Just got the MBA 1.8/128 SSD and am pretty much lovin' it. Here's my silly question for which I have searched and can not find the answer. I have installed Office on the machine. How the heck to I get Word onto my desktop? It is on the dock but I keep my dock hidden unless needed. I tried dragging Word onto the desktop (at the same time deleting it from the dock) from the Applications, however I'm then unable to lauch Word. So I dragged it back into the Applications and it works fine and at the same time had to re-lock it back onto the dock. Since I use this app alot I'd like it to be handy on the desktop. Thanks to all in advance
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Silly question from newbie
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What Willis said...
Before you start rearranging stuff to resemble windows, why not give the Mac way of doing things a shot for a week? You'll probably get used to just hovering over the bottom of the screen and waiting for the dock to pop up.
Incidentally - the dock can be on any side of the screen. I've always had mine stacked vertically on the left side of the screen (I size it small, and stop it from hiding). I figure that on a widescreen computer you have spare space at the sides, but not enough vertical space.
Before you start rearranging stuff to resemble windows, why not give the Mac way of doing things a shot for a week? You'll probably get used to just hovering over the bottom of the screen and waiting for the dock to pop up.
Incidentally - the dock can be on any side of the screen. I've always had mine stacked vertically on the left side of the screen (I size it small, and stop it from hiding). I figure that on a widescreen computer you have spare space at the sides, but not enough vertical space.
How do you like your MBA? I've got the same one and love the portability over my 17" MBP; my only issue so far is the battery life. It seems to me that both the battery drains more quickly than other laptops and that it takes MUCH longer to charge back up. No firm data on this it's more of a subjective observation. Anyone else observing the same thing?
I agree with using the Dock more. It's just a HUGE resource centre and a quicklaunch bar. Any application I need quickly, I 
+spacebar and type it into spotlight then smack enter to open.
Once you get into the swings of things, you'll notice how quick your productivity goes up.
+spacebar and type it into spotlight then smack enter to open. Once you get into the swings of things, you'll notice how quick your productivity goes up.
I would suggest downloading Quicksilver and trying it out. It's an app that lets you open programs by hitting a hotkey combo and typing in the name of the program you want to open. I really like it.
I recently converted from Windows and use this to launch most stuff. In Windows I have no icons on my desktop and would use keyboard shortcuts or the quicklaunch. I'm still getting used to not being able to totally get rid of the dock, but it is kind of handy for switching apps, I guess, but I prefer the option+tab way.
I think I fall into the camp of OS X would be great to use if I hadn't grown up on Windows as my main graphical OS.
I recently converted from Windows and use this to launch most stuff. In Windows I have no icons on my desktop and would use keyboard shortcuts or the quicklaunch. I'm still getting used to not being able to totally get rid of the dock, but it is kind of handy for switching apps, I guess, but I prefer the option+tab way.
I think I fall into the camp of OS X would be great to use if I hadn't grown up on Windows as my main graphical OS.
As a recent switcher myself, I agree with the posters encouraging you to try the dock for a while before loading aliases onto the desktop. It grows on you.