Old guy trying to learn Apple Mac Sierra.

Hello friends,

so my first thread has been closed down. That's alright - I probably asked too many questions!

Well it shut down, before I could thank Patrick, Jake, Rod and many other members for all of their help in advising me of the Apple way of doing things. I am still totally a beginner, as I'm still rather afraid of pressing the wrong button or the wrong function. Yesterday, I took a look at System Preferences. I made a couple of changes, I can't remember what but it was simple stuff.

So I've been on iTunes, and with the information you've provided, I managed to ADD Internet Radio stations to the left hand pane. I listened to a couple of stations and I'm happy. I'm also blown away at the wonderful sound of the Mac's built in speakers - wow! I haven't put a CD or DVD into the superdrive yet, that's for another day.

I still haven't begun using or trying to understand Bookmarks. Let me explain, I couldn't figure out how to use bookmarks on Google Chrome. Yet I could easily use Favourites on Internet Explorer.



Frank.

Hi Frank:

Your other thread got too long and wandered over too many topics. Very hard to keep up with.

OK, so tell us which browser you're currently using all the time, Chrome? Safari? Both handle bookmarks a bit differently and neither one is like Internet Explorer Favorites.

Chrome has a built in Bookmark Manager which is easy to use. It allows you to add, remove, rename, and move bookmarks around as you desire. Whereas Safari has a sidebar that can be opened to show the bookmark hierarchy order. You can do the same things from the Safari sidebar as you can using the Chrome bookmark manager.

Bookmarks on Chrome operates much the same as Favourites.

Click Bookmarks on the Toolbar, then Bookmarks manager > choose from drop down menu (three dots on top right). You can make folders and drag your bookmarks in and also import bookmarks/favourites.

Hello chscag, Hello Sue,
ok, on my Mac, I use Safari, which I think is brilliant; I don't use Siri - don't need it. So on my PC, using Google Chrome, I simply could not understand Bookmarks! My PC is in a room 2 floors up, so no way am I importing favourites, I wouldn't know how.

So on my Mac, eventually, I would like to learn to use Bookmarks. Please understand, that I'm not very clever with computers, so not very productive. I still haven't connected my camera yet.


Frank.

On your Mac the camera is already connected so nothing to do there other than perhaps to adjust a setting or two in some programs. We can take care of that on an as need basis.

To export your bookmarks from the PC try the following:
1. On your PC insert a flash drive. It does not have to be a huge capacity one as bookmark files are usually not overly large.
2. Follow these directions. When you are asked where to save the file to choose your flash drive.
3. Once the computer is done writing the file eject the flash drive from the PC and insert it in the Mac.
4. Once the flash drive is plugged into the Mac open Safari on the Mac
5. From the File menu choose Import From Bookmarks HTML file and choose the file saved on your flash drive.

So on my Mac, eventually, I would like to learn to use Bookmarks.

Click to expand...

Try using Google web searches which can be your friend and it will probably show Apple's KB article:
https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/safari/use-bookmarks-ibrw1039/mac

and a lot more hits, and the illustrated tutorials I find the best.

Try this for a start:
https://www.google.ca/search?client...F-8&gfe_rd=cr&dcr=0&ei=egyKWvLyJMXe8AeD2YWYCQ




- Patrick
======

Hello friends,
thank you for your continued help, I really appreciate it. I'll have a look at the links tomorrow night, I'm out most of tomorrow.

Ok, first of all, I'm not going to transfer any info from my PC. My son has advised I can transfer my music from Windows Media Player, via a hard-drive; I do not wish to do that. I'd like to make new library of music onto iTunes, by putting CD's into the superdrive and start afresh.

In the same way, I'd like to learn the Mac's Bookmark system and start over with new content.

I couldn't use Google Bookmarks - I didn't find it easy. So since using Google Chrome, any websites I wanted to keep, I simply wrote into an address book, in alphabetical order! I told you I'm dumb!


Frank.

Frank, what, exactly, do you want to do? I'm confused by your last post.

1. The way to transfer from the CDs to into iTunes is by "ripping" the tracks from the CD to an electronic version. iTunes will prompt you for that when you have it running and put a CD in the drive. It will ask if you want to play or import the tunes. The exact prompt is "Would you like to import the CD "Title" into your iTunes Library?" Just click Yes and it's off and running. You'll see the progress on each track and once done, the tracks, in the album, will be stored in iTunes for you. Just eject the CD and do the next. The ripping process is pretty quick, much faster than playing the track.

2. There is no "Mac Bookmark system." There is a way to store bookmarks in Safari, if that is what you mean. It's dead simple. On the top bar of the Mac when you have Safari running and showing is the word "Bookmarks." Click that and a drop down menu opens with lots of options. If you want the bookmarks to show in a sidebar, click on View on that same top bar and "Show Bookmarks Sidebar" and it will appear. To Edit or delete bookmarks, use the Bookmark option and choose "Edit Bookmarks" to do whatever you want. To add a bookmark from a current webpage, click on Bookmarks and then Add Bookmark and it will be added to the list. If you have the bookmark bar or sidebar showing, you can also just drag the URL from the URL box to the sidebar or the bookmark bar if you have it showing and drop it there. It can't get much easier. But remember, it's not the Mac bookmark process, it's just Safari's process. If you use another browser you will have to figure out how THAT browser handles bookmarks.

So, if those two suggestions don't handle it, what is it that you are trying to accomplish?

It can't get much easier. But remember, it's not the Mac bookmark process, it's just Safari's process.

Click to expand...

Yeah right Jake!!! It can't get much easier. Except for a few facts that AFAIK, Safari STILL CAN'T EVEN SORT its saved Bookmarks ALPHABETICALLY. Gheese Apple!!! At least not easily or without third party help.

I have to agree with Frank that it should be a lot easier. It still annoys me the way its supposed to work. But maybe I'm a slow learner and 20+ years of Macing isn't long enough.




- Patrick
======

Why would you want to sort alphabetically? The URL of the site is immaterial and may be totally misleading. Think OWC and www.macsales.com. What sort order should it use? OWC? macsales? WWW? I think you went too far with that one, Patrick. Sorting bookmarks by alpha is totally useless.

Why would you want to sort alphabetically? The URL of the site is immaterial and may be totally misleading.

Click to expand...

Why you ask…??? Well, to sort them alphabetically to make them easier to find in an organized fashion is reason enough for me.

Maybe easier to see how and why in an image and to save long explanations:




I hope that makes sense.





- Patrick
======

Sorry, Patrick. Still not helpful, IMHO. *What* is the sort factor supposed to be? I see, for example, "Emoticons" but the icon there looks like the one for Wikipedia. So how is any software to sort that preference, assuming that really is a Wikipedia website? I would prefer it to sort to Wikipedia, as that is the main site. "Emoticons" is apparently the Wiki on emoticons. Nice sort, but not informative or consistent. Whatever you used to sort the names sorts to Emoticon for Wikipedia, but not to your name for Facebook, but I bet that is where you end up if you click that link. Similarly, the red maple leaf icon for "Hartland Forecast" is strange. When I search for "Hartland Forecast" I found a red maple icon at https://weather.gc.ca/city/pages/bc-59_metric_e-html . That result makes me think that again the URL has little to do with the name you've given the entry. So while you personally like the sort you have, it has little to do with the actual URL of the websites. I see the same issue in 1Password for passwords, where the sort is a bit too "literal" for me; it sorts all the pages with "www" to the bottom, where the "w" entries go, not to the rest of the name. So, for example, "www.hertz.com" sorts to the W area, not to the H. So alphabetic sorting of URLs is counter-intuitive. Now couple that counter-intuitiveness with the fact that if you just enter a few letters of the site you want into the URL address area Safari looks back to history and your bookmarks to try to find matches and all I have to do is type in "hert" and the Hertz website populates for me. So being able to sort alphabetically is both counter-intuitive and unnecessary, at least to me.

But, hey, if you are happy, that's good! Everybody gets to choose how they see things.

One of the things I did like about Chrome was that if you did a search for something you had previously searched for and saved (rather than trying to find it in Bookmarks) it would show up in suggestions with a star next to it indicating that you had already saved that site.
Indicating related sites for a subject that you have previously saved is an really easy way of finding sites where you may know the subject but can't remember what the site was called.

Hello Jake,
in my previous thread, I'm an old fool and still feel like one. The explanation you've provided above sounds very good. You have explained it a lot better than a link I looked at last night. I thank you very much.

What I would like to achieve with my Mac, is to eventually get used to Safari's bookmarks. I'd like to make a library of music, using my own CD's. Also I will one day connect my camera to the Mac and eventually store photos. Since the day I bought my Mac, this is what I'm hoping to accomplish. I'm not the most productive person on the planet!

Also I don't know how much I can achieve, before I move into my new home, which could be 3 months time. I've got a granddaughter who we see almost on a daily basis. As soon as she sees me on computer - she wants youtube.


Frank.

Hello Jake,
it is not my wish to disagree with Patrick. The truth is, Patrick is using a system that suits him, and that is all that matters.

Once I get around to using Bookmarks, I shall attempt to use a similar system to the one I used on favourites on Internet Explorer. On there, I grouped all my favourites under subject titles, e.g. Photography, Cookery, Music etc. That is what I would like to achieve.


Frank.

Frank, you can do that in Safari, using the Bookmarks function on the top bar. There you can create new bookmarks, new bookmark folders and edit existing. So you would create a new folder for Photography, for example, and then use the Add Bookmarks to add them, or drag and drop them from sites you visit. Inside the folders, you can drag and drop them to get them into whatever order you want them to use for display.

Hello Jake,
thank you for your above post. I think I understand.

Frank.

@ckristoff

I'd like to make a library of music, using my own CD's.

Click to expand...

Now if I could only recall the application name I used to use for just such a thing. It wasn't a bookmark thing, but you just dragged a mounted disk icon (CD/DVD/ even folder or drive volume) onto the app and it would create a list and database catalog of all the included items that could be shown like a Finder list etc.

I think it might have been DiskTracker https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/6221/disktracker but it might have been a PPC version but a newer version exists as well as some others using this particular search listed at:
https://www.macupdate.com/find/mac/cd catalog

Or maybe:
DiskCatalogMaker
https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/9043/diskcatalogmaker

There are more hits here:
https://www.google.ca/search?client...F-8&gfe_rd=cr&dcr=0&ei=mXKMWr-uMe7s8we00JuoBg




- Patrick
======

Thank you Patrick,
for your links above, but I think I'll use iTunes as it is. I have just imported a whole album of pop songs, so at long last I have got music on my Mac. I think I'll persevere with things as they are. I don't know how all my music pans out in future - it doesn't really matter.

Will I also be able to import DVD's onto my Mac? I've got some guitar and photo tutorial videos I may wish to load onto the Mac.



Frank.

Will I also be able to import DVD's onto my Mac? I've got some guitar and photo tutorial videos I may wish to load onto the Mac.

Click to expand...

Why not just give it a try???

I don't think you can break anything attempting to do so. You Mac may tell or suggest to you what you should do or at least tell you where to go!!!

Some old video format types do seem to get changed to something different or newer in my experience, or just nothing happens if it can't deal with them.




- Patrick
======