10 Things Every New Mac Owner Should Know

[admin]

10 Things Every New Mac Owner Should Know
Tuesday November 29, 2005

Paul Stamatiou has compiled a list of 10 things every first time Mac owner, particularly Mac Mini owner, should know about their new computer and operating system. "This article should answer some burning questions, enlighten you about some features you did not know about OS X and just all around be helpful." Paul is going to write some articles for us from time to time. The articles will be geared towards new Mac users. We look forward to his next article. Now, on to the list!



http://www.123macmini.com/news/story/398.html

[cookie]

Good stuff! I had problems finding out how to force quit programs at first. I have one problem with the Keyboard shortcuts. Command-? doesn't seem to open Mac Help.
_________________
1.42 ghz Mac mini
1GB iPod shuffle

[TheModWiki.org]

make sure you're on the desktop... click it first
also check that you aren't just typing Commmand-/
It's Command-? so you have to type Command-Shift-/
_________________
Computational Media Major Student @ Georgia Tech
1.42 @ 1.5 Mac Mini, Wifi, BT
1GB PNY Optima DDR400
Maxtor 300GB Ext. FW
Pioneer DVR-K05 SD

www.PaulStamatiou.com , 9rules Network

[g5g5]

I think two important keyboard shortcuts were left off the list.

Command + Spacebar for Spotlight
Command + Shift + 3 for taking a screenshot.
_________________
1.25GHz Mac Mini / 1.8GHz iMac G5 / 2.0GHz C2D Mac mini (2009)
4GB iPod mini / 2G iPod shuffle / 16GB iPhone 3G
Apple TV 2
iLife's a Bitch!

[ifazha]

Mac minis ship with 512 MB of RAM, and they have for a while now.

[g5g5]

[nwduffer]

How can you leave out the king daddy of the commands, Command + Q = Quit Application?

Paul

[Martyn Ford]

Apple key = commands key

1. Know what your machine is doing under the hood
Install MenuMeters so you know when the computer is: thinking (processor usage) 100% and you could have null (looped process) thatr you need to kill, using the hard Disk (reading and writing), using more ram than you have (having less than 100mb of free ram can slow your computer down), and network activity (may lead you to installing Little Snitch to watch your applications for Spyware).

2. Backup Backup Backup
Install backup software like DejaVu to auto backup your digital life because hard drives fail.

3. Getting out of stick situations
Apple + Option + esc (escape) = Force quit an appliaction
Apple + . (thats full stop) = Stop application
Apple + q = Quit application
Hold down the Power button for under 10 seconds = shutdown
Hold mouse button down on startup to get CD drive open

4. Problems with starting up
Shift = Safe boot mode
Apple + Option + P + R = Reset values in memory
Apple + Option + O + F = Take you to a prompt
where you enter the following lines
reset-nvram [return]
reset-all [return]
Insert your number 1 boot cd into drive and run the following utlities from the pulldown menu (past the select language area)
- Reset Passwords
- Disk Utlitiy- Permission fix and disk repair

5. Flying round the desktop
Check your F10 to F13 keys
If you do not have an eject key on your keyboard try F12
Apple + Tab = Cycle through running applications
continue to hold the Apple key then press the Q and you can cycle and
quit appliactions
Apple + w = Close window
Hold option key down while dragging something creates dulicate
Apple + Shift + n = New folder (this also work when saving a file even when the new folder buton is not present)

6. Get some good 3 party guides
http://homepage.mac.com/rgriff/files/osxguide2.pdf
http://tangledhelix.com/osxguide/

7. Making a record of your settings
Taking pictures of the screen can allow you to save settings that
you may not remember what they are when you are restoring your machine. Like internet settings.

Much more sofisticated than Apple + Shift + 3

Apple + Shift + 4 = Crop and take picture of screen
Press space bar to toggle bewean lasso and auto crop window

Apple + Shift + Control + 4 = take picture of screen into clipboard

Have fun
Martyn Ford

[OGN]

Martyn Ford, your numbers 2, 4, and 7 are great advice for the new users.
_________________
2.4GHz MacBook Pro/4GB/320GB HD
2.26GHz Mac mini/4GB/500GB HD
16GB iPhone 3G
2 x 20" Apple Cinemas
http://www.hawaiimacnuts.org

[hangtown]

[picaman]

It's a good thread to revive

Here's a link to the Apple Cheat Sheet.

It's a good idea to fill this out and put it in a safe place...it's a good list of all the basic info you might need to give someone when calling AppleCare or whatever.

Jamie