Switcher's FAQ:
I've been collecting these as they come up on the forums. Please do post suggestions/suggested threads that I can add.
How do I right-click?
Click and hold the mouse button down or press the control key when you click.
If you've just bought a Mac that came with a Mighty Mouse, it has the ability to right-click built in. Go to
System Preferences -> KeyBoard and Mouse and change the right button from
Primary Click to
Secondary click.
See also iPirate's list of Keyboard shortcuts.
See also
I've just switched to Mac, what's the best program to...
What's the best way to learn about Mac OS X for new user?
Find Out How from Apple. This is a very useful resource for switchers.
How do I network between my Mac and my PC? (Leopard and Vista)
How do I move my iTunes library from my PC to my Mac?
How do I make backups?
A: Use a second (external if necessary) hard disk and select it as a Time Machine disk in the System Preferences. When you first plug it in, the system will ask you anyway if you want to use it for Time Machine. Dedicating the entire drive to Time Machine is the best option. See the
Time Machine article for more info.
What brand RAM should I get for my Mac?
The most common recommendation is Kingston RAM. It's available very cheaply from just about anywhere and has an excellent reputation. 2Gb sticks are very cheap at the moment, with 1Gb costing extremely little. 3 or 4Gb will make for an excellent machine, especially if you start going photo or video crazy. Apple's iMacs take notebook DDR2 RAM and their current model notebooks take DDR3. A simple option is to use
StaticIce to find the best price.
How to transfer/Import Windows Thunderbird Mail and Outlook Express into Apple Mail
Is the AppleCare Protection Plan (APP) worth it?
Yes!
What's the best program for MSN, Yahoo, AIM, Jabber or ICQ?
iChat will do Jabber, ICQ and AIM.
Adium is the most common client for all IM systems, however.
How to use MSN with iChat (by using a Jabber gateway).
Chax is recommended for use with iChat as it adds extra features and improves ICQ support.
Can I video chat using MSN or Yahoo on a Mac?
There isn't full support for audio using the MS or Yahoo clients.
Skype is a better and more reliable option for that. There are also iChat-to-MSN transports. Only limited video/audio chat ability is available from the official MS and Yahoo programs. Skype is recommended if you wish to video chat with friends, followed by iChat (which uses AIM, Jabber or .Mac).
Can I run Windows apps on my Mac?
Yes. You have a few choices, Apple's Bootcamp, that allows you to dual-boot the machine in either Mac OS X or Windows, or a "Virtual Machine" of which
Parallels and
VMWare Fusion are the most popular and usable. There's now a virtual machine solution available from Sun called
VirtualBox. While not as functional as the others, it's free!
You can also try
Crossover Mac, based on
DarWine, a Win32 API layer that allows some Windows applications to run natively, such as MS Office.
How do I remove Applications in Mac OS X?
Usually drag them to the trash. If you want to completely remove all traces of an application, there are a couple of programs, such as
AppZapper that will search for all the files (such as preferences) that an application has left around your computer.
What Anti-virus program should I use in Mac OS X?
None unless your work requires it. There is, to date, one virus and one trojan for Mac OS X. The former requires that you manually install a fake video codec from a porn site. If you are required for your work to have an AV program,
ClamXAV is recommended. Avoid Norton anything unless you want your machine to run at half speed.
How to transfer/import Windows Firefox Profile to Mac OS X Firefox
How do I control which application opens what file?
Click once on the file and select "Get Info" from the File menu. Choose the application from the "Open with" menu and then click on "Change all". To manage these settings more comprehensively, download
RCDefaultApp.
How do I play this video file?
Installing
Perian will allow the playback of most types of video. Installing
Flip4Mac will allow the playback of files up to WMP9. WMP10 files are not playable due to the incorporated DRM. You can also try playing the file in
VLC.
External Backup drive for PC and Mac
How do I hide files and folders in the Finder?
How do I password protect folders in the Finder?
How do I take screenshots?
Command-shift-3 for the whole screen.
Command-shift-4 to select with the mouse an area to capture.
Command-shift-4 then press the spacebar then click on a window to capture. Also, you can use
Skitch for easier snapping and sharing of screenshots.
What webcams can I use with Mac OS X?
I need a Mac compatible webcam
Excellent Mac webcam option - the XBox 360 webcam
How do I change the spelling dictionary in Mac OS X to Australian English?
I use Microsoft Money. Is there a Mac equivalent that I can transfer my data to?
Export your MS Money file, copy it over to your Mac then download
iBank and import the file.
My Mac is running slow/all the memory is filling up, what can I do?
What you want to do is, in
Applications -> Utilities open up
Activity Monitor. In the menu at the top of the window, next to the seach bar, select
All Processes, then click on the
Real Memory column until the biggest memory users are at the top, then see what's chewing up all the memory. Just a note, ignore the
Virtual Memory figures, they do not refer to actual usage. You might also want to do the same as above with the
CPU column and see if some or other program is doing a lot of processing.
The "inactive" memory is essentially "free" memory. When Mac OS X puts data in memory, if that data isn't needed any more, it flags it as inactive, rather than purge it, in case it's needed again. If another program needs memory, then Mac OS X will purge it first. There's a program that purges the inactive memory, but most of the time the result is an even slower computer, as Mac OS X has to read that data again, if needed, from the disk, not memory.
Is your hard disk very full? A computer with a hard disk over 80% full becomes slower.
As well, the first time you switch on a Mac, Spotlight will Index all the attached disks, which can slow things down until it's finished. Time Machine can sometimes slow down the computer if it's making a huge backup. If you are using the computer for downloading large torrents, working with movies or any kind of large files, it's a good idea to tell Time Machine to ignore those files and any other large files that often change, as they will be backed up every time Time Machine runs, slowing down the computer considerably.
