Top 30 Mistakes made by new Mac users

Saw this over on Digg's front page and wanted to share :black:


1. Closing an application window, thinking it has quit.

2. Downloading an app and running it from the disk image.

3. Creating endless untitled folders

4. Using Safari's Google search to get to a website

5. Confusing the concept of wallpaper with screensaver

6. Double-clicking a window thinking it will maximise it, but instead sending it to the dock

7. Not understanding the usefulness of column view and leaving everything in icon view

8. Not using any keyboard shortcuts

9. Thinking that now they've got rid of Windows they won't have problems of _any_ sort on their Mac

10. Renaming desktop icons to random characters because they don't understand the difference between the enter and the return key on Mac. (Enter puts an icon into rename mode).

11. People trying to find the menus on a window, not realising they're always at the top of the screen

12. Trying to resize windows from the edge rather than the drag area on the corner

13. Trying to use the CTRL key rather than CMD key for shortcuts.

14. Thinking it'll be easy to get a stuck CD out.

15. Installing a program every time they want to run it because they think the installer _is_ the program.

16. Where's "the internet"? (looking for the Windows Internet Explorer "e" icon)

17. Repeatedly hitting the Apple key expecting the Apple menu to pop up (confused with Windows Key and Start Menu concept)

18. Thinking the green "+" button maximises a window to full screen (not realising that Apple's maximise philosophy is to only make a window as big as it needs to be to comfortably fit the width of content currently being displayed)

19. Looking in vain for an uninstaller app, because they don't realise that uninstalling an application on Mac is as easy as dragging the program icon into the trash.

20. Minimising windows all the time rather than using "hide", leaving the document section of the doc littered with forgotten minimised windows (that are quietly occupying system resources).

21. Double-clicking dock icons.

22. Inadvertant click-drags and removing programs from the dock in the process.

23. Saving everything to the desktop or somewhere on the hard drive other than their home folder

24. Trying to load documents or programs multiple times because they don't recognise the progress indicators (sound of hard drive grinding, CD spinning, Mac spinning beachball, browser status bar)

25. Not understanding that the dock is used to both launch and return to a program …

26. Inability to work with multiple documents on-screen at the same time, because they have only ever learned to use Windows' maximise mode which always makes everything full-screen

27. Confusing "delete" with "backspace" (because Apple has two keys named "delete" on the keyboard, one of which does forward delete and the other backward delete. Way to go, usability geniuses).

28. Expecting "home" and "end" keys to go the beginning and end of a line, rather than beginning and end of a document.

29. Not realising that when you copy a folder over an existing one, OS X -replaces- the destination folder rather than merging the contents, which is what Windows does.

30. Looking for the "complicated" way of doing everything. For example, trying to go into system preferences and right-clicking on the networking icon in order to find available wireless networks, rather than just clicking on the Airport icon in the menu bar and selecting the relevant wireless network.

So true! lol I know because I've done some of these..

Nicely done Kash!!!!!! Thanks for sharing it. ("Printed" a copy to PDF and saved it for future reference.)

Kash said:

1. Closing an application window, thinking it has quit.

20. Minimising windows all the time rather than using "hide", leaving the document section of the doc littered with forgotten minimised windows (that are quietly occupying system resources).

28. Expecting "home" and "end" keys to go the beginning and end of a line, rather than beginning and end of a document.

Click to expand...

20. Is "Hide" the same as just closing the window? If you hide a window, how do you get it back?

28. Ugh. So how do you jump to the beginning/end of a line then?

To hide a window, you press Command + H

To jump to the beginning/end of a line, I use Command + left/right arrow (this is on my Macbook where the keys also say Home and End, so not sure if it works the same on a desktop Mac)

Great, thanks!

Hide is quite useful. So in what sorts of cases would someone want to minimize, then?

I've done a few of thoose. You forgot "Moving or Renaming" your Home folder... I did that my very first Mac Day

Some people just prefer minimizing over hiding (that would be me ) Mainly so that you don't forget that you had a hidden window.

Also, there's really no need for me to hide windows as I use VirtueDesktops. So if I need an empty desktop, I can just switch over to one that doesn't have any programs running on it. I currently have 5 desktops (Actually had 4, but just found a need to add a 5th) and I couldn't imagine using my Macbook without it :black:

Kilted1 said:

I've done a few of thoose. You forgot "Moving or Renaming" your Home folder... I did that my very first Mac Day

Click to expand...

I think I remember that thread, or another like it. What happened when you did that?

Brown Study said:

I think I remember that thread, or another like it. What happened when you did that?

Click to expand...

It opened up a hole in the space-time continuum and sent him to an alternate dimension. j/k

Oh, by the way Kash, what is your account on digg! Mine is the same as here (Ninjab3ar). How long have you been digging?

Kash said:

Saw this over on Digg's front page and wanted to share :black:

2. Downloading an app and running it from the disk image.

9. Thinking that now they've got rid of Windows they won't have problems of _any_ sort on their Mac

Click to expand...

2. ? What's the solution ?

9. I think that's where a lot of rants come from. People with not a lot of computing experience get a mac after using a pc and get angry when things go wrong because "macs just work" and they don't have the patience to figure it out.

A lot of these are computing issues in general and can be applied to PCs as well as Apple computers. Of course, stuff like #2 can't be a problem in Windows, but other ones apply.

You're supposed to drag the program from inside the disk image to your Applications folder. THEN it is installed.

Ninjab3ar, my Digg username is kashk5. Not sure how long I've been using Digg, but it's been a while

28. Expecting "home" and "end" keys to go the beginning and end of a line, rather than beginning and end of a document.

I do this all the time

Brown Study said:

I think I remember that thread, or another like it. What happened when you did that?

Click to expand...

I dragged my Home folder to the dock . I don't know what happened next it was just like the Mac was brand new all my music and Photos were gone together with my Keychain.......Still I found it all again and vowed never to play around with it again.

Its a shame (ARE you reading this Steve) that Apple don't make it clearer at the time that your Home folder will have that Short name on the Home folder. I have read several threads along the lines of "I wish I'd have known this before I called it Apeface" or some such

DON'T touch your Home folder.

Ninjab3ar said:

It opened up a hole in the space-time continuum and sent him to an alternate dimension. j/k

Click to expand...

Thank the Lord for that. I thought this was my real life.... Now if only Steve would rush that Time Machine app

:flower:

They forgot...


31. Using a colossal collection of third-party apps in an effort to make Mac OS X look, run, and work like Windows.



:black:

D3v1L80Y said:

They forgot...


31. Using a colossal collection of third-party apps in an effort to make Mac OS X look, run, and work like Windows.



:black:

Click to expand...

OMG, that is so true! Especially trying to make Safari Maximize to full screen.

I have done most of those. I am learning though. I keep wanting to use
ctrl+shift+z in Photoshop but I can't.

Great list!

I would always forget to use the "apple" command key in place of windows ctrl key. Even now, sometimes I'll reflexively press "ctrl+alt+del" to close a program.

I do find that the OS X maximize annoying when using it with safari. It sucks hitting it and having the window get smaller when most of the sites you are browsing need a bigger window.