Need some basic noob help with mac :)

[truz]

I just purchased a iMac INTEL (2gig ram, 256mb vram). I have everything kinda locked down. I have my pop email accounts setup, bookmarks, setup history/cookie clearing for browser, installed adium to use aim, setup firewall, configed wireless but ended up using cord (played with wireless for when its needed one day). I have all the basics somewhat locked down as this is the first time I have ever played with a mac at all. One thing I'm still stuck on is the bottom menu. I seen a few screen shots of other macs and it seems as if they have a transparent background (so only icons display) rather then the light purple which is standard, also when I seen the screen shot it looked as if the menu icons was small and when you moved your mouse over the icons they blew up in size when hovering over them, any idea on how to do this?

Also,
I'm having issues installing flash player. I seem to have installed it but, its still not working. Is there and issue with flash player and mac os x 10.4.4?

 

[kretzy]

Have a look in System Preferences at the "Dock" section. It will allow you to turn on/off magnification, the magnitude of magnification and also the size of the dock. To make it transparent you need a 3rd party app, I don't use any, but lots of other people will know which ones are good.

 

[truz]

sweet! thanks a ton!

 

[truz]

you know.. I really feel stupid for asking that now. I have seen that in the sys prefs and overlooked it. I wish I would have known it was called a dock Thanks agaiN!

 

[MBHockey]

Hey, welcome Truz.

For making the dock background transparent, i use TransparentDock.

It's cool, it gives the effect that the icons are just floating there at the bottom of the screen

 

[truz]

sweet! my life is becoming so much easier now

 

[kiwi-in-uk]

Of course the other way to access Dock prefs is to right click on the vertical bar between the app shortcuts and the area to the right where the trash icon sits. When you run the cursor over the vertical bar the cursor changes from an arrow to a horizontal bar with up & down arrows. Right click then.

Cheers

Can't help you with the Flash player, sorry.

 

[SmurfBoxMasta]

I just purchased a iMac INTEL (2gig ram, 256mb vram). I have everything kinda locked down. One thing I'm still stuck on is the bottom menu. I seen a few screen shots of other macs and it seems as if they have a transparent background (so only icons display) rather then the light purple which is standard, also when I seen the screen shot it looked as if the menu icons was small and when you moved your mouse over the icons they blew up in size when hovering over them, any idea on how to do this?

Also,
I'm having issues installing flash player. I seem to have installed it but, its still not working. Is there and issue with flash player and mac os x 10.4.4?

Good for you, welcome to the Mac world, better known as "computing for the rest of us"

The "bottom" menu is the Dock, and it normally shows (by default) the Finder and several standard Mac applications on the left side, and files, folders & trashcan on the right..... and mousing over them does magnify them........is this what you are referring too ?

If so, you can easily add or remove things from there by clicking & holding the mouse on them, dragging it onto the main screen area & release the mouse button, which will result in a small "poof" of white smoke. Or change it's behaviours & appearance through the system preferences. And there are utilities to manipulate other aspects of the dock as well.

Don't worry, you dont actually "delete" any application from your HDD, everything is only an alias to the original file in your applications folder.
But beware, if you put your original file or folder in the dock at the time of creation, alias it somewhere else, then delete the original, you WILL loose your data.....

As for Flash Player & 10.4.4, remember, you are running the X86 version of OS X. I havent heard of Flash being updated yet to run on the Intel macs, but check versiontracker.com or macupdate.com for updates.
The PowerPC-native version still runs fine AFAIK, at least on my machine

 

[MBHockey]

Good for you, welcome to the Mac world, better known as "computing for the rest of us"

The "bottom" menu is the Dock, and it normally shows (by default) the Finder and several standard Mac applications on the left side, and files, folders & trashcan on the right..... and mousing over them does magnify them........is this what you are referring too ?

If so, you can easily add or remove things from there by clicking & holding the mouse on them, dragging it onto the main screen area & release the mouse button, which will result in a small "poof" of white smoke. Or change it's behaviours & appearance through the system preferences. And there are utilities to manipulate other aspects of the dock as well.

Don't worry, you dont actually "delete" any application from your HDD, everything is only an alias to the original file in your applications folder.
But beware, if you put your original file or folder in the dock at the time of creation, alias it somewhere else, then delete the original, you WILL loose your data.....

As for Flash Player & 10.4.4, remember, you are running the X86 version of OS X. I havent heard of Flash being updated yet to run on the Intel macs, but check versiontracker.com or macupdate.com for updates.
The PowerPC-native version still runs fine AFAIK, at least on my machine

I believe the intel iMacs shipped with their own specialized version of flash that's not readily available for download anywhere yet. It should be on the Restore DVD that came with your computer.

 

[truz]

I'm guessing they did not come out with a version for intels yet as I only downloaded the flash player due to nothing loading on websites I visit. After installing it did the same thing so I guess its still underworks!

 

[mduser63]

I'm guessing they did not come out with a version for intels yet as I only downloaded the flash player due to nothing loading on websites I visit. After installing it did the same thing so I guess its still underworks!

Probably true. OS X (at least on PowerPC Macs) comes with Flash Player already set up and working. Hope you're enjoying your new Mac. Things might be a little bumpy at first because you're still learning and also because Intel Macs are so new and not everything is supported yet, but in the next year things should change a LOT.

 

[truz]

as long as I have a working version of adobe creative suite, ftp client, macromedia studio and flash player I'm doing fine

 

[truz]

I'm just going to have to use my windows box until flash player is working on intel macs. It should be a quick process in fixing this.

 

[truz]

just an update for TransparentDock. It's currently not working on INTEL imacs I'm sure they will fix this sooner or later.