Every semester more and more students and faculty return from break with shiny new Macs in place of their old PCs. Switching from a Mac to a PC involves much more than learning a new piece of hardware – there’s an entire new set of workflows, shortcut keys, application tricks and just general quirks to learn and know.
Apple’s resources
Apple provides several resources for Mac users on their website. So many resources in fact, that it can be difficult to know where to start. Here are a few to get you started:
- PC to Mac: the basics – this video is well worth the 5 minutes it’ll take to watch it. Covers the basics of the dock, switching between applications, managing and finding your files, etc.
- Apple’s Find Out How video series – Find out how to do all those crazy things that Mac users do, like minimizing all the windows on your desktop (just like the screenshot above – a feature called Exposé).
- Apple Pro Tips – when you’ve got the basics down, you’ll find solutions to problems you didn’t know you had by browsing the Apple Pro Tips. Want to convert images without using Photoshop? You can do that. Edit a Word doc without opening MS Office? Sure. How about the ability to print documents just by dragging files onto a printer icon? Yep – they show you how to do that too.
Blogs
Of course, Apple isn’t the only resource available to Mac users. Several blogs feature Mac hints, tips and tricks. Here are a few sites and posts which may prove useful:
- LifeHacker – A guide for switching to a Mac – a short post with some great information on shortcut keys, learning how to force an application to quit, and more.
- 10 Things Every Mac Owner Should Know – some basic Mac administrating information, including a quick answer to the ever-popular “how do I eject this DVD?” question.
- Mac OSX hints – For those a bit more comfortable with the basics, this blog provides a great place to search for advanced help and news on updates to Mac software.
Books
Sometimes you just want a manual. Even though Macs come complete with online support and built-in documentation, it won’t do you much good when the computer won’t turn on.
- David Pogue: Mac OS X Leopard: The Missing Manual – Love him or hate him, New York Times columnist Pogue‘s “Missing Manual” books are easily the most accessible books covering all things Mac. Pogue has a way of appealing to the “techy” and “non-techy” at the same time, and generally uncovers useful features or workflows buried deep in an OS.