A quick summary of my problems. Read this if you're a new switcher!

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Issue 1: No right-click on mouse.

Not a big problem, but I didn't even know that the wireless mighty mouse actually could right-click. You can change it under System Preferences/Mouse and Keyboard. Set the right-click to secondary button.

Issue 2: Programs I would download and open would disappear every time I would reboot.

Be sure to put your programs in the applications folder in finder.

Issue 3: Could not connect to router with WEP key enabled.

The problem here was really a difference in Windows and Mac terminology. It will come up with "WEP Password" - but that doesn't mean the same thing as WEP key. To input a standard 64-bit WEP key you have to change the WEP Password selection to WEP 40/128-bit Hex.


Just a few tips I thought I'd share with my fellow converts...
 

eric


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maybe we can turn this into a good sticky... (rep added)


in addition to the right click - on notebook models you can set right-click as a two-finger-tap.

you could edit 2:

from: Be sure to put your programs in the applications folder in finder.

to: Make sure to move the file from the window opened when clicking on the dmg file to your applications folder. Then rememeber to dismount the dmg file in a finder window by "ejecting" it.

also:

Issue 4: i quit an app, but i think it's still running?

clicking the "x" on an apps window does not quit most apps. you need to quit an app from the menu bar or from the dock.
 
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this thread is very good (rep added aswell to both above posters)

This thread should be a sticky

Issue 5: When i click the maximize button in Safari it doesn't cover the entire screen.
Safari doesn't cover the whole screen, it just goes as wide as needed to get the entire horizontal size of the site in the window. If the site is as wide as your screen then Safari will cover your screen

Issue 6: How do i do disk repairs?
to do disk repairs, open finder>applications and go to utilities and open "Disk Utility". Click on your hardrive, you can varify permissions, and verify disk.

Issue 7: How do i change the looks of my system?
The most popular way to change your "themes" would be with Shapeshifter. You then can go to many different sites to download these themes and icon kits. You can alsoi use the program "Candybar" for your icons.

Issue 8: I can't connect to my home network of PC computers.
Go to your System prefrences, and under internet and network click on the sharing pane. Then make sure windows sharing is enabled (if someone else has a more detailed answer the this issue please add)

Issue 10: how do i take screen captures in OS X
To take a screen capture you can use apple+shift+3 for full screen, and apple+shift+4 for you to choose the area. and apple+shift+space+4 allows you to just take a snapshot of a certain program.

Issue 18: My Microphone Does not work with my mac mini?
The Line in port on the mac mini is not powered(i dont know if the other apple line of computers are), so any microphone you plug in will have to be powered or you have to get an adapter like iMic.

Issue 19: I inserted a disk into the slot drive and the computer didnt recognize it, how do i get the cd/dvd out of the drive?
To get the cd out of the drive, turn off your computer. When you turn it back on, hold down the mouse button, This will eject the cd.
 

eric


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here's another...

issue 9: i have an external disk (an existing one, or one i ripped from my last windows machine), and i can see it when i mount it, but all i can do is view/read the files. i can't write to the drive at all. what's going on?


the drive is most likely formatted NTFS. if you want to ensure cross platform functionality of the drive, format FAT32. though this does have file size limitations (4G max file size) it will ensure that you will be able to create, modify, execute, and delete files while mounted to mac and windows OS.
 
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(rep for all)

Issue 11: I can't play WMV files!

Download Flip4Mac from, believe it or not, Microsoft.

Issue 12: How do I alt-tab?

You can switch between open & hidden applications (switch from Word to Safari to Mail) by using apple+tab. To switch between windows of a particular application (switch from Mac-Forum.com in Safari to 9x19mm.com in Safari) by pressing apple-~.

Or, better yet, jut press F9, and Exposé will show you a mini-view of all your open windows; just click on one to bring it to the front.

Issue 13: I feel happy and giddy all the time. Also, I have too much free time because I didn't have to figure anything out when I installed my printer and mouse. What should I do?

Enjoy your Mac.

Issue 14: How do I uninstall software?

Just drag the program's icon from your Applications folder (or wherever it is) to the trash can. You usually don't have to run any kind of special "uninstall program" on the Mac because all of the program's components are self-contained in that icon.

Issue 15: How do I change the size of icons, size of icon text, background color/image of my windows, and/or the way files arrange themselves in my windows?

Ctrl+click (= right click, = two-finger tap on notebook trackpads) inside the window and choose Show View Options. Play to your heart's content. Note the top radio buttons which let you decide whether the changes you are making will be for "this window only" or global ("all windows").

To get your folders and files to organize themselves by type, click the "Keep arranged by" button and choose Kind.

Issue 16: How do I make my gif/jpg/png file icons appear as thumbnails?

Ctrl+click (= right click, = two-finger tap on notebook trackpads) inside the window and choose Show View Options. Click the box marked "Show icon preview" ... remember to choose whether you want it to be for this window only or for all windows.

Issue 17: How do I associate a particular file type/extension (like .doc) with a particular application (like Word)?

Pick a document of the file type (extension) you want to associate with a particular program.
Right-click->Get Info->Open With
choose the app
click Change All
 
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Just to add to point 14 above, that can still leave traces of the program in the library or in the cache, so I would recommend downloading an uninstaller such as appzapper, or appdelete from apples website for a free alternative
 
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great thread! i did click on it though expecting another one of those "my mac doesnt work like windows!" threads
-chris
 
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Agreed. Lots of good stuff for new switcher in here!
 
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in addition to the right click - on notebook models you can set right-click as a two-finger-tap.

I've found SideTrack to be invaluable on my MacBook, mostly for solving the right-click problem (assigned the lower-right corner of the touchpad to that function), but there are other useful features as well.

http://www.ragingmenace.com/software/sidetrack/
 
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Have you ever wanted to map network drives on login?

I have. My PC has much more HDD storage available than my Mini (750+GB compared to 80GB), so I use it as a Music/Movie/File server on my network (PC, laptop, and Mini). Unfortunately, I'm also lazy, and having to manually add my shares each time I logged in really was an annoyance. I like having the icons on the desktop readily available for me, one for Music, one for Movies, and one for Images. To make it even more critical to map things on login, I run iTunes almost constantly, and my Music library (40+GB) is on my PC. So, for the purposes of a basic tutorial, I'm going to teach you how to write a basic Automator script to map a network share from a Windows machine, including the Windows steps so you don't foul it up. Without any further ado, here we go.

Step 1: Prepare your Windows machine to share.

Navigate to the folder that you want to share, right click on that folder, select Properties. Click on the Sharing tab near the top. You will either have something similar to the image below, or you will have a warning asking you about setting up a network. Choose "enable file sharing."

windowssharingum3.jpg


From this pane you can also choose to allow network users to change my files. Depending on what you're sharing, you may or may not want to do this.

Step 2: Test your Windows share.

Now that you've shared your directory on your Windows machine, you want to test it before you automate it. Any problems should show up here, and it will certainly alleviate some headaches down the road.

Open up Macintosh HD from the desktop. Click on "Network" in the top left area of the Finder window. Next, select the folder that has the same name as your workgroup. Next select the computer that has the folder you want access to. At this point your screen should look something like this:

networkserversmr4.jpg


Next you will want to click the "Connect..." button seen in the previous image. This will bring up one of two boxes. If you haven't connected to a share before on that computer and clicked the Remember User Name/Password box, it will ask you to authenticate. This shouldn't be a problem. From my experience either your Windows machine username and password or "Guest" with no password works. Guest won't work if you've disabled the guest account in Windows. The other box you should see should look like this:

connecttoru5.jpg


The drop down menu lists the shares available on the machine you are trying to connect to. Choose which one you want, and write it down, you'll need this later.

Step 3: Writing your Automator script.

At this juncture you should already have an icon on your desktop showing the share you just connected to. In this step we are going to create a script in Automator to do all of this work for you. Open Automator and select Finder from the left pane.

selectfinderig8.jpg


Next, drag the "Get Specified Servers" from the second pane into the work area. Expand the "Get Specified Servers" that you put in the work area. Click on the + at the bottom left to add a server. You should now have a pane up that looks something like this:

chooseserverdz1.jpg


Near the top of this pane there should be a drop-down menu that says At:. Check that drop-down menu to see if the share you connected earlier is in there under "Recent Severs" - if it is, select it. If not, browse through as you did earlier to find your computer with the shares on it. Make sure that down at the bottom you have selected to show File Servers, as the default is Web Servers. Once you have found the computer you want to connect to, the address should show up in the Address bar. At this point you need to pull out that share name that I had you write down. In the example the computer address is smb://NUKEMM;BRANDON1 - the share name is Music, therefore the share address is smb://NUKEMM;BRANDON1/Music. The /Music is the share name. Now that you have selected your share, click Connect.

Step 4: Connecting the Share.

This step is really easy. Select "Connect to Servers" from the "Actions" pane and drag to the work area. The default selection under "URLs" is "Use results from the Previous Action." If that isn't checked, select it, and move on.

Step 5: Mounting the Share

This step is very easy, just like the last step. Select "Mount Disk Image" from the "Actions" pane and drag to the work area. Again, make sure "Use results from the previous action." is selected. Once that is accomplished, click the Run button (Play button) near the top-right. This is going to run your script and see if there are any problems. Any steps with problems will have a red circle next to them, all others will have a green circle. If you have no problems, save your workflow as an application, and put it somewhere that you can find it, you'll need it for the next step. If it does have problems, double check all of your steps and try again. Your finished project should look something like the following image:

finalprojectuw2.jpg


Step 6: Automating Automator

In this step we will automate your script by adding it to the Login Items options under your user preferences. For this, open your System Preferences, and select Accounts. Select Login Items From the middle-right section of the pane, and click the + button down at the bottom left to add an item. Find your app that you created in Automator, and select it, as seen below.

selectappzp5.jpg


Now that you've added our app to the list of Login Items, it's time to test this out. Assuming your app worked when run from Automator, all you need to do to test your app is log out and log back in. Once you've logged in you should have an icon on your desktop connecting you to the share you created.




Hopefully this works for someone besides myself. Any comments or suggestions can be sent to me via PM, and I can make changes as necessary. Good luck!
 

eric


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to append #2

once the dmg is open, you'll see one or more files in a new window.

drag the firefox icon to your applications folder.
you could also create a firefox folder in the applications folder to hold the app and/or any doco that was in the dmg also.

once the app is in your applications folder. you can "eject" the dmg from the top left pane in finder, then if you like trash the dmg file or archive it.

you can also drag the app from the app folder to your dock which will create a "shortcut" on the dock.
 
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this should deffantly(sp?) be a sticky
 
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Have you ever wanted to map network drives on login?

I have. My PC has much more HDD storage available than my Mini (750+GB compared to 80GB), so I use it as a Music/Movie/File server on my network (PC, laptop, and Mini). Unfortunately, I'm also lazy, and having to manually add my shares each time I logged in really was an annoyance. I like having the icons on the desktop readily available for me, one for Music, one for Movies, and one for Images. To make it even more critical to map things on login, I run iTunes almost constantly, and my Music library (40+GB) is on my PC. So, for the purposes of a basic tutorial, I'm going to teach you how to write a basic Automator script to map a network share from a Windows machine, including the Windows steps so you don't foul it up. Without any further ado, here we go.




Hopefully this works for someone besides myself. Any comments or suggestions can be sent to me via PM, and I can make changes as necessary. Good luck!
If I use this method, does it mean what I download into itunes on the pc will be on the itunes on the mac?
 
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Just lurking on this one, but great thread. Lots of good info. Thanks, everyone!
 
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Right click?

Issue 1: No right-click on mouse.

Not a big problem, but I didn't even know that the wireless mighty mouse actually could right-click. You can change it under System Preferences/Mouse and Keyboard. Set the right-click to secondary button.

I'm lost. When I go to Preferences I get four choices: general, labels, sidebar, and advanced. So how do I get my mouse to right click?

Forgive my utter stupidity, but my PC crashed and forced me to make nice with this G5 I bought on a whim. Now I feel like Dorothy. (I was upside down and backward, now I'm just dizzy and I can't find my dog. But I guess that's progress, right?)
 
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Issue # 1: No right click on mouse. I could not adjust to the Apple mouse, so I went out and purchased a Logitech G 7 which works perfectly.
This is an excellent thread--full of small tricks to help the new switcher!
 
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Why does Apple has the tap click on the trackpad and right click on the mighty mouse disabled anyway? I could never figure that out.
 
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Why does Apple has the tap click on the trackpad and right click on the mighty mouse disabled anyway? I could never figure that out.
Because by default, a Mac has no need for a "right-click". It is only available as a convenience, not a necessity.
 
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If I use this method, does it mean what I download into itunes on the pc will be on the itunes on the mac?

If you tell iTunes to include that directory, then I don't see why not. ('File' -> 'Add folder to Library...').

It may point out htat this is a netwrok drive and may not be available in the future, but I can't see why it won't work.
 

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