Mac OSX Noob thread of OSX noobs

lawblob said:
Random question. I have a new MBP and new copy of MS Office installed. My boss has an old as PC, and always says she can't open Word documents I send. She said she can open documents sent by other employees at my company on Macs, just not mine.

With the various common and specialty formats I can save with in Word, what would be the format I should save as so that someone with an old-ass copy of MS Office on PC could open the documents?
Click to expand...

When you save it save it as .doc not .docx.

It says in the options for save as that regular .doc is compatible with the older versions.
 
So I got various emails in the text field on my log-in on Facebook and I want to erase them like I did on Windows with "delete". But there's no such button on my MacBook Air, how can I erase them? =/
 
Found that, but couldn't find a 'delete' button, tried with 'backspace' as it's named on Windows and it worked. Thanks kind sir though, I appreciate your help. :)
 
How are the resale values on the Macbook Airs? I plan to buy one when they come with Ivy Bridge and sell that model, within a year, when a new model of Macbook Air comes out.
 
threetri333 said:
How are the resale values on the Macbook Airs? I plan to buy one when they come with Ivy Bridge and sell that model, within a year, when a new model of Macbook Air comes out.
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I imagine you'll get within $200 of what you originally paid. So it'll cost you like $200 to get the newest version.
 
For those who type on their aluminum macbooks extensively, how does the wrist area fare with sweat, dirt over all these months/years? Do you notice stains or signs of wear and tear on the wrist area, where you place your hands while you type?
 
threetri333 said:
For those who type on their aluminum macbooks extensively, how does the wrist area fare with sweat, dirt over all these months/years? Do you notice stains or signs of wear and tear on the wrist area, where you place your hands while you type?
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Had mine since May 2010 still looks like new.
 
Do people really type with their wrists resting like that? I just tried and it seems really uncomfortable and restrictive. My hands are always floating when I type.
 
threetri333 said:
For those who type on their aluminum macbooks extensively, how does the wrist area fare with sweat, dirt over all these months/years? Do you notice stains or signs of wear and tear on the wrist area, where you place your hands while you type?
Click to expand...

I've had my MBP for at least three years and there's no stains on the wrist area or anything like that. Use it daily too (although it's not my main computer). They are really solid well-built machines.

DeadRockstar said:
Do people really type with their wrists resting like that? I just tried and it seems really uncomfortable and restrictive. My hands are always floating when I type.
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I find it very difficult to type on a laptop without using the wrist area. I guess it depends on the size/shape of your hands though as to whether or not you'd find it uncomfortable. My hand is always hovering in the air when I use the trackpad though.
 
I rest my hands right there and it's constantly dirty and needs to be wiped off. I wipe it probably twice a day. If I didn't do that it would probably end up disgusting.
 
Sort of a random question; what must have programs do you guys use for day to day use? Nothing too complicated, just stuff that might not be obvious to an OSX noob.
 
I take it, that it is not possible, to have 2 Apple Remotes functioning at once?

I have an Apple TV and a Mac Mini in the same room, and I want the one remote to control Plex and EyeTV on my Mac, and the other remote to control Apple TV, is that not an option?

Whenever I use one of the remotes for either Mac or Apple TV, it actually controls both devices at once. =/
 
Anastacio said:
I take it, that it is not possible, to have 2 Apple Remotes functioning at once?

I have an Apple TV and a Mac Mini in the same room, and I want the one remote to control Plex and EyeTV on my Mac, and the other remote to control Apple TV, is that not an option?

Whenever I use one of the remotes for either Mac or Apple TV, it actually controls both devices at once. =/
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You need to pair them.
 
Mac OSX always tells me that the batteries of my keyboard are almost empty and it could switch off any time soon.

It's currently charged at 15% and started to give me the warnings when it was at 20% days ago. I don't see the need to switch already (considering the power drains pretty slowly), but the warnings on every boot up are annoying. Can I somehow regulate it down when it's supposed to warn me?
 
Jasoco said:
You need to pair them.
Click to expand...

I paired the one remote with Mac Mini but it still controls my Apple TV too. I'll try pair the other one with the Apple TV.

I have the exact same annoyance as Patrick Bateman right now. Its at 15% and it keeps giving me that warning ugh.
 
CrudeDiatribe said:
The Apple TV doesn't know that it's supposed to ignore other remotes until you pair it.
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Well, it worked at first or so I thought but if I'm in Plex on the Mac, then when I am controlling the Apple Tv with its paired remote, then it will control the Mac as well. Why? :(

Can I tell the Mac to ignore other remotes as well?
I paired one by menu+fast forward buttons but it doesn't seem to work.
 
Hmm.. Strange. You'd think pairing both devices to a separate remote would tell them to also ignore others. But maybe they don't in order to allow them to detect universal remotes? I dunno. This is why I prefer using my iPad/iPod for remotely controlling my mini on my TV.
 
Is there a PDF reader fo Mac that allows "free" highlighting? Preview only lets you highlight highlightable (derp) text, which doesn't apply to most of what I read for class, which is usually scanned from books. Basically, trying to highlight simply selects the entire page.
 
Just made the jump to OS X, bought a Macbook Pro this weekend. Have been working with an iMac for half a year on my work after 20 years of windows and a lot of things were a lot better on OS X. My 4 year old dell laptop broke down last week and i could find a 19% off deal on a new Macbook Pro so i made the jump!

What email client do you guys use? On windows i always used Thunderbird and i find the default mail client lacking.

Any other tips on must have applications? Can't find a thread about it.

I'm a (student) webdeveloper, any tips on must have stuff?

I am working with Eclipse a lot at the moment but i'm gonna try Sublime (http://www.sublimetext.com/) because some colleages were pretty positive about it.

Oh and i just noticed, where the f*ck is my delete button?
 
Kawaii said:
What email client do you guys use?
Click to expand...
Thunderbird

Any other tips on must have applications? Can't find a thread about it.
Click to expand...
VLC, TextWrangler, GIMP, Handbrake

I'm a (student) webdeveloper, any tips on must have stuff?
Click to expand...
OS X SDK for Unix tools, MacPorts, Terminal, git, hg, TextWrangler, vim, mysql, Ruby, Firefox + Firebug.. And so forth. It's a matter of methodology though.

Oh and i just noticed, where the f*ck is my delete button?
Click to expand...
Backspace operates as the delete button. For example, to delete a file, you press CMD-Backspace. On big keyboards, there's a Delete button right of Return (under F13).


Edit: Also, consume this: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1343
 
charlemagne said:
Or use Fn+Backspace if you want the forward-backspace type of delete.
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Yeah this is what i meant.

Also, I have another question.

I have a divx video I want to burn on a dvd for playback on an old dvd player.

Dvd player doesn't play dvds with just the files on it, it needs to be in a format in which a normal dvd movie would also be (Video_TS folder).

What program could I use for this? Any free ones available, Google didn't help.
 
Kawaii said:
What program could I use for this? Any free ones available, Google didn't help.
Click to expand...
You probably already have one installed because iDVD should be able to do this (if it's still free with a new MacBook). I'm not really a fan, but it works.

Generally speaking, it helps to press CMD+Space and typing stuff. For example, when I do that with the term "dvd", then iDVD is the top hit.
 
I got 1Password as part of last years MacUpdate bundle (Which I only bought for Parallels 6 which I have since replaced with a Parallels 7 upgrade) but never really used it until now. I figure it's much safer to lock all my important codes and passwords and stuff somewhere safe now that I'm not using the same password for everything.

I like it. Good app. But I wish it had a menubar application with a popdown that functioned the same as the browser extensions so I don't have to launch the app itself to get a code. That's disappointing. Would be so convenient. I can't believe it doesn't have one up there. Then I Google and discover that the menubar item is only part of the App Store version? What? This is a full version bought legitimately and it's gimped unless I spend $50 for the Mac App Store version? What if I bought the Mac+Windows version, is that gimped too? Oh well. At least the Chrome extension does the job I need. So I don't need a menubar app that badly since I'm mostly in Chrome anyway.

I did install the browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox and Safari. Very convenient.

Also, the iOS apps are pretty expensive, and have a lot of bad reviews, but most say how it is hard to setup since Dropbox syncing is broken, but it's not because I was able to successfully move my password file to my DB after two tries. (Crashed the first time) I did download the free Android viewer for my phone, but eventually I'll have an iPhone and will have to buy it. $15 for the universal version.

Anyone else use 1Password?
 
We have a newish (2010?) MacBook Pro at church that we use in children's ministry and one of its two USB ports doesn't want to recognize the peripherals we plug into it. For the first year+ of its life everything worked perfectly, but now we have to keep sharing the sole remaining port.

Any ideas what I should try?
 
mclaren777 said:
We have a newish (2010?) MacBook Pro at church that we use in children's ministry and one of its two USB ports doesn't want to recognize the peripherals we plug into it. For the first year+ of its life everything worked perfectly, but now we have to keep sharing the sole remaining port.

Any ideas what I should try?
Click to expand...

USB hub?
 
I think this is the best place to ask this...

I'm in the process of selling my 2011 MBP. I did a fresh instal on it, but I logged in (i.e. created a user) so I could check and make sure everything went OK. I didn't DO anything on the computer, so there's no more personal information on it. Do I have to hookup and do the Lion download reinstall again, or is there a way to just change the owner/user of the machine?
 
nicoga3000 said:
I think this is the best place to ask this...

I'm in the process of selling my 2011 MBP. I did a fresh instal on it, but I logged in (i.e. created a user) so I could check and make sure everything went OK. I didn't DO anything on the computer, so there's no more personal information on it. Do I have to hookup and do the Lion download reinstall again, or is there a way to just change the owner/user of the machine?
Click to expand...

They can create another admin user and delete the one you created.
 
mclaren777 said:
We have a newish (2010?) MacBook Pro at church that we use in children's ministry and one of its two USB ports doesn't want to recognize the peripherals we plug into it. For the first year+ of its life everything worked perfectly, but now we have to keep sharing the sole remaining port.

Any ideas what I should try?
Click to expand...
Yeah, one of my USB ports has damn near failed, so I just use a USB hub in the port that still functions. Kinda annoying sometimes, but it's doable. I've had this MBP (2009 iirc) for about two years now.
 
Gah! Is it possible to use the brushes in Photoshop with just touching the trackpad of the Macbook Air? Like a key + touching the trackpad..? I don't want to have to press down the trackpad and then move around >__<
 
Zanosuke said:
Gah! Is it possible to use the brushes in Photoshop with just touching the trackpad of the Macbook Air? Like a key + touching the trackpad..? I don't want to have to press down the trackpad and then move around >__<
Click to expand...

What you want is mouse keys. That uses the numpad to simulate a mouse. You can use your trackpad at the same time, of course.
Here's how to activate it: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/8565.html
Here's how to use it: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/cdb_moskys.html
 
Kawaii said:
What email client do you guys use? On windows i always used Thunderbird and i find the default mail client lacking.
Click to expand...

What do find lacking?

Kawaii said:
I'm a (student) webdeveloper, any tips on must have stuff?

I am working with Eclipse a lot at the moment but i'm gonna try Sublime (http://www.sublimetext.com/) because some colleages were pretty positive about it.
Click to expand...

Web dev:
Sublime Text Recently switched from TextMate to this, and it's awesome
less.app Automatically compiles Less stylesheets to CSS (with optional minification)
Google Chrome (With Page Speed if you're into optimizing your web pages)
SourceTree (SVN/Git client)
MAMP Easy set up for Apache, MySQL and PHP

Other:
Movist Great alternative to VLC
Reeder Nice Google Reader client ($10)
 
I really need som urgent help with Pages on Mac. I'm still pretty new to the whole Mac scene, and I'm writing job applications on it, doing it in Pages. I choose the 'resume' template, but isn't it possible to turn the profile picture around?

Another thing is, how can I save it as a .pdf?
The stores here in Denmark want it sent as a .txt, .word or .pdf file - any of the three will do.
 
Anastacio said:
I really need som urgent help with Pages on Mac. I'm still pretty new to the whole Mac scene, and I'm writing job applications on it, doing it in Pages. I choose the 'resume' template, but isn't it possible to turn the profile picture around?

Another thing is, how can I save it as a .pdf?
The stores here in Denmark want it sent as a .txt, .word or .pdf file - any of the three will do.
Click to expand...

Making a document a PDF on a Mac is done through the print command. The option will be on the lower left of the print dialog box.
 
I don't know if this is too technical a question to ask in this thread, but I'll give it a shot. I'm in charge of computer allocation at my company, but I'm not an IT guy by any stretch of the imagination. We hired a gal in December who quit in January; she was issued a brand new MacBook Pro and shipped it back to our office this week. She had a password on her account (the only admin account; I don't do anything with the computers before I give them to people, although apparently I should) and would not return my calls or emails asking for the password.

Because the system did not come with a Lion install disc (WTF, Apple?) I did some Googling and found several sites that recommended booting into single user mode and entering the following code:

Code: 
mount -uw / 
rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone 
shutdown -h now

I did that and it seemed like it worked the way it should, but now when I boot the computer, it just sits on the gray screen with the Apple logo while the little wheel thing spins forever. I've looked all over the place, and while I can find a couple other instances of people having the same issue, I haven't seen any suggested solutions. Does anyone here have any suggestions? Right now I am assuming I'll just have to take it to the Apple store in a couple weeks when I have the time, but I thought GAF might be able to assist me sooner than that.

Thanks in advance for any help.
 
zesty said:
I don't know if this is too technical a question to ask in this thread, but I'll give it a shot. I'm in charge of computer allocation at my company, but I'm not an IT guy by any stretch of the imagination. We hired a gal in December who quit in January; she was issued a brand new MacBook Pro and shipped it back to our office this week. She had a password on her account (the only admin account; I don't do anything with the computers before I give them to people, although apparently I should) and would not return my calls or emails asking for the password.

Because the system did not come with a Lion install disc (WTF, Apple?) I did some Googling and found several sites that recommended booting into single user mode and entering the following code:

Code: 
mount -uw / 
rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone 
shutdown -h now

I did that and it seemed like it worked the way it should, but now when I boot the computer, it just sits on the gray screen with the Apple logo while the little wheel thing spins forever. I've looked all over the place, and while I can find a couple other instances of people having the same issue, I haven't seen any suggested solutions. Does anyone here have any suggestions? Right now I am assuming I'll just have to take it to the Apple store in a couple weeks when I have the time, but I thought GAF might be able to assist me sooner than that.

Thanks in advance for any help.
Click to expand...

So what are you exactly trying to do? Access her account? Reinstall MacOS?
For starters: Lion has no Recovery-DVD because it is on the Harddisk as a recovery-partition. Just hold the Option-Key during boot and select the Recovery-Partition.
 
Garou said:
So what are you exactly trying to do? Access her account? Reinstall MacOS?
For starters: Lion has no Recovery-DVD because it is on the Harddisk as a recovery-partition. Just hold the Option-Key during boot and select the Recovery-Partition.
Click to expand...

I didn't know about the recovery partition. Thanks!
 
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