Thoughts from a Mac Noob

I got my first apple computer last Friday, and spent much of the weekend playing with it and loading software and data. I must say that for the most part I really enjoyed it and found it relatively intuitive and easy to use. I had never even touched a Mac before then.

I did have a couple of gotcha's that took some time to figure out.

I use software called Overdrive Media to download audiobooks from our library and then transfer them to my iPod. I downloaded and installed Overdrive and then proceeded to download my first book. The tag file that is downloaded from the library has a file type of .ODM, which was associated with OpenOffice which I had also downloaded, and it took some time to figure out why Overdrive wouldn't open the tag file and begin download of the book. I did find with a right click I was able to specific "Open With" and all was good.

Secondly, after copying a bunch of media files into iTunes from my Windows Home Server, I realized I had downloaded a few albums more than once, and then by mistake deleted both copies. No big deal, I figured just open the Trash Can and undelete on copy. Nope, turns out that files deleted by any program other than directly from Finder can't be undeleted. That seems really strange to me, but didn't cause a significant issue as I still had the original copy on my Home Server. This one really does seem weird to me and would hope that it gets changed in a future version.

I was very impressed with how easy it integrated into my network, with connection to my Windows Home Server, including Time Capsule automatic backups to the server and streaming access to the media files.

I'm going to see how long I can go before I find a need to use Parallels or boot camp to run any Windows programs.

D1ggex said:

Secondly, after copying a bunch of media files into iTunes from my Windows Home Server, I realized I had downloaded a few albums more than once, and then by mistake deleted both copies. No big deal, I figured just open the Trash Can and undelete on copy. Nope, turns out that files deleted by any program other than directly from Finder can't be undeleted. That seems really strange to me, but didn't cause a significant issue as I still had the original copy on my Home Server. This one really does seem weird to me and would hope that it gets changed in a future version.

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Uh… actually that's not true. Generally speaking, deleting any file from within an app will put the file in the Trash. When you copied your albums to iTunes, you may not have actually COPIED them… iTunes was most likely still reading them off your Home Server. This is controlled by a setting in iTunes to copy files to the iTunes Music folder.

I'm going to see how long I can go before I find a need to use Parallels or boot camp to run any Windows programs.

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If you need suggestions for something in particular, just holler. There's very little out there for Windows that doesn't have a competent Mac alternative.

lifeisabeach said:

Uh… actually that's not true. Generally speaking, deleting any file from within an app will put the file in the Trash. When you copied your albums to iTunes, you may not have actually COPIED them… iTunes was most likely still reading them off your Home Server. This is controlled by a setting in iTunes to copy files to the iTunes Music folder.



If you need suggestions for something in particular, just holler. There's very little out there for Windows that doesn't have a competent Mac alternative.

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I understand what you are saying, and I am the noob ... but the files were definitely on my Mac (I had viewed them with finder before I deleted them using itunes itself to help identify the duplicates), and they were in the Trash Can, but they did not have a "Put Back" option. The research I did indicated that if the files are deleted with any program other than finder, then the "Put Back" option is not available. Since I would have to manually copy the individual files over from the trash into the correct folders, I decided it was simpler to copy the entire folder again from my WHS. No harm no foul and I had my songs back.

I just thought it strange that the "Put Back" option isn't available when deleted by any other program.

Restore items from the Trash to their previous location on your Mac - OS X Daily

See the comment section for others who have come across this situation.

And thanks for the offer of support, I'm sure I will be posting questions as I fumble along.

The lack of a "Put Back" option doesn't mean you can't undelete anything. That option didn't even exist prior to Snow Leopard. You just have to drag it out of the Trash yourself and, well, put it back. A bit less convenient, granted, but by no means a lack of ability to "undelete" files, no matter how they got to the Trash. Hopefully the "Put Back" feature will get expanded on in 10.7.

lifeisabeach said:

The lack of a "Put Back" option doesn't mean you can't undelete anything. That option didn't even exist prior to Snow Leopard.

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Well, in OSX, sure. It existed before that, but was called "Put Away".

toMACsh said:

Well, in OSX, sure. It existed before that, but was called "Put Away".

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Ah yes, well I avoided the Mac like the plague until 10.2 piqued my curiosity. I never cared much for the "classic" Mac OS, though admittedly I'm largely unacquainted with details like that.

lifeisabeach said:

The lack of a "Put Back" option doesn't mean you can't undelete anything. That option didn't even exist prior to Snow Leopard. You just have to drag it out of the Trash yourself and, well, put it back. A bit less convenient, granted, but by no means a lack of ability to "undelete" files, no matter how they got to the Trash. Hopefully the "Put Back" feature will get expanded on in 10.7.

Click to expand...

Yes, I understand that I could drag and drop the individual files back to where they came from, I was just making a statement that I thought it was strange that the "Put Back" option wasn't available when the file was deleted by a program other than Finder. I decided that in my case it was easier for me to drag and drop one folder from the original WHS location to my new iTunes library than to drag and drop 12 individual files from the trash can.

I agree that I hope the feature gets expanded in 10.7