Newbie Tips

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Greetings to all! I'm the new guy on the block, having purchased my imac 20" this morning! After 15 plus years on a PC, I finally wanted to go over to the other side. I was tired of all of the virus, firewall, adware, etc issues.

I have to say, while some things are different, I am up and running already! Everything works! I will be learning as I go, but I'm looking forward to the journey.

I have to say that the purchase process was very pleasant. I bought it from the Apple store in Oakbrook IL. The young lady that helped me was incredibly patient and knowledgeable. I could see myself becoming a mac geek as I was enthralled with the store design and layout.

I am going to force myself to learn the new system. Any quick little tips that anyone would like to throw out would be much appreciated. I promise to scan the forums for answers or prior threads before asking inane questions here.

Thanks, and I'm glad to be here!
 
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At this point, the biggest favor you could do yourself would be to go out to the bookstore and buy the excellent book "Mac OS X Tiger Edition - The Missing Manual". You will be immensely more productive, more quickly, if you read even half of this book. I got it when I switched (only about 10 months ago) and it was a HUGE help. Strongly recommended.

...oh, and WELCOME!!!
 
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A big welcome to you Will1960! I hope you love this forum as much as I do and I can assure you it's the place to be for learning your new iMac. Everyone is great to help! Come back often and let us know how you're getting along with your new machine.
I just got my 20" iMac in December so I'm still on the learning curve, but it is such a pleasure to use and you'll find the curve is very slight. Enjoy!

Carol
 
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Will1960
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Thanks so much to all who responded so quickly. I spent the afternoon and evening on my new imac and already it is starting to make sense. Thanks also to mac57 as I was planning on buying a book or two for reference and you gave me a title to look for.

"This thing is awesome!"
 
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http://www.app4mac.com/rapidowrite.htmlI love my iMac, and I justed switched switched in Jan. I have pretty much kept my Mac's settings default, because I wanted to really try to learn the Mac way of doing things. I even play world of warcraft with a mighty mouse. In the last week I've really started playing with different free or demo softwares out there for the Mac QUICKSILVER is the greatest thing ever to happen to a computer:). I posted a few tutorials yesterday. Don't ask me to describe what it does, because it does everything:p I also found RAPIDO WRITE it lets you save text you type alot like web addresses or your contact info and when you type a shortcut you make up it changes the text to what you set up. Rapido only works in about 80% of apple programs, and there is textexpander works much better, but is $29 after a free 30 day trial.

Just a few things I've found with my new mac good luck
 
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Will1960
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I am planning on leaving the iMac in its "stock" config for the time being to learn the system. Once I get comfy, I will begin looking for add-ons and other programs. Thanks just the same for the suggestions. I will note them and keep them for a later date!

One thing I have found is that after 2-3 hours of wandering around my new machine, I was comfortable to the point of figuring a few things out on my own. When I first became immersed in the PC world, it took months before I could do what the Mac let me do in 2 hours.

I know this is very early in the game, but I'm so happy I made the switch!

"This thing is awesome"
 

bobtomay

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New toys are always so much fun.
 

cwa107


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Congrats - welcome to the family. You now know where to come if you need help, this is a great forum.
 
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Hi Will1960!!!!

Here's a link to your store:

http://www.apple.com/retail/oakbrook/week/20070225.html

Notice they have workshops throughout the week. They're free. My recommendation is, well, all of them. Go to the Getting Started one. You won't be disappointed. Also, since you're in the Chicago area, check other Apple stores for different workshops.

After two weeks with my MacBook, I attended a Getting Started workshop at a store by me. Sure, I knew some of the very basics, but I took three pages of notes (I don't typically take many notes).

Sample?

Go to a web page. Wanna save a picture? Point on it, click, and drag it to your desktop. The picture is yours. Try that in Windows. ^_^

These workshops are really useful. These people *want* you to have a good experience with your machine. How cool is that?

Welcome and enjoy, emphasis on the enjoy. These are powerful machines that can work hard. They're also loads of fun. Oh and the Mac-Forums is also a very good place to be.
 
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Will1960
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Thanks for the reply and info. I did see the workshops and plan on attending the "getting started" one.

The thing I noticed most about the store I visited was that the people working there were like me. At the risk of stereotyping, that's NOT the typical type of person working at a computer store. I felt instantly comfortable. Rather than just spewing numbers, specs, and the like, they asked what I want to do with the mac, and proceeded to show me exactly how I could go about doing it. I can't speak highly enough about the buying experience.

Thanks again, and I'm loving every minute of my learning curve!
 

eric


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welcome will, congrats, and i'm glad you're having a good experience!


also thanks RIDE for linking the switcher f.a.q.!
 

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