What should I know about my new iBook?

June 19, 2007 3:27 PM

I'm switching. Help this longtime Windows user love his new iBook.

I've reviewed previous threads and surprisingly didn't find anything that fits my situation . . .

My last Apple machine was an LCII that I had, like, two decades ago. After a cascade of Windows laptop issues I declared "enough" and my IT department is providing me later this week with a new, fully loaded 15" iBook with Parallels.

What advice do you have for a power business user who travels all the time and is online constantly. I use Excel and Powerpoint intensively and create lots of charts and graphs. Any special tips/techniques? Third party apps I should know about?

Any tips for getting calendar and contact synch with my Nokia N95? (I've seen some forums suggesting it's possible.)

What are good sites to keep abreast of Mac doings?

Seriously, I no longer know anything about Macs, except that the geeks and creative people I respect most encouraged me to take the leap.

Please give me some Apple lovin'

posted by donovan to computers & internet (25 comments total)

Your business apps should run pretty much like before so I don't think there's much advice to give. For general networking, I suggest picking up firefox and opera since not having IE can make some sites hard to use. Having 3 (including safari) options to try can be useful.

If you are running important stuff under parallels, I'd suggest making an occasional backup of the virtual machine files. I've had parallels go wonky on me more than once.

Oh, go pick up a decent wireless mouse. The one button thing is just silly but we have to wait for his Jobsness to acknowledge that.
posted by chairface at 3:47 PM on June 19, 2007

Something that might help: I'm pretty sure what you're getting is a MacBook Pro, not an iBook.
posted by cosmic osmo at 3:48 PM on June 19, 2007

there is a lot of stuff that works really well, but costs a small amount. this small amount is worth it, unlike windoze shareware.
posted by jammnrose at 3:49 PM on June 19, 2007

I'm not sure how Microsoft Office works with Parallels, but as a guy who uses Office 2003 (on his Mac) and uses Office on Windows for work, I would definitely, definitely recommend buying the Windows version of Office. Compatibility is critical and especially when time is of the essence, you are not going to have time to deal with the little quirks of Office for Macs (when trying to use Mac documents in Windows). 7 times out of 10 (I pulled that number out of my ass) the transition on platforms is seamless, but those 3 out of 10 really piss me off.
posted by SeizeTheDay at 3:59 PM on June 19, 2007

When I switched a couple months ago, I noticed a two main things that I had to get used to:

1. Mac apps are more document-centric...as in, even if you close all open documents, the app is still running. This is much more obvious now with the Dock since a running app will be displayed with a triangle under it. It took a while, but I got used to actually quitting when I'm done, not just closing the doc's window.

2. I can't seem to find a minimize-all hot-key or option in OS X. I was very used to using the Windows-D hot-key to minimize all windows and show the desktop. This was something I used constantly in Windows, and miss very much.

As far as sites, I like to visit Mac Rumors and Mac Life on a regular basis. Also, here's a site that lists several open source applications that are very useful. I have a bunch of the apps linked to from there installed.
posted by JibberJabber at 3:59 PM on June 19, 2007

7 times out of 10 (I pulled that number out of my ass)
Well, I'd have to agree that that number came from nowhere. I've used Macs in predominately PC settings for years and haven't once had a file format incompatibility. I'm fairly certain that the Windows Office file format is exactly the same as the Mac Office format, no?

Also, 2. I can't seem to find a minimize-all hot-key or option in OS X. I was very used to using the Windows-D hot-key to minimize all windows and show the desktop. This was something I used constantly in Windows, and miss very much.
I know it's not quite the same thing as Windows-D, but F11 is the Exposé hotkey that will move everything out of the way and let you see the desktop. It isn't a permanent hide-all like Windows-D is, but what is nice is that you can do what you need to do on the desktop, then hit F11 again to bring back the workspace you dismissed a moment ago.
posted by Inkoate at 4:04 PM on June 19, 2007

JibberJabber, hit F11 to see your desktop.
posted by ldenneau at 4:05 PM on June 19, 2007

I'm fairly certain that the Windows Office file format is exactly the same as the Mac Office format, no?

The formats are the same, but the two programs (on different platforms) are not. That's the problem. And if you use certain functions on the Mac box, they don't translate to Windows (and vice versa). I've had problems with spacing, fonts, macros, password protection, and a few other issues that aren't coming to me at the moment.

Don't get me wrong; I still use Office for Mac. But only for non-business purposes. When I have business files to open, I immediately switch to my newly acquired Windows box. Saves me a lot of time and hassle.
posted by SeizeTheDay at 4:16 PM on June 19, 2007

I just made the leap too.

Learn the shortcuts. Closing a window doesn't necessarily mean you've exited the application. Use Apple+Q to actually close the app. If the arrow under the application icon disappears (on the dock), you've exited.

If you use Firefox:
Type in link, hold alt, hit Enter to open in new tab.
Hold Apple and click link to open a new tab.

Seriously, there should be a way to consolidate those two firefox shortcuts, maybe use Apple for both? That's my biggest gripe.

But yeah, shortcuts are very helpful.
posted by theiconoclast31 at 4:16 PM on June 19, 2007

The main problems between Windows Office and Office for Mac are when the fonts are different versions of the same named fonts, or when there are embedded files which don't have decoders on one or the other of the platforms.

For instance, you can embed PICT (and TIFF) files on the Mac Powerpoint, but the Windows version (if Quicktime is installed) will pop open a white box with an error message.

Windows Media and AVI files have similar quirks going the other way. (Especially with the Indeo codecs, which don't exist on Mac OS X)

If you stick to common-denominator (read: MS installed) fonts, and use .avi with common denominator codecs (read: Cinepak), you should have very few cross-platform issues with Powerpoint.

I've not dealt much with Mac Excel or Mac Word, so other than the interface differences, I don't know of many incompatibilities.

Running Office in Parallels is just fine, but if you do a lot of presentation from Powerpoint, you'll want to use Boot Camp instead of Parallels, as Parallels doesn't fully support two screens. You can have the Mac on one screen and Parallels fullscreen on the other, but Windows doesn't recognize two hardware screens, so you can't do hardware mirroring or Desktop Extending. That will limit your ability to use Presenter Mode in Powerpoint.

If you do a lot of VBA scripting within MS apps, don't expect to have those portions work in the next release of Mac Office - they're not porting the VBA layer, instead opting for better Applescript integration.
posted by tomierna at 4:50 PM on June 19, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

Common Mistakes Made by New Mac Users and a followup, Top 30 mistakes made by new Mac users.

Top 10 Things All Switchers Should Know

macosxhints is sometimes quite arcane, sometimes simply mistaken, but has some really good stuff.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) is a good source of news.

To keep my software up to date, I use AppFresh. It really is something Apple should include in Mac OS X. They should, IMHO, also include AppZapper and Disk Inventory X.
posted by stereo at 4:54 PM on June 19, 2007 [3 favorites has favorites]

Something that might help: I'm pretty sure what you're getting is a MacBook Pro, not an iBook.

Uh, you are correct. This is great, people--thanks and keep it coming!

Followup: I can't use a mouse (RSI) and use trackballs. Can I, like, just plug my existing peripherals in or does it have to be some kind of Apple certified peripheral?
posted by donovan at 5:12 PM on June 19, 2007

If your existing peripherals are USB or FireWire, they'll work fine, donovan. And as far as what you should know, if you're the type of person who uses books for computer stuff, I'd recommend David Pogue's Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Tiger Ed. It's insanely stuffed with OS X trickery and useful advice, with a lot of stuff geared toward people who are used to XP or other Windows flavors.
posted by cgc373 at 5:29 PM on June 19, 2007

Office 2004 for Mac isn't Intel-native, and as such isn't as zippy as it is on PPC Macs.
posted by Wild_Eep at 5:43 PM on June 19, 2007

ALMOST every USB/Firewire peripheral will work fine. Every now and then you'll run into something that doesn't work quite right, but it's going to be rare. Usually you'll just need to get a driver to make additional functions work (extra keyboard keys, mouse function keys, etc), but some things are not going to be happy. I tried a Razer mouse on my MacPro running Parallels, and could never get it happy in both environments. My fairly standard MS trackball and Logitech MarbleMan were fine...
posted by pupdog at 5:51 PM on June 19, 2007

As people seem to be saying, use the Windows version of Office. The mac version will drive you insane with its lack of keyboard shortcuts, and just-ever-so-slightly-different VBA.

Also, get a two-button mouse.

(on preview: get a two button trackball).
posted by pompomtom at 5:55 PM on June 19, 2007

Dealing with very similar questions right now, though I'm just experimenting with OSX86. One good resource for what's available is
posted by Drew_Blood at 6:08 PM on June 19, 2007

Oh, and all my existing Windows peripherals worked with no effort. You do need OSX support but lots of USB devices already have it.
posted by Drew_Blood at 6:09 PM on June 19, 2007

Quicksilver. It will change your life.

More here.
posted by rtha at 6:10 PM on June 19, 2007

When I switched, lots of little things drove me nuts and I've been able to find a solution for all of them. For example, tabbing between form elements in a browser didn't work as it did in Windows. But switching on "Full Keyboard Access" in System Preferences/Keyboard Shortcuts did the trick. The Mac version of Firefox didn't have favicons in the bookmarks toolbar until I installed Mac Favicon. The Home and End keys went to the top and bottom of documents instead of rows on a Mac, but those can be remapped. Don't assume you're stuck with some Mac-specific quirks as you get going. I've found Macs are pretty flexible.
posted by pb at 6:39 PM on June 19, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

Wow, you can't tell I'm new to MeFi. iusethis is the link I was attempting to post.
posted by Drew_Blood at 6:59 PM on June 19, 2007

Seconding Quicksilver, as far as the hardware goes, learn to use the two finger touchpad, it's amazing for scrolling and right clicking. A mouse is nice, but it's a laptop, and a mouse ruins some of the nice portability.

As far as peripherals, lots of them go through a very few number of drivers. Mice and Keyboards all go through one single driver, meaning every keyboard and mouse will work (with the exception of a few high end logitech wireless keyboards (grr)).

Cameras and lots of music players are similar, as they just behave like external hard drives, which again are mostly universal.

As far as software goes, I'm seconding Quicksilver. Use it to launch apps, and if you get into it use it for everything.

If when you say powerpoints you mean that you create then present, look into getting Apple's Keynote software. It's a good bit better than Powerpoint, and technically has powerpoint integration, you'll still run into the presentation not rendering right.
posted by cschneid at 8:28 PM on June 19, 2007

Thanks. Perhaps one place I'm a bit nervy is I routinely create documents in Word and PPT that I distribute which are then used by others (like my sales team) all running Windows.

I'm expecting I'm going to have to balance the extra creative powers (so I'm told) of the Mac with the need to create things that interoperate. Really hoping I can avoid running Windows apps and properly export things like presentations and docs.

(Put another way, I'm psyched to use Keynote for my own talks and actual keynotes . . . just hope I can easily distribute other presos others will be presenting)
posted by donovan at 8:41 PM on June 19, 2007

This has been said before but bears reiterating due to your specific mention of Excel: Office for Mac will no longer support VBA.

Insanity, I know, but so it goes. I know of a pretty sizable number of potential switchers who won't because of that.
posted by ChasFile at 10:57 PM on June 19, 2007

Jibberjabber. F11.
posted by The Esteemed Doctor Bunsen Honeydew at 2:15 PM on June 20, 2007