Posted on 04/22/2008 7:47:01 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084
The MAC was supposed to be better than a PC.
Does anybody out there know how to use this thing?
Come on guys! Give this new Mac user some helpful advice.
The best I have ever heard is from one of those Mac geniuses, trying to help my sister, who switched after being an HP software engineer for 30 years...
He said that she should stop trying to “over-think” the interface. Switchers usually try to do that, and get themselves all tangled up, looking for overly-complicated ways to do what a Mac makes mindlessly simple.
Macs take care of all the nonsense in the background, so you can just use the Mac to do what you need it to do. Macs are based on the “KISS” principle, so the average user will not have to struggle.
This, by the way, infuriates the geeks, who desperately depend on average users for their daily bread.
Of course, if you aren’t an average user, you can do anything you want with a Mac, (the “un-average” users do not need to be told that, for they know how to use “terminal” and all that techno-geeky stuff, but beware someone who wants to suck you down that particular drain!)
Take a deep breath, friend. There is an easy way to do what used to be a royal “pita” on the PC, and enjoy discovering how easy the Mac makes it for you.
Spend some time with the tutorial that came with your Mac.
You should have a few free months of help if you get confuzzled. And, always remember, you just might be making it more complicated from years of PCs messing up your head.
If all else fails, click on the “help” button at the top of the screen, usually just found at the right end of whatever software program you are using. It is amazing how much info you can find there!
If you are using Firefox, select File, New Window then enter your new link.
If you are using Safari, select File, New Window then enter your new link.
You can press the key to the left of your space bar with the apple on it and the N key at the same time to open a new window, also.
In Firefox, you can select Firefox, Preferences, Tabs, then choose for new pages to be opened in a new window. (Then click on the red circle at the top left to close the “dialog box”
Does that help?
I have a wireless mouse, but you can get a link to open up in a new window if you move the mouse to the link, and press and hold down the right mouse button. By doing this, you should get a small window that opens up with the option to: open link in new window. While keeping the right button down, simply move the mouse over the option you want, then release the button.
Or, you can go to your Safari preferences and click on the General Icon. You should find the choice to Open Links from Applications, then choose the button that says “in a new window.”
That will probably be the first thing I learn in the class.
Where is this system preference thing?
If you freeze up (perish the thought) hold down the power button to reboot
Do not let it intimidate you...we all learned to use it.
Please post your questions if you have specific issues.
Thanks and remember we MAC users welcome new users. Congratulations on buying your new MAC.
Click on the blue apple at the top left of your screen. System Preferences is one of the choices listed there.
Look at the icons at the bottom of your screen. There should be one that has an apple on what looks like a light switch. If you run your mouse over them, the names should show up too. Once it’s open, click on Keyboard and Mouse.
“Let’s start with the basics. Treat me like the MAC retard that I am.
How do I click on a link and get it to open in a new window.
Is that too much to ask?”
If you’re going to request help, please be a bit more specific in what you’re asking for help with... such as, which application?
By “link”, I assume you’re using Safari, the Apple browser?
You have 2 choices:
1. Hold down the Control key while you click on the link, then select “Open in new window” from the contextual popup menu.
2. Right-click on the link - you will get the same contextual popup.
IMPORTANT: to get the “right click” to work, I believe you must first go to System Preferences, select “Keyboard and Mouse”, and set up the mouse so that the right button functions as a “right click”. I believe the “default” as shipped is for both the left and right buttons to be the same, that is, a “left-click”.
- John
Dude. You forgot to wear your Dolce & Gabbana man bag. Put it on now and vogue. That sucker will purr like a Lamborghini.
LOL, welcome to the other side of the hype. I was singularly unimpressed once I got my hands on one. Personally, I think it is a left brain, right brain kind of thing. Donning asbestos now ...
Well mine’s in Applications. But I might have put it there from Utilities. Can’t remember. When you find it drag its icon to the Applications Bar (which you can have at the bottom or the side of the screen) and a copy of its icon will always be there for ready access.
Follow the directions provided for activating the multi-button features on your mouse. Despite looking and feeling like a single button mouse, the Apple mouse that ships with your computer has multiple regions that register like a multiple button mouse. Putting pressure on any one of the regions will act like clicking a corresponding mouse button on a multi-button mouse.
To activate the multi-button mouse, visit the Apple Menu (Upper left hand corner of the screen in the menu bar. Looks like an Apple.). Now select System Preferences from the drop down menu. Find the Preferences for “Keyboard & Mouse.” It should appear in the second row of icons in the System Preferences window. You should be able to figure it out from here.
Once activated and configured to provide “Contextual Menus” when you right-click, right-clicking on a link will provide you with a contextual menu allowing you to do many things with the link, including opening the link in a new window, new tab, or to copy the link to the clipboard. Choose the action that best fits your need.
Another method, and one that I prefer, is to use the Command-click method. Hold down the Command-key on the keyboard and use the mouse to click on the desired link. The Command-key is directly to the left and right of the spacebar and is decorated with a funny looking flower/square and an Apple logo. It is also known as the Apple-key. Hold down this button while clicking on the link.
You can enable “Browser Tabs” in Safari by accessing the Safari menu in the menu bar and opening up the Preferences for Safari. Click on the “Tabs” preferences icon in the horizontal bar in the Safari Preferences window. Now you can configure the behavior of your tabs, and keep your browsing from cluttering up your display space with lots of windows.
Go buy yourself “Mac OS X, The Missing Manual” by David Pogue. Published by O’reilly. Or “The Robin Williams Mac OS X Book”. I have both and used to look at them all the time while I was figuring out Macs. I seldom look at them now.
Give the guy a break. He obviously is not all there.
Reformat the hard drive. Jeese!
What do you need to learn how to do? I can offer as much help as you need - it’s pretty simple actually...
Oh yeah, and then there’s the Control-click method that I forgot to mention.
On a Mac, holding down the Control key, located on the lowest row of keys on your keyboard, and simultaneously clicking on anything on your screen will do the same thing as a “right-click” on a PC or Mac that has a properly configured multi-button mouse. By that, I mean this will cause an contextual menu to appear with the appropriate menu options for the context of the object. That’s why they call it a contextual menu.
Enjoy.
This OS or that OS ... blah blah blah. I use Macs cause I no longer have to fool with spyware/adware and worry little about viruses. This is a big PLUS. Most windoz users don’t even know their machines are riddled with all sorts of malware and wonder why the stupid things are so slow.
There’s a good reason there are national radio computer shows making the careers of talk personalities who spend all their time helping poor Windoz users who can’t keep their machines running.
To open a link in a separate window, hold down the ‘ctrl’ key, and click on the link. You’ll get a drop-down menu, and from there you can select ‘open link in new window’. Although if you haven’t used tabbed browsing before, try ‘open link in new tab’, because using multiple tabs in one window is much easier than using multiple windows.
And, in general, holding down the ‘ctrl’ key while clicking is roughly the Mac equivalent of right-clicking.
Just be glad you don’t have new Windows PC with Vista. Then there wouldn’t be any help for you at all, because the thing is just flat out uncooperative. The more people learn about how it “works”, the more pissed off they get.
Coon, I love my Apple multi-button mouse, the one with the little nipple scroll wheel!
I do have to scrub that little nipple every once in awhile, usually using my shirt-tail, to get the crud off it, so it will keep on with it’s tiresome little scrolling duty...
Usually after gumming it up with sticky Buffalo Chicken Wing Sauce... (weren’t we told not to mouse with sticky greasy stuff on our fingers somewhere back in the eight grade?)
The Mighty Mouse has left-click, right-click, up-down, and across-wise scrolling, and a down click on the nipple to bring up “widgets”, unless you have gummed up the works with your snacks of choice.
It also has two other buttons on each side to squish, but I haven’t found the need for those yet. Do you have any ideas, suggestions?
P.S. I tried the wireless Mighty Mouse, and loved it. But, I kept dropping it on the floor. It seemed to get stuck to me, falling off at the first opportunity.
So, finally decided it was safer to use a wired mouse, since I seem to be a bit of an elderly clutz, who keeps dropping things after I have gotten them totally gummed up with sticky things, like muffins with yummy home-made elderberry jam.
Your milage might vary, of course. But I did keep our small business thriving for the past 40 years, just with Macs, from the earliest on through the latest. And, my architect husband depended on Macs every step of the way, my sticky fingers, 4 children, and all. You have no idea how many Millions of dollars our Macs have managed, supervised, and tracked... never mind the design drawings, specifications, etc...
Macs have totally helped us be financially successful. And, they have never “gone down” in a pinch. Mac software has bailed us out of many a potential financial challenge, too.
They have never failed us, and we still are using them to keep us actively employed, in our “retirement” years. This matters, because my husband now has Parkinson’s, and can no longer physically spend as much time on the job-site as he used to, but he can still work with his mind, and his trusty iMac keeps him in touch with clients, both personal and industrial, all over!
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