OP wrote:
"The items I want to transfer are Microsoft Office, I-tunes library, Firefox bookmarks and documents/photos. All of these things are on an external hard drive."
If these are already on an external drive, you're already part-way there.
Here are some suggestions.
First... to avoid permissions problems, do this:
1. Connect the external drive to the new Mac
2. Let the drive icon mount on the desktop
3. Click on the icon ONE TIME to select it
4. Bring up the "get info" box for the icon (command-i)
5. At the bottom of get info, click the lock and enter your NEW password (the one you use on the M1 Mini)
6. Put a checkmark into "ignore ownership on this volume" (sharing & permissions)
7. Close get info
Now you can copy things from the external drive, and whatever is copied will "come under the ownership" of your NEW account on the Mini.
To address individual tasks:
- MS Office -- can't help too much here. If they're just Office docs that YOU created, they should move over without problems. If you can install a fresh copy of Office with your registration, well... just do it.
- iTunes library -- I'm going to -guess- that the new Apple Music app can import these. That's what I'd try (if you intend to use Apple Music). You should know that you can STILL USE iTunes with the m1 Macs, right? To do this, you need the free app called "Retroactive". I prefer iTunes (for the free internet radio streaming) to the Music App, so it was "Retroactive/iTunes" for me.
- Firefox bookmarks -- I'd install a fresh copy of FireFox onto the new Mini, then see if it will import the bookmarks from the external drive.
- documents -- if these are files you've created with various apps, just copy them over to wherever you wish to keep them on the Mini. Do "test opens" on a few to see how they work afterwards.
- photos -- key question is, "what app are you going to use to view/edit them on the new Mac?"
Photos should import pics from an older iPhoto library easily.
Again, you can still use iPhoto if you activate it with Retroactive.
