Top 10 Things I Just Learned About My MacBook

This is the first entry in what will, no doubt, be along, winding path as I work to familiarize myself with my MacBook Pro.  Having never really worked with Macs (at least not since public schools), this will take awhile.  In the meantime, for those who are similarly struggling, here are the Top Ten facts I have learned this week.  They might seem incredibly simple, but for anyone who has similarly made the transition, you'd be surprised what becomes alien so quickly after a lifetime of learned behavior with the rest of the computer world.

#1. The internet screen can be minimized, closed, and enlarged by the three colored bubbles on the LEFT side of the window.  Mind blowing, honestly.

#2. CTRL C is no longer the way to copy something.  Instead, it's the key with the apple on it and then the same letters as before.  

#3. On the MacBook at least, the scroll bar was not available when the internet was open unless I hovered over it.  To fix this, I had to go the System Preferences (found either at the bottom with the gear icon or at the top under the Apple icon)

#4. That System Preferences will become your best friend on that first day.  The sound, the mouse control, etc are all found there.

#5.  Speaking of mouse control, there is no right click on this MacBook Pro.  The solution?  Apparently, if you hold two fingers on the mouse pad.  Who thinks of these things?  Thank goodness for Google.

#6. What can and cannot be moved to the trash is really trial and error - but mainly error.  There is a nifty additional option to see what you can do by holding the mouse down while over the icon.  If it doesn't want to leave the task bar, then it won't be an option.  Then System Preferences comes back to hold you hand.

#7. Nifty trick: If you save an image to your desktop, you can simply drag it into your blogs.  Like so:

#8. Chrome is incredibly picky about being closed.  On every other computer I've ever used, I just closed it out with the lovely little "x" in the right hand corner.  Now, it appears, that I have to close it with the left bubbles, but also to go to the top of the screen under Chrome and select Close.  

#9. There's intuition, and then there's learning a new computer.  This is not an intuitive experience.  This is a hunt and peck experience.  It's like watching someone try to type on a reverse keyboard. Only worse.

#10. Last thought of the day: Take it slow.  Nothing is going to make sense.  Nothing at all.  I'm having to get used to this, but it's actually kind of fun.  

I'll see what nifty tricks of the Mac universe I can pass on for next week.  Until then...


L.E.

Something New...

And what else would be new?  Over the course of this blog, I have written about horses, start up enterprises, writing, and even Smart Cars.  So, one might ask, what possible reason could I have to swtich strides yet again?

I've decided to stay pretty near to just writing on this blog from here on out.  I'll make detours (see the blog on off roading Smart Cars - literally a detour).  And with that in mind, the following posts will be geared from a writer's standpoint. 

I am a writer who has grown up on Microsoft Office, specifically Word.  I feel vaguely apprehensive when I have to work in different programs.  Word is what I know and what I'm comfortable.  Being a strong Microsoft person, I have had little interaction with anything Apple since I was in high school.  (For the great unknowing public, that was 12 years ago - I have officially hit 30).  Being back in school (nearly done with my AA - now exploring a Masters program after my BA...so basically two years down, three to go if I'm lucky), I found myself in a small conundrum.  I have a family computer, but I don't have a great deal of time to use it other than late at night and a laptop that doesn't always want to turn on.  I suppose this makes me sound a little bit shallow.  Here I have a computer and a laptop, but I'm embarrassed by how slow it moves.  Other people less fortunate than me don't have laptops, and rely on public computers.  I get that.  I do; I really, really do.  For me, however, it is an inconvenience that I had put on my radar to remedy.  My goal was to have a laptop that I could use once I started my Junior year at WSU.  

Playing on the fact that there are many without computers, I'm sure most of the world is well aware that they are not cheap.  A well functioning laptop that can last is even less so.  My parents looked for me right around my momentous birthday, but nothing worked out.  It had been pushed by my family to become a graduation present (graduation with my AA, not my BA).  Then something truly remarkable happened.

The general manager at my job quite literally came up to me this week and asked, point blank, "Do you want a laptop?"  He then handed me his MacBook Pro.  I was a little too startled to fully grasp what had happened, and then he showed me the battery that had completely imploded.  He told me it was still perfectly good to work with as long as it was plugged in, and that was an end to that.  I did, somewhat hesitantly, ask him a little later if this was to be for work only or if it was just mine.  The answer, well, let's just say this has been a week of miracles.

And so, let me pause to say a huge thank you to my manager, Tim.  This is amazing, and words don't really do justice.  I have a MacBook that looks to carry me through college.  Truly, three days later and I'm still a little bit speechless.

Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, though, but as I mentioned, my experience with Apple products is severely limited.  Like any true child with a new toy, I powered on the laptop at work just to see if it functioned.  (A reasonable thing to do, right?)  It did, but I had not idea how to move around in it.  My coworker had to explain that the enlarge and minimize my screen, I needed to look on the LEFT side of the screen, not the right.  When I took my prize home, I spent my evening learning the bare essentials, like where the mute button was.

Now, to end all my rambling, I have given an overview of where I am going.  I am going to write, in the simplest form possible, how to survive a transition from Microsoft/Android based systems to Apple.  And I will dial it down to as short an answer as I am capable in the hopes that if anyone out there has a similar problem, they can check out a blog or two and find out that to right click your mouse, you have to put two fingers on the mouse pad.  Honestly, who thinks of this stuff?  

Anyway, I'm off to skim MacBook for Dummies and wrap my head around this wonderful, baffling addition to my life.  Stay tuned.

L.E.

(Just because no post is complete without a picture)