phinnia | Blogging the learning curve: aka 'The Mac Follies'

1. The iBook is cute and eeny. It looks nonthreatening. Perhaps this won't be so bad.
2. It took me five minutes to figure out what the damn 'Finder' thing was. What is so terrible about a menu? Why do we have to have things in a box? I thought this was some folder thingy that someone had left open. I already feel stupid. *hits head on wall*
3. I got the Airport thing turned on. Go me.
4. It can pronounce my name correctly (+) but not Tallin (-). Eloquence still can't pronounce my name correctly, defying its name. Obviously none of its developers are Jewish.
5. There are no little floaty tool tips. *pine*
6. I hate hate hate hate the mouse. HATE the mouse. HATE THE MOUSE. The trackpad thing feels really sticky and the one button thing is just not working for me. I keep double clicking on things and then they don't work right. *hits head on wall again*
7. Chris, probably sick of me berating myself, is trying to figure out how the TTS program works. Apparently it is reasonable but nonintuitive so far. Of course he doesn't seem to have my screaming inadequacy problem.

Stay tuned.

8. Found the 'column' view in Finder. That's actually much more intuitive.
9. Can not install OpenOffice because it won't work with Tiger; can not use AppleWorks because I think

kareila was right about the Carbon/Cocoa apps thing. (There's no point in having a word processing program that we can't both use.) Fortunately iWork seems to be cheap, yay for academic pricing.
10. Am very impressed with battery life and teeny/light size of machine.
11. Turns out the sluggish-mouse thing is a side effect of VoiceOver being on; if you turn it off the mouse actually MOVES properly.
12. Annoyed by Apple closing at 6PDT. One thing you can say about MS - they do have longer tech support hours. Their documentation for VoiceOver isn't that great, apparently.
13. Figured out that the menu at the top of the screen is NOT a system thing, but changes by application. *hits head on wall again* Yes, I'm really observant.
14. The mouse is now vaguely useable, but I still want a trackball.
15. I get that those alien things on the menus (the cloveleaf thingy and the slip-and-slide thingy) are supposed to be Magic Code for some kind of key combination, but I can't figure out what the frigging slip-and-slide thingy is supposed to MEAN.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

This sounds like my posts a few months ago, when I got my first Mac/iBook.

The only finder view worth using is the columns view. I hate the others. Give that one a try!

I'm using my Mac right now. Love it. It took me some time to get used to OSX.

I found the column view by accident. I see what you mean. That's MUCH better. :-D

I had to actually open a menu to get that one, but I got it. Clover-leaf means command - the button that, well, looks like that strange symbol. Slip-and-slide means either option or alt, depending on what keyboard you have.

The cloverleaf thing I figured out. I have no idea who thought that the slip and slide thing meaning alt/option was intuitive, but it's probably the same idiot that thinks the two button mouse is too confusing.
(This is actually not going too badly - but there are some things that are just STUPID.)

On Oliver's keyboard, the slip-slide (alt/option... and apparently control on some models, per Jen) symbol is on the appropriate button. Obviously that doesn't always help, but it was how I figured out what that weird symbol meant, when I started using OSX.

I think I'm the only person who really does not care how many buttons my mouse has. I'll use two, if I have them. But I'm okay with just the one, if that's what I've got, too.

I'm sure it'll go just fine after a week or two to adjust. I had the same learning curve myself, when OSX first came out. And then again when Windows XP came out, seeing as all the computers in the office where I worked at school had it.

And well, when all else fails, we're just a call or IM away, also. So long as it's between 5:30ish and 9ish p.m., during the week. :)

Funny thing for me is that I'm only a Mac person by default. My mom and I randomly chose to buy a Mac, back in '93 or so. Then every other computer I've had has been a Mac, but they've also all been given/handed-down to me. I can't argue with free computers. :)

It's kind of a weird engineering thing. The "slip n slide" is the electrical symbol for a two-position switch -- hence, an "option".

I wrote this post years ago, but in reverse, and about PCs! *giggle*
*waves*

:)

Re: OpenOffice... there's a native port of that called NeoOffice/J that you can get free from versiontracker.com - or, as you say, there's iWork.

Is there a Cocoa version of NeoOffice? I only found links to the Carbon version (which won't work with VoiceOver) - of course I looked at openoffice.org ...
I want to at least have it to open my old files.
(Chris wants to know if you'll be up for a bit?)

Is there a Cocoa version of NeoOffice? I only found links to the Carbon version (which won't work with VoiceOver) - of course I looked at openoffice.org ...

Not sure on this - you'd probably have to find the developer's site, though verstiontracker will no doubt have a link to that.

(Chris wants to know if you'll be up for a bit?)

Regrettably, as I'm sure you ascertained, I was not. Your comment showed up in my before-bed checking of email.

Sorry I won't be around to help you out this week; we're catching a plane to Bama in the morning.

Lots of people hate the trackpad; if you have any USB mouse or trackball, it will work, but you'll need http://www.usboverdrive.com/ to program the extra buttons beyond right click (which maps to control-click).

Control is the slip-and-slide key, I think, and Command is the cloverleaf key. In general, the Command key does on a Mac what the Control key does on Windows (major operations like copy, paste, etc).

Have fun with your new toy!

Have a safe flight. Don't eat too many grits. :-D And good luck with Sir Cuteness in the air.

Re: the mouse...use an external (two-button) one. And if that's not an option, know that to right-click you do option-click. I think. I don't have a Mac in front of me so I'm not positive, but it's one of those buttons in the bottom-left corner of the keyboard. Alternatively, you can hold down the mouse button, and that (sometimes, it depends on the program) opens up the context menu.

I would be hopeless with a Mac. I'd like one, though. Especially a PowerBook. One day when I'm rich...

Blogging the learning curve: aka 'The Mac Follies'

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