Mac Newbie Questions

[ScarletRed]

Hi. I'm new to Mac. I've been using a fully upgraded MacBook Pro for about a week now and so far, I love it.

A couple of questions:

1. What is the difference between a Finder and Spotlight?

2. My Applications folder is really cluttered with far too many files. I'd like to organize the directory by putting them in newly created sub-folders (Microsoft Word, RevTex, and Pages in Word Processing folder, for instance). Would this kind of relocation create complications later on such as interfering with automatic software updates, ...etc.? If yes, how would I go about reorganizing my Applications directory without problems?

 

[iGary]

Finder is the application that you use to find files and folders on your machine: Applicatiions, Documents etc.

Spotlight is an applications built into the OS that indexes all the file on your system so you can find them by keywords or specific parameters.

Finder is the little blue guy:

 

[Chundles]

Finder is the name for the application used to browse files on the Mac, it's the same as Windows Explorer on PCs. Spotlight is an indexed search system that allows people to find specific files stored on the hard drive in any location.

It is not a good idea to move the Apple applications out of their specific folders as it will cause Software Update to miss them when scanning for new versions. All other software should be fine although I'm not sure about MS Office as that suite has an Auto Update application too.

The best way to organise your Apps folder is to drag your most commonly used apps into the dock, that way for 99% of your computing you don't need to open the Applications folder.

 

[ScarletRed]

@mac.com Mail?

There is a stamp icon (Mail) in the dock. I ran it and played around with it a bit but I cannot seem to open a mac email account. There is a screen for signing in to mac.com mail but nowhere did I see an option to create a new one. Did I miss the create a new account screen/button?

 

[iGary]

There is a stamp icon (Mail) in the dock. I ran it and played around with it a bit but I cannot seem to open a mac email account. There is a screen for signing in to mac.com mail but nowhere did I see an option to create a new one. Did I miss the create a new account screen/button?

I assume you have a .Mac account?

Mail->Preferences->Accounts - Then click on the "+" sign at bottom right and it will walk you right through a .Mac account.

 

[jsw]

There is a stamp icon (Mail) in the dock. I ran it and played around with it a bit but I cannot seem to open a mac email account. There is a screen for signing in to mac.com mail but nowhere did I see an option to create a new one. Did I miss the create a new account screen/button?

Yes. In the Mail app, go to Mail->Preferences...->Accounts, then click the little "+" button at the bottom left to add an account.

 

[ScarletRed]

I assume you have a .Mac account?

Mail->Preferences->Accounts - Then click on the "+" sign at bottom right and it will walk you right through a .Mac account.

You mean to create a new one? And no, I don't have any account with mac.com. I wouldn't mind having one, though.

 

[iGary]

You mean to create a new one? And no, I don't have any account with mac.com. I wouldn't mind having one, though.

Yes, and you can sign up for a free trial at www.mac.com.

 

[ScarletRed]

Best Email Account?

I have email accounts with hotmail.com, yahoo.com, go.com (now closed), and gmail.com. And I must say that gmail is the best of all. To those of you who have gmail account, how does it compare with mac.com?

Another question: What is the name of that program that mac users commonly use to monitor the temperature of their CPUs? All these articles about the high temperatures on MBPs has me concerned and I am curious how mine compares with others.

 

[jsw]

I have email accounts with hotmail.com, yahoo.com, go.com (now closed), and gmail.com. And I must say that gmail is the best of all. To those of you who have gmail account, how does it compare with mac.com?

gmail is better. I use .Mac just because I've had it for years, and I'm a bit squeamish about Google being able to search all of my mail, but I'd still say gmail is preferable if you don't already use .Mac.

The main thing I get from .Mac is synchronization across my many Macs, not the email.

Edit: by the way, the Mail app isn't limited to .Mac email, in case you'd gotten that impression.

 

[iGary]

I have email accounts with hotmail.com, yahoo.com, go.com (now closed), and gmail.com. And I must say that gmail is the best of all. To those of you who have gmail account, how does it compare with mac.com?

Another question: What is the name of that program that mac users commonly use to monitor the temperature of their CPUs? All these articles about the high temperatures on MBPs has me concerned and I am curious how mine compares with others.

iStat Pro

 

[ScarletRed]

Decisions, decisions...

iStat Pro: "iStat pro is the ultimate system monitoring widget, consisting of nine ..."

iStat Nano: "Our best ever stats widget..."

Sounds like iStat Nano is the lite version of iStat Pro.

To those of you who tried both, which do you like better and why?

A new piece of info regarding support on MBP. These two widgets do not support the temp and fan monitors on MBPs yet.

I guess I should ask if there are any widgets or programs out there that will monitor temperatures, fan spd, ...etc on MBPs.

 

[pianodude123]

I stat nano is smaller, and I'd assume it consumes less CPU resources because not as many things are constantly being refreshed at once. I use the "pro" because I follow the "pro" line and I have power and dashboard space to spare.

 

[ScarletRed]

More questions:

1. How do I change the name of my notebook? Someone who did the installation named it Mac Attack and I wish to change this but I am not sure how.

2. I tried both iStat Nano and iStat Pro but neither work for MacBook Pro just yet. Which temperature monitoring widgets do you use on MBP?

3. Someone has mentioned that creating a sub-folder in Applications directory will interfere with automatic software updates. What if I were to install the program into an appropriate sub-folder rather than relocating the files? Would this be alright then?

 

[iGary]

More questions:

1. How do I change the name of my notebook? Someone who did the installation named it Mac Attack and I wish to change this but I am not sure how.

2. I tried both iStat Nano and iStat Pro but neither work for MacBook Pro just yet. Which temperature monitoring widgets do you use on MBP?

3. Someone has mentioned that creating a sub-folder in Applications directory will interfere with automatic software updates. What if I were to install the program into an appropriate sub-folder rather than relocating the files? Would this be alright then?

1. The notebook or your HD? I wouldn't mess with the name of the computer; it's quite risky.

2. You'll have to find something Universal, I'm not sure .

3. Just slap your applications directly under Applications, I don't think its worth messing with. Why do you want to shuffle stuff around?

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

1. How do I change the name of my notebook? Someone who did the installation named it Mac Attack and I wish to change this but I am not sure how.

3. Someone has mentioned that creating a sub-folder in Applications directory will interfere with automatic software updates. What if I were to install the program into an appropriate sub-folder rather than relocating the files? Would this be alright then?

1. System Preferences -> Sharing -> Computer Name.

3. Let the applications that came with the computer, and additional Apple software you've installed since, stay in the Applications folder, those are the ones getting updated through Software Update. If you move those they won't get updated. Period. Other software you can basically install anywhere you want.