are found.
2.
Check the printer's settings in the Print dialogue. Your printer may offer the choice, here or in it's utility application, to print using only the black toner cartridge.
3.
Try opening Pages from a different user account, and printing a new document from there. Success would indicate the issue lies in your user account, probably in a corrupted Pages preference (.plist) file.Go back to your usual account, locate the file and drag it to the trash. Try printing again from your usual account.
If these don't help, I'd suggest reposting your question in the Printing, Faxing and Scanning forum in the Mac OS X v10.6 (Snow Leopard) section of Discussions.
Regards,
Barry

Tips for a NEW mac user

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