Yesterday was a good day for switching!

Hey guys, this is my first post in the forums after switching from a 15 year PC streak, and i have to say....so far so good.

I got a new macbook yesterday and can't keep my hands off it! I guess these first few weeks will have me looking for mac equivalent apps and getting used to the interface, but i'm already loving the fact that i'm now part of a much smaller shiney white community.

Anyway, i have two quick questions;

Firstly, i was an avid user of office back in my windows days (like last week), but don't have a life threatening need to find something similar for the mac so i'm willing to try new suites. Is there a dominant office like suite in the mac world? or are email clients, word processors etc things that are worth hand picking individually. I'd appreciate some guideance on great email clients etc, if indead there are any that better the ones that have come with my macbook!

Secondly....do macs do desktop shortcuts? lol (thats a serious questions btw)

Thanks in advance, Ben.

Yes, macs can have desktop short cuts, however generally you have your programs on your task bar at the bottom of the screen

For my email program i use mozilla thunderbird as im a hotmail & gmail user and it allowes me to recieve my emails

For a word processor, i use microsoft office as i dont want any complications when i take my work to school

However you can also try Iwork which retails around £55

Hope this helps

LostDog4 said:

Is there a dominant office like suite in the mac world?

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There are several alternatives to MS Office. Most of the Mac User here seems to prefer Neo Office.

LostDog4 said:

Secondly....do macs do desktop shortcuts? lol (thats a serious questions btw)

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If you want to have a Desktop sort cut to a file or a folder, just Right Click (Control + Click) on it and select "Make Alias". That will create a symbolic link, which you can place anywhere you like.

Welcome to M-F !

great!

Thanks guys, I'll take a look at office & Neo.

Alias...so simple lol.

Ben.

id like a little more insight to the LostDog4s mail question..the app that comes with the mb/mbp i think its called imail..im not sure, anyway is that like ms outlook? where i can check my hotmail from there?

I recommend Mac Office... whatever anyone says, you get the best compatibility with your PC counterparts and Entourage is a pretty powerful package which isn't matched by any other email/calendar combination. The ability to track email. appointments, tasks, documents and projects from a single screen is quite useful, if you work from your Mac.

Enjoy your new purchase!

LostDog4 said:

Secondly....do macs do desktop shortcuts? lol (thats a serious questions btw)

Thanks in advance, Ben.

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Forget desktop shortcuts, that's old hat(windows). If you need an application link you can drag it onto the dock at the bottom of your screen and for everything else I LOVE QuickSilver, it is incredibly fast, I can find anything on my computer in 5 keystrokes (including the 2 it takes to bring up the quick silver prompt)

I suggest you at least try it as it comes in very handy. You need to watch some of the demo vids they will show you the power of this program and it's different abilities.

Here is a link to a video of quicksilver in action
Here is a link to the description page for quicksilver

I recommend:

Office Suite

Microsoft Office for Mac 2004. Simply because it is a very good piece of software, and has some very unique features to Mac. It is a good choice for anyone, and the ONLY choice for university students.

NeoOffice is a good Open-Source alternative, but you have to explore the more advanced features to see whether it is better than MS Office. It is, of course, free of cost.

Apple's own iWork is great for publishing documents, making stuff look good. Not so great for making your own little text piles, but good for that flyer, business resumé, thesis paper etc.

Ever tried LaTex in the Mac package?

Mail

Apple Mail is very good, it's lean and feature-rich. Entourage, which ships as part of MS Office for Mac is also very nice, though it is very business oriented. It brings a slew of collaborative tools that are useful when working in an office environment.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Of course Macs support keyboard shortcuts. In fact, the most common shortcuts like copy, paste, cut, undo, find are the same as in Windows, excepting they use the Command Key (the button with the apple on it) instead of the Ctrl-Key. So Ctrl-C becomes Command-C .

You can find extensive lists through google, one good one I like is this one.

Jonnyfive said:

Forget desktop shortcuts, that's old hat(windows).]

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Aliases were on the Mac long before they were introduced into Windows. Old, maybe, but still useful. I don't have room for everything in my Dock, nor do I need everything to be there all the time.

OMG!! quicksilver is so awesome!!! how do you bring it up? it doesnt say so in the video that was linked

I would be careful with desktop shortcuts. When you keep items on the desktop, Finder treats each of them as a seperate finder window that is "open", thus potentially occupying quite a bit of memory if you have a lot of desktop icons. Make use of the dock and QuickSilver, friend.

indapino22 said:

OMG!! quicksilver is so awesome!!! how do you bring it up? it doesnt say so in the video that was linked

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by default the keystoke ctrl+space brings up quicksilver, its easily confusable with Apple+space (spotlight)

awesome..quicksilver is the first app im gonna download onto my mbp

I know this thread is old, but someone left me negative rep regarding my comment about keeping files stored on the desktop, claiming that the method does NOT occupy more resources. I quote from an esteemed writer and programmer at TUAW:

"it is NOT a good idea to store files or folders, especially if they are important, on the desktop! Update: I say this because of how system resources are allocated due to windowserver and icon memory usage. It can slow things down tremendously and lead to a less stable system."

Just an FYI.