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Mac OSX Noob thread of OSX noobs

Bboy AJ

My dog was murdered by a 3.5mm audio port and I will not rest until the standard is dead
Meus Renaissance said:
I have no idea. Will start to monitor my charges more carefully, but I do remember initially charging it when it was above 50%. I was ignorant of the charging rules but since then have only been doing it when it's been under 15%. It is my primary machine. After speaking to Apple tech support, I was told my model has a charge cycle of 1000 before it starts to deteriorate.
Keep using it like you are and just get AppleCare.
 

Doytch

Member
Meus Renaissance said:
I have no idea. Will start to monitor my charges more carefully, but I do remember initially charging it when it was above 50%. I was ignorant of the charging rules but since then have only been doing it when it's been under 15%. It is my primary machine. After speaking to Apple tech support, I was told my model has a charge cycle of 1000 before it starts to deteriorate.
It doesn't really make a difference at what % you recharge, it's really just the aggregate total dis/charge that contributes to wear. So, plug it in when you can, and minimize battery use to maximize battery life.

Basically, don't worry about it. Too many people freak out about this stuff, mostly because early batteries were a joke.
 

jts

...hate me...
The_Monk said:
Hello GAf I bought a MacBook Pro 13" a couple of months ago and I have some noob questions. Care to help me please?

1- How do I print screen something?

2- I have one folder with lots of family pictures to show, I want to open them all and start a slideshow on fullscreen. Which is the best app for that?

3- On Pc I use control C + Control V to copy/paste. What about on mac?

4- Is it true, that, if I want to use Bootcamp on my Mac I must install only windows 7? I ask this because I tried to install XP and everything went well. But, when I put the Mac drivers Cd to boot it up a message poped on screen saying that I must have Windows 7. A friend told me that it's ok. I can always download XP Mac drivers and install them and everything will be ok. Can I..?

My apologies for giving you guys work, but if you can help me with this questions I will be very thankful.
1-as a beginner, you can use the utility called Grab (Applications> utilities or spotlight for faster access). However, screengrab shortcuts on the Mac are AWESOME.

Command+Shift+3: takes a screenshot of the full screen (or screens if multiple monitors), and save it as a file to the desktop
Command+Shift+4: brings up a selection box so you can specify an area to take a screenshot of, then save it as a file to the desktop
Command+Shift+4, then spacebar, then click a window: takes a screenshot of a window only and saves it as a file to the desktop

Learn them and love them.

2-Use iPhoto as your photo manager. Check out the tutorials on Apple's website or on the app itself. It's amazing.

3-just replace CTRL for CMD ;)

4-I wouldn't know for sure TBH. I don't bootcamp.
 

LCfiner

Member
concerning the print screen commands. yeah, you can memorize the commands but I tend to take the easy way out and I use a dashboard widget called screenshot plus that has buttons for each action. slightly slower but easier for me to use as I don’t need to memorize three very similar keyboard combos.
 
Thanks for the recommendations people. Another question: is it worth buying a Time Capsule? (1TB). I'll have a 750GB internal HD, which is enough I think. But a TC sounds like it might come in handy.
 
Bboy AJ said:
Keep using it like you are and just get AppleCare.

I already have it. Cost me £50 :D. I didn't know it covered depleted batteries

Also

ibXmF6.jpg


Homer-Simpson-Oh-No.jpg
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
dropped it? Did that a couple of times with my MBP. Bent the aluminium :/ still works fine

looking to upgrade now. Partly for battery life, partly for speed (although I could refresh mine with an SSD)
 
Has anybody managed to recovered any deleted data using TestDisk before?
I stupidly emptied trash and removed something I really shouldn't have!
Have been searching around for data recovery software and TestDisk seems to be the only free one that is legitimately free but when I try to use it, it can't 'see' my internal drive so I can't begin anything :(
 
Meus Renaissance said:
I already have it. Cost me £50 :D. I didn't know it covered depleted batteries

Also

ibXmF6.jpg


Homer-Simpson-Oh-No.jpg

:lol Ya, don't worry about it. I babied mine for like 2 months and then got a nick in the corner and I freaked out at first. That first dent or scratch is always the worst. :( I feel your pain.

And ya, new MBP with the built in batteries go 1000 cycles.
 

MicH

Member
After 7 months I slipped on the ice with my MBP in my back. Now the screen is uneven :( I cried a little, but I learnt to live with it. The first scratch/dent/drop really hurts.
 
MicH said:
After 7 months I slipped on the ice with my MBP in my back. Now the screen is uneven :( I cried a little, but I learnt to live with it. The first scratch/dent/drop really hurts.

Totally, the first is always the worse and the rest aren't so bad.
 

The_Monk

Member
jts and LCfiner thank you for the tips, really helped me :)

Now, if someone can answer me the 4th question I would be greatly thankful since it's the one which I can't solve by myself.

Thanks!
 
The_Monk said:
jts and LCfiner thank you for the tips, really helped me :)

Now, if someone can answer me the 4th question I would be greatly thankful since it's the one which I can't solve by myself.

Thanks!
What disk are you using? Snow leopard? Have you tried just looking at the files on the disk? I thought they had XP on the disk, it may just be auto-detecting wrong. I haven't had XP on mine so I'm not positive.

There is stuff like this on Apple's website: http://support.apple.com/kb/dl830 for XP drivers. It's definitely possible you just have to get them off of apple's website if they're not on the disk for some reason. There may be newer xp drivers than that too, I just googled it and that was like the second result.
 
D

Deleted member 22576

Unconfirmed Member
Yeah, its not your Macbook until you scratch or dent it.
 

The_Monk

Member
Zaraki_Kenpachi said:
What disk are you using? Snow leopard? Have you tried just looking at the files on the disk? I thought they had XP on the disk, it may just be auto-detecting wrong. I haven't had XP on mine so I'm not positive.

There is stuff like this on Apple's website: http://support.apple.com/kb/dl830 for XP drivers. It's definitely possible you just have to get them off of apple's website if they're not on the disk for some reason. There may be newer xp drivers than that too, I just googled it and that was like the second result.

Yes it's the disk that came with my Mac and the one that I must use according to the tutorials I've been reading.

After I install the Windows XP I put my Mac OS X Install DVD but when he auto-run a message pops saying "you need Windows 7 installed" or something like that. Can't remember exact words.

Do you think I can explore the Mac dvd, see if I find some Xp drivers on the disk and install them? I'm gonna search on their site (the one you have me) but i'm afraid of installing wrong XP or something. (this is my first MAC, so...)
 
jts said:
Command+Shift+3: takes a screenshot of the full screen (or screens if multiple monitors), and save it as a file to the desktop
Command+Shift+4: brings up a selection box so you can specify an area to take a screenshot of, then save it as a file to the desktop
Command+Shift+4, then spacebar, then click a window: takes a screenshot of a window only and saves it as a file to the desktop

Learn them and love them.

Add 'ctrl' to the above shortcuts to save the screenshot to the clipboard instead.
 
CrudeDiatribe said:
Add 'ctrl' to the above shortcuts to save the screenshot to the clipboard instead.

The Alt key comes in handy too. Just press and hold that, and select any program from the dock and it'll display only that program with the desktop background, as opposed to bringing the window to the forefront of other opened windows
 

Pachimari

Member
Christ... I bought my first iMac 27" 15 days ago, it turned out to have a cracked glass panel on the top left corner. I got it exchanged for a new one, and that one had dust inside the glass panel and loud fans. Today I got it exchanged and is now on my 3rd, and it has marks beneath the glass panel...! =;(

Guess I'll get a refund tomorrow and buy an iMac 27" somewhere else huhu.
 
Anastacio said:
Christ... I bought my first iMac 27" 15 days ago, it turned out to have a cracked glass panel on the top left corner. I got it exchanged for a new one, and that one had dust inside the glass panel and loud fans. Today I got it exchanged and is now on my 3rd, and it has marks beneath the glass panel...! =;(

Guess I'll get a refund tomorrow and buy an iMac 27" somewhere else huhu.

Damn, that's unlucky. :/
 
The_Monk said:
Yes it's the disk that came with my Mac and the one that I must use according to the tutorials I've been reading.

After I install the Windows XP I put my Mac OS X Install DVD but when he auto-run a message pops saying "you need Windows 7 installed" or something like that. Can't remember exact words.

Do you think I can explore the Mac dvd, see if I find some Xp drivers on the disk and install them? I'm gonna search on their site (the one you have me) but i'm afraid of installing wrong XP or something. (this is my first MAC, so...)

How old is your mac? I'm assuming it's recent so the disk that it came with was snow leopard. And ya, if you see XP drivers when you explore the disk you can just do that. That's how I got the drivers for my apple wireless keyboard on my windows 7 pc that I built. Just make sure if you do that that you choose the right bit 32 vs. 64 and stuff like that if it gives you an option is all.
 
Meus Renaissance said:
The Alt key comes in handy too. Just press and hold that, and select any program from the dock and it'll display only that program with the desktop background, as opposed to bringing the window to the forefront of other opened windows


Hmm. On this 10.5 box, option clicking on an app's Dock icon hides the application if it's the active one, or hides the active one and switches to the clicked-upon one if it wasn't. I know you want the "Hide Others" option, so maybe the shortcut for it changed from 10.5 to 10.6.
 

Samyy

Member
getting my first mac in 12 days, the base MBP model ( 2.3GHz i5, intel hd 3000, 4 gigs ram) :D. Now I have a couple questions that I couldn't really find the answers to around the internet.

1) I was hoping to still be able to play Rise of Nations, my fave pc game of all time, on my new mac, can this be done by dual booting win 7/ xp? Will it perform all right?

2)Will there be compatibility issues between files I create in iWork and Microsoft Office, this is important since I'm going to first year uni.

3) How is the battery life on these things? I know they say it runs 7 hours but does it actually?
I'm hoping for a good 5 hours between charges, I don't plan on watching too many videos/ playing games, just mostly internet and word documents/presentations.
 

The_Monk

Member
Zaraki_Kenpachi said:
How old is your mac? I'm assuming it's recent so the disk that it came with was snow leopard. And ya, if you see XP drivers when you explore the disk you can just do that. That's how I got the drivers for my apple wireless keyboard on my windows 7 pc that I built. Just make sure if you do that that you choose the right bit 32 vs. 64 and stuff like that if it gives you an option is all.

My MAC is one month old. Its a MacBook Pro 13" (I guess?) with 4GB ram intel core i5 2.3GHz processor. Does that help?

Will try as you say, regarding the 32 or the 64, it's simple, if I click the wrong one it does not even boot, right?

Thanks a lot for the help, sorry for giving you guys work... =/
 
The_Monk said:
My MAC is one month old. Its a MacBook Pro 13" (I guess?) with 4GB ram intel core i5 2.3GHz processor. Does that help?

Will try as you say, regarding the 32 or the 64, it's simple, if I click the wrong one it does not even boot, right?

Thanks a lot for the help, sorry for giving you guys work... =/

Ya, you have snow leopard then. What do you mean boot? You're just looking for drivers right? You have XP installed already? It may give you an error when trying to install the driver saying it's the wrong bit. I'm assuming your copy of XP is 32 bit, not many people had the 64 bit of XP because it sucked.
 

The_Monk

Member
Zaraki_Kenpachi said:
Ya, you have snow leopard then. What do you mean boot? You're just looking for drivers right? You have XP installed already? It may give you an error when trying to install the driver saying it's the wrong bit. I'm assuming your copy of XP is 32 bit, not many people had the 64 bit of XP because it sucked.

After getting the error that I said previously I deleted the XP partition. Now i'm going to do the bootcamp all over again, install XP and try to install the drivers.

And yes, I meant just looking for the drivers. Thank you very much helping a junior ;)
 
Does anyone here have a cooling pad for a MBP 15"? I'll be playing a lot of TF2 and other games on it, so I think I should buy one since the MBP is known to get very hot. Any recommendations?
 
Does nobody have any advice on data recovery?
Still too scared to turn my Mac back on incase the data I need gets re-saved over :-/
Basically I emptied my trash and need those files back. Anybody have any experience?
 
Jo Shishido's Cheeks said:
Does nobody have any advice on data recovery?
Still too scared to turn my Mac back on incase the data I need gets re-saved over :-/
Basically I emptied my trash and need those files back. Anybody have any experience?

There are programs if you google that can try to find files like that but you're not guaranteed to be able retrieve them. Why would you empty you trash of files you need?
 
I would empty the trash of files I need because I'm a dumb ass.
I've googled and come across a few programs, the best of which charges you per 100MB you retrieve. I need about 4GB so that's out. I've downloaded one called TestDisk (for free) which reportedly works, though it runs through Terminal and leaves me confused :(
 

wolfmat

Confirmed Asshole
TestDisk is a very good program for the task, it's not risk-free though; you can basically fuck up your filesystem. It is intended for advanced users. Since noone wants to be responsible for breaking your shit, you will probably not get a walkthrough for what you want to do.

You should go to the Genius thing and ask for help.
 

hirokazu

Member
Yeah, obviously useless in hindsight, but I can't stress enough the importance of data loss prevention rather than recovery. Backups! Version control! It's like magic when you need it!
 

njean777

Member
Samyy said:
getting my first mac in 12 days, the base MBP model ( 2.3GHz i5, intel hd 3000, 4 gigs ram) :D. Now I have a couple questions that I couldn't really find the answers to around the internet.

1) I was hoping to still be able to play Rise of Nations, my fave pc game of all time, on my new mac, can this be done by dual booting win 7/ xp? Will it perform all right?

2)Will there be compatibility issues between files I create in iWork and Microsoft Office, this is important since I'm going to first year uni.

3) How is the battery life on these things? I know they say it runs 7 hours but does it actually?
I'm hoping for a good 5 hours between charges, I don't plan on watching too many videos/ playing games, just mostly internet and word documents/presentations.

Grats on deciding to get a mac
1.Yes Rise of Nations should work just fine
2. Iwork can export your work as word documents, so you can turn in a word document instead of a pages document. These exported documents will work just fine in Word for windows. If you want to skip this extra step, you could just buy Word for Mac.
3.Myself with wifi, I roughly get about 5-7 hours, 5 If im watching a lot of flash videos, 7 if im just browsing gaf/other forums.
 
;-(
Stupid thing is I'm a Time Machine disciple too but the one time I don't back-up.....
The main thing I lost was a folder of photos. The other files aren't completely essential I suppose, I'd miss them but you know I'd live. The photos are essential though. Luckily I have copies of the photos on my iPad so could get them off there if they can't be recovered.
Are they resized to the iPad display res or might full-res pictures be lurking around on there also?
 

btkadams

Member
Samyy said:
getting my first mac in 12 days, the base MBP model ( 2.3GHz i5, intel hd 3000, 4 gigs ram) :D. Now I have a couple questions that I couldn't really find the answers to around the internet.

1) I was hoping to still be able to play Rise of Nations, my fave pc game of all time, on my new mac, can this be done by dual booting win 7/ xp? Will it perform all right?

2)Will there be compatibility issues between files I create in iWork and Microsoft Office, this is important since I'm going to first year uni.

3) How is the battery life on these things? I know they say it runs 7 hours but does it actually?
I'm hoping for a good 5 hours between charges, I don't plan on watching too many videos/ playing games, just mostly internet and word documents/presentations.
2) i actually recommend office for mac 2011. it's fantastic and removed a lot of the annoyances and glitches with office 2008. i actually used iwork for about a year during my first year of university and hated it. you can export into word/excel compatible files BUT it's not just the files that you want compatibility. in some of my business courses, we would spend many days going through on excel how to do specific things required for projects and assignments. there are many shortcuts and add-ins that are exclusive to office and may be required for assignments. for this, it is a necessity you use what everyone else is using. play it safe and use office. it's more expensive, but it will be far more accessible to you and make school a lot easier if you have to use excel for any assignments.

plus you can find cheap downloadable versions of office 2011 for like 100 bucks online as well, so the price upgrade isn't that big of a deal.
 

kaskade

Member
I'm ordering an external drive today, I figure that's more important than ram since I'm always putting it off. I don't want to be the guy that buys and external drive because I lost my data. Happened to my friend a little while ago.
 

njean777

Member
btkadams said:
2) i actually recommend office for mac 2011. it's fantastic and removed a lot of the annoyances and glitches with office 2008. i actually used iwork for about a year during my first year of university and hated it. you can export into word/excel compatible files BUT it's not just the files that you want compatibility. in some of my business courses, we would spend many days going through on excel how to do specific things required for projects and assignments. there are many shortcuts and add-ins that are exclusive to office and may be required for assignments. for this, it is a necessity you use what everyone else is using. play it safe and use office. it's more expensive, but it will be far more accessible to you and make school a lot easier if you have to use excel for any assignments.

TBH though if he is just writing papers he really doesn't need to pay the amount MS wants for Office on Mac, pages works just fine. So does Keynote.
 

Talon

Member
njean777 said:
TBH though if he is just writing papers he really doesn't need to pay the amount MS wants for Office on Mac, pages works just fine. So does Keynote.
But if needs to use Excel (maybe he's doing Econ), he needs Excel.
 

btkadams

Member
njean777 said:
TBH though if he is just writing papers he really doesn't need to pay the amount MS wants for Office on Mac, pages works just fine. So does Keynote.
agreed, that's why i wrote i was in business courses using excel so he could ssee my reasoning. if you're a student who is just using a word processor and perhaps a presentation program, then iwork is definitely more cost-effective and will get the job done.

edit: sort of beaten
 

njean777

Member
Talon- said:
But if needs to use Excel (maybe he's doing Econ), he needs Excel.

I have very little experience with Numbers/Excel when I did have to use it, I used Excel never used Numbers. So I wouldn't have a clue about how Numbers compares to Excel.
 
njean777 said:
I have very little experience with Numbers/Excel when I did have to use it, I used Excel never used Numbers. So I wouldn't have a clue about how Numbers compares to Excel.

It's not terrible but definitely does things differently from Excel and it's annoying when you're expecting to have it behave like excel.
 

MicH

Member
I also prefer Office for Mac 11. I find Pages to be way to simple. It just doesn't offer the same functionality as Office does. But as others have said, it might be wisest to see what you can afford. Office is outrageously expensive compared to the iWork package.
 
MicH said:
I also prefer Office for Mac 11. I find Pages to be way to simple. It just doesn't offer the same functionality as Office does. But as others have said, it might be wisest to see what you can afford. Office is outrageously expensive compared to the iWork package.

Depends on what you're using it for two. If you're just typing reports for college you don't need the extra features Word has compared to Pages. There's no real good reason to buy office over iWork just for writing reports for college.
 

MicH

Member
That's exactly what I use it for. I couldn't get Pages to behave like I wanted it to and found I couldn't make it work like Word could - especially when in group projects where multiple members need to be able to work on your project. But it depends on your needs entirely. Pages is excellent, but in my opinion Word is better.
 

Quick

Banned
Meus Renaissance said:
I already have it. Cost me £50 :D. I didn't know it covered depleted batteries

Also

ibXmF6.jpg


Homer-Simpson-Oh-No.jpg

Ouch.

I was watching TV and casually let my hand drop on my lap while holding the remote, and it hit my Macbook Pro instead. There's a small dent on one of the ports on the left side. :(

I was pretty mad because before then, I took so much care of it. I still do, of course.
 
Zaraki_Kenpachi said:
Depends on what you're using it for two. If you're just typing reports for college you don't need the extra features Word has compared to Pages. There's no real good reason to buy office over iWork just for writing reports for college.
Word has a built in bibliography/citation tool, and iWork doesn't. Citations and bibliographies are essential for college reports.
 

Quick

Banned
cooljeanius said:
Word has a built in bibliography/citation tool, and iWork doesn't. Citations and bibliographies are essential for college reports.

I much prefer Office 2011 than iWork for the most part.

Keynote is amazing for presentations, and I prefer it over PowerPoint. I don't use it exclusively, but if I had to present with my laptop, I use it.
 

MicH

Member
cooljeanius said:
Word has a built in bibliography/citation tool, and iWork doesn't. Citations and bibliographies are essential for college reports.
That feature is one of my favorites. It saves so much time.
 

Pachimari

Member
I got a refund for my first iMac 27", which I got to exchange two times before getting my money back. Now, I'll just look forward to the new MacBook Air and then come back to the iMac next year. =)
 
cooljeanius said:
Word has a built in bibliography/citation tool, and iWork doesn't. Citations and bibliographies are essential for college reports.

For bibliography I use noodle tools and citation was never really a problem for me. Like I said, it completely depends on what you use it for. iWork isn't terrible is all I was saying.
 
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