Macbook, ibook - which apple?

Spew

chocolatechipcookies wrote: »

Toys R Us is another place to avoid like the plague, especially as a new Mac owner. In general, I don't think someone who sells barbie dolls can demo iMovie from start to finish. if you know what you're doing, fair enough. When I worked in a Mac shop, we always had people coming in for demonstrations who wanted to get to know things.

Toys R Us no longer stock any new Mac stuff, they have cleared most of it out at discount prices, so if you find anything left that's related to Macs then it'll be cheap. No one is saying they'll demo any programs for you but you could play around with the computer to see what it's like.

deebster

Have fun shona, and if you need any help or have got any questions on using your Mac just ask

shona_2

deebster wrote: »

Have fun shona, and if you need any help or have got any questions on using your Mac just ask

Here goes then...
Is there a way to do 'page down' and skip words, instead of using the arrow keys?
Everything else so far I'm coping with! And am amazed how easy it is to switch between Mac and (work) PC! It's like driving a car and riding a bike! Or something!

Thanks

Shona

deebster

Holding the Function ('Fn', bottom left corner) and pressing the down arrow key should do page down for you. At least it does on my old iBook.

And when you are moving a cursor through text you can use option + the right or left arrow keys to go to the next word.

There are lots of keyboard shortcuts like this in OS X, some of which Apple haven't even documented themselves. A site like https://www.macosxhints.com is a good place to find out what things you can get up to, but just try having a guess at what you think the right shortcut for a command might be and you'll probably find out it works.

The Apple / Command key (along with another of course) does a lot of things, but you can also combine it with option for more choices.

I'd better go before I come over too geeky

shona_2

Thanks Deebster - I'll try that - and the website!
Becoming kind of geeky myself these days!

DaveMoneyMan

Shona

If you fancy learning keyboard shortcuts, you should check this out;
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75459

Also I have run Geekanoids for a couple of years now, so check it out to keep up on the latest Mac news.
http://www.geekanoids.co.uk

Good luck.

Sy1

Shona,

I also have a MacBook, and the easiest way to scroll up and down a page in Safari/Word etc is to use the touchpad, but with TWO fingers instead of the one you would use for moving the cursor around.

Just move up and down on the touchpad with two fingers!

shona_2

Sy1 wrote: »

Shona,

I also have a MacBook, and the easiest way to scroll up and down a page in Safari/Word etc is to use the touchpad, but with TWO fingers instead of the one you would use for moving the cursor around.

Just move up and down on the touchpad with two fingers!

Yeah - that is really cool, isn't it!

Shona

Dan_Thunder

Sy1 wrote: »

Shona,

I also have a MacBook, and the easiest way to scroll up and down a page in Safari/Word etc is to use the touchpad, but with TWO fingers instead of the one you would use for moving the cursor around.

Just move up and down on the touchpad with two fingers!

I got my Mac a couple of months ago and it took a little time to adjust after 15 years of the MS way! Now though it just feels weird using a non-Mac laptop. The amount of times I've tried unsuccessfully to scroll down the page using 2 fingers on the touchpad beggars belief!

Also don't forget stuff like Mac widgets, some of them are pretty useful.

I got mine because a lot of the i-life stuff is very handy for me, combine that with stuff like Neooffice & GIMP and I'm totally setup after spending absolutely zero on software!

Plus I have to admit i do like watching the wife start up her laptop and then I'll fire up my Macbook 30 seconds later and still be off and browsing the internet before windows XP has even loaded up!

Sy1

I agree Dan,

Having used PCs for years now I've had a Mac for a few months I'd never go back! People ask me what's so good about them because I'm always raving about my MacBook and trying to convert others to Apple - and I can't really explain - I think you just have to use one for a while to understand that there are so many useful features and the way it's been designed is just so ... logical I guess!

I was worried about the compatibility of Macs vs. PCs at first but can honestly say I haven't had any issues yet.