MacinSpot

When purchasing and Mac, think about getting free from all Microsoft products, including Office. Try the iWorks suite, which is cheaper than Office. You may get a bunch of extra features with Excel for creating macros and performing complex math formulas, but if you just use Excel for basic stuff, like creating budget sheets, keeping up with expense reports and so on, you will be fine with Numbers. Other than that, you should have all you need and at a cheaper price.

For this article I will show you how to create a Pages document and save it in a Microsoft Word format. The same export feature that I will show you is the same for Keynote and Numbers as well. Once you know how to export to Microsoft Office format on one program, just apply the same basics to the other applications.

So to start, open up pages and create a blank document.

Once open, type what you want and save it the usual way in the standard Pages format. When you have finally finished or you are ready to send the document to a fellow Windows user(or another Mac user stuck on Microsoft Office) for editing, go to the File menu and select export.

A dialogue box will pop up with a few options across the top. You can even save your document in a PDF form. For purposes of this article, we will choose the Word option.

Click next at the bottom right and decide what you want to name this document as well as where you would like to save it to.

I chose the desktop to make things easy, but I always suggest saving your documents in the documents folder located in your home folder. Click export and the file will be exported to the proper Microsoft Word format.

Remember, this same technique applies to Numbers as well as Keynote. So you can save in Powerpoint or Excel formats. All three applications also let you save to PDF format for your Adobe crazy friends and coworkers. This article was written using iWorks ‘08. I am sure the feature is similar in ‘09, but I am not sure about previous versions.

Mac OS X is great but sometimes, just like Windows, it flakes out and you need to quit some tasks that look like they have taken off towards Never Never Land. Mac OS X is smart and can actually recognize when an application is losing it. Since applications are running independently and don’t really rely on the operating system as much as Windows programs do, you can still manage to open a menu or even another application. In some cases you will never know an application stops responding until you come back to that application and try to do something with it. In this case let me show you how to end it.

If you click and hold on the icon in the dock you will find that this menu pops up:

If this menu does indeed pop up, you are in good shape. Where it says quit at the bottom of the menu, if the application is not responding, this will change to “Force Quit.” If you are unable to access this menu try going to the Apple Menu and scrolling down to force quit. Alternatively you can hit command+alt+escape to get this same box:

You can, from here, select the application you wish to force quit, then click relaunch to try and restart the application. If things seem to be going a little more berzerk than that, and you want to restart but something is timing you out, preventing your restart. Open the Apple menu and hold down the shift key. You will see the force quit menu item turn into “Force Quit Finder” if you are in the Finder. Holding down the shift key while making that selection will force quit which ever application you are in.

Select this, then restart your computer. Everything should be back to normal. It is a good idea to restart your computer every couple of weeks at least. This is a good habit to be in.

Finder is provides a way to get around on your computer. This is what you can use to navigate through your existing files and folders. Apple has made Finder super easy to use and it is the one application on your dock that you can’t really quit. The icon looks like this(located by default on the far left side of the dock):

When you click this icon two things will happen, if you are in another program, you will notice at the very top on the menu bar, “Finder” will appear indicating you are now using Finder:

and a new window will pop up similar to this:

Whatever you were doing before you clicked the Finder icon will not be jeopardized in anyway shape or form.

As you can see across the top of the window, there are four buttons grouped together:

These will change the way you view icons throughout Finder. The one on the far left is a darker gray indicating that it is the current view, which is to view the contents of the current folder by icons. If we hit the next one over, we can view the contents of this folder in a list view:

The next one over to the right is by columns:

This is handy and I tend to like this view if I am moving back and forth between folders a lot. If you click the very top folder, “Applications,” you will notice that the list of applications show up in the second column over:

The last view type is called “Cover Flow” which is new to Leopard. This basically gives you a preview of the contents within each file.

You can quickly scroll through images and movies with this view to find what you are looking for by using the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard. Alternatively, to change the view you can click on the “View” menu and click on one of the View as choices at the top of the menu.

You will notice at the top in the middle of the next picture, a gear icon with an arrow pointed downward.

This is an action menu. You can create a new folder or label files, or copy and paste files from this menu. This menu will even let you delete files by moving them to the trash.

You will have to select a file if you wish to manipulate it, such as moving it to the trash or copying before hitting the gear menu. This menu can be handy sometimes though.

You will also notice at the bottom of the screen shots above, there is what is called a “Path Bar.” Look at the window below:

If you notice at the bottom of this window it says “Leopard > Applications” and all this is doing is showing me where on the system I am. To activate this “Path Bar” go up to the View menu on the menu bar at the very top and click “Show Path Bar.”

Also in this menu you will notice “Customize Toolbar…”

If you select this option, you will get a window that pops down much like this:

You can drag what you want on the toolbar by clicking and holding down. I added the “New Folder” and “Path” buttons to my menu bar as well as changing at the very bottom, “Icon Only” to “Icon and Text.” I click done and my changes were applied:

Now instead of having to use the action menu to create a new folder, I can just click the new icon I added.

One last thing before I finish up. The Finder has what is called a Home folder for you to work out of. This is a place for you to store all of your stuff and it is divided up for you to keep your stuff organized.

On the side bar under places you will find an icon, possibly with your username next to it, that you can click on and it will bring you to the list you see in the first column. You will see already created folders for you to use such as, Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Library, Movies, Music, Pictures, Public, and Sites. The other few folders you see in my Home folder I have created myself. Some are pretty self explanatory, like the Desktop folder, this is all the items that are on your desktop. Anything you save to the desktop will be stored here. To keep your desktop clean though, you might try saving your pictures in the pictures folder, you music in the music folder and so on. If you point FireFox and Safari to download files items to the Downloads folder then you won’t have to worry about filling up your desktop with stuff you have downloaded. Leopard comes with a stack on the right hand side of the dock next to the trash bin called, downloads, this stack points to that folder. Public, and Sites I wouldn’t worry too much about. Public is a way to share files and folders with other users and Sites is used to store websites offline. Also, you may be asking what the Library folder is. You really shouldn’t need to use that folder. This is where applications store preferences for you. This way, if there are multiple users using the computer, all of which have their own user account, they can have their own preferences without interfering with one another. The Mail application is a prime example of this. Your Mail gets saved in this Library folder. If someone else uses this computer with their own username and password, they can setup Mac Mail with their own preferences.

The Home folder is a great organizational tool set. Use it and you may find a clutter free desktop awaits you. I hope this information has been helpful. Though some of this does not apply to Tiger, I am posting this article in both as much of it does pertain to Tiger. Just remember that Tiger does not have Cover Flow, nor does it have Stacks.

An operating system on any computer is what allows you, the user, to access programs, store and access files, and use the hardware attached to your computer. An operating system gives you what is known in the tech world as a graphical user interface, or gui. When you multi-task on a computer, running several applications at once, and you are moving back and forth from let’s say Safari, Mac Mail, and iPhoto, the operating system allows you to do this easily. It used to be that you would have to insert a floppy disk and boot a computer off of that disk, then, once booted up, you could run whatever was on that disk. Now you still have a disk that you boot from called a hard drive, but this is inside your computer case now and basically boots up one large program that allows you to run other programs within that one large program. That one large program is the operating system. It’s the menu bar at the top of the screen on your Mac. It’s the dock at the bottom of the screen. It’s the entire graphical presentation that is given to you and allows you to click on icons, install and remove programs, edit files, move around the mouse on the screen, and it’s what connects your favorite song to your speakers so when you click play, you hear it. The operating system connects you to your hardware.

This so called battle has been going on for decades now, so I figured I would lend a hand to this. I am not bias towards either so I think this article will be fair to both. As long as I have a working computer, I am quite happy. It really doesn’t matter to me either way. I have a custom built PC that I put together myself, and I have two Mac OS laptops that I love as well. I have been focusing my tech experience around Macs as this is a rapidly growing market. Roughly 50% of the customers that walk out of an Apple Store are new to the world of Mac OS. Maybe this will help others understand what the real difference is between Macs and PCs.

To be very straight forward, you cannot compare a Mac to a PC. They are built with different ideas in mind. An Apple computer is built to be used straight out of the box with minimal setup time wasted. It doesn’t come with the extra clutter that PCs try to advertise to you. They come with what Apple thinks the average home user needs to just setup and go. They are not built to be customized, and adding ram or hard drive space isn’t customizing a computer. They have a nice clean style to them so they don’t look ugly sitting on your desk. Apple builds their computers with quality in mind, not quantity which is why they are a little more expensive.

PCs are built, for the most part, with quantity in mind. You can get a bajillion gigs of ram and lots of disk space for a low price. Makers of PCs such as Dell and HP build their computers with cheaper parts though. They do this so they can assemble large quantities of computers for an inexpensive price, and then sell them to the consumers for a fairly inexpensive price. The cost here is quality. PC makers such as Sony do have some lineup of PCs with quality in mind, but for the most part, PCs are built with quantity in mind.

Using cheaper parts leads to a shorter lifespan. Apple Computers can last seven to ten years all with very little service during the life of the computer. Sure there is always the possibility that you might get a dud, but that comes with anything you buy. Most tech shops will tell you that the average lifespan of a PC is roughly five years. Most PC owners need some kind of service to their computer at least once a year if not more. Add that up and your looking at the price of a new Apple Computer anyway over the long run.

While many techies argue back and forth over which is better you have to realize that neither are really built with the same idea in mind. Windows has always been more business oriented, while Macs have always been more home user “fun to use” oriented. Macs are not built to be customized, they are built to work, and run for several years. PCs are built around the whole easy to fix, upgrade your internal parts when you can concept. In the early days of LeMans racing(which is a 24 hour car race for those who aren’t familiar with it), the cars that were built for the race never lasted 24 hours. As a matter of fact, the last one standing usually won the race. Porsche recognized this quickly and they started building race cars to put in the LeMans race, not for speed, but for stability and durability. They built a car that would last the entire race and started a consistent winning streak because their cars were the last ones standing after 24 hours. Apple has adopted this concept and applied it to computers.

PCs are great computers don’t get me wrong. Apple however creates the operating system for the computers they build. Have you ever seen a Microsoft computer? No. HP, Sony, Gateway, and Dell all build their computers around the Microsoft Windows product. You have several companies involved with one project. So who do you call when something breaks? If its an Apple, you can take it to the Apple Store or call Apple. They put the entire computer together, and then they programmed the operating system to work properly with the hardware they used. That makes sense. When I pieced together my custom built PC, I put it together, then I installed Windows XP on it. After that, I installed the necessary drivers for the hardware I used to ensure that everything functions properly. I installed anti-virus(you can’t have a PC without anti-virus), and after several hours I had a working computer. Now you won’t have to do any of this when you buy a new pre-built computer obviously, but know that when you have to reinstall the Mac operating system, you don’t have to install drivers to ensure all of the hardware works properly. It just works because all of that is built into the operating system. You should install anti-virus on your Mac but you certainly don’t HAVE to(see article: Antivirus/Antispyware on Mac).

Bottom line is this: There is no perfect computer out there. Both PCs and Macs break. PCs are a little easier to fix from a techs perspective, but Apple Computers are designed to leave the consumer out of the break/fix loop. They want to bring you a nice quality computer that quite possibly won’t break, but if it does you definitely know who to call or where to take it. They want to provide you with everything you need right out of the box. They want to make things as simple as possible for the average user to be able to learn a Mac quickly, AND they want to provide the public with a computer that can integrate into a world of PCs very easily. I have a PC/Mac network at home and I swap files back and forth between the Macs and PCs all the time. All of this is what Apple means when they say “Mac just work.” At MouseCalls, the tech shop where I work, we see roughly one Apple computer to every 20 PCs. When I setup a Mac on a client site, I rarely ever hear back from that client. When I setup a PC on a client site, I frequently hear back from them wondering how to do something, where something is, or why is something not working.

This is the main difference between Macs and PCs. Go to the local Apple Store and at least look at the Apple Computers on display before making a final decision. You may spend a little more money, but then again you may be happier in the end.