Almost a Mac newbie - Questions

[BobU]

Preamble:

I have been online since 1986 - command line, ARPA net.

I have used Windows since 1.0 And in earnest at 3.1. I am a Windows Wizard(tm), the guy friends call in the middle of the night when things break

I am thinking of going MAC. I don't think I need to explain why. Or why I have waited this long. I actually did use a MAC at work for a year around 1993. Different world.

I have 266 apps and utilities on my Windows Computer. By far, three are most important:

EMAIL
Browser
Photo apps

MOST of the others I can find MAC alternatives (office, backup, audio editing, utilities, Wordpress"stuff"). I likely will ask about some of those at some point. I will miss NIR Utilities

I have HIGHLY customized Firefox. I assume that will transfer just as it is.
Adobe Photo Plan with Photoshop and Lightroom should be close enough with a little to relearn.

But EMAIL could be an issue. So, a few questions for today.

1. Does MIGRATION work or can it cause more issues than it solves?

I have things in Windows not in the expected locations. Like many documents not in the Documents folder, some Photos (never use "Pictures, for example". And most concerned about configurations, addins, and settings for apps. WO)rth trying or better to move things manually?

2. Email. I use an older M'soft Outlook and have 5 email accounts and hundreds of folders where I store sorted read and sent messages. My main 2 emails are POP3, not IMAP, so I need those folders locally. They will not come from an IMAP source. Problem?

I also have a neat script where as I click "send" I can choose which folder to save that particular sent email to. Possible?

I Googled for MAC support forums and found this site. Is this the best place for continued questions or should post elsewhere as well?

~Bob

 

[NoBoMac]

Re: Email.

It's ugly. MacOS Mail does not import PST files. Need to get them converted to mbox format. Seen in the past that a possible solution is to install Thunderbird on the PC, import into Thunderbird, then can export/move mbox files to Mac where those can be imported into Mail.

Import .pst files - MozillaZine Knowledge Base

kb.mozillazine.org

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/is-there-any-free-pst-to-mac-mail-converter.2023965/post-24182746

 

[BobU]

Thanks for the reply. That IS ugly. And huge for me. Thousands of emails, hundreds of folders.

I'll check out your links. Thanks.

Possible to find a non-subscription stand alone Outlook for MAC that would bring these in?

 

[NoBoMac]

No idea. I don't use any Office product and have not used Outlook in ages, let alone on Mac.

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

Microsoft Outlook for Mac | Microsoft 365

Get the redesigned Microsoft Outlook for Mac—now available for free. Download the new Outlook for Mac from the App Store today.

www.microsoft.com

It’s free from Microsoft (the rest of the suite is not, however).

 

[SjoukeW]

For the mail I would look into ms outlook for Mac and see if you can use that to transfer or upgrade. From outlook to something else is difficult.

 

[iStorm]

Outlook for Mac is free, and can be downloaded through the App Store.

Looks like you can import .pst files, but I have no experience with that.

Import email messages, contacts, and other items into Outlook for Mac - Microsoft Support

Import archive files or identities in Outlook 2016 for Mac.

support.microsoft.com

 

[Alameda]

I’m an avid photographer and I usually shoot several hundred 45 megapixel RAW files at a time.

I’ve had a subscription to Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop for many years, and many people use it. It’s not a bad choice. But I have switched to using DxO PhotoLab as my RAW photo editor and Affinity Photo as my Photoshop replacement. Far less expensive and no subscriptions needed. You can download trials of both if you want.

My other advice is to get a Mac with 16 GB RAM if you can. You can buy a lot of internal storage or just buy an external Thunderbolt SSD drive; they are incredibly fast.

With Thunderbolt you can buy a Thunderbolt 3 or 4 dock (both offer the same speed) and have true single cable connectivity to a Mac laptop — Display, power, storage, Ethernet, etc… all attached with just one cable. It’s awesome.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

You didn't say WHICH Mac you might be interested in.

But... advice regarding ANY Mac you buy.

DO NOT buy ANY Mac UNLESS it has 16gb of RAM... or MORE.
8gb is NO LONGER ENOUGH.

If you're planning on keeping it 5-6-7 years, I'd recommend either 24gb or 32gb (depending on which Mac it is).

Also... your MINIMUM size internal SSD should be 1tb.
512gb will work, but I'm thinking that you will "fill it up" quickly.

NOTHING LESS than 512gb.

If you're going to buy a laptop -- get a MacBook Pro.
BE AWARE that the new m4 and m4pro MBP's will be introduced shortly, within the next 2 months.

BE AWARE that a new m4/m4pro Mini is coming before the end of the year, also.

BE AWARE that an m4/xxx Mac Studio will be released early next year.

ALSO be aware that if you don't mind buying "one generation back", one can find great deals RIGHT NOW on the MacBook Pro's with m3 and m3pro CPUs.

Good luck.

 

[Ben J.]

I Googled for MAC support forums and found this site. Is this the best place for continued questions or should post elsewhere as well?

I always recommend Macmost.com for anything mac related. Clear consise info videos on almost any mac topic. Very useful, especially for mac newbies, but also for oldtimers. I swear - don't think "A video about xxx, no, I know everything about xxx." any macmost video I see, I learn something new!

macmostvideo

Subscribe to MacMost to watch daily video tutorials about how to get the most from your Mac, iPad and iPhone! This show focuses on the "how to." You'll learn how to use macOS and the apps that come with your Mac. MacMost also features news, commentary reviews geared toward the casual personal...

www.youtube.com

Other mac forums… not many - there's Reddit… but I mostly use macrumors. Stay FAR away from:

Official Apple Support Community

Find answers with millions of other Apple users in our vibrant community. Search discussions or ask a question about your product.

discussions.apple.com

IMO, it's a cesspool of bad advice. I'll go in detail if needed.

Welcome to the right side.
You'll love the power and features of the modern macs, and the connectivity; if you have a iphone, laptop, ipad and maybe a desktop, you'll love the way they can integrate. Firefox f.ex reflects my bookmarks, history etc on all my devices.

I have the adobe photo bundle, and use Lightroom Classic alot. It requires at least 16GB ram. But save on the cost of internal storage, buy MVMe storage blades and put them in Thunderbolt enclosures. You'll get almost the same speeds at almost half the price per GB.

 

[ignatius345]

Stay FAR away from:

Official Apple Support Community

Find answers with millions of other Apple users in our vibrant community. Search discussions or ask a question about your product.

discussions.apple.com

IMO, it's a cesspool of bad advice. I'll go in detail if needed.

Couldn't agree more Apple Support Forums are just pure trash. Heavy gate-keeping, generic troubleshooting steps that assume you're an idiot, and just loads of incredibly uninformed advice. Steer clear.

To @Ben J.'s list I would add Ask Different and (sometimes) Reddit. And honestly the MacRumors forums (outside the comments on the articles, which get insane very quickly) can also be an excellent place to post questions.

 

[Ben J.]

Side note to OP:
I think you might be a bit unlucky to come to this place with mac inquiries, as not only did we lose a few very clever people over the years and it's become less mac oriented, but also right now our mac posts on the forum is being drowned in the hyperactivity going on after the recent product announcements.

 

[Ruggy]

Preamble:

I have been online since 1986 - command line, ARPA net.

I have used Windows since 1.0 And in earnest at 3.1. I am a Windows Wizard(tm), the guy friends call in the middle of the night when things break

Ditto. I started with DOS 2. My first laptop was 3.1.

I am thinking of going MAC. I don't think I need to explain why. Or why I have waited this long. I actually did use a MAC at work for a year around 1993. Different world.

I have 266 apps and utilities on my Windows Computer. By far, three are most important:

EMAIL
Browser
Photo apps

MOST of the others I can find MAC alternatives (office, backup, audio editing, utilities, Wordpress"stuff"). I likely will ask

about some of those at some point. I will miss NIR Utilities
You will find a lot of those tools will be available on your mac. For example Keychain looks after all your passwords with 256 bit encryption and generates secure passwords. If you hold the option key and open the 'network' icon you'll get a full report of all your networking info. Lots and lots more. It's often not at first sight and it's a good trick to remember hold the option key to check if there's an advanced menu, but you'll find a lot of that is there. And it will do an awful lot of things you'll never have to bother about.

I have HIGHLY customized Firefox. I assume that will transfer just as it is.

Firefox will run but I'm not sure about the customised. Some extensions won't run

Adobe Photo Plan with Photoshop and Lightroom should be close enough with a little to relearn.

True, it'll be quite similar (might not be as good) but give Serif software a look particularly Affinity Photo. It isn't a lot of money any you might like it. No subscriptions and the suite does everything.
I haven't used Photoshop or Lightroom in years. It'll save you a fortune if you decide it works for you.

Creative Software For Professionals | We Are Affinity

Subscription-free photo editing, page layout, graphic design and illustration apps for professionals. Try for free or buy for one low payment.

affinity.serif.com

But EMAIL could be an issue. So, a few questions for today.

1. Does MIGRATION work or can it cause more issues than it solves?

I have heard of a free app that will do it. I haven't tried it.

MailStore Home - Free Email Archiving for Home Users

Free email archiving software for personal use: Download now

www.mailstore.com

I personally don't like migrating anything.
Do you have an icloud account?
This may well be a good solution for you. Set up an icloud account and apple password, upload messages, passwords photos etc to it (you may have to pay for storage but you can cancel a month later so it doesn't have to be very expensive) and then you should be able to download them to your new mac machine. Starting with a new set up seems to work better I think.
I have things in Windows not in the expected locations. Like many documents not in the Documents folder, some Photos (never use "Pictures, for example". And most concerned about configurations, addins, and settings for apps. WO)rth trying or better to move things manually?
Manually: it's so much faster. A cheap SD card and card reader and you can back up 64GB in a couple of minutes tops, plus it's backup. It's hours to do that over the net, plus things can go wrong. Connecting machines might work and dongles aren't expensive but SD card back up is so cheap and easy (or HD if you have them)

2. Email. I use an older M'soft Outlook and have 5 email accounts and hundreds of folders where I store sorted read and sent messages. My main 2 emails are POP3, not IMAP, so I need those folders locally. They will not come from an IMAP source. Problem?

I also have a neat script where as I click "send" I can choose which folder to save that particular sent email to. Possible?

You can use mail 'rules' to very quickly set up the same script- it just takes a couple of clicks.
There's a lot you can do with rules and if you know your way round Thunderbird, there are similar rules there.
You can write a script with 'automator' and possibly you might be able to do it with 'shortcuts' but I don't know.

I Googled for MAC support forums and found this site. Is this the best place for continued questions or should post elsewhere as well?

~Bob

No Idea.
Best wishes