Considering a Mac: question (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

I just thought I'd quickly pop in here and say once again
how much I love my Mac.

My signature sort of says it all. Really, I'll never go back to
a PC -- and I truly feel that anyone who switches will feel the
same way.

 

[Christ Reynolds]

this is correct, and i'm puzzled why apple doesn't enable the mighty mouse to have a right click by default. i bought a mac mini last week, i'm a recent switcher (from linux, unlike most users), and i like it a lot so far. i'll probably be buying parallels to run some windows only apps that no other OS can touch (dvd-lab pro), i'd normally use vmware, but their mac product is behind parallels, even though they are the industry leader. one thing that irritates me about parallels, they charge you $50 for compressor, which is normally built into vmware's products.

CJ

 

[MarkHastings]

Probably due to a little stubbornness...they built their whole company around the philosophy "So easy to use, you only need one button" (or whatever it exactly was), so they probably don't enable it to retain that philosophy.

 

[Mary M S]

Wish I had seen this, the first couple of days after purchase!
But panic while rebuilding material I had already spent spare time gathering for weeks (which was suddenly inaccessible inside my newly dead PC) kept me a tad distracted.

I really like many of Logitech's products and was ready to give wireless (on the mouse - had wireless keyboards for years) another try, the in the box mouse was wired. When wireless meese first came out after trying a couple I felt they were too touchy and shied away from them till just now.

Love my newest Logitech and went for the ergonomic shape I prefer, LT's concave curve away from the thumb for right handers, which I knew and preferred from my last wired logitech mouse.

Thanks for the "your a dumba.." tone though, (kidding) - I will use this information to set up the Mighty M, - which I intend to keep handy for backup, - in case I ever forget to put the Logitech on its charger.

 

[Andrew Pratt]

Before I converted over to the MBP I had an Asus W3J laptop. Asus builds the MacBook for Apple and its evident that Asus borrowed a lot from their work with Apple as the W3J is very much 'apple like' in design. Anyway the one thing that I really liked on the W3J was that the button below the trackpad looked like a single button it acted like two buttons as it was touch senitive depending on which side you clicked. I'd love for that technology to get moved into the Apple laptops as well. They can leave it set to single by default like the Mighty Mouse if they want but its a pain having to Ctrl click with the touchpad for right click functions.

 

[Christian Behrens]

This is another configuration issue. You can have a "right-click" by having two fingers on the trackpad while clicking. That should make it a lot easier and accessible to right-click, just like the two-finger scroll makes scrolling a whole lot easier.

-Christian

 

[MarkHastings]

I know no one really cares about my story , but it's really odd - when I am on my PC, I have a 5 button mouse and couldn't even imagine having less than 5 buttons, but when I'm on my Mac, I could care less about only having one button.

It's really a bizarre thing, but it probably has to do with the fact that I'm used to one button on the Mac and more than one on the PC. I never jump from the PC to the Mac and think "Damn, I wish I had more buttons" because I never viewed the one button mouse as being a hassle.

I guess it's like that one legged guy I knew years ago (when I was in physical therapy). He had a prosthetic leg, but hated to use it because he had been accustomed to maneuvering with only one leg.

 

[Carl Miller]

Craig, thanks for the info about the Windows license. That sort of stinks but maybe I'll be able to find XP discounted or something.

Mary, your story is encouraging. Funny thing about the mouse situation is that I was in CompUSA shopping the iMac and I asked about the mighty mouse and right click functions and the sales person told me it doesn't have a right click function at all. Clearly, I should have gone to the Apple store in the mall, but it's the mall and I hate going there.

I've decided to take the plunge and go for the 20" iMac so I figure I'll have it within the next month or so. I've been busy trying to plan and plot the conversion.

Someone told me that Macs don't have the same copy/paste function as a PC....is that true?

I need to review Ron's Mac software thread to wrap up my pre-purchase research. I want to make the transition as smooth as possible and am looking very forward to feeling the Mac love.

Mark, your story actually eases my mind a bit about missing mouse buttons and getting used to some things that are different....like I didn't see a backspace button the mouse keyboard and I had wondered about that.

On a related note...5 days ago my PC started taking forever to shut down because 3 programs suddenly won't shut down properly and have to be ended via task manager. All three programs have been on this computer for well over a year and out of the blue this happens...Talk about feeling the Windows hate.

 

[Christ Reynolds]

copy/paste works fine, but cut/paste is a little more difficult.

CJ

 

[Michael_K_Sr]

After spending 75% of my weekend rebuilding a friend's XP system from scratch because it was so deeply infested with spyware and viruses, I once again am eternally grateful I don't have to use high maintenance Windows boxes either at home or at the office.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Okay...

So how do you CUT and PASTE on Mac? I tried moving
some files this morning and could not figure out how to
do it.

...and CARL, please....after a few weeks of usage,
would appreciate a full review of your new system including
your impressions on Mac vs. PC. It helps everyone here.

 

[Christian Behrens]

What I think this refers to is the fact that you don't use the CTRL-key for cut/copy/paste, but the command (apple) key, so it feels a little different compared to Windows. There are some tools that can remap the keys IIRC, but try first how much it will bug you when you get your machine.

And of course there is a backspace key on the keyboard, even though it's called "delete" on the provided one.

Edit after seeing Ron's post: If it's about copying/pasting files, I can't really comment, I never use copy and paste for files, not even on Windows, but always use drag and drop, both on the Mac and Windows. Someone else will have to chime in.

-Christian

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Christian,

The problem I had is that I did a RIGHT CLICK as you would
in Windows to cut/copy and paste. The option to cut was
not there.

However, you are correct that I could have dragged the file
from one folder to another (then deleted the original) or
perhaps done a COMMAND+X for cut and COMMAND+P for paste.
Not sure if that actually works, as I am on my PC laptop at work.

Really, the transition from PC to MAC has been soooo easy.
Many of the Windows commands are exactly the same on a
Mac as long as you remember to do COMMAND instead of CTRL.

 

[Christian Behrens]

If you drag and drop while pressing the command key, it will move the file, so you wouldn't have to copy first and then delete the original.

-Christian

 

[MarkHastings]

Ron, you can't cut files on a Mac, only text.

I've never really found a need for cut and paste...just drag the files where they need to go, it's the same thing. I understand that on a PC, one might want to cut a file, then navigate to another folder (to paste it), but have you worked with the function keys yet? F9 is my FAVOTRITE! It makes things easy and you don't need to cut files if you use F9 (or even F11).

Ron, also, how have you liked the fact that the Mac will keep all of your windows open (that were open on shut down) when the computer starts up.

 

[Ken Chan]

In the Finder (and maybe elsewhere), but not in general.

 

[MarkHastings]

Ken, other than text, how do you cut files? I don't think it's possible.

 

[Craig S]

Typical. Is anyone shocked they're closing half their stores??

This lack of knowledge of their products in standard retail outlets is one reason why Apple is aggressively expanding their own line of stores. But I'm with you, Mary - I wish they weren't putting them in malls (they've got a new store coming here to the NASA JSC area

, but it's going to be in the mall )

 

[Ken Chan]

My point was that the Finder does not allow you to cut&paste files. But in almost any other application, you can cut&paste "things": text, images, music, whatever the program uses. You're clearly not limited to text only.

 

[Christ Reynolds]

i'm in the process of reorganizing my music folder, and I can drag/drop folders and files, and not have a copy left behind, that is equivalent to cut/paste to me. I can hold shift before releasing the mouse button, and I have the option to copy/paste.

i don't know if tiger knows my preferences, but it used to work the other way. I would drag/drop, and have a copy left behind unless i hit shift before letting go.

mark, is there a list of features for the function keys? i have the wireless bluetooth mighty mouse, and i have F9 and F12 as functions on the mouse, and i figured out that shift F9/F11/F12 makes the effects go in slow motion. fun stuff.

CJ