Difficulty of a new user in getting used to Mac

If you are unwilling to take the time to get to know OSX then I really don't know what you were thinking getting a Mac. I can tell you this: the learning curve is 1/2 of what it is with XP, and yes, I use XP 40 hours a week at work so I know.

Put your MBP up on ebay. Macs hold their value much more so than PCs so you should get much of what you spent back.

You probably mean NTFS for the disk format. NTSC is the US television standard for analog TV. The NTFS filesystem of Windows is readable from Mac OS/X with the 10.4.x versions. Plug in the hard disk, wait a couple of seconds for it to appear on the desktop/in the finder, and then drag-and-drop the files.

Importing from Outlook is a pain (by design). Users were never intended to move to a different e-mail application after they moved to Outlook. However, since people ultimately switch whenever they can, there's tools to help. This page provides a description of how to import mail from Outlook into Mail.app: http://kb.wisc.edu/helpdesk/page.php?id=3059

PalmOne's Tungsten and Zire devices will sync with Tiger's iSync without additional software, but there is also a plugin to iSync that supports other Palm devices (like Treos): http://www.markspace.com/missingsync_palmos.php

Just about all the Motorola mobile phones sync fine using iSync (I don't know of any that don't). My Razr V3 and my wife's V551 sync like a charm.

Most of the Canon Pixma printers are supported directly by OS X -- just plug-in and go --, some of them (namely the multifunction ones) have additional drivers from Canon (come on the CD, and can be downloaded), and there's always third party drivers (like PrintFab) if you want them.

You rotate pictures in iPhoto by first selecting one or more pictures and then clicking on the icon with a little arrow and turning picture in the lower-left corner that is labeled "Rotate", or by pressing Command-R. (Command is the "Apple Key"). You crop a picture by double-clicking on it, drawing a box to indicate the portion of the photo you want to crop, and then clicking on the icon at the bottom of the window labelled "Crop".

Just ignore wellfleation. It's perfectly natural to have difficulty moving to a new environment, whether it be computers, places of employment, or housing. Some people just adapt more quickly than others.

There are several good books about using Macs that should make your transition easier. One I would highly recommend is Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition published by O'Reilly. David Pogue presents great tips in a light-hearted, humorous manner.

J D has also provided some good information.

TENTEN,

In many cases, you might be over-thinking things. For example, all you need to do is find the icon in iPhoto for rotating your pictures. Select an image in iPhoto, and you should see the "rotate" icon at the left of the toolbar, at the bottom of the window. You can even change the default direction of rotation in your preferences, and/or press the "Option" key to toggle it back and forth.

The same goes for any software for your accessories. iSync (built-in) might be able to handle your phone with no additional software (check the list of supported phones on the Apple website). Your printer should also be recognized (with a cursory look I can see support for over 100 Canon printers currently installed on my machine) without additional software.

The OS X version of the Palm software works wonderfully, but again, you might want to use iSync with your Palm device. This way, you could simply use the Address Book, iCal, etc. instead of the Palm Desktop software, and sync everything with your Palm.

Keep in mind that everything should be easier to accomplish on your Mac than it would be in Windows. After all, that's one of the reasons you switched. One key to finding this ease of use is to use your Mac not as you would a PC, but as a Mac is intended to be used.

I have been after my sister, who is a professional photographer, to "go Mac" for several years. Up to this point, she has resisted (after all, I'm just her stupid brother). About three weeks ago, she finally broke down and purchased a 24" iMac. After only one week, she admitted that the Mac has cut her turn-around time on photo shoots down to less than a week, from about six weeks. Your experience should be similar.

In fact, you might have done yourself harm by trying to do things the "PC way." You may have attempted to install software that conflicts with built-in support (your printer, for example), you may have attempted to install software that is incompatible with your current version of OS X, etc. In the process, if you have had to force shut-down your Mac, you might have damaged your installation of OS X (forced shut-downs cause disk errors, and disk errors damage system files).

If you continue to have trouble, you might need to format and reinstall. In addition to getting you on the right foot with a well-working OS, this would give you the opportunity to start over with your additional software, only installing what you really need, and using the built-in support where possible.

Scott

P.S. The "magic bullet" for transferring email from your PC is a bit of shareware software called "Outlook2Mac." Look for it on versiontracker.com It is well worth the money. -s

it can be hard to rewire your reflexes when a different OS is already second nature to you. maybe you did make the wrong choice for you personally in getting a mac, if you really never had a problem with the windows world and could do everything you needed to do. but I will say that most people that try using a different platform machine to the one they're used to usually remain quite frustrated for quite some time at the start, and that's where the 'macs are just rubbish' or 'windows is just a mess and illogical' knee-jerk reaction you often hear comes from. it happens to me all the time when I have been in situations where I need to work on an XP machine, it just annoys me because it's not what I'm used to.

one thing is for sure though.. the mac OS and mac apps are certainly more consistent and well-designed from a user perspective than XP or even vista. so once you start learning the fundamentals of the mac, you are more rewarded as you go along because everything you learn builds on the same techniques and ideas in a far more structured way than in the windows world.

by then, you'll probably also start appreciating the attention to detail and functional elegance of OSX. a lot of people blindly talk about the mac as being a whole lot of pretty eye-candy, but that it doesn't do anything special that you can't do in windows. well, let me give you a small example of how this isn't the case:

exposé in mac OSX is the system used for allowing you to manage your access to the windows you have open on your desktop. by hitting a key, you get to see at a glance every single open window, and quickly locate the one you need up front. it also let's you move everything out of the way at the touch of one button, to give you clean access to the desktop.
windows vista has added a feature with a similar idea. it allows you to stack all of your windows into a visually impressive 3D stack, and scroll through them (I think by using the scrollwheel on your mouse) to find the one you're looking for.
now, a lot of windows people criticise exposé as being yet another example of pretty mac eye-candy, the way it zooms your windows in and out in realtime and let's you see them in miniature, even with videos continuing to play live if any are open. but.. the thing about the mac approach, is that by using a visual means to implement this feature, it makes use of it by _adding functionality_. by the way exposé works, you can actually see what you are looking for instantly, and dive into it right away. but the vista equivalent of this feature doesn't actually give you any more functionality _at all_ than what you already had with alt-tab. you can't see what window you want because they're all stacked on top of each other, even though they may look pretty and high-tech in that 3D card stack. but all it is, is a fancied-up implementation of the very same function you already had, with a 3D visual design that doesn't help you in any way except to look impressive. this is the very definition of eye-candy!

it's this sort of thing that you start appreciating more and more as you get to know macs. the fact that there is a difference between good design being implemented thoughtfully and logically, and just spruced-up colourful interfaces that may look modern, but don't actually contribute to making your workflow better.

personally I believe it's worth the effort to push through and learn how to use the mac you bought. the rewards are there, you just have to take the time to get your head around it.

"When installing the OS version for the printer, the Mac hung! This was only less than a week after I bought the Mac and I was very disappointed at that time"

The Mac may have hung (more than likely a software issue than hardware) within less than one week. But think of the number of "critical Windows updates" you would have received and downloaded in that time... and more often than not these updates address exploits, malware, etc. that have been in the wild for more than "less than a week".

Hang in there and take time to get to know the Mac. I have to work on my wife's laptop from time to time when she's having trouble, and detest Windows now more than ever (not to mention the OSX rip-off that is Vista - WOW .. what a bad OS - LOL).

You will get the hang of it if you want to. Otherwise, without the desire, you might as well go back to the "dark side".

You will get the hang of it if you want to. Otherwise, without the desire, you
might as well go back to the "dark side".

actually I prefer to think of the mac world as the "dark side".. the design of everything is so much cooler and slicker, just like the empire in star wars.. vs the shabby bolted-together parts of all the rubbish space ships and equipment used by the rebel alliance, which all look like the nasty build it yourself PCs that some of my friends have.. even the control panels on the deathstar look like the multitouch pad on the iphone.. 🙂

we may be the dark side, but hey, in that case it's well cooler to be evil. 🙂

LOL .. You have good points there..

I was thinking more of viewing your "world" through dirty Windows.

Thanks for laugh!

As with many here it has been my experience that people switching from PC to Mac often make problems for themselves because they are looking for answers to problems which have no answer because they simply don't arise in the mac world.

So a switcher will get increasingly frustrated because no one seems to be able to answer what to them seems like a reasonable question. The classic example is your drivers for the printer... typical windows thinking is that you first need to install the drivers... WRONG! In mac first try WITHOUT drivers and THEN ONLY IF IT DOESN"T WORK install the third party drivers.

In other words a complete paradigm shift as the logic is turned somewhat on it's head. It does take a while to adjust but my experience is that everyone who persists eventually gets there and very few ever regret making the journey.

I started using a mac in 1994 after years of Dos and Windoze 3.1 **** so I guess I am an old timer now. However I do remember getting very wound up because there was no eject button on the mac floppy drive... and of course because it was "so obvious" to all mac users that you drag a disk to the trash to eject it... of course none of the manuals told you that! So I only found out by accident.

So you have my sympathy - but I would advise a bit more perseverance. Also buy a decent tutorial book like OSX for Dummies or what have you.... they are pretty essential reading in the early days. Maybe if after 12 months or so you don't get it then perhaps it will be time to think again... but for now hang on in there. It is definitely worth the effort.

[quote]In the process, if you have had to force shut-down your Mac, you might have damaged your installation of OS X (forced shut-downs cause disk errors, and disk errors damage system files).[/quote]DiskWarrior 4 will fix any of these issues btw.

wellfleation,

DiskWarrior 4 will fix any of these
issues btw.

Disk Warrior (or Disk Utility, for that matter) may repair the file system, but it will not fix any files damaged by a disk error. No disk repair utility can do that; only formatting and reinstalling can.

That's one reason why I am not a great supporter of disk repair utilities, and instead push people to backup, backup, backup. Disk repair utilities, and Disk Warrior specifically, are great tools in emergencies, when a disk error has occurred in the absence of a good, current backup. In such cases, they are very likely to repair the file system to a state where a proper backup can be made prior to formatting and reinstalling.

Once the utility has been used to make said backup, however, one should still format and reinstall, thus replacing the damaged files.

I'll use myself as a good example. As soon as I received my MBP, it was zeroed, and I then reinstalled OS X myself. I have been using it non-stop since then. About a month ago, I began having occassional, random problems with it, mostly little niggling things (dropping from the network, failure to sleep, apps freezing, slow performance, etc.). I finally decided to vet the file system with DU, and found I had a minor disk error. DU was able to successfully repair the error, but the problems remained.

Last week, I finally broke down and formatted, then reinstalled. It took about 2 hours, but I have been problem-free since. In fact, I now see much better render/encode times in DVD authoring, etc. (I wasn't dissatisfied with them before, mind you).

In short, even minor disk errors can damage critical system files, and there is no telling what far-flung and seemingly random problems will result. Successfully repairing the file system has no effect with these damaged files (once data is lost to an error, it cannot be magically "recovered").

Scott