Ten Things Every New Mac User Should Know

Someone give a star to #9. Scott, I've been searching for this for *ages* ! And I actually figured out the FN+Delete two days ago by accident as I was searching for a way to forward delete in Virtual PC 7 :)

Being a recent "switcher", can I suggest to include the Enter key to rename files? I know it sounds stupid, but it took me ages to find the alternative to the F2 button!!!!

Can't you just drag an application to the trash to uninstall it?

"When control-clicking or right-clicking, the option key toggles additional CM items. Like in Safari, right-clicking a link brings up a CM including "Download Linked File" which toggles to "Download Linked File As..." when one hits option." Actually, Option is just all around useful. Try holding option while clicking through the various menus in the menubar. Modifier keys are abound, too. Take Shift for example. Try holding it down while performing various tasks. We probably all know about making animations go slower when holding shift down, but also, if you hold down shift while pressing the volume keys on the keyboard, the volume will raise and lower silently.

Grant, you'll notice that the key that you hit to backspace says "Delete" on it, whereas the one you're thinking of say something roughly like "Delete [X>" - which is the forward delete. For those of us on the portables, there is no forward delete key, so we have to use the Fn key and then hit delete to get a forward delete.

also there is no add/remove programs like in windows. uninstalling is done manually or the program might have a built in uninstaller.

I didn't want to include too many keystrokes, it was supposed to be just for beginners. But I have to say I was overwhelmed with all of the comments, people adding little helpful tidbits here and there. Turned out great.... a little too great. I went over my bandwidth by 5gigs with the 12k unique hits.

I don't get it. The delete key (the one under the seemingly useless "help" key on the full size keyboard) does forward delete for me, and always has.

Here's one that vital to know when coming from the Windows world: Combining folders with the same name on a Mac is a data-destructive, not data-merging, process. For example, say you have a folder on a thumbdrive called "Work Documents." You also have a folder on your computer's hard drive called "Work Documents." Your thumbdrive "Work Documents" folder contains some of the same files as what is on your hard drive's "Work Documents" folder, but not all of them. But, you do have some updated files on your thumbdrive, and you'd like to make the the "Work Documents" folder on your computer current. In Windows, the process usually means simply copying and pasting the "Work Documents" folder from the thumbdrive to the hard drive. Windows will ask if you'd like to overwrite the older files on the hard drive, but files that existed on *only* the hard drive will remain in the folder (essentially merging the data from the two folders). On a Mac, doing a copy & paste of the "Work Documents" folder from thumbdrive to hard drive will ask for overwrite verification, but answering "yes" will do a complete overwrite of the folder... erasing files on your hard drive's folder if no equivalent existed on the thumbdrive. The key thing for the new Mac user to remember (in order to avoid accidental erasure) is that they should copy-and-paste the contents *within* the folders rather than the containing folder itself. This way files that you want to be overwritten will be, but files which existed in the destination folder prior to the copy process will remain. I love my Mac, and am more than happy that I made the switch, but this was one item that definitely took me by surprise and is worth passing on. :-)

I Just discovered this little command a few weeks ago but it is the one command I have been looking for since I got my computer. Because i'm working on a 12-inch PB, all of my application windows are fullscreen size, so it was very difficult to go back and forth between composing an email and the inbox. NOT ANY MORE! Command-Tilde (The key directly above the tab kay or on the left of the 1 key) It does the same as Command-Tab but goes through the open windows of just the one application you are currently working in.