Tips for Switchers

Default location: Your Desktop

Better location: Wherever you want them to

By default, most Mac applications will place your downloaded files on your desktop. I’ve found that this can lead to a very messy desktop, very quickly. (Plus, mine’s messy anyway. I don’t need an application contributing to that mess…)

I would recommend creating a folder just for your downloaded files and put where you can easily get to it. Mine is on my desktop.

Once you’ve created the folder, you can instruct your applications to store your downloaded files here.

Browsers

On the Mac there are a number of popular browsers available. They include:

• FireFox


• Safari


• Camino

There are some others but they’re either specialized or are modified versions of WebKit (the browser engine that powers Safari).

I recommend FireFox to new Switchers. Why? While I love Safari and think its a great browser, too many Switchers get frustrated by their decision to switch when they visit a site that doesn’t work in Safari. Not every site will work properly in FireFox, but there are far fewer site incompatibilities.

FireFox

Safari

Camino

Instant Messenger Clients

The most popular IM clients on the Mac are:

• iChat


• Adium

…and setting them up is much the same as your browser.

iChat

iChat is the default IM application that ships with OS X. It supports AIM, .Mac and Jabber networks. It’s a basic IM app that is in dire need of updating - rumors predict that it will be in Apple’s upcoming Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard”.

Adium

For a detailed overview of Adium, see an earlier post, “Trillian Equivalent for OS X“.

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: Mac OS X, Macintosh, OS X, Apple, Tips, Tutorial, Software, Mac, John Federico, Switchers, Web Browsers, Camino, FireFox, Safari, Adium, iChat

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written by jf

From reader Drew, a recent switcher:

A couple more tips you might want to add that took me about a week to figure out:

I have a couple Firefox shortcuts that I used ALL the time on my PC, but when I moved to Mac, I had a very hard time finding out how to do them.

The most useful keyboard shortcut, in my opinion, is the ctrl-enter in Windows within a browser. It adds http://www. and .com to the proper places if you enter the domain name only. So, if you want to go to Google, you just type ‘google’ in the address bar and hit ctrl-enter. The Mac equivalent is command-enter.

The second shortcut was more difficult to discover on Mac. It’s alt-D in windows, and it jumps the cursor to the address bar and highlights all text, so you can then use the shortcut above to go to the site of your choice - all without touching your mouse. The Mac equivalent is command-L, which is a little harder to do easily for me (so far) but it’s invaluable.

Try out these shortcuts and you will soon realize they are great tools.

Thanks, Drew!

Technorati Tags: FireFox, Apple, Mac OS X, Tips, Shortcuts, Tips for Switchers

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written by jf

Drew, a recent commenter, keeps his spare PC around so he can use DVD Decrypter and 3GP Converter for DVD ripping. Well Drew, that PC is about to become a door stop.

Handbrake and Instant Handbrake can handle all your DVD ripping and conversion for portable devices. Instant Handbrake is specifically designed to make it easy for you to convert video to be played on your iPod with Video.

You can find them both at http://handbrake.m0k.org/

Technorati Tags: DVD, DVD Decrypter, DVD Ripping, Movies, 3GP Converter, Mac OS X, Apple, iPod, Video

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written by jf

For the Switcher who is reluctant to leave behind the power and control of Trillian, you may find iChat a bit limiting, both in its features and its inability to connect to multiple IM networks.

iChat is a solid application, but it only connects to the AOL Instant Messenger network and Apple’s .Mac network (which requires that you pay $99 a year for a .Mac account…)

If you want multi-network support on OS X, you have a couple of options: Fire and Adium.

What the Duck?!

Both are free and open source, so you have no risk in trying them out. And while both are solid instant messenger clients, if you’re a former Trillian user, you’ll quickly realize - as I did - that Adium is the only way to go.

UPDATE: Adium 1.0 was officially released the day after this was posted! The Apple Blog has an in-depth review.

Continue reading »

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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