Mac

Mac Tutorial for Windows Users

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The OSX interface works exceptionally. However, it works otherwise from Windows, and it could throw you off if Windows is all you recognize. In case everyone else follows the equal trail, in this manual to OSX for Home Windows customers, I have set down the OSX features that I’ve located essential to understand while I use OSX.

Information on the Quirks of the Mac Interface

To avoid frustration, there are some matters about the Mac interface that a Home Windows person wishes to apprehend.

The Dock
At the bottom of the display, you may see the dock bar that suggests several common applications and shortcuts. That dock bar is not just a “quick launch” bar. It’s also where you click on to get lower back to that Firefox window you opened ten minutes ago: clicking again will no longer open another instance of Firefox. In other words, these icons combine the jobs of the Windows quick-release icons and available programs’ taskbar buttons.

maxresdefaultThe Menu of a Utility
On OSX, an application’s menu isn’t always on the top of its window, as in Home windows. Rather, the menu is pinned to the top of the screen. If you’ve opened several programs and transferred among them by clicking their icon on the dock bar, you may see that the top menu changes with every click.

Running with Windows
– Do not search for that “maximize window” button on the pinnacle proper: on OSX, such controls are at the top left.
– Be aware that the pink button is now not near the Utility. As an alternative, it minimizes it to the dock. To shut an Application, select Quit from the menu at the top of the display or hit the Home Windows key (Command on a Mac keyboard) + Q.
– To resize a window, Don’t waste time trying to clutch the perimeters. Alternatively, the intention for the decrease proper nook.

Mac Basics: “Report Manager”, “Manage Panel”

Before we get into anything fancy, let’s get a pair of Mac Basics out of the manner: wherein to locate documents and in which to alter settings.

Document Manager: “Finder” The OSX Report Supervisor is “Finder”. You can find it on the lowest dock (it has a photograph of guys kissing inside a rectangular).

The tree on the left can no longer help you enter all the documents on the pressure. For instance, you can not navigate to the basis. What do you do if you want to peer the /etc Folder? Select Move / Visit Folder, then input /etc.

If you’d like to use an industrial Document Manager for strength users, OSX does not have anything like Listing Opus, but Course Finder and Forklift are steps inside the proper route.

Manipulate Panel: “Device Alternatives”The OSX Manipulate panel is known as “System Alternatives”. You can locate it on the lowest dock (it has a gray icon representing cogs and wheels). You may also open a Finder window and navigate to applications / Device Options.

The use of Home Windows keyboard keys on a Mac

If You’re using a Home Windows keyboard to power a Mac, you will need to translate a manual that tells you to apply the “Command” or “Option” keys sooner or later. Right here’s the code:

Command = Windows (the important thing with the Windows image)
Choice = Alt

The Way to Pressure Cease a Striking.

Mac fundamentalists may beat your eardrums approximately how their Macs are “just paintings”, but I have by no means had programs hold so regularly as on a Mac. This became quite painful until I discovered the undertaking Manager’s equal.

Click on the Home Windows key + Alt + Break out (on a Mac: Command-Alternative-Break out). This opens the “Pressure Give up” window.

You could run applications / Utilities / Open Pastime Screen to peer all walking strategies.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut Function
F11 Display the Computer (equal to Home windows + M or Windows + D)
Command-Choice-H (Win-Alt-H) Hides all Windows besides contemporary Application
Command-Tab (Win-Tab) is equal to Alt-Tab in Home windows—it cycles via the open Home windows
Command-W (Win-W) identical as Ctrl + W: near current window
Command-Q (Win-Q) End Software
Command-comma (Win-comma) Possibilities (in maximum applications)
Command-Shift-3 (Win-Shift-3) Similar to the Print display screen, it takes a snapshot of the display and saves it to the Laptop
Command-Alternative-Esc (Win-Alt-Esc) Force-Cease programs
Command-Delete) Delete the selected Document
Command-E) Eject the chosen USB tool
Command-Area (Win-Area) The Highlight search box, which You could use as a calculator
Command-Shift-Hyphen Em dash

Application Shortcuts

Shortcuts are called Aliases. Like in Home windows, You may create them using proper clicking.

Putting in and Uninstalling packages

For a few motives, this procedure has several steps that don’t exist on Home windows. First, you click on a dmg Record. This extracts what looks like a digital drive to your Computing device. You click on that drive. You presently Foldero tug the Utility into the applications folder from the open Folder.

Uninstalling is easier: from the packages folder, you drag the program’s icon to the trash bin.

Startups on the Mac

Applications that run at startup can be turned off in System Options / Bills / Login Items.

Changing Document Associations

Proper-click on a Document of the type you’d want to trade Associations. Pick out “Open With,” pick out the Application, and Choose “Trade All.”

Report Renaming: “A Higher Finder Rename”

Superior customers frequently need a utility for complex renaming operations on masses of files. Pathfinder does a negative right task with that. You could hear of a loose app called Call Changer; however, I entirely heartedly advise A Higher Finder Rename, which is full-featured and reasonably priced (twenty greenbacks).

Suppose you’re a regex seasoned (my normal expressions academic will take you in a protracted manner in that course). In that case, You can Go directly to the regex mode and preview the outcomes of your renaming machinations. But what I like about A Better Finder Rename is that I’m able to train my Mac consumer pals to use it, as it has a bunch of superbly concept-through alternatives permitting non-geeks to construct complicated rename operations in a chain of easy steps—similar to layers in Photoshop—and to preview the consequences until they may be equipped to press “Cross”.

Name Mangler is a first-rate opportunity.

Terminal

Many advanced operations can most easily be done from a terminal window (the equivalent of the cmd set off in home windows). The Terminal lives in programs / Utilities. It’s possibly a terrific idea to make a shortcut to it in the dock. Once in the Terminal, you are The usage of Unix syntax. Often, you may want root privileges. For that, kind sudo su -.

You can use an editor called nano (certainly one of several editors) from the Terminal. As an instance, you would kind of nano myfile.Txt

Now, it is not specifically useful; however, from the Terminal, You can invoke a speech command called say: For example, say good day global.

Right here, it is approximately the Terminal.

Modifying the Host Record

On OSX, the host Document is /and many others/hosts. To edit it, You may open an example of your text editor (see TextWrangler within the Freeware phase beneath), with a purpose to ask you for a password a good way to change the Record. You can also change the Document from the command line: from the Terminal window with root privileges (sudo su -), kind nano /, and so on/hosts.

After enhancing the hosts, flush the cache in the Terminal: dscacheutil -flushcache.

Freeware

Mac customers have a free media player that they prefer to boast about. It is known as VLC. They Don’t tell you this, but they love it because it solves one of Mac’s hectic inclinations—to play best the narrow array of Record formats advocated by the “Gods” in Cupertino. Of root, VLC is likewise to be had for Windows and Linux. However, no one of their proper minds would use VLC on Windows because there are approximately five different free media players you’d deploy Before looking to examine VLC. Certainly, as compared with PotPlayer and KMPlayer, VLC feels like It is still 1995.

I point out this as it’s symbolic of the freeware situation on Mac. Unluckily, OSX has nothing like the plethora of fantastic freeware you can discover on Windows (click on “freeware categories”). On a Macintosh, you can spend hundreds of bucks for mediocre apps and only come halfway in capability to what you’ll get free of charge with the Windows equivalent, even though there are some freeware applications for OSX.

Carol P. Middleton
Student. Alcohol ninja. Entrepreneur. Professional travel enthusiast. Zombie fan. Practiced in the art of donating rocking horses for the underprivileged. Crossed the country researching hula hoops in Deltona, FL. Won several awards for supervising the production of etch-a-sketches in Nigeria. Uniquely-equipped for investing in bathtub gin in the financial sector. Spent a year building g.i. joes worldwide. Earned praise for deploying childrens books in Africa.