First time owner, getting started tips please!

[ZeroHour]

Hey

EduGeek has had to purchase a mac for the obvois reason of iPhone development (can only be done with osx) and I have just got it booted.

Now as a long time windows user has anyone got any tips (literally any noob tips) that would help ease the usage of the mac?

So far I like the hardware but getting used to osx is quite interesting to say the least. I was quite surprised by the size of all the updates I had to install (650mb!) on boot since so many have made issue of windows getting a lot of patches.

One thing, safari and the word style red squiggles, it seems rather hit and miss with the trackpad and attempting to right click. A lot of the time I seem to end up just highlighting the word.

Just trying to link it with my w7 boxes but its taking a bit of effort so far.

Edited June 9, 2010 by ZeroHour
Figured some more things out thus removed some bits

[ZeroHour]

Also is it normal for them to be nuclear hot underneath?

Starting to get into the trackpad with multiple fingers now.

[mattx]

Do yourself a favour - put it back in the box, send / take it back and get a refund - it will save you a world of pain.

[ZeroHour]

Do yourself a favour - put it back in the box, send / take it back and get a refund - it will save you a world of pain.

 

LOL I feel Lord Jobs baited breath on the back of my neck though.... his evil approaches

[AntonioRocco]

Hi

 

@ZeroHour

 

Apple - Find Out How - Mac Basics

 

Although understandable it would be a mistake to approach using OSX as if it were Windows. You're just going to have to learn how to get out of your comfort zone a little.

 

Antonio Rocco (ACSA)

[mattx]

LOL I feel Lord Jobs baited breath on the back of my neck though.... his evil approaches

 

You do know as well you are now responsible for at least 4 dead kittens ? Shame on you.

[tmcd35]

Also is it normal for them to be nuclear hot underneath?

 

Unfortunatly very normal. Apple are crap at hardware (except iPhone - Foxconn whip enough child workers to build them correctly). They purposly reduce the fan speed to reduce noise. Just don't try doing any video editing or DVD ripping or it'll overheat and turn itself off.

 

Search the web, you can get some freebie apps to adjust the fan speed and correct the problem.

 

You do know as well you are now responsible for at least 4 dead kittens ? Shame on you.

 

I'm buying the new iPhone ASAP - please tell me that's worth more than just 4 kittens

[FN-GM]

I use mac more than windows now..

 

First thing i would do is install FireFox.

Something to get used to is when you press the X to close a program it closes the window but leaves the program running. If you are not going to use it again right click the icon in the dock and press Quit.

 

I have never had a problem with fan noise on my macs

[ZeroHour]

I should probably have mentioned its a mac book pro in the original post. I am slightly shocked that laptops this expensive could overheat and cut out.

I am struggling right now with xcode and trying to get the damn frames (god I wish there was a windows style app framed mode) that seem to want me to rearrange them all the time, tips?

 

As for kittens, ha ha ha meow now kitty! I am a PC (while holding a kitten), I am a Mac (while strangling PC's kitten)

 

EDIT: Quick q, in windows there is a shortcut for opening a link in a new tab using the mouse (scroll wheel click) is there a similar on the mac?

Edited June 9, 2010 by ZeroHour

[tmcd35]

I should probably have mentioned its a mac book pro in the original post. I am slightly shocked that laptops this expensive could overheat and cut out.

 

So was I (shocked that is). Sort out the heating problem ASAP. If you don't then the aluminium case will warp and you'll have no end of problems getting discs out of the DVD drive. Do a search, it's a very common problem. You'll find talk of using double sided tape wrapped around a business card inserted into the DVD slot in order to grab the disc and remove it! Shoddy build quality!

 

Also take great care of the PSU. The 'magsafe' adaptor isn't all it's cracked up to be! They tend to come apart were the cable joins the magsafe. Got a loud bang off of one once. Went through three PSU's at £75 each before getting rid off the laptop.

 

I've got a school supplied Tosh Sat Pro with Windows 7 at the moment. The Laptop itself is a million times better than the MacBook. The school paid around £600-700 inc. hard drive and RAM upgrade, compares to the £1500 I paid for the MacBook Pro.

 

I really, really, really miss OS X though. As good as Window 7 is (for Windows), it's utter tripe compared to OS X.

[tmcd35]

Oooh, before I forget - how about a useful top tip...

 

Find your applications folder on your hard drive. Got it? good. Now drag and drop that folder anywhere on the Dock bar at the bottom. I prefer next to the recycle bin (that's NEXT to NOT on top off).

 

Ahhhh - bliss. You know have your Windowesque start menu back

[DanW]

I should probably have mentioned its a mac book pro in the original post. I am slightly shocked that laptops this expensive could overheat and cut out.

I am struggling right now with xcode and trying to get the damn frames (god I wish there was a windows style app framed mode) that seem to want me to rearrange them all the time, tips?

 

Overheat and cut out ... i think someone's told you a porky ... i've got a 2008 blackbook ( last model before they went to the unibody ones) i've encoded videos and played C&C3 on it and it's not once cut out!

 

I would recommend google chrome over firefox and safari, also make sure you change your trackpad settings

 

http://grab.by/grabs/3fa235b78258912b59882d6414ec28b9.png two finger scroll rocks.

 

CMD + Shift + 4 will enable screen grab mode where you can select an area of the screen to take a screenshot

Edited June 9, 2010 by DanW

[HodgeHi]

 & T for new tabs in safari.

 

Most other Windows shortcuts work as well i.e.  and tab key allows you to cycle through the open applications.

 

To enable sharing for Windows users you need to enable the SMB option. System Prefs >Sharing >File Sharing >Options >Share files and folders using SMB (Windows)

 

But you may know this already.

 

Also take a look at the tutorials for XCode. They may point you in the right direction.

 

Also you may want to set up Spaces and Expose to allow for easier use if using just one screen. (virtual desktops like Linux)

[HodgeHi]

Also is it normal for them to be nuclear hot underneath?

Starting to get into the trackpad with multiple fingers now.

 

What is the laptop sitting on? If you are using it on your lap, make sure that the vent at the rear is not covered. The vent for the airflow goes right across the back of the macbook pro where the screen hinges. Anything blocking this vent can result in increased heat. Also if you use it on a material such as a duvet or blanket then it can act as an insulator. Apple tend to use the body of the laptops as a sort of passive heatsink i think. Seems to get hot enough to feel that way.

 

And if you do anything using flash that will ramp up the fans and make your macbook pro fry. Youtube especially.

 

I have never managed to get used to the glass trackpad myself. The trackpad may also need to wear in a little too. My other halfs was quite stiff at first.

[Guest theeldergeek]

Although understandable it would be a mistake to approach using OSX as if it were Windows. You're just going to have to learn how to get out of your comfort zone a little.

 

Abso-bloody-lutely! I was thrown into a Mac environment a little under 2 years ago after being in a Windows environment for the best part of 15 years. I just had to move out of my comfort zone like the man says - frustrating at first, but I'm at relative peace with the Mac world now.

[Edu-IT]

Also is it normal for them to be nuclear hot underneath?

In my limited experience, yes.

[john]

My black macbook is red hot when in use as well and when its fans kick in its louder than my Sun SAN on reboot and those that have them know they are noisy!!!!

 

Im not in love with my mac really, I use it but its boot-camped so its a Windows 7 laptop more than a Macbook tbh, but I do keep going back to Snowkitty and trying stuff but its sooo different to windows and just seems backwards to me, I spend half my time looking for things and thinking okai on Windows I do x,y and Z to achieve A,B and C and on the mac I just cannot get Y and Z thus fail to achieve B and C

 

Maybe one day I will learn to like it more but for now it a great Windows 7 Laptop

[AntonioRocco]

Hi

 

"Also is it normal for them to be nuclear hot underneath?"

 

Not really. It depends on what you're doing or what you did when initially setting up the laptop. Apart from a mild warmth under roughly the F2-F7 keys and the 2-8 keys that should be it. This is my experience on numerous other laptops I have used. "Nuclear hot" is a slight exaggeration surely? Can you warm a cold cup of tea/coffee if placed on the keypad which would make it hot enough to be drinkable again? Doubtful? If you can there's something seriously wrong somewhere and I'd doubt if you could switch the thing on.

 

One thing that regularly ramps up the heat and fan speed is large amounts of data. Spotlight will begin indexing - this also happens upon completion of the set up assistant. The more data there is the more the "mds" daemon works the processor. You could stop this by placing the hard drive into the Privacy section - System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy.

 

Browsing websites with lots of Flash animations can also ramp up the heat/fans especially if a pop up window containing the animation is not dismissed. A lot of Poker sites are guilty of this. Affects Firefox as well so it's not just Safari. As an experiment you could install Windows and see if browsing the same sites in IE causes the same effect.

 

In addition to the mds daemon Spotlight uses the "find" utility. If you issue "find /" via the command line and have the Activity Monitor open viewing the CPU Graphs you'll see what I mean as it 'simulates' to some extent what Spotlight does.

 

Once indexing has finished you really should see heat values return to more reasonable levels. If it does not you potentially have a problem and I would suggest you take it back to the Retailer or an Authorised Repair Specialist (yes I realise it spells ARS) and get it looked at.

 

Antonio Rocco (ACSA)

[dayzd]

I agree with AntonioRocco. I've had Macs for the last three years or so and have never had overheating /cut-out issues. If this is happening, I would guess something isn't right.

Your Macbook Pro may get loud when doing tough numbercrunching but that's to be expected. And I'm pretty sure that the aluminium body is used as a passive heatsink for it, so watch what surfaces you put it on!

 

Now, on to some useful things you may not have discovered yet:

• Enabling tapping and two fingered tapping for secondary click on the trackpad is a very good way of making it feel more comfortable to use.
  
• Pressing the spacebar with an item selected in Finder will open QuickView, which can preview most files (.doc, .txt, .pdf, .jpg etc) in a pop-up window without actually opening the associated program.
  
• Pressing 'Enter' with an item selected in Finder will allow you to rename it, NOT open it. It took me a while to get used to this.
  
• To open a selected file in Finder, press  & the down arrow.
  
• You can navigate Finder windows by pressing  & the arrow keys to go up and down folder levels.
  
•  & Backspace will delete a file to Trash
  
•  & Q will fully Quit an application.
  
•  & W will close a window or tab (pretty much any, although some apps like System Preferences will Quit instead).
  
•  & T will get you a new Firefox or Safari tab.
  
•  & Z will recover an accidentally closed Safari tab (in v5) and , Shift & T will recover an accidentally closed tab in Firefox.
  
•  & H hides an application (it still runs, but all it's windows are hidden)
  
• , Alt & H hides all other applications except the one you're currently using.
  
• , Alt, CTRL & Eject will shutdown your Mac (without a delay)
  
• , CTRL & Eject will reboot your Mac (without a delay)
  

 

As HodgeHi said, Spaces is a valuable multi-desktop system I use on my Macs. You can switch between spaces with a keyboard shortcut (normally CTRL & -> or CTRL & <- if you have your spaces set horizontally) or by dragging windows to the screen edge for a second.

 

When using options in menus, particularly secondary menus (right-clicks), try pressing the ALT key, as this sometimes offers different options. For example, in a Finder window, the secondary menu contains the option to 'Arrange [your icons] by' size, kind, date etc, but pressing ALT while the menu is open changes this to 'Keep Arranged By'.

 

Err, yeah... Hope some of that is of use...!

[tmcd35]

I agree with AntonioRocco. I've had Macs for the last three years or so and have never had overheating /cut-out issues. If this is happening, I would guess something isn't right.

Your Macbook Pro may get loud when doing tough numbercrunching but that's to be expected. And I'm pretty sure that the aluminium body is used as a passive heatsink for it, so watch what surfaces you put it on!

 

Maybe/hopefully things have changed with recent models. But a simple search of popular mac forums/sites will show how common a problem this actually is. I hate to be doom and gloom for an otherwhys outstanding piece of kit but the Magsafe connectors are prone to fraying and the laptop is prone to over heating.

 

Hers somesoftware that fixes the problem: Download Fan Control for Mac - Adjusts minimum fan speed on MacBooks. MacUpdate Mac Software Downloads . This software wouldn't exist if Apple didn't purposfully run the fans at a slower rpm and thus cause the problem.

 

Also on CD's stuck in the drive (generally caused by aluminium warping - caused by excessive case heat - caused by slow rpm fans): Eject a stuck CD/DVD from a MacBook Pro SuperDrive - Mac OS X Hints

[AntonioRocco]

Hi

 

@tmcd

 

"This software wouldn't exist if Apple didn't purposfully run the fans at a slower rpm and thus cause the problem"

 

I agree and I use Fan Control as result. Something I should have recommended to OP when posting.

 

Antonio Rocco (ACSA)

[DanW]

A Mac user myself ... but i like this

 

 

http://techbuket.net/815RF.jpg

[ZeroHour]

Thanks for fan control, it does seem to be working but its early days now.

Anyone had problems with pdf viewing in preview? I have a pdf which shows no content under mac.

[GrumbleDook]

Thanks for fan control, it does seem to be working but its early days now.

Anyone had problems with pdf viewing in preview? I have a pdf which shows no content under mac.

 

Some PDFs are structured in such a way that the only thing that can read them is Adobe Reader. I get them like that from a few Govt departments and from some suppliers. If I can't see more than a page in quick view I open them in Adobe Reader.

[ZeroHour]

Some PDFs are structured in such a way that the only thing that can read them is Adobe Reader. I get them like that from a few Govt departments and from some suppliers. If I can't see more than a page in quick view I open them in Adobe Reader.

 

Any pointers for possible causes? I would prefer to fix the pdfs rather then dealing with adobe hell