Backspace and Delete

Reading the forums on Mac
Rumors I finally figured out how to delete on a Mac. The delete key
basically does the Windows equivalent of backspace. To actually do the
delete, you need to do Fn{delete}.

Space versus Enter

Navigating forms on a Mac definitely needs some learning. For example,
I typed something in TextEdit and then hit CMD-W to close the window.
It pops us the standard dialog asking me to either Don't Save, Cancel
or Save. I can use the tab key or the cursor keys to move between the
options. But, it's always the default one - Save - that stays
highlighted. Navigating to others just gives them a blue border. Then,
I realized that hitting Enter always selects the default option, no
matter what is currently selected. To actually perform the action that
you have selected, you need to hit the spacebar. This is completely
different from what happens on Windows.

Using Camino

I never tried Safari and didn't want to use IE on a Mac so I was going
along with FireFox till now. That's the browser I use on my Windows and
Linux boxes and it was nice to see the familiar interface wherever I
surfed. But what kept bugging me was that I could not navigate web
forms in FireFox by using just the tab key on Mac. When you hit tabs,
FireFox only jumps between the input text boxes in the form. It won't
select dropdowns, checkboxes, radiobuttons, etc and I had to use my
mouse to select those. I hated doing that because for some of the
sites, I'm so used to navigating just by the tab key.

Enter Camino. I had dismissed this earlier because it's still 0.8 and
didn't seem any different from FireFox. But now I realize it does
understand all the other inputs also. Plus, now that I'm getting used
to the Mac interface look-and-feel, Camino looks better since it has a
native Mac UI. The really sad part is that it doesn't support
extensions as yet so I've lost my darling Google bar. The built-in one
works just as great but I don't like how it's banished to one corner
and I can't do quick searches for the words in the page.

Hopefully they come up with Version 1.0 soon.

Eudora Sucks on a Mac

Strong words, but that has been my experience. I started with Mac Mail,
decided that I should stick to my regular Eudora (which I've used on
Windows ever since I got a POP enabled email address), but have gone
back to Mail now.

The Eudora Mac interface sucks big time. The fonts look weird. Even if
I select the same viewing font in Eudora that I did in Mail, it looks
really odd there. And what's up with that <snip> thing it does in
the preview window ? OK ... maybe it's good, but I have to double click
every-time I have to follow a thread. There should be an option of
turning it off. I can turn it off by saying 'None' for the compact
options, but then it starts spitting out email headers also !!! Also,
if I double click and open a message, it selects everything by default
so a single key stroke just deletes the whole content and I have to do
a CMD-Z to get it back.

So, I finally made the decision to say goodbye to Eudora (which has
really served me so well so far on Windows). The ads in the sponsored
mode are a bit more intrusive on a Mac compared to Windows, since the
ad window is floating, and that was another reason. Mac Mail is free
and has everything I want.

Changing Default Applications

I had a tough time figuring out how to set Adobe Acrobat Reader as
the default application for reading PDF files. Mac OS X had Preview
set by default and I couldn't find a 'Default Application' item in
the help text or any menus.

Solution : Select any PDF file in your Finder. Don't double click on
it and then select 'Get Info' from the File menu. In the 'Open With'
section, select Adobe Acrobat Reader (of course, you need to install
this first). This didn't work for me till I selected Other and then
pointed it to the executable. Then, click the 'Change All' button
which will set Acrobat as the default application. This still didn't
fix it in Firefox, but I'll tackle that later.

Right Clicks and More Menus

When you begin using a Mac after being a long-time Windows user, the
first question you probably ask is why can't I right click ? In
Windows so many options show up when you right click that I usually
say if you can't find it, try right clicking and you might see the
option. After reading a number of help texts, here's what I found ....

1. When you hold down the Ctrl key while hovering over an item on
your screen, the mouse pointer might change to something that looks
like a Menu. That means that if you click on that item while holding
down the Ctrl key, you will see a different menu. Mind you, there are
some cases where you won't see that changed Menu item. So, it's
always worth holding down the Ctrl key and see if that gives you
anything.

2. The second thing I saw was that just holding down the mouse button
also brings up a menu. I have only seen this in Entourage 2004 as yet
(when trying to snooze reminders), but I try to do that also once in
a while. I guess if the item has a small arrow on the bottom right
corner, pointing downwards, it means that you should hold your mouse
button to bring up that menu.

Update : I also saw this when editing bookmarks in Firefox. For example, hold down your mouse button for a second when clicking a bookmark. You'll get a menu for editing it.

Bluetooth Mouse

Well, there's nothing to learn here. If you have a Bluetooth enabled
Mac, you simply buy a mouse from the Apple Store and then you start
using it. It's that simple. Click the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar
and then select Setup Bluetooth Device and you should be good to go
in a minute.

However, for the first couple of days I struggled with the mouse
everytime my computer was in sleep mode. When I restarted it, it
didn't remember my mouse and I had to run through the configuration
everytime.

Solution : Close and Open the latch at the bottom of your mouse and
then click it a couple of times. The Bluetooth module then picks it
up automatically and remembers it - like the name I gave it.

Email Blogging

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Hey, It's me blogging by email this time. Does this really show up ?

The Basics

Whenever I get a new machine (which is not that frequent, even if the beginning of the sentence might lead you to think otherwise), the first thing I want to make sure is whether it's secure. I don't want people logging into my machine or being able to look at what I've been doing if I step out for a minute. So, here's some basics ....

1. Locking your screen - With Panther, you have Expose. So, you can set hot corners on your screen so that if you move your mouse to any one corner and keep it there for a few seconds, the screen saver comes on. Now, if you have your screen saver password protected, you get the result of locking your screen by just moving your mouse pointer to a corner.

2. Automatic Logins - I found this a bit strange. Max OS X has automatic logins turned on. Although you have to enter your password for a sudo or changing any system preferences, it still means that anyone can just turn off your computer and then login as you automatically. And then, people have passwords stored in their browsers, email clients, etc ... and you can guess the rest. Disable automatic logins using the Security option from System Preferences.

3. Right clicking the mouse - Not so soon. That's in my next post.

Going from Windows to a Mac

I've been using my new Mac for a while now, and every day I learn something new. Few of them ... make me sad ... like I don't have a quick hot key combination for locking the screen (ah! the pleasure of Ctrl-Alt-Delete) ... some I just love, like how seamlessly Max OS X links all the iLife things together.

But, what I really wanted was a place where I could just start listing how my experience is of switching to a Mac. I've been a Win/Linux user for quite a few years now and with KDE imitating Windows so much, a completely new desktop system like Mac sure raises a lot of questions when you start using it. The first - What's up with this one button mouse ???? No right click ? How do I use a Mac then ? .... And then I heard Steve Jobs's voice in my mind saying ... Patience, my young apprentice.

Rather than take the pains of creating a web page, I thought I should just create this as a blog and use a free tool.