Eight (8) Noob questions

(and yes, I did search)

1). Downloaded Perian, flash, and Flip4Mac, do I still need to dwonload VLC? And if so, which one? Their site list 32/64 bits Intel Mac, 32 bit, 64 bit, and Power PC Mac. Confusing. What does this do for me? It seems I can already play most everything I'm running across.

2). How do I clean-up the downloads folder next to my trash? Its got Perian and Flip4Mac in it waiting to be installed...again. I already did it!

3). Speaking of Flash, Flip4Mac, and Perian; once I installed them, they're on my desktop. I have options to eject, but would that uninstall it? I just want to keep my Mac desktop clean. Dragging to the trash seemed like a bad idea.

4). When creating a 2nd account, it asks me if I want to turn on FileVault Protection. What is FileVault Protection? And if I select it, it asks if I'd like to use secure virtual memory? Confusing.

5). What is "preview" on my dock? Thats a bit vague.

6). Getting my bookmarks into Firefox was a PAIN! I had to export them from Internet explorer on my PC, copy the bookmark file over to my Mac. Import it into Safari (since Firefox wouldn't let me), and then import my bookmakrs from Safari into Firefox. Then I had to move them by hand so they didn't have that stupid "imported from Safari" menu choice; all that and I still have to go through each and every shortcut and remove the ".URL" off the end to make them look right. OY!! There must be an easier way (not that it matters since its done).

7). iMac: Let it sleep or shut it off at night?

8). I was pleasantly surprised (and impressed) that my 10-year old IDE hard drives, once plugged into an enclosure), mounted very easily and let me copy my photos over. Good job Mac! But (and this is stupid), if I wanted to rename a file, I can't figure out how. Maybe its because its still on the NTFS drive and not on on my Mac? I think I just answered my own question.

For starters sounds like you got far too much in the Dock. Icons in the Dock are only aliases, or shortcuts, to the applications themselves and dragging them off should vanish them in a puff of smoke. Flip4ac should appear in the bottom line of System preferences and VLXC under Applications.

You do not need the Downloads folder on the Dock. Click on 'Go' in the Menu Bar, Home and Downloads appears there. If you wish to empty the Downloads folder , go to Edit > Select All > Move to Trash and that cleans the folder.

Leave FileVault well and truly alone and why do you want a second account? Preview is an application for opening .pdf files. Igt appears on the Dock like everything else when it is open. Trust you are not closing applications by hitting the red window button? That closes the window only and not the application. Click on the Preview icon, ** to Menu Bar and hit the Quit button. That is the way to close everything.

Do what you wish with your iMac at night and do a search of the threads for that answer. You need to print Mac 101 from the search threads urgently!

http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/



This is not Windows thank goodness, and this is from one who uses both Windows and Macs daily.

1) Get 32/64 Intel Mac version - has to do with which processor is in your machine
2) Click the Downloads icon, at the top of the fan select "Open in Finder" - delete as you see fit.
5) Preview is Mac OS X's application for displaying images and Portable Document Format (PDF) documents. Preview (software) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
6) Firefox allows you to export your bookmarks as an HTML file. Firefox also allows you to import a HTML bookmarks file. It's painless.
7) Let it sleep.

Thanks! Two more:

9). The back of my iMac feels warm...granted I'm coming from a 20-year PC background, so this could be normal. Yes?

10). Why is it everytime I get back on my PC now, if feels so...caveman like? Not at all refined.

1. No, you don't need VLC. Some folks like having another media player.

2. answered above

3. right click and select 'eject' or drag the icons to the trash to eject them

4. Don't turn on File Vault.

5. Preview - that's your pdf reader primarily - so you don't have to download the Adobe Reader resource hog - it does a lot of other stuff - that what allows you to preview files and does a whole bunch of other stuff - open it, go through the menus - call it a discovery lesson.

6. too late since you already did it

7. whichever you want

8. Grab Paragon's NTFS for Mac OS X to write to NTFS volumes

9. Normal - sometimes it's going to get hot, not just warm - still normal

10. Personal taste????

Okay, I went ahead and downloaded VLC and already regretting it. The orange traffic cone won't leave my doc and there's a mounted "VLC-1.1.8 sitting up in the upper right. When I try to eject it, it says it can't because VLC is using it. WTH??

Because you opened VLC instead of installing it.

To install it, you need to drag that icon to your applications folder.
This is the way most apps are installed in OS X.
Many apps can be opened in OS X without even installing them, which is what you have done with VLC.

click the one in your dock - head to the menu bar - VLC - Quit VLC - then eject the one on the desktop.

It would appear you're not the type to go around randomly clicking on stuff or clicking on menus to see what's there and what all an app can do - I would strongly encourage you to click on that link harryb provided above and spend some time learning to use your Mac. You'd have a lot less frustrations.

click on the orange cone for VLC and when you see it in the menu bar at the top hit CMD Q to close it. If you want VLC on your Mac then open the Mounted VLC item on your desktop and copy it to the applications folder. then you can unmount the image from the screen.


To Late

Phacade said:

Okay, I went ahead and downloaded VLC and already regretting it. The orange traffic cone won't leave my doc and there's a mounted "VLC-1.1.8 sitting up in the upper right. When I try to eject it, it says it can't because VLC is using it. WTH??

Click to expand...

It sounds like you aren't properly installing your applications. When you mount the .dmg file, you need to take VLC and drag it into your applications folder:


Then you can eject the .dmg.

edit: Ramimac1 & bobtomay beat me there! Picture if you need it, I guess!

And download, print and read Mac 101 urgently from the link piosted in thread #2!

Did that! I'm just used to applications installing themselves...learning curve ya know. Thanks!

Pictures are always good Moss - I've just been gettin' lazy lately. ;D

bobtomay said:

Pictures are always good Moss - I've just been gettin' lazy lately. ;D

Click to expand...

Ah, it's just spring break. The learning curve is to be expected! If you've ever got any other questions, you know where to go!

(Mac-Forums!)

Since you're already in capable hands regarding your questions - I thought I'd chime in and say this post was such a disappointment after yesterday's. You set the bar too high with that one - Please try again.

I highly recommend going to the Find Out How like in my signature.

Just for the record -- apps purchased from the Mac App Store *are* self-installing. It's just non-App Store purchases that need to be manually moved.

This is another one of the reasons why Macs don't get viruses ... other than from a trusted source (ie, Apple), you have to CONSCIOUSLY "approve" an app's presence by moving it or authorizing with the admin password. It may seem like an extra step, but it's an ingenious way to ensure as much as possible that the user is aware of what they are doing.

Just to clarify a bit more...

When you download an application (program) on a Mac, you get a .dmg file to install it from whereas in Windows you'd get an .exe file. They both work the same way, more or less. You double click it to start the installation process, then when you're done with it, you throw it away. Both are containers for the program, and once the program is download you can toss out the containers.

Once you finish the installation process, the application is safely stored in your Applications folder.

You'll notice that the .dmg file looks like a mounted volume or external drive. Think of it that way... it's an external drive containing the program you want to install. What do you do when you're done with an external drive? You eject it, and that's exactly how you get rid of .dmg files. If you drag it from your desktop to where the trash normally is in the Dock, you'll see that instead there is an eject button.

Its just a matter of wrapping my brain around another way of doing things. Speaking of installing, just got up this morning and found my wife bought me Pixelmator for my birthday. Yeah!! She's the best.

In this case it's not too different. Just remember that you treat a .dmg file just like a Windows .exe file. Use it to install a program, then trash it.

Happy birthday, btw!

Yes, happy birthday. Cool wife too!