Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Just got an 24" iMac =]
- Thread starter Po.Verse
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Small suggestions for playing with it...
Several silly but clever tricks that impress people, two good apps, and some good things to know.
1) Slow motion minimize -- Press the Shift key and press yellow minimize button on app window.
2) Look at the UNIX underneath. -- It's a fun trick to show people. This is only if you are very new to computers and won't be bored with command line. Change System Preferences > Accounts > account login options to show username and password. Note your account's "shortname", then logout of your Mac. At the login screen in the username field type: >console and Click OK. You will be presented with the UNIX bash shell console login. Type your shortname/account name and password, pressing Enter after each. Don't worry, it is easy to get out of it. Type cd / to navigate to your HD root. Type ls -la to list all your folders and files. type mkdir test! to make a directory/folder. Type ls -la to list all folders and files, note your new test! folder. Type logout to exit and return to your normal login. Delete the test! folder from your Macintosh HD.
3) Make your Mac talk -- Open the Terminal app (Applications/Utilities) and type the command say followed by a space and any phrase or sentence you want it to say. Example: say Hi there.
Apps
Good apps (other than the well known ones) Photo Booth --kids really love it, and Front Row
Huge Time Savers:
From any application, press the Command/
and the space bar at the same time to start a Spotlight search (upper right). This is the fastest way to find apps, documents, emails, web history, etc. Simply press Enter to open the top hit. Use arrow keys to navigate down. Learn that and you will look like a master.
In the same Spotlight field from above, type in a math formula (e.g., 12*27) to access the calculator function which displays the answer.
In the same Spotlight field from above, type in a word that is in the dictionary, press enter on that hit and the built in dictionary opens with that word.
Note that the Calendar app icon in the Dock always shows the actual date (new feature with Leopard). Set your clock to 11:59 PM to watch it switch over for "fun".
Misc.
Watch the videos here, they will teach you a lot, they are very well done:
http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/
Learn about and use Spaces
Turn ON your firewall (System Preferences > Security) Apple leaves it off by default. Why, I don't know.
Huge (but useful) Time Spenders:
Subscribe to Mac related podcasts, The Mac Observer's Mac Geek Gab (the best), Twit's MacBreak Weekly, and the MacCast, all 3 are in iTunes. MacBreak Tech was a great one, but it is gone.
Great podcast if you like Steve Jobs
Search in iTunes for Apple Keynotes and subscribe to it. Go to your iTunes podcasts and "Get" the Macworld 2007 keynote. It is the one with the iPhone unveiling and he is at his best. It is fun to watch for anyone I think.
That would keep you busy for a day. Have fun. I'm sure there are much better things to do, but those are must knows and ideas for all I think. Enjoy your Mac. I am waiting on my first one ever, should be shipped any day. 24" 3.06 Ghz iMac with the now suspect ATI card.
Several silly but clever tricks that impress people, two good apps, and some good things to know.
1) Slow motion minimize -- Press the Shift key and press yellow minimize button on app window.
2) Look at the UNIX underneath. -- It's a fun trick to show people. This is only if you are very new to computers and won't be bored with command line. Change System Preferences > Accounts > account login options to show username and password. Note your account's "shortname", then logout of your Mac. At the login screen in the username field type: >console and Click OK. You will be presented with the UNIX bash shell console login. Type your shortname/account name and password, pressing Enter after each. Don't worry, it is easy to get out of it. Type cd / to navigate to your HD root. Type ls -la to list all your folders and files. type mkdir test! to make a directory/folder. Type ls -la to list all folders and files, note your new test! folder. Type logout to exit and return to your normal login. Delete the test! folder from your Macintosh HD.
3) Make your Mac talk -- Open the Terminal app (Applications/Utilities) and type the command say followed by a space and any phrase or sentence you want it to say. Example: say Hi there.
Apps
Good apps (other than the well known ones) Photo Booth --kids really love it, and Front Row
Huge Time Savers:
From any application, press the Command/
and the space bar at the same time to start a Spotlight search (upper right). This is the fastest way to find apps, documents, emails, web history, etc. Simply press Enter to open the top hit. Use arrow keys to navigate down. Learn that and you will look like a master. In the same Spotlight field from above, type in a math formula (e.g., 12*27) to access the calculator function which displays the answer.
In the same Spotlight field from above, type in a word that is in the dictionary, press enter on that hit and the built in dictionary opens with that word.
Note that the Calendar app icon in the Dock always shows the actual date (new feature with Leopard). Set your clock to 11:59 PM to watch it switch over for "fun".
Misc.
Watch the videos here, they will teach you a lot, they are very well done:
http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/
Learn about and use Spaces
Turn ON your firewall (System Preferences > Security) Apple leaves it off by default. Why, I don't know.
Huge (but useful) Time Spenders:
Subscribe to Mac related podcasts, The Mac Observer's Mac Geek Gab (the best), Twit's MacBreak Weekly, and the MacCast, all 3 are in iTunes. MacBreak Tech was a great one, but it is gone.
Great podcast if you like Steve Jobs
Search in iTunes for Apple Keynotes and subscribe to it. Go to your iTunes podcasts and "Get" the Macworld 2007 keynote. It is the one with the iPhone unveiling and he is at his best. It is fun to watch for anyone I think.
That would keep you busy for a day. Have fun. I'm sure there are much better things to do, but those are must knows and ideas for all I think. Enjoy your Mac. I am waiting on my first one ever, should be shipped any day. 24" 3.06 Ghz iMac with the now suspect ATI card.
yeah great post, Ashman! im also a mac noob... guess now is as good of time as ever, especially since i decided to go with the radeon hd 4850!! 
Learn to use Help
Click Finder > Help
Good thing to search for in Help is keyboard shortcuts. (Apologies for the crummy way that OS X Help stays as the foreground application)
Take pictures of your screen. Press+Ctrl+Shift+4, or Ctrl+Shift+3 . Click and drag to copy a portion of your screen, or press the space bar then click the mouse to capture an app window. One of the commands puts it on the clipboard, one puts a JPG on your Desktop. You find out which does what. Very useful. The JPG on your desktop will have a nice shadow effect. Drag it into a document to see.
Text Edit app can be your friend. Open and edit Word documents with it. There are limitations on formatting, but it is nice to have. Press Ctrl+Shift+T to convert any doc to plain text. Useful for scripts and simple files, etc.
Use www.MacOSXHints.com to find answers and fix issues. Macrumors is good too, but OSXhints has a ton of good stuff when you have a problem and want to learn.
www.Bombich.com go to this site to find valuable tools like Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) for backup and imaging. This guy is a Mac master and deserves a world of credit. He accepts donations.
Explore time machine settings and exclude everything but your home folder, and/or stuff you really care about. Why backup your all those system files and applications and waste disk space on your external drive. You are better off reinstalling OS X from scratch and restoring your profile.
Be careful if you have a Mac laptop and take it to public places. I usually can see people's names thanks to iTunes sharing. Sadly if they have a blank password, you can get right in easily. Apple should really put in a "public" network setting that shuts off all sharing temporarily. MSFT does this with Vista.
Click Finder > Help
Good thing to search for in Help is keyboard shortcuts. (Apologies for the crummy way that OS X Help stays as the foreground application)
Take pictures of your screen. Press
+Ctrl+Shift+4, or Ctrl+Shift+3 . Click and drag to copy a portion of your screen, or press the space bar then click the mouse to capture an app window. One of the commands puts it on the clipboard, one puts a JPG on your Desktop. You find out which does what. Very useful. The JPG on your desktop will have a nice shadow effect. Drag it into a document to see.Text Edit app can be your friend. Open and edit Word documents with it. There are limitations on formatting, but it is nice to have. Press Ctrl+Shift+T to convert any doc to plain text. Useful for scripts and simple files, etc.
Use www.MacOSXHints.com to find answers and fix issues. Macrumors is good too, but OSXhints has a ton of good stuff when you have a problem and want to learn.
www.Bombich.com go to this site to find valuable tools like Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) for backup and imaging. This guy is a Mac master and deserves a world of credit. He accepts donations.
Explore time machine settings and exclude everything but your home folder, and/or stuff you really care about. Why backup your all those system files and applications and waste disk space on your external drive. You are better off reinstalling OS X from scratch and restoring your profile.
Be careful if you have a Mac laptop and take it to public places. I usually can see people's names thanks to iTunes sharing. Sadly if they have a blank password, you can get right in easily. Apple should really put in a "public" network setting that shuts off all sharing temporarily. MSFT does this with Vista.