New switcher - feeling awesome!! -- few questions

Hi guys... after reading everywhere on the internet about awesomeness of the Mac, I decided to experiment with one and now I have in hand my brand new Macbook 13"... I just love a lot of features.. the startup and shutdown times, fonts, beauty.. the list can go on and on... The best part is the "Faces" in iPhoto... it's simply brilliant!
I've got a couple of questions and hope I can get answers to them here...

1. I have Mac OS X 10.5.8 installed. I guess it's not the latest version. Should I upgrade? I hope upgrading won't slow my computer down.

2. When I download any file from the internet, I'm not able to save it in any location of my choice.. there's just a list of folder options given where I can save it.. Please help in this..

3. If more than one windows of an application are open eg. firefox... how do I switch between then. I'm not able to do that with cmd-tab.

Congratulations on your switch! To answer your questions:

1. You dont need to switch but doing so will not slow down your computer

2. If you are using Safari go to preferences, general tab, at the top you will see a "save downloaded files to" drop down menu where you can select your folder preference.

3. Apple + Tab will switch you between programs

Enjoy your new mac!

Ummm, the apple key and command key are one in the same. Should work though, is the command key the modifier key in keyboard preferences ?

To switch between windows of the same application you want Apple/Command Key + the ~ key (tilde).

EKim is correct on point 3, although newer Mac keyboards don't have an Apple symbol on the Command key anymore. So, if you're using Cmd+Tab, you are using the right key combination. Just be sure that it truly is the Cmd key that you're hitting and not Option, which is physically oriented near where the Alt key is on a typical PC keyboard. "Cmd", short for "Command" are the keys that flank the space bar on either side.

Alternatively, you can (and probably should get used to) using Expose, one of the best features of Mac OS X in my opinion.

Expose will show you all open windows simultaneously and allow you to easily switch between them. Conversely, it will also hide all windows. It is activated (by default) with the F3 key on newer Macs. I believe it's F8 on older Macs.

You can also set up Expose to do its functions when you drag your mouse to the corners of the screen. This is very convenient, IMO - I have it set to show all windows when I drag to the upper-left, and hide all windows when I drag to the upper right. Very handy for quick task switching and much smoother than Command+Tab.

Interesting that you mentioned Snow Leopard (10.6), because it expands quite a bit on Expose, allowing you to invoke it from the Dock. It also enhances the switching experience graphically in some ways. 10.6 is well worth the $29 asking price, IMO... although you might want to wait for it to mature a bit since it's only been out for a month or so.

I personaly love the 3 finger swipe on the track pad for expose' it is so fast and smooth and can be set up in sys pref trackpad

clayneal said:

I personaly love the 3 finger swipe on the track pad for expose' it is so fast and smooth and can be set up in sys pref trackpad

Click to expand...

Hmmmm... on mine, that's 4 fingers.

If you are using File>Save to save something, look closely at the end of the "Save As" name field and you'll see a little blue square with a black triangle on it. Click on this and a drop down menu will appear with a full finder window where you can navigate to a specific location to save your file.

And yes, using Command+Tab (that's two keys: the Command and Tab keys, NOT the Command, plus sign and Tab keys) will let you switch between apps, as will a four-fingered swipe left or right across the Trackpad. (From the Apple menu in the top far left of your menu bar, go to System Preferences>Hardware>Trackpad to make sure all trackpad gestures are turned on.) Swiping four fingers down will activate Expose and all your app windows will fan out on the screen so you can choose whichever one you want. The F3 button activates Expose as well.

A four-fingered swipe up will show your desktop.

I can see why you, coming from Windows, would think upgrading would slow your computer down... actually though, this upgrade is supposed to speed your computer up... new technologies made to take advantage of the many processing cores inside, more support for 64 bit apps... good stuff.

Oops your right of course cwa107 ! It's been so long since I loaned mine out !

Thank you so much guys for your quick responses... I just came to know through your replies that there exists something like Expose.... it's too awesome man!! yo mac!!

and yeah, my windows background made me think that system wud slow down a bit on upgrade guess, this is what I have learned in these years
I'll probably learn Mac OS a bit and then once Leopard stabilizes, I'll upgrade to that.

You're on Leopard, you'll upgrade to Snow Leopard. For a new user, though, Snow Leopard is perfectly fine. It's only quirky if you're trying to do a bunch of new crap on it or poweruser type things. Since you just learned about exposé, I should enlighten you to spaces... multiple desktops with easy fast switching between them. You can set it up in the system prefs. The keyboard symbol ^ stands for the control key, and you can switch between spaces either by holding that key and flipping through the arrows, or go directly to a space by hitting control 1-X with X being the last space you have activated. You can also lock apps to open in a certain space (saves you from having to set the space every time) and to do that you just hit the plus in the empty box under spaces preferences, and from there it's pretty self explanitory.

psaxena said:

3. If more than one windows of an application are open eg. firefox... how do I switch between then. I'm not able to do that with cmd-tab.

Click to expand...

As said, use cmd+~ to switch windows within a program.

In Safari, there is a keyboard shortcut to go from one tab to the next instead of using mouse or trackpad.
cmd+shift+{ or } to go left or right through your several tabs. Not a huge time saver, but if you prefer keyboard to mouse or trackpad then you might like it.

And if u a keyboard type user and end up with heaps of apps open - Command Tab goes in one direction App to App with each tap of tab and command ~ goes in the opposite direction or nuther choice, just move the mouse cursor over App you want active.

As DarkestRitual pointed out, Spaces is well worth checking out.
I use it all the time and makes my work so much easier.
Space 1 = Logic
Space 2 = Audio interface and various system settings
Space 3 = Video Tutorials on Logic

Love it