The Mac Interface (or Where's my start menu?)
One of my on-line friends asked me how hard it was to switch to a Mac. She had a Job interview that required some Mac experience. I told her what I tell everyone. They hardest thing about learning any computer related thing is learning the terminology and where to find help. As a "switcher, the hard part for me, was learning my way around the GUI or graphic user interface. (My son pronounced it gooey and I always thought he was talking about sweet yummy food.)
While the "desktops" are similar, they do have slight variations in everyday use that does require some re-education for switchers. Plus it's a little harder to ask your best friend for help. They are probably still using Windows.
Here is a screen shot of my mac interface. It opens in a new window so you can place it side by side if you want
Menu Bars:
This
one took me the longest to get used to. In Windows, each program
usually has its own menu bar. On the Mac, there’s a single menu bar at
the top of the screen that changes, depending on which program you are
actively using. So if you are looking for the "File Edit View"
bar just look all the way up. It's still there. The
Preferences menu is located by clicking on the name of the Program
which is to the far left before the File menu instead of on it's
own "Title" bar.
Task Bar:
Windows XP Task Bar is
replaced on the Mac by the Dock. Unlike the Task Bar, which primarily
holds icons of open windows, the Mac Dock primarily holds icons of
programs you use most often. To place a program onto the Dock, you just
drag its icon there. To remove it, you just drag its icon off the Dock
and it disappears in a puff of animated smoke. It looks cool and
you don't get that annoying message telling you that you are just
deleting the shortcut (which Mac calls an alias) and not the program
each and every time.. Just like in Windows XP you can put the
dock on the left or right.
Start Menu:
There is
no Start Menu on a Mac. Don't look for it, you won't find it. When
windows 95 came out, I couldn't figure out what it was for, I wanted to
know where all my windows were at from 3.1. (See I am
old) Most of the start menu functions are divided between the
Dock and the Apple menu at the upper left of the Mac screen. If
you are looking for your other applications that you accessed from the
Start-> programs routine, they are in the Finder (more about
that later) in a folder called ---Wait for it---- Applications.
Control Panel:
The
Mac equivalent of the Windows Control Panel is called System
Preferences, and it can be launched from either the Dock or the Apple
menu. This is also where you can change the dock location.
I never could manage dragging my taskbar, except when I didn't
want to.
My Computer:
While
you will see an icon of a hard drive on your Mac Desktop, don't double
click on it. It is not the same as Windows My Computer. If you
want to see what's on your Mac use Finder.
It is Mac's Version of Windows explorer. The icon on the
dock looks like a square smiley face, that you have probably seen
before. In the finder windows you will see a sidebar on the left
listing the devices and drives connected to your Mac at the top.
You may see other things "mounted" there when you install
programs but that'sa subject for another day, Below that you will see
the Places section. You might see a house icon (similar to your
user folder in Windows and icons for your documents pictures music and
the previously mentioned Applications. You can open up multiple
finder windows if you want and view your files and folders as a list,
or icons or in column view. That's what most folks use I am
told. It is like using the folders view in windows for those who
like that.
Keyboard shortcuts:
I
can't get along with out these as my first grade computer classes will
tell you. The main commands, such as Ctrl-S for Save, Ctrl-P for
Print, and many others, are also available on the Mac. However, instead
of using the Control key, they use the Mac’s Command key, which bears
either a cloverlike symbol or an Apple logo. So, on the Mac, for
instance, Command-S is for Save. There is a control Key on the
mac Keyboard but it works more like a right click and usually will
bring up a context menu. So think command for commands you want
your Mac to do and control to open that right click menu.
You also can get a 2 button mouse if you really have to hang onto
that right click thing. (more later)
Quitting programs:
In
Windows, you can quit a program by clicking on the red “X” in a square
at the upper right corner of the window you’re using. But on the Mac,
if you click on the equivalent button — a red “X” in a circle in the
upper left corner — you are merely closing the window, not
quitting the program. To quit the program, you must either select Quit
from the leftmost menu or press the Command and “Q” keys together.
I really like this. I used to hit the wrong x a lot
when all I really wanted to do was close that document in Word or
a page but not my whole browser. If you look at your dock, the
icon will still be there until you aactually do QUIT the program.
If it a program that is normally always in your dock you will see
a light (in Leopard) or an arrow (in Tiger) under that programs icon.
Maximizing windows:
When
you click on the blue maximize button in Windows XP, the window you are
viewing occupies the whole screen, hiding everything underneath. In
Leopard, there is a green circle at the upper left with a plus
sign on it. This increases your small window to the size that is just
right to hold the contents of your window which isn’t always the whole
screen. You can resise it just like in windows by dragging the
lower right hand corner
Switching programs:
If you
used Alt +Tab in Windows XP, you can use Command + Tab on a
Mac This displays icons of each running program and allows you to
switch among them on both windows and Mac
The Mac also has
something called Expose, which shows every open window at once, in
miniature form, so you can navigate among them. You can start Expose
several ways, but the most common is to hit either the F9 key or the
special Expose key, depending on your Mac model. (Mine is the default
F3 Key, It has a box with several small boxes inside it to
resemble what you see on the screen.)
Right-clicking: Lots of people think you can't right click on a mac but they are wrong, the Mac has a right-click menu function, just like Windows. Most desktop Macs now come with a mouse that allows right-clicking, and you can use almost any two- button USB mouse with any modern Mac. If you are using a Mac laptop, which has only one button under the track pad, you can simulate a right-click by either holding down the Control key when you click, or by placing two fingers on the track pad while clicking. The latter technique, which I favor, must first be turned on in System Preferences. This may be just for Leopard. My Tiger hasn't done this for me, but I probably tinkered with it too much. :-)
Screen:
Your
desktop picture and screen saver on a Mac are set in System Preference
called Desktop & Screen Saver. Screen resolution is set in
the Displays System Preference. In Windows XP, all of these things are
included in the Display control panel. The icon for system
preference in the dock is a lightswitch on Tiger and Gears in a
box on Leopard. The Mac comes with much better pictures for your
wallpaper than XP does I think. I liked the ones in Win 98
better.
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Bouncing off the Wall.