Nov 06

So it’s your first Mac – here are some quick tips and facts about your new Mac:

  • Yes, there is right click and have always been there. Press Ctrl + click, and you will get contextual menus, just as you would with a right click mouse (or, two fingers on the trackpad + click);
  • You can use any USB mouse on your Mac including the RM10 mouse or RM200 Mighty Mouse;
  • Screenshot: cmd + shift + 4 (selection);
  • Screenshot: cmd + shift + 3 (full-screen);
  • Cut and Paste: cmd C, cmd V;
  • Most new printers with USB will work with your Mac; they may not provide the CD driver with the printer but most good and branded printers will offer the drivers online;
  • Video chat: iChat, Skype and Yahoo messenger; MSN not much go, though you can use aMSN;
  • Adium – best chat software – supports multi protocol;
  • Microsoft Office 2008 is available on Mac;
  • Apple’s iWork 08 can open, edit and save Excel, Word and PowerPoint files with additional features;
  • Perian + VLC: Mac’s Swiss army knife for all kinds of movie formats;
  • To zoom in (MacBook and higher): hold on control and use two-finger scroll up or down to zoom in or out;
  • For machines with Firewire ports, you can turn your machine into an external Firewire drive by restarting and holding onto T (for Target Disk Mode);
  • Tip: unplug your battery when it’s 100% charged – don’t leave it charging overnight;
  • You can use your iSight for both video recording and editing in iMovie;
  • NTFS? You can read from it but not write to it;
  • DVDs/CDs not ejecting? Restart your Mac and hold on to the Eject key or Left click – it should pop out if the media is OK;
  • There are plenty of games on Macs: Warcraft, Need for Speed, Tiger Woods, etc;
  • Mac Virus: though technically exists, it’s super-rare and does not spread very well due to OSX’s built-in security measures;
  • Windows Virus: not compatible so it’s all good;
  • These specs are now a minimum on all new Macs: SuperDrive, Wifi 802-11n (option on MacPro), Bluetooth enabled;
  • Dashboard Widgets: very useful little apps – use them!
  • Tethering & syncing: most Nokia, Sony Ericsson and BlackBerry phones will work but does require some configurations;
  • 3G – Celcom and Maxis on E220 (Huawei) and some models will work – requires some configurations;
  • Emails and Microsoft Exchange: is supported by OSX’s Mail, including IMAP, POP3 etc;

That’s just some random ones I can think of – what’s your favourite Mac tip?

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3 Responses to “New to Mac: Switchers 101”

  1. henmaker says:

    NTFS can write, just install a software from google code will do

  2. Dedy says:

    Great tips Moorey, the two-finger zoom worked on my PowerBook so I’m not sure whether you meant ‘newer’ than MacBook or ‘higher’ as in pro-sumer notebooks.

  3. henmaker says:

    If im not wrong, the two fingers zoom track pad function only available after 2005 laptop model, included Powerbook.

    refer to this post:
    http://www.macworld.com/article/134343/maclaptop_trackpad.html

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