New-User Questions

I just got my mom a new Mac (20") and have a few questions. I really like it, but there are a few things I'm trying to figure out.

1: The right-click is very iffy. Is this normal? When I try to right-click, it usually left-clicks unless I press the far, far top-right corner.

2: How do you increase the screen font size? My mom's emails are written extremely small, and she can hardly read it without using the CTRL+Scroll-wheel zoom feature, which makes the text blurry and out of focus.

3: How do you turn off screen font smoothing? Turning it to "Light" in the preferences doesn't change anything.

4: Why does lowering the screen resolution blur everything up? Is this because the screen is LCD or whatever?

5: The mouse movement is way too slow when moved slowly. Is there a way to set the acceleration more like Windows (like some program or something)? I tried increasing mouse speed, but it's still like that. Will another mouse behave differently? (this mouse has been nothing but problems)

6: Thanks!

1. I got use to it by starting off taking my hand off the mouse and only clicking the far upper right corner with one finger. It takes some time to get use to but you can slowly get use to it.

2.Go to mail>view>customize toolbar, and add the text bigger and smaller button to the toolbar or use command =

3 and 4.I don't know sorry

5. under the mouse tab in system prefs turn up the mouse tracking speed.

Thank you for the help.
Realy appreciated.

Sachsr1 said:

5. under the mouse tab in system prefs turn up the mouse tracking speed.

Click to expand...

I meant to say that I did already, but the problem isn't the speed, but rather the fact that, when you move the mouse slowly, the cursor moves TOO slowly in comparison to average movement speed.

When I move the mouse fast, it's fine. When I move the mouse slow, it goes REALLY slow (compared to mousing on Windows.) I imagine a long-time Mac user will be used to it, but is there a way to emulate Windows mousing? I'm a Windows user, and will be doing all my work on PC for years to come, so I don't want to be using 2 different computers with 2 different mouse settings, if you know what I mean. My mom will probably eventually get used to it, but I won't, because I use PC's 10+ hours a day.

For the mouse-speed, you may want to try another mouse with a different DPI. I hooked up a Dell mouse to my son's iMac (after the scroll ball refused to scroll down) and the mouse arrow simply FLEW around the screen. I don't know the technical differences between the Apple mouse and the Dell mouse but the movement on the screen was profoundly different.

It might be worth a try if you have another USB mouse lying around somewhere.

--

Hmm, thanks, I'll try that.

Down to 2 questions:

3: How do you turn off screen font smoothing (certain characters look blurry, and small text is generally unclear, like on a CRT)? Adjusting it in Preferences doesn't change anything. Do you have to reboot or something to see the changes?

4: Why does lowering the screen resolution blur everything up? Is this because the screen is LCD or whatever?

Dario D. said:

1: The right-click is very iffy. Is this normal? When I try to right-click, it usually left-clicks unless I press the far, far top-right corner.

Click to expand...

I believe that the Mighty Mouse has 2 sensors where your two fingers rest on the mouse.

And if the left sensor detects that your finger is touching it (even if you're not pressing down), it will act as a left click.

One solution is basically to take the index finger slightly off the mouse during the right click.

That's mainly why I stopped using the Mighty Mouse and switched back to a regular mouse; I'm simply too used to keeping my left finger on the mouse when I right-click.

Dario D. said:

5: The mouse movement is way too slow when moved slowly. Is there a way to set the acceleration more like Windows (like some program or something)? I tried increasing mouse speed, but it's still like that. Will another mouse behave differently? (this mouse has been nothing but problems)

Click to expand...

Actually, when I first started using Mac OS X, I noticed that too.

What I did was increase the speed beyond the maximum using the following trick.
Afterwards, I didn't "feel" the different mouse acceleration nearly as much.


from http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/macosxhints/2006/03/turbomice/index.php

Open Terminal:
/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app


If you have a mouse:
defaults write -g com.apple.mouse.scaling (some number)

If you have a trackpad:
defaults write -g com.apple.trackpad.scaling (some number)

The (some number) at the end of each of the above lines must be replaced by, well, an actual number indicating the speed you'd like to use—the higher the number, the faster the tracking will be.

As a starting point, the default value for maximum mouse speed is 3.0, and maximum trackpad speed is 1.5. So you might try a starting value of 5.0 for your turbo-charged mouse, and 2.5 or 3.0 for a turbo-charged trackpad.

The easiest way to make your changes take effect is to log out and then log in again (Apple menu: Log Out user name). Upon login, you should have a more responsive input device. Just take it a bit easy with the increases, as you may find super-fast speeds unusable. Also note that if you ever happen to move the speed slider on the Keyboard & Mouse System Preferences panel again, you’ll override your turbo settings. Just repeat the above Terminal command to reset it.


I believe I set it to around 4.0. You can try to play around with it and see how it "feels" at different speeds.

Thanks a lot for the help. I'll try that.

I'll answer your LCD question. LCD screens have something called a native resolution, and it is at this resolution that they display the best. When changing to a different resolution, the result is either poorer image quality (i.e. blurry) or parts of the screen simply not being visible.

The reason for this is because the native resolution is also the physical dimension of the pixels in the display. Whereas in a CRT resolutions are easily changed, it's much more difficult for LCDs.

Ah, ok, thanks.

I realized that Font Smoothing was the problem (and I dont know how to turn it off - the settings dont take effect), and not resolution, because when I use Microsoft's Remote Desktop app to connect to my PC, the fonts are crystal-clear and sharp. It's not smoothed and blurred.

That's what I'm doing right now; I'm using my PC on the Mac, connected via Remote Desktop. One word: Widescreeeeeeen!

Okay, last question!

3: How do you turn off screen font smoothing? Turning it to "Light" in the preferences doesn't change anything (and there is no "off" setting), nor does rebooting after making that change. Can anyone else verify this? Am I doing something wrong?

TinkerTool gives you more control over Font Smoothing.

Oh, there is one last thing: I think your Macs will feel faster if you turn smoothing off altogether, or limit it to bigger font sizes (I have it set to 18 point and up). It's not as slick and pretty-looking, but it's mostly easier on the eyes, and usually faster by a noticeable amount.

Click to expand...

The above comes from here.

Hmm, thanks. I downloaded it, but couldn't find font smoothing anywhere in the app. Do you know where it is? Thanks again. Seems really nice.

Dario D. said:

Hmm, thanks. I downloaded it, but couldn't find font smoothing anywhere in the app. Do you know where it is? Thanks again. Seems really nice.

Click to expand...

This version requires at least Mac OS 10.2 to be installed on your Mac.

Hmm... it I checked, and the version of should be at least that version. (The Mac is BRAND new. I don't remember the exact version numbers... I'm on my PC now).
Did I maybe get the wrong version of TinkerTool? I think I downloaded 1.7, via that link you gave me, but there is certainly no Font Smoothing tab.