I'm going to take the plunge...but I have questions.

1. As far as Quicken goes, I heard the Mac version is lacking in features compared to the Windows version, because it was first designed for Windows, and just wasn't given the same development. If you rely on it heavily, then what I recommend is using a Parallels or Boot Camp setup that allows you to run Windows on your Mac as well, and just install the Windows version.

2. If you right click in your My Documents folder, you will see an option allowing you to arrange or sort your files, by type. Then all your photos will be in a neat little line, and you can create a new folder and drag them all into it. Then your pics will all be in one folder and you can sub-categorize them with folders however you want. I'd recommend dragging this entire folder into My Pictures, and then copying your entire My Picture folder to your Mac if you want everything on it. See #4 now.

3. Is your music in random places on your computer? If it is, find each and every music folder and drag it into the My Music folder. If not, then iTunes should have already organized it. See #4 now.

4. With iCloud, I wish I could help you, but I don't understand how it works. As far as time capsules, it is a great idea, but you can also back up your files on any external hard drive. I recommend buying an External hard drive (EHD) from Western Digital, they make great ones and they are sold in Target, on Amazon, Staples, really most computer retailers. 1 TB of space costs around $130, which is a ton of space for very little money. Unless you need more space than that, the smaller EHDs are cheaper. And most of them are smaller than a paperback book, very compact and easy to carry. These externals are very easy to use, and make file transfer a breeze. Basically, copy (drag) the entire music or photos folder to the EHD. Then copy (drag) the entire folder to its folder on the Mac. It's really that simple.

Jen I just switched myself you will love it.
I can't answer all these questions for you but I can about the capsule. The price made me think twice but after pricing a high end wifi router and 2tb hard drive it is about the same so I bought it and it works flawlessly together with my Imac.

Good Luck!

With iCloud, you would be able to back up any iOS device (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch). It will not, however, back up your Mac.

As other's have said, you will need an external hard drive for this. I have a Time Capsule, and it works great. The best part about it is that it will wirelessly back up your computer. If you were to buy just an external drive, you would need to remember to plug it into the computer in order to do the backup. With a Time Capsule, it's all automatic and you don't need to worry about it. If cost is an issue, take a look at the refurbished accessories page at Apple for some good deals. You can get a 1TB model for $209. That would more than suit your needs.

Thanks for all the feedback. I think I will try the Mac version of Quicken. I really don't want to run Windows, because to me, it defeats the purpose of switching to Mac! I never want to see Windows again. That, and I believe I use only the most basic of functions in Quicken. It's for personal use, not business.

I will definitely look into getting a time capsule, thanks for the tip about refurbished ones!

One last question. Will I have to download a lot of add-ins to be able to view videos (e.g, quicktime). I feel like with windows, I get pop-ups all the time for different add ons I need to download.

Thanks again!

Intuit did just commit to updating quicken for Lion.

Quicken

The problem is that Intuit is only going to "revamp" Quicken 2007 to be Lion compatible. In other words, they'll likely remove the PPC code and press on with the "junk" that Quicken 2007 is made of.

My advice to the OP: Find another program and transfer all your data over from Quicken Windows. Or, install Windows on your new Mac and continue to use the Windows version of Quicken.

tragerjs said:

One last question. Will I have to download a lot of add-ins to be able to view videos (e.g, quicktime). I feel like with windows, I get pop-ups all the time for different add ons I need to download.

Thanks again!

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I would suggest starting with Perian - The swiss-army knife of QuickTime® components and Windows Media Components for QuickTime - by Flip4Mac. With those you will be able to handle most of the common formats. You may also need Flash it has been a while since I set up a new machine so I don't remember if it is preinstalled.

chscag said:

The problem is that Intuit is only going to "revamp" Quicken 2007 to be Lion compatible. In other words, they'll likely remove the PPC code and press on with the "junk" that Quicken 2007 is made of.

Click to expand...

Actually, I'm told that the plan is more like "write Intel code to replicate the features Q2007 has that QE doesn't. Most of that wheel has already been invented, in other words.

The original Q2007 could never be ported to Intel, that was the whole reason they didn't do it years ago, I'm led to understand. Sort of like how it took Adobe WAAAAAY longer than it should have for them to (essentially) re-write Photoshop with its huge backlog of legacy code to run well on Intel machines.

tragerjs said:

1. I use Quicken Deluxe on my PC. I have finally gotten ahold of my finances and do a pretty decent job of keeping track. I have been informed that there is a Quicken Essentials for Mac. I have also learned there is a separate money software for mac. What do you all suggest?

Click to expand...

The "revamped" Quicken 2007 should be out before US tax time, it's probably worth taking a look at (read the early reviews, etc). A number of Quicken users have given up waiting for Intuit to treat them like equals and have jumped ship to either Moneydance or iBank. There's always some pain involved in learning a new program, but once that's done people seem to be happy with having done so.

Depending on whether you need the features that QE doesn't have compared to PC Quicken*, you could also go with QE. Or you have the option of running a Windows virtualizer (like Parallels or VirtualBox or VMWare Fusion) in order to continue running PC Quicken if you like. It's nice, having options ...

*the MAIN two features that QE lacks compared to PC Quicken are the ability to track investments, and the ability to pay bills online from within the program. If you don't use these features, then QE might work out well for you.

2. I have a lot of digital photos on my pc. I have no idea where they are, because it was so counter intuitive to how I would have organized my pictures. Can someone help me move my pictures, and then will the MBP make more sense to help me organize them? Because it looks like my camera just vomited pictures all over My Documents.

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LOL! On the Mac there are "smart folders" that can help find all files of a given type no matter where on the drive they located. I would have thought that Windows would have something like that by now, but maybe not. In any event, the new Mac will come with iPhoto which does a great job of managing and organizing pictures (there are other options, but iPhoto's actually pretty great at this). Excellent suggestion from Kaioshoryuken1 on how to get all your pictures together, that will probably also work well for your music.

As for iPhoto, pictures imported into it are automatically organized by EXIF time data (into Events) but can be shown in basically any way you wish -- the defaults are grouped by similar time (events), all of them in chronological order (Photos), grouped by people (Faces), or grouped by where they were taken (if that info is available, and the feature is called Places). All these are just re-organizations of the main library.

You can create Albums and within those albums sort photos manually or any other way you like.

3. Which brings me to Itunes. I need and love my itunes. Can someone help me bring all my music over from this poc laptop to my new, yet to be bought, mbp? And I think I'm about 3 updates behind in itunes.

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Now that I think about it, the PC Migration Assistant that comes with your Mac can probably do both this and perhaps the photos for you. If not, the guys at the store can do so, no problem.

4. My last question is about backing up my data. The Time Capsules seems great, but a little out of my price range? If I set up an ICloud account, will I be able to accomplish the same thing?

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A Time Capsule IS great, but it's not required for backups (and an iCloud account won't really be much help either). Time Machine, software, is included with your Mac and works with any external hard drive to automatically make and then update a backup. The TC is mainly aimed at people who want to do backups wirelessly from (perhaps) multiple computers along with a device that functions as wireless router as well.

One last question. Will I have to download a lot of add-ins to be able to view videos (e.g, quicktime). I feel like with windows, I get pop-ups all the time for different add ons I need to download.

Click to expand...

As others have said, you should only need to down exactly two (free) add-ons: Flip4Mac WMV Player and Perian. You may optionally want to also download and install the free VLC player as a complement to the QuickTime player. I'm not sure if Flash is pre-loaded on Macs anymore (Adobe keeps updating it so much and so often!), but you should probably download the latest release of that as well.

You guys have been great, thank you so much!! I think at this time I will get the Quicken Essentials for Mac, because I don't track my investments through Quicken Pro right now, and I definitely don't pay bills through it.

My plan is to get a time capsule, but that will have to wait until tax refund money comes in!

I also planning on getting the one-to-one support that the store offers. I think that will really help me, particularly switching all my music and photos over. I'm hoping they'll help me download the two programs I need to view videos as well. For $99, I will certainly get my money's worth of hand holding!

I'm hoping to get to the Apple store either this week or next, depending on my work schedule. I'm getting pretty excited!!! ;D

Thanks!

I spend every free minute I have on my new Mac still a lot to learn and you can find a lot of your answers here.
Enjoy your new Mac

1. Quicken was the main reason I installed Windows/Parallels on my iMac when I switched. Judging from chatter on forums, the Mac version was too light, especially for investments, and the alternatives used cloud servers and/or were also too lightweight. Aside from the initial cost of installing Windows and Parallels, it has definitely been worth it. With Parallels convergence on, it's like Windows Quicken is a Mac app.

2. No need to buy an expensive Time Capsule just for Time Machine. I understand any external hard drive can be dedicated to the task.

3. iTunes migration: some have good results with migration assistant. I did it manually with careful online study and planning ahead using these links:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1451
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660
http://www.macworld.com/article/146958/2010/03/move_itunes_windows_mac.html

4. Digital photos: i copied all my data including photos from my PC to an external hard drive, then plugged the hard drive into my iMac and copied the whole mess onto my new iMac's hard drive. Then I opened iPhoto on my iMac and let it import all the photos. I later upgraded to Aperture and imported them into Aperture because I wanted to use it instead of iPhoto. Took a while to understand how iPhoto and Apertutre photo libraries work, but it was slick and worth it.