Top ten tips for a neew mac user.

randombar

I know there is a sticky relating to this all ready but I'd like some more info if people have the time.

Could anyone give me their top ten? I.e. how they've folders music etc laid out, where programs are, what are good programs etc?

I'm kinda into the web development so anything in that line would be appreciated.

Red Alert

1. Use the mac apps where possible - the integration between iTunes/iCal/Mail.app/Safari is very good.
2. The 'Documents' folder tends to be selected by default in the save boxes, so it makes sense to use it rather than your homedir for documents. If you're a Linux guy like I was you'll be tempted to save everything in /Users/yourname, but trust me on this one.
3. Burning an ISO image is done in Disk Utility, took me ages to cop that one.
4. Use Time Machine if you've a spare hard drive around. It's easier than any other backup program I've seen.
5. Macs can do home directory encryption out of the box - it's called Filevault and can be turned on in System Preferences.
6. If you're used to Linux/Unix you should install Fink which will download loads of Linux utilities.
7. Printers in general will 'just work' when plugged in.
8. Auto-hide the dock. It looks cool when going up and down.
9. Install Quicksilver
10. Install Perian and Flip4Mac. These allow the Mac to natively play loads of different video formats.

randombar

Great tips! Nice one for that. One of the lads was saying adium too!

triple h

1) Get to love and use Expose. - this is when loads of Apps are opened, press F9.
2) Install Real Player too -- as well as above ones.
3) Use Time Machine for sure
4) In iPhoto learn to label your pictures and name them from day one.
5) iwork or Office for Mac, it's your call. The two are good.
6) Hide your dock for sure, also put programs you like in the dock. Drag the ones you don't use much out from the dock. The puff of smoke is class. Don't worry they will still be in the Application folder. Drag the programs you want into the dock.
7) Make playlist in iTunes
8) Omnioutliner is a great program. I think. http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnioutliner/
Thats all i have

silvine

I like the look of Omnioutliner but can Pages or Word do any of its functions?

m_stan

DON'T use FileVault unless you want to have to set your default mail, browser, and IM clients everytime you login (known bug) and unless you want Time Machine to be completely useless.

DON'T install BootCamp, Parallels, VMWare or any other such app to run Windows unless you absolutely have to.

DO use Expose

DO use Skitch (great screenshot tool)

DO use GROWL (great notification app)

Sad Professor

If you're using Safari be sure to get the Saft and Pithhelmet add-ons, they fill in several missing features, such as single-window mode, saved tabs and ad-blocking.

Get iStat Pro, it's probably the best and most useful widget you can get.

If you need a:
Download manger -> I'd recommend Speed Download (or iGetter)
IRC client -> Colloquy
Usenet client -> Unison

randombar

That's great lads, have actually moved to firefox, the add ons for that make the change a bit easier! The lack of right click (using the two finger on the trackpad method) definitely takes some getting used to!

faceman

GaryCocs wrote: »

That's great lads, have actually moved to firefox, the add ons for that make the change a bit easier! The lack of right click (using the two finger on the trackpad method) definitely takes some getting used to!

You can turn on right click if you go into mouse settings in System Preferences.

Breezer

GaryCocs wrote: »

That's great lads, have actually moved to firefox, the add ons for that make the change a bit easier! The lack of right click (using the two finger on the trackpad method) definitely takes some getting used to!

The time will come when you give out to every windows laptop you use for having a clunky right mouse button instead of having a two finger right click.

Install Quicksilver. Use it in conjunction with Spotlight to do things Spotlight can't (web searches, control iTunes in the background, etc.)

Install AppDelete for removing apps. It'll leave you with a lot less clutter on your system.

Don't bother with PithHelmet or Firefox's AdBlock - go for the free Privoxy for system-wide Ad Blocking. Takes a bit of setting up but really worth it in the end.

bringitdown

Adium for IM

faceman

Sad Professor wrote: »

If you're using Safari be sure to get the Saft and Pithhelmet add-ons, they fill in several missing features, such as single-window mode, saved tabs and ad-blocking.

Word of warning for any mac newbies, Saft is difficult to uninstall if you dont know what you are doing (as it doesnt come with its own uninstall feature)

Sad Professor

Saft is in /library/inputmanagers/

Drag, drop, delete. Although I can understand a new user not knowing this. You also have the choice not to install anything and run it straight from the installer program. Plus every new version of Safari breaks Saft.

setanta5

Learn shortcut commands

the most useful of the lot for me is Cmd+Space (bring up spotlight), which neatly brings me on to the spotlight tip....USE SPOTLIGHT. I use it for opening Apps not in my dock and for searching docs etc. Assuming you use good naming logic when naming your files.

Spud83

Something I have noticed that is in Windows but I haven't found in Mac is being able to lock your machine with a keyboard shortcut.

My solution:

Enable the password locking on your screensaver.
Set a hot corner to activate your screensaver.

Moving the mouse at any time to the selcted hot corner activates your screensaver and locks your computer.

Anybody have a better solution?

Breezer

You can also activate the screensaver with a keyboard shortcut using Quicksilver. Just assign any key to run 'Open ScreenSaver Engine.'

Alternatively, to lock the screen by switching to the login window, download the app in my attachment. Decompress it and either put it in your Dock or assign a keyboard shortcut to it in Quicksilver as before.

jpfahy

DownloadHelper - free addon for Firefox allows you download any video from a webpage, e.g. YouTube. Good for Lynda.com, hee hee hee !

If a video you download is a .flv you can download VLC player free to play it. (VLC also plays all those awkward files, wmv, etc, etc)

Handbrake; rips your DVD collection to your hard disk for importing into iTunes. Has presets for Apple TV (Mac Mini Media Centre) iPhone, ipod, etc.

Dman001

How do you uninstall programs?

Rollo Tamasi

Dman001 wrote: »

How do you uninstall programs?

Ah yes, this is the most complicated part of the OS X system.
To uninstall an application:
- drag the .app file to the rubbish bin (or of course, just delete it)

That works fine for 99% of all mac apps. Some, such as Adobe apps, come with an uninstaller application. But generally dragging the app to the bin does the trick.

Breezer

Rollo Tamasi wrote: »

Ah yes, this is the most complicated part of the OS X system.
To uninstall an application:
- drag the .app file to the rubbish bin (or of course, just delete it)

That works fine for 99% of all mac apps. Some, such as Adobe apps, come with an uninstaller application. But generally dragging the app to the bin does the trick.

I'd recommend AppDelete over this method. Dragging it to the trash gets rid of the application itself but not all the preference files etc. which will eventually accumulate and clog up your system. If you use AppDelete (free and just as easy) instead it will clear these too.

Dman001

Rollo Tamasi wrote: »

Ah yes, this is the most complicated part of the OS X system.
To uninstall an application:
- drag the .app file to the rubbish bin (or of course, just delete it)

That works fine for 99% of all mac apps. Some, such as Adobe apps, come with an uninstaller application. But generally dragging the app to the bin does the trick.

Thanks. I thought that was how you do it but I wanted to be sure. What is the best way to clean out the Mac, i.e delete all the cookies and temp. internet files?

Breezer

There's a program called OnyX that can run system maintenance. Also repairing Disk Permissions in Disk Utility from time to time helps. And not to sound like a long-playing record, but using AppDelete as I suggested above will help a lot...

faceman

Breezer wrote: »

I'd recommend AppDelete over this method. Dragging it to the trash gets rid of the application itself but not all the preference files etc. which will eventually accumulate and clog up your system. If you use AppDelete (free and just as easy) instead it will clear these too.

+1 for AppDelete. Tis a great little program.

randombar

Lads two more questions from my understanding apple programs are basically run free standing, i.e. they don't need the dll files and registry tweaks windows needs etc? Bloody savage if that's what it is!

Also, taking peoples advice here and trying to use iMail or the mail.app, problem is synching with gmail? I've 5000 odd emails in there and stuff. How do people get around this? Create loads of folders and rules? Still downloading them here!

Thanks again for all advice, if ye have blogs and the such I'd definitely add them to my delicious!

Breezer

GaryCocs wrote: »

Lads two more questions from my understanding apple programs are basically run free standing, i.e. they don't need the dll files and registry tweaks windows needs etc? Bloody savage if that's what it is!

Exactly, nearly everything is stored within the application bundle. Although other files do get scattered around the place but they can be deleted if they're causing trouble and the app just recreates them next time it's run. You'll have to reset your preferences though. Doesn't happen very often and it's a lot cleaner than Windows.

Also, taking peoples advice here and trying to use iMail or the mail.app, problem is synching with gmail? I've 5000 odd emails in there and stuff. How do people get around this? Create loads of folders and rules? Still downloading them here!

Thanks again for all advice, if ye have blogs and the such I'd definitely add them to my delicious!

To be honest I don't bother with folders and rules, Mail's search feature is lightning fast so I don't find it an issue. The big download will only have to be done once, just let it finish up and you'll be good to go then.

Dont be at yourself

A combination of VisualHub, Handbrake & MetaX will enable you to make all your DVDs & downloaded videos iTunes friendly - great for keeping things organised, and playing back on your iPod.

If you use FrontRow, but don't have your movies in iTunes or your movies folder, just place an alias in your movies folder to point to your movies directory.

randombar

Ya gonna sort out my music and videos once and for all now too! Anyone tell me the best way of organizing it all? Where I should put in and all of that? Should I just let I tunes sort it all out?

Sad Professor

GaryCocs wrote: »

Should I just let I tunes sort it all out?

That's what I do. I also have it set to copy imported files to the itunes folder; I can then delete the original file and don't have to worry about accidently moving it. But a lot of people don't like this feature.

I organise videos myself though.

Spud83

Sad Professor wrote: »

That's what I do. I also have it set to copy imported files to the itunes folder; I can then delete the original file and don't have to worry about accidently moving it. But a lot of people don't like this feature.

I organise videos myself though.

This is what i do too.

For music I leave the full screen versions in the movies folder, and only import the iPod converted videos to iTunes.

randombar

Coola boola, looks like I'll be importing and storing movies seperate, might put the xmen cartoon series on my iphone (ultra nerd!)

Next thing I'm looking at is bootcamp + VMware, I'm guessing bootcamp can access all the files i've stored in my itunes library and pics in iphoto and what not?

Can the windows xp on bootcamp and windows xp in vmware be the same version? I suppose what I'm thinking is if I install a program in bootcamp would I also have to install it in the vmware version?

Any good tutes on this? Did a search here and didn't come up with much!

Dont be at yourself

If you install bootcamp, make sure you format the XP partition to Fat32 as opposed to NTFS. That way, you can both read and write to the XP partition from Mac OSX. The downside is that it wont handle files over 4gb... but you can always use an external drive for those

I'm not sure about VMWare, but Parallels is another popular virtualisation software and it allows you to boot up from your bootcamp install.

You can also set up to share folders as you see fit.

Sad Professor

Any version of Windows you install is kept on a separate partition or disk image to the rest of your data. You can copy stuff between the two via shared folders, etc but both systems are sort of meant to be kept separate.

VMware can use the Bootcamp partition as well.

Is there anything particular that you need Windows for?

randombar

Off the top of my head not really at the moment, I mean I can check browser compatibility online and stuff? Maybe some programs I have only run on xp and all of that though? Suppose I like to be prepared.

Also going travelling in a couple of months, don't want to be in the middle of nowhere and can't synch random mp3 player/camera etc to apple??

Sad Professor

I can't imagine you having any problem with any mp3 players or cameras. They should all connect and work one way or another.

randombar

Ya i probably am jumping the gun a bit all right!

Dont be at yourself

It might be a good idea to partition your drive when you set up your mac initially though. Bootcamp can be funny in partitioning a drive if there are lots of large files to be jigged around, so it's best to do it early on!

Setun

If you're into design and want to learn/have some experience with Python, you'd be insane not to give this app a go: www.nodebox.net

It's my favourite design app by some way, and it's free.

randombar

Still back with php and mysql myself I'm afraid! Never get a chance to delve into new things like python and jsp!

Setun

GaryCocs wrote: »

Still back with php and mysql myself I'm afraid! Never get a chance to delve into new things like python and jsp!

Ah it's not too hard really. It's actually kinda fun with nodebox aswell, you can create really cool designs with simple script. The tutorials are fantastic also.

randombar

Will have a look at it when I get some stuff outa de way so!