Tips for Switchers

My brother, a recent Christmas day switcher, mentioned today that he “missed the image preview feature in Windows Explorer.” Of course, I shared this tip with him.

Assuming you have a folder full of images, say, downloaded from your digital camera:

1. Open a folder. Any folder.

2. Press the “apple-j” key command or select from the menu “View > Show View Options“. A dialogue box will open.


3. At the top, select the radio button for “This Window Only“.

4. Drag the “Icon Size” slider all the way to the right (128 x 128 pixels).

5. Select the checkbox that reads “Show Icon Preview“.
6. Select the checkbox that reads “Keep arranged by…“
7. From the drop down menu below that, select “Name“. (This is usually helpful, particularly since most digital cameras label files in some incremental alphanumeric naming convention.)

8. From the “Background” radio buttons at the bottom, be sure that “White” is selected.

9. Close the window and look at your open folder. You should see previews of all of your images.

Are you a Switcher with a question you want answered? Send us email to questions@tipsforswitchers.com or use our convenient contact form.

Technorati Tags: Finder, Desktop, Mac OS X, Macintosh, OS X, Apple, Tips, Tutorial, Software, Mac, John Federico, Switchers

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written by jf

Another typical Switcher question is “Where do I put my files? On Windows, I used to put everything in ‘My Documents’.”

Mac OS X is a bona fide unix operating system. This means that it adheres to many of the typical unix conventions, including the concept of the “Home Directory“.

It’s these unix underpinnings that also enable your Mac to be a true multi-user machine. Unless you’re the administrator, you don’t have access to anyone else’s Home Directory and they don’t have access to yours. But that’s another tip.

Finding Your Way Home

Double-click to open the “Macintosh HD” icon on your Desktop. Next, open the “Users” folder.

Within that should be a directory with your username on it. (Here’s mine.) This is your Home Directory.

In your Home Directory, you have a place for all your files. By default, it contains the following directories:

• Desktop


• Documents


• Library


• Movies


• Music


• Pictures


• Public


• Sites

Desktop

Your desktop, the place with the pretty picture and your hard drive on it, is actually a folder like any other in The Finder. This directory in your Home Directory is just another representation of it.

Documents

This is the primary directory for all your files. Consider this the equivalent of ‘My Documents” on Windows.

Library

This directory contains preferences, unix libraries and other supporting files. You really shouldn’t have any reason to muck around in here unless instructed by some Mac Geek.

Movies

By default, this is where iMovie stores your project files. If you use the Palm Desktop application, your Palm movies will also be stored in here. You can choose to store your random movie files here, or not. It’s up to you.

Music

This is a very important directory as its used by iTunes to store your music and your iTunes library. In general, you shouldn’t play around in here as you can manage everything from iTunes.

Pictures

This is the directory where your iPhoto Library is stored, but you can use it for all your photos. Once again, stay out of the iPhoto Library - you can manage everything in there through iPhoto.

Public

This is a very useful directory. Within this directory is another called “Drop Box.” It allows other people, either on the same machine or over a network to share files with you without having full access to your machine or Home Directory.

Sites

As a fully enabled Unix machine, you also have the ability to run a web server on your Mac. This directory is where you would store all your files and scripts.

Are you a Switcher with a question you want answered? Send us email to questions@tipsforswitchers.com or use our convenient contact form.

Technorati Tags: Macintosh, Mac OS X, Switchers, Apple, OS X, Software, John Federico, Unix, Mac, Desktop

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written by jf

To every Switcher whom I explain this, they respond, “That’s it?”
Unlike Windows, where applications litter your hard drive with all sorts of files, the Mac was designed to have its applications installed as “bundles”, essentially including everything the app needs to run in a single file.

For nearly all applications on the Mac, installing and uninstalling applications is as simple as a drag and drop action.

Let’s look at one:

Here’s an application that I’ve downloaded from the web (the Adium IM client). It has been packaged up as a “Disk Image” file. Disk Images end with the file extension “.dmg”.

Double-click the Disk Image and your Mac will “mount” it as if it were a hard drive or USB thumb drive - you’ll see what appears to be a disk on your desktop.

Double-click to open it. Inside you’ll find the application and other supporting documents or files.

The application needs to be placed in your “Applications” folder. Double-click the “Macintosh HD” on your desktop. One of the folders in that window will say “Applications.”

Double-click this folder to open it. You will see a list or group of all your applications.

Drag the application from the Disk Image (in this case, the Duck labeled “Adium”) into your Applications folder, then depress the mouse. The application will be copied to your Applications folder, then appear in the group or list.

You’re done! Your application is installed. Now, ask yourself this question: Am I going to use this application frequently?

If the answer is no, then you really don’t need to do anything further. When you want to launch it, open your Applications folder, find the application and double-click to launch it. If the answer is yes, you may want to put its icon in your Dock.

Select the application and drag it anyplace on your Dock to the left of the vertical line that appears in the Dock.

(The above image is a snapshot of my dock. I’ve already changed the Dock icon to be a blue duck instead of a green one. More on this later.)

Now, you need to do a little clean up.

Unmounting the Disk Image

Select the mounted Disk Image on your desktop and drag it over the Trash Can in the Dock. The Trash Can icon will turn into an upward facing arrow, known as the “Eject” icon. Depress the mouse. Your Disk Image will disappear from your desktop.

Trashing the .dmg file

One final thing. Remember that file we started with that ends in file extension “.dmg”? Let’s throw it in the trash. Drag the file into the trash can.

Now, you’re really done.

Are you a Switcher with a question you want answered? Send us email to questions@tipsforswitchers.com or use our convenient contact form.

Technorati Tags: Switchers, Mac, Macintosh, Apple, OS X, Mac OS X, Applications, Software, Adium, Disk Image, John Federico

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written by jf