So, I got my new MacBook Pro today. Shiny, fresh…got that ‘new computer’ smell.
And I HATE it
This is the least intuitive, most fussy, arse-backward, complicated piece of over-priced tosh I have ever had the misfortune to waste my time with.
None of the keyboard shortcuts I’ve been using for the last decade work/the keys that do things are not where they’re supposed to be
None of the programs respond in ways I’m used to, and all the things I took for granted are missing, like task bars, menu bars
I’m downgraded to Office ’04, which sucks worse than Office ’08
Entourage has re-written the file structure of my email account on the server so I can’t use my email properly
The display & fonts are too small…no wonder y’all said get a monitor
What else… Nothing particular springs to mind, but I am most hacked off. I’ve wasted the last 6.5hrs trying to do stuff that should have taken an hour at most.
I know, I know, I’ll get used to it in time, be indoctrinated to the cult of Mac, I’m sure. I am feeling unusually hormonal for the last 48hrs too, so I’m sure that’s not helping.
Sod it. I’m going for a pint.
Oh yeah, Safari is crap too.
Don’t panic!
1. That thing at the top of your screen is just like the taskbar that is at the bottom of the screen in Windows. The other bar has the programs that are open, as well as whatever icon you drag on there from the applications folder.
2. In the top right hand corner is a magnifying glass, probably. (It’s there on my mac, but yours is newer, so I’m guessing.) It’s the search function, and it’s going to save your life. I use it to open programs that I don’t have in the menu bar.
3. When you have a ton of stuff open, try pressing F9 and see what happens. It’s awesome. (Press again to make it go back). Same with F11, but F9 is my favourite.
4. Get Firefox.
Ian, I’m about 6 weeks ahead of you on the MacBook (not Pro) learning curve and it gets way easier. Luckily I didn’t need to learn the new system for work, so I just tinkered away at home in my own time until it started to feel more natural. Now I find myself using Mac shortcuts on my work PC.
There are tons of great sites and forums out there that have been really useful to me – just Google (e.g. Googling Mac backspace delete solved one irritation – hit fn+delete to get a proper delete rather than a backspace. Note: do not hit ctrl+delete on a PC. Must. Break. Habit.)
Eva, what does the F9 do? (I don’t have MacTavish with me right now). Is that the one that scatters all open programmes outwards so you can see them all at once? My multi-touch keypad does that just by flicking four fingers upwards and outwards, it’s awesome.
Oh, and I installed Firefox after about two hours. I don’t know why I don’t like Safari, I just don’t.
I love you all very very much.
The delete issue nearly drove me to tears. I was trying to write a note to the publishers of a manuscript about some proof errors and I kept deleting the wrong thing. Everytime i’d re-trained my fingers i’d get a PC spasm and do it wrong…
Firefox tomorrow hells yeah!
And I must say after a Memphis Press sandwich (the local take on the popular Cuban Press) and a pint of
chilled urineAmerican beer, I feel more disposed towards playing with the Mac.See, you are getting over the hump already. All you needed was a pint.
It took me almost a month to like my Mac. Now I can’t live without it.
see.. instead of clr+c you use ’command’+c (commande is that button next to the space bar) and that works for the other clr+c/v/x/some other things you can do on a pc…..
see.. instead of clr+c you use ’command’+c (commande is that button next to the space bar) and that works for the other clr+c/v/x/some other things you can do on a pc…..then on my macbook it isn’t f9 but rather f3 but same same… they even have a little drawing on it.
see.. instead of clr+c you use ’command’+c (commande is that button next to the space bar) and that works for the other clr+c/v/x/some other things you can do on a pc…..then on my macbook it isn’t f9 but rather f3 but same same… they even have a little drawing on it.There are a tonne of things I still don’t knwo with my mac – but I do like it most days… The delete thing was what made me cry…. and I actually like safari, but that might be more of a likely thing to opera?
see.. instead of clr+c you use ’command’+c (commande is that button next to the space bar) and that works for the other clr+c/v/x/some other things you can do on a pc…..then on my macbook it isn’t f9 but rather f3 but same same… they even have a little drawing on it.There are a tonne of things I still don’t knwo with my mac – but I do like it most days… The delete thing was what made me cry…. and I actually like safari, but that might be more of a likely thing to opera?in any event, good luck!!
Oh balls, another Windows-using weenie has got himself a Mac. Dammit, stop polluting the water.
Don’t worry, Ian, it’s just culture shock. I’m an old Windows Weenie, but entranced as I was by my iPhone, I got a secondhand old-fashioned iMac a while back. It’s frustrating in many ways, and doesn’t quite replace the arsenal of Windows-based machinery that still infests every corner of the Maison Des Girrafes. However, I have seen the future, and it looks like this:
Hmmm…. I feel a tax loss in FY2009-2010 coming on.
When you have a ton of stuff open, try pressing F9 and see what happens.
Then try shift+F9 for the slo-mo version…
Mine seems ot have this thing called expose (accent? MT4 anybody?). THe function keys do all kinds of fun things, but the higher numerals appear to control
the universedestinymy carthe sound system…since my comment seemed to have been stalled (written on my mac nevertheless) …
f3 is the key you are looking for. F3.
HAHAH.
I know how they work, accents too, but I’m not telling.
Damn you Architect! Don’t make me read the damned textile manual!
You don’t need the textile manual, mate… it’s all there on your Mac keyboard.
Along with a pound of fresh snot. I think I’m allergic to the Mac…any one got a hankie?
I need to take your Mac away from you, then.
Ooooh…..the old double cross…I get it! Tsk… put a man amongst the shackle-draggers for a year and look what becomes of him…
I need to take your Mac away from you, then
I’m geographically closer, so I’ll take it off him. Been wanting another MacBook Pro anyway.
What…is this a conspiracy!
@ Ian: Did you notice that the reflective stickers on the backs of your local road and highway signs had been changed this morning? Those are directional markers to guide the big black helicopters that are landing on the university lawn, even as I type this from the paasenger seat of the lead chopper. You know what to do. Just hand over the new MacBook and there will be no trouble.
NO! NOOOOOOOOO!
I knew it! Jack Bauer was right! You’ll never take me alive pig!
Alive or dead, we don’t care. We just want the Mac back.
…no…wait…you’re supposed to bargain…
Jack’s into torture, not bargaining – which is for wimps.
Aw
! I hadn’t known about shift f3! Whoa…dude. Very cool. Entirely useless as far as I can make out but very cool. I want to use shift on other people now.
Henry’s right about the culture shock. I hadn’t thought of it — I got wooed to the overdesigned side by doing desktop support for iMacs and having the care & feeding of a couple of G4 servers. Despite myself, was impressed, but I had maybe two years’ worth of playing both sides before I bought an iBook.
Incidentally, if you want bigger fonts/images, make an OK sign on your touchpad, just index finger & thumb touching the pad, and then spread index & thumb, kind of like Tom Cruise looking for precriminals. Pinch them back together to make stuff smaller.
@maxine: i thought you were on my side…wait there are no sides… i see…you double cross me and i triple cross Grant…or…
@amy: i was sysadmin for a mac cluster back in ‘97 and i do <3 them. but i guess culture shock’s a beach huh?
There are no sides. We’re all in this together.
@Amy – Entirely useless as far as I can make out but very cool.
Of course, but “All art is useless,” as a wise man once said.
Amy> but it is soo useful when you have like a thousand windows open at the samer time and not minimized them. you know, like trying to write one thing while doing more stuff on the side…. ;)
I’m slowly falling in love. I have an external monitor hooked up so I have this webpage open on the laptop and my email on the monitor to my right. plus you can set up like limitless virtual desktops, so I’ve all got all my web build gear open elsewhere…plus a section for the word documents I’m playing with. If I have a bunch of stuff in one “space” i can access it all via F3, and I set up the “corners” so scrolling to extreme right does the same thing…
:)
There are no sides. We’re all in this together.
I’m not.
Although I must admit that Ian’s post immediately made me think of the WinXP to WinVista “upgrade” – especially the “fussy, arse-backward, complicated” bit.
Safari does suck, BTW – that much I have discovered.
Everyone dislikes Safari…. and I still use it. Come to think of it though, all my wierd double-triple comments that have been posted lately has been from my home computer with the safari webbrowser. Maybe I should change? To what? FF?
I love Safari. Especially the beta, and the Webkit nightly builds.
You would, you contrary sod
If you’re on Jack’s side, I’m on your side too, Ian – I do wish he’d stop with the torture, though. As Mr Obama et al. point out – it makes people tell you stuff, but is it the right stuff of which Tom Wolfe knew?
As for Macs – shrug, as rpg might write in another context (not this one because, er, he likes Macs, I gather).
Have a lovely weekend – possibly with some recorded eps of 24 to watch?
Lying under torture?! nonsense! best way to get information out of someone Look at the way postdocs are treated!
Rats, I was going to be sympathetic, but you switched sides by the time I got through the comments.
Shrug.
I feel that this point there should be a querulous inquiry about the direction of buses, but I really can’t be arsed.