First post from the Macbook!

So, it's arrived and is oh so sexy! The Macbook is spectacular; looks beautiful, graphics are spectacular, no Microsoft 'fatal errors' and jolly fast. There are downsides however. The main one being that currently neither Zoe nor I really know what we're doing. In the words of Zoe "How do you right click" and what's with all these funny keys eiher side of the spacebar, and why doesn't alt do what it should (or what Bill Gates says it should)!
For those that have made the transition I'd appreciate some tips, especially regarding how best to suscribe to RSS feeds. Thunderbird seems to be a good way to go???

Comments

[Pete]

Hi Phil,

I'm pleased you're happy to have receied your new "baby"... I don't have a Mac, but someone I knew did, until he got fed up of not knowing what he was doing so ebay'd it! I hope you have more perseverance than that as I hear they really are awesome machines!

Pete.

[Yaz]

you can right click by holding down the ctrl key and then clicking the mouse.
enjoy.

[paul]

Phil

You will never go back - I promise you. Even I can work these things!

[Mark Berry]

As far as I'm aware Macbooks have a 'seesaw' button i.e. right hand side is a right click... otherwise it's as Yaz said... ctrl... with the apple key acting like ctr on a PC (and a bit more!) when you hold down ctrl and move the mouse around you should get a little 'menu' symbol will will show you when you can right click... otherwise just try it (with the items on your Dock for example... by the way anything can be added to your dock by simply dragging the icon from the Applications folder... or removed by dragging from the Dock onto the Desktop.) Don't forget to look up to the top of the screen because unlike PC's the menu bar is also contextual... other tips... make use of Spotlight (top right) great tool for finding anything on your Mac... Don't forget it is dual screen... so you can drag from one screen to the other or use dual screen on Powerpoint etc. Do this by going to Display (screen symbol top right (ctrl/click) or through the System Preferences box) and turning 'mirroring' off when a projector/screen/TV is connected... Get a .Mac account and then you get online back-up and an iChat account... Play with Widgets - there are tons to download (go to the Apple site)!... er... try Expose - allows you to see individual windows all at once or shove all aside... and play with anything (Garage band is cool, and easy to use) have a look around the application/utilities folders (e.g. I have 'Image Capture' 'Grab' and 'Digital colour meter' on my Dock for ease of use when doing Graphics...

Essential software - Mac The Ripper and FFmpegX for DVD ripping and movie conversion,
Cyberduck for ftp and Stuffit expander and Drop-stuff (compresser)

As for Newsreaders... try Flock - it does everything (Browser, reader, Flickr reader and updater, Blog posting etc.)! And it's free (its based on the Firefox engine and is open source)

[Ruthe]

oooh i learnt some stuff there!
the apple button is handy for shortcuts and stuff ( apple and Q is the one I use most to quit programmes quick) thunderbird and firefox are great and i ten to use the firefox bookmark toolbar for RSS, widgets are great, as are 'hot corners' (in preferences) .mac accounts were £70 last time i looked and not all there cracked up to be unless your going to use it loads. A brilliant freebie is ADIUM which means you can have all you messenger programmes/contacts on the one list (and some fancy skins n stuff).
Bet your head is spinning! it's a little disorientating at first but worth it, once you get into it you'll never go back! :)

[Phil]

cheers peeps, three days down and all is going well. berry, thanks for the newsreader advice, Flock looks great!

[katie]

am soaking up all information I can get at the moment as our purchase is imminenet - we're excited (very) but a little anxious we won't have a clue what we're doing!