How to use a OSX

54kroc

I just got myself an imac and I'm ok with the basic stuff but i've always been a windows user so theres a lot of stuff I don't have a clue about.
Can anyone recommend a site or somewhere I could learn how to use a mac?

PogMoThoin

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=108

Iomega Man

or.....

http://www.apple.com/ie/findouthow/mac/

KetzerF

cork45 wrote: »

I just got myself an imac and I'm ok with the basic stuff but i've always been a windows user so theres a lot of stuff I don't have a clue about.
Can anyone recommend a site or somewhere I could learn how to use a mac?

The Apple site has a good selection of videos and tutorials specifically aimed at people who switch from Windows to OS X.

http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/

For finding out how to do more specific things I found YouTube quite helpful when I switched.

EDIT: Woops, apologies for the double post

Sad Professor

You should make sure you understand how to install applications. Basically, a lot of apps come in a disk image and you have to drag and drop the app to the applications folder. This isn't always made clear though. It's quite straight-forward actually, but Windows users often have trouble getting their head around it at first.

See here:

http://guides.macrumors.com/Installing_Applications_in_Mac_OS_X

54kroc

Cheers Sad Professor, I was just about to ask that question.
I have to say osx is very nice to use.

54kroc

How should I format my usb hard drives that I will use on my mac?
I want people to be able to use them over a network on windows machines.
They don't need to write to them they only need to read from them.

Dont be at yourself

use Disk Utility (in the Applications/Utilities folder, or Spotlight search for it) to format drives.

FAT32 can be read and written to by both Windows and OSX. However, the maximum file size you can have on these drives in 4gb.

You should be able to share them over a network through the Sharing control panel. The OSX side is straight forward, but I'm not sure how to get Windows to recognise the shared folder.

54kroc

I have two options in disk utility, either MS-DOS (FAT) or ExFAT, which one is the right one?

Dont be at yourself

ExFAT? Must have been added recently.... That'd be a better bet, as both OSX and Windows can read/write it, without the 4gb file size limitation of FAT32.

deflemonkid

Sad Professor wrote: »

You should make sure you understand how to install applications. Basically, a lot of apps come in a disk image and you have to drag and drop the app to the applications folder. This isn't always made clear though. It's quite straight-forward actually, but Windows users often have trouble getting their head around it at first.

See here:

http://guides.macrumors.com/Installing_Applications_in_Mac_OS_X

Been a mac head for bout 6 months now and still get a kick of how easy it is Was explaining it to a mate the other day. Took about an hour of him goin that cant be rite before he finally believed me

Freddie59

deflemonkid wrote: »

Been a mac head for bout 6 months now

Same here. I suppose the hardest thing to grasp at the start is that when you open a program it's just the title bar that changes - nothing appears to happen. Took me a few days to figure that one out!:o:D

Rollo Tamasi

What got me at the start was accessing an applications preferences. I think before on Windows I would have gone "Tools > Options" or something like that.

But on OS X you go "Application Name (in status bar) > Preferences".

conor.hogan.2

Maybe it was because I watched and read everything about macs before I could afford and get one but I never had problems like these but now that I read them they make sense and are quite different to how windows does it.

Stainless_Steel

One thing that got me when I started using macs 4 years ago was the lack of a maximise window button. The green button would only make it bigger.

But I realised then when I manually make a website or word doc fit to the screen that the fonts or content doesn't grow...just adds more filler...just wasting screen real estate!

conor.hogan.2

I use an applescript to maximize screens to proper full screen (cmd alt x shortcut) and it works perfectly.

I am weird like that though - maximize is maximize not make as big as you "need" it to be

S.M.B.

I use cinch which replicates the Windows 7 drag window to top to maximise and to the left/right to take up half the screen functionality.