Stumbling around in a room full of Windows

August 29, 2006 8:01 PM

Mac graphics and Photoshop guy just starting to teach PS in a PC-only classroom and looking for help!

On first exposure, the differences in keyboard shortcuts seem to go beyond the basic Command/Control thing. For example, what’s the PC equivalent for Opt/Command/spacebar=Zoom In? Any tips, pointers, links, whatever, that might help me transfer my Mac/PS short-cut finesse to the PC?

Any good PCs-for-Mac-folks books/sites, more recent, that is, than this? No doubt there are many other things I’ll bump into, trip over, or otherwise wish I’d known about.

Also, any suggestions for PC system and/or free shareware stuff that will stand in for things I do all day on my Mac, like take screen grabs?

Finally, I’d love to hear any recommendations for cool free PC graphics apps, plugins, utilities... Things that might grab a room full of rowdy youth? TIA!

posted by dpcoffin to computers & internet (9 comments total)

Um... screen grabs? Like what the "print screen" button on the keyboard does? Saves it to clipboard rather than to a file, just [ctrl]+[n] for new document and paste.

Zoom is easy - [ctrl]+[+] to zoom in, [ctrl]+[-] to zoom out. [ctrl]+[0] fits it to current screen.

Far as I know most shortcuts translate pretty well, once you figure out if option is substituted by control or alt (it varies, as with most Mac/PC crossovers) - and the drop-down menus at the top generally have the shortcuts listed after the command in case you know where it ought to be in the menu but can't remember the key combo.

As for extras... Picasa gives you most of the same features as iPhoto (although I honestly think Picasa is a better program, from my perspective). Google gadgets (which install with google desktop) are pretty similar to your dashboard widgets. There are quite a few AskMe threads about the best essential freeware for Windows; those may be worth a look.
posted by caution live frogs at 8:21 PM on August 29, 2006

Oh - if you have any blossoming architects, throw a copy of google sketchup at them. It is pretty simple but looks like it could be very useful. Sorry if too many recommendations are for google products, but as a Mac user most of them aren't available for you to download - so you may not have thought to check them out.
posted by caution live frogs at 8:24 PM on August 29, 2006

The keyboard shortcuts - every single one of them - are available in these handy pdfs.

also available in Mac flavor
posted by O9scar at 10:09 PM on August 29, 2006

Command is to Mac as Alt is to PC.
Option is to Mac as Ctrl is to PC.
Shift is the same.
If I recall right ctrl isn't used much on the Mac for Photoshop, but it is used on the PC for clipboard (cut/copy/paste) operations.
Holding the spacebar does the same thing on both platforms (gives you the "dragging hand")

Consider using Alt + the scroll wheel (or is that Ctrl + the scroll wheel? I forget) on the mouse too. Most PC mice have scroll wheels and you can insta-zoom using it.

Concentrate on fundamentals (using the various palettes, masks, layers, all of the tools in the tool palette) and keyboard shortcuts, they save tons of time.
posted by ostranenie at 10:42 PM on August 29, 2006

You could also get the Lynda.com intro to Photoshop and watch it- in one hour you'll know all the shortcut differences *and* have a brisk brush up on the interface *and* know how someone else would teach it.

They're solid videos and I use them every time I need to get the interface out of the way on a new platform or program.
posted by fake at 11:08 PM on August 29, 2006

Command is to Mac as Alt is to PC.
Option is to Mac as Ctrl is to PC.

I'm not on my Mac ATM, but isn't this back-the-front? Isn't Command == Control? and Option == Alt?
posted by ranglin at 11:40 PM on August 29, 2006

Great stuff, thanks! More! More! (Yes, BIG fan of lynda’s; resubbing asap)

That Google stuff looks wonderful. (PC envy!) Let’s see what I can talk the lab tech into letting me install...

Is there any way to “print selection of screen”? Without buying something?
posted by dpcoffin at 1:07 AM on August 30, 2006

What do you mean by print selection of screen? Like, you only want to capture a certain portion? alt-printscreen will capture only the current window (and that includes popup windows in individual applications as well, it will only capture the popup). If you want to screencap specific sections of the screen that aren't an entire window (aside from just cropping a full screengrab, which seems like the most obvious solution), you'll have to buy something.
posted by antifuse at 2:12 AM on August 30, 2006

The best screen capture utility I've used is Snag-It. It lets you capture the whole screen, currently open window (or a subsidiary window), a defined area, a selected area, cursor or no cursor, and more. Then it saves it to the file format of your choice. There's a 30-day, full-functioned trial version here.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 6:27 AM on August 30, 2006