Pelican Parts Forums

Pelican Parts Forums (http://forums.pelicanparts.com/)
-   Off Topic Discussions (http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/)
-   -   Mac folks, most have tricks, tips, apps for Mac OS (http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/1067848-mac-folks-most-have-tricks-tips-apps-mac-os.html)

masraum 07-20-2020 08:21 AM

Mac folks, most have tricks, tips, apps for Mac OS
 
I've got a new iMac, and I'm essentially new to Mac (other than helping the missus with hers from time to time).

Are there any tips, tricks, hints or must have apps that you existing and/or long time Mac guys would recommend?

I have a trackpad, and love the gestures. It's going to take me a while to not initially go the wrong direction every time when scrolling up/down or right/left. I tried reversing the direction, but went back to standard.

I'm also not a huge fan of Mac Mail, but I'll get used to it, I'm sure.

Other than that, so far so good.

Cajundaddy 07-20-2020 08:40 AM

Completely dependent on your interests. I have been a Mac user since 2009 and am still on the same laptop with one refresh in 2015. It just works.

Open Office is shareware that replicates Microsoft Office. A very useful productivity app.
https://www.openoffice.org/

For musicians, Garageband is a surprisingly full featured recording and production software suited for occasional users or pros.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0Ft-vgM7Rw

Lots of photo and video creative apps that run great on a Mac without crashing like my Windows equivalents seemed to do.

RANDY P 07-20-2020 08:51 AM

Remember that Finder is customizable. You can have it open up different views for different folders.

Makes a big difference when you're coming from Windoze

masraum 07-20-2020 09:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cajundaddy (Post 10953810)
Lots of photo and video creative apps that run great on a Mac without crashing like my Windows equivalents seemed to do.

I'll probably mostly use the Canon App for photo work, but is there a free app that's also good for photos/images?

The PC that I just moved from is a 2011 model. It wouldn't die, so we finally just replaced it. I'm going to wipe it and give it to my son.

masraum 07-20-2020 09:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RANDY P (Post 10953840)
Remember that Finder is customizable. You can have it open up different views for different folders.

Makes a big difference when you're coming from Windoze

Good to know, thanks.

I did go through and find the settings to show me everything on the hard drive instead of hiding stuff and to also show me the extensions of everything.

Soon I'll be digging into terminal and the CLI. I'm no *nix expert, but I've done shell scripting and I'm knowledgeable enough to be dangerous in *nix.

RWebb 07-20-2020 10:05 AM

you can set Finder to show the pics in your pics folders as um... small pics

have other folder alphabetical or by date

I keep 4-5 folders "homed in on" in Finder all the time; don't use Spotlight much as I want to search my files not all sorts of stuff

-----

Apple Notes is very worthwhile and automatically syncs across iPhone, laptop, desktop anywhere you are as long as you are near cell towers or log onto the internet with WiFi for a computer

stealthn 07-20-2020 10:15 AM

Learn the keystrokes, Apple C, Apple V, etc, very useful, or you can use Siri and just say do this...

masraum 07-20-2020 10:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RWebb (Post 10953955)
you can set Finder to show the pics in your pics folders as um... small pics

have other folder alphabetical or by date

I keep 4-5 folders "homed in on" in Finder all the time; don't use Spotlight much as I want to search my files not all sorts of stuff

-----

Apple Notes is very worthwhile and automatically syncs across iPhone, laptop, desktop anywhere you are as long as you are near cell towers or log onto the internet with WiFi for a computer

Thanks. I usually had a handful of explorer windows open on my PC to various folders, so I'm sure I'll be the same in Mac. Can you set the finder to always open certain folders in a specific way or is it each time?

I've been using Notes on my phone for a while. Having it on my PC now will add useful functionality I'm sure.
Quote:

Originally Posted by stealthn (Post 10953970)
Learn the keystrokes, Apple C, Apple V, etc, very useful, or you can use Siri and just say do this...

Yes, fortunately, many of the most common are common between Mac and Win, ie C, V, A, X, etc....

I've got a couple of tabs open in my browser to lists of shortcut keystrokes.

RWebb 07-20-2020 11:16 AM

yes, it will stay sorted the way you had it

Preview has some tricks too - e.g. there is limited ability to edit pdfs, edit jpgs, convert to other types, reduce size, draw on the pic etc.

Sadly, I have to say that you will eventually need to do things like:


Reset SMC of an iMac
1. Shut down your Mac
2. Disconnect the power cord
3. Press and hold the Mac’s power button for 5 seconds
4. Release the button
5. Reattach the power cables and boot the Mac as usual

Resetting the PRAM, NVRAM
* Reboot a Mac and then immediately hold down the*Command+Option+P+R keys

to restore the thing to normalcy

It's better than a Windoz PC, but not the gift from Siva that some acolytes make it out to be...

masraum 07-20-2020 11:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RWebb (Post 10954049)
Reset SMC of an iMac

Resetting the PRAM, NVRAM

It's better than a Windoz PC, but not the gift from Siva that some acolytes make it out to be...

Weird!

My previous Windows box was very trouble-free. I would occasionally have an issue, usually after an update, but that was probably only every 2 or 3 years, and was usually cleared up in anywhere from minutes to a couple/few hours.

RWebb 07-20-2020 11:38 AM

my macs might be in the same range - but it does happen

you also have all the power of Eunuchs if you drop into Terminal

Gus Berges 07-20-2020 12:03 PM

Don't forget to hook up an external drive for Time Machine. It's saved me a few times when I have erroneously deleted items or sometimes I wish I had a file from months ago that I purposely deleted. Customizing the dock also helps with productivity.

I've been an "Apple Fan Boy" since the 80s, but lately I've been extremely disappointed with the reliability of their laptops, the lastest one being the MacBook Pro I currently have (non operational) that its battery died 13 months after purchase and now. costs ±50% of a replacement new laptop.

Seahawk 07-20-2020 12:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gus Berges (Post 10954133)
Don't forget to hook up an external drive for Time Machine. It's saved me a few times when I have erroneously deleted items or sometimes I wish I had a file from months ago that I purposely deleted. Customizing the dock also helps with productivity.

Excellent. I back-up with Time Machine every Sunday morning, religiously:cool:

The reminder is in my calendar.

Two Macs, one that sits, one that travels but they are essentially the same machine.

masraum 07-20-2020 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gus Berges (Post 10954133)
Don't forget to hook up an external drive for Time Machine. It's saved me a few times when I have erroneously deleted items or sometimes I wish I had a file from months ago that I purposely deleted. Customizing the dock also helps with productivity.

I've been an "Apple Fan Boy" since the 80s, but lately I've been extremely disappointed with the reliability of their laptops, the lastest one being the MacBook Pro I currently have (non operational) that its battery died 13 months after purchase and now. costs ±50% of a replacement new laptop.

I've got a NAS that I'll be scheduling a regular backup to.

The wife's got a macbook air that's 7 years old and still kicking.

Seahawk 07-20-2020 12:25 PM

Get Office Whatever they are calling it these days for Mac...pretty seamless and we have to have it for out government customers.

Gus Berges 07-20-2020 12:26 PM

My Time Machine is permanently hooked up to my laptop unless I'm traveling with it. No reminders needed.

My MacBook Air (2013) is still alive and well, but the late 2018 Pro's battery died on January 2020 (Apple refuses to warranty it and claims no battery issues, but the web says otherwise). Also, look into the keyboard, battery, and flex cable issues on not too old laptops. I don't mean to bash on Apple, but they are not what they used to be.

Another tip/trick is to try and get as many as possible AirPlay devices, that way you can easily stream your audio to it.

masraum 07-20-2020 01:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seahawk (Post 10954167)
Get Office Whatever they are calling it these days for Mac...pretty seamless and we have to have it for out government customers.

I already got Office. I'd considered one of the compatible alternatives, but went with the real thing.

masraum 07-20-2020 01:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gus Berges (Post 10954168)
My Time Machine is permanently hooked up to my laptop unless I'm traveling with it. No reminders needed.

My MacBook Air (2013) is still alive and well, but the late 2018 Pro's battery died on January 2020 (Apple refuses to warranty it and claims no battery issues, but the web says otherwise). Also, look into the keyboard, battery, and flex cable issues on not too old laptops. I don't mean to bash on Apple, but they are not what they used to be.

Another tip/trick is to try and get as many as possible AirPlay devices, that way you can easily stream your audio to it.

Glad I didn't get a laptop, but then I've never owned one that wasn't provided to me by a workplace.

masraum 07-20-2020 03:03 PM

Anyone use any virus / malware programs?

I did NOT use any anti-virus software (a mask) on my old Windows PC other than the free from Microsoft malware thing, Defender or Security or whatever it was. I do have Pi-hole and No Script and uBlock on the browser. I don't want to add any bloaty crap to this if I don't have to.

stomachmonkey 07-20-2020 03:34 PM

No malware or AV needed.

GIMP for 80% Photoshop features but its free.

Spacebar, it's your friend, click file, any file of any type, press spacebar. Select multiple files, hit spacebar.

Apple Mail I never liked, if you have office use Outlook.

RANDY P 07-20-2020 05:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by masraum (Post 10954387)
Anyone use any virus / malware programs?

I did NOT use any anti-virus software (a mask) on my old Windows PC other than the free from Microsoft malware thing, Defender or Security or whatever it was. I do have Pi-hole and No Script and uBlock on the browser. I don't want to add any bloaty crap to this if I don't have to.

I use a separate Admin account for installation, and surf using a standard user account.

rjp

Porsche-O-Phile 07-20-2020 06:33 PM

AdBlock Pro, Little Snitch, StopTheMadness. Enjoy the Internet again on Safari.

Pages / Numbers are (IMHO) way better than Office (Microsoft bloatware). To each their own but I really like Apple Mail and can’t stand the bloatware feel of even “simple” Outlook. But that’s maybe just a personal preference thing.

I still really like Affinity Photo. Pretty much all the functionality of Photoshop without the insane pricing. Adobe recently went to a subscription model, successfully alienating most of the customers they still had left (including my office). Screw ‘em.

QuickPlan for project scheduling is awfully good unless you really need Primevera P6 for something crazy complicated. It’s just as intuitive as Project (maybe more so), they have an iPad version for 15 bucks and the output is plenty professional for even big clients like we’ve got.

I like handbrake for fooling around with videos too. And yes, GarageBand is really good for most home audio music making. It’s actually a pretty capable piece of software. I have no need for FinalCut...

Honestly PCs are surviving because (1) they’re the standard and (2) they still make better gaming platforms (because they’re the standard and more developers write for them). Aside from that and price tag I’m not sure why anyone wanting the best stuff wouldn’t go Mac.

masraum 07-21-2020 04:48 AM

Lots of good stuff, folks. Thanks!

RWebb 07-21-2020 01:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by masraum (Post 10954387)
Anyone use any virus / malware programs?

I did NOT use any anti-virus software (a mask) on my old Windows PC other than the free from Microsoft malware thing, Defender or Security or whatever it was. I do have Pi-hole and No Script and uBlock on the browser. I don't want to add any bloaty crap to this if I don't have to.

a Level 2 tech at Apple let slip that they use malwareBytes - it's free

masraum 07-23-2020 01:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RWebb (Post 10955676)
a Level 2 tech at Apple let slip that they use malwareBytes - it's free

Interesting.

masraum 07-23-2020 01:33 PM

Why didn't anyone tell me that when you hit "new finder window" you get a new tab in the same window? Tabbed finder windows might be cool, but sometimes you want 2 separate windows. It might be cool if you could vertically tile 2 tabs.

Hah, for whatever reason, this just popped into my head
Norton Commander
https://www.mathieupassenaud.fr/my-s...mg/image11.png

stomachmonkey 07-23-2020 01:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by masraum (Post 10958707)
Why didn't anyone tell me that when you hit "new finder window" you get a new tab in the same window? Tabbed finder windows might be cool, but sometimes you want 2 separate windows. It might be cool if you could vertically tile 2 tabs.

Finder->Finder Preferences deselect Open in Tabs

stealthn 07-23-2020 01:52 PM

For AV - I use this https://www.intego.com/

For VM’s I use VirtualBox

You will love LaunchPad and Mission Control

masraum 07-23-2020 02:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey (Post 10958725)
Finder->Finder Preferences deselect Open in Tabs

going to do that now! I think I vaguely remember setting that because 9:10 I prefer using tabs. But I was mistaken this time.
Quote:

Originally Posted by stealthn (Post 10958737)
For AV - I use this https://www.intego.com/

For VM’s I use VirtualBox

You will love LaunchPad and Mission Control

cool, thx.

stomachmonkey 07-23-2020 02:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stealthn (Post 10958737)
For AV - I use this https://www.intego.com/

For VM’s I use VirtualBox

You will love LaunchPad and Mission Control

And Sidecar if you have a newish iPad.

masraum 07-23-2020 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey (Post 10958782)
And Sidecar if you have a newish iPad.

My iPad is too old for that. My wife thought it would be cool to have that capability, but I don't feel like I can justify spending the extra money just to get a newer iPad.

stomachmonkey 07-23-2020 03:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by masraum (Post 10958793)
My iPad is too old for that. My wife thought it would be cool to have that capability, but I don't feel like I can justify spending the extra money just to get a newer iPad.

the 10.5 is under $300.00 and Apple Pencil compatible.

Meaning you can use it as a tablet on for your Mac

RWebb 07-23-2020 03:49 PM

I used to LOVE Norton Commander - nostalgia...

RANDY P 07-23-2020 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile (Post 10954628)
AdBlock Pro, Little Snitch, StopTheMadness. Enjoy the Internet again on Safari.

Pages / Numbers are (IMHO) way better than Office (Microsoft bloatware). To each their own but I really like Apple Mail and can’t stand the bloatware feel of even “simple” Outlook. But that’s maybe just a personal preference thing.

I'll say it: Office (especially Excel) for Mac is garbage. It's not worth paying for- it's neutered compared to Win version. The best one is the Windoze version.

I use Win Parallels, and Win Office subscription so I don't get the crippled version. Excel for Windows can use all cores of the processor where Mac is limited to I think 2

You also get cool stuff like Fuzzy lookup which isn't available anywhere except for Win Excel.

rjp

masraum 07-23-2020 03:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RWebb (Post 10958872)
I used to LOVE Norton Commander - nostalgia...

Yep. It was great for what it was at the time.

masraum 07-23-2020 03:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RANDY P (Post 10958873)
I'll say it: Office (especially Excel) for Mac is garbage. It's not worth paying for- it's neutered compared to Win version. The best one is the Windoze version.

I use Win Parallels, and Win Office subscription so I don't get the crippled version. Excel for Windows can use all cores of the processor where Mac is limited to I think 2

You also get cool stuff like Fuzzy lookup which isn't available anywhere except for Win Excel.

rjp

Interesting. I'll keep that in mind. I suspect I may end up setting up a VM eventually, which shouldn't be an issue since I've got plenty of RAM. I've got a full version of MS Office. I may do it so I can use Visio.

RANDY P 07-23-2020 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by masraum (Post 10958877)
Interesting. I'll keep that in mind. I suspect I may end up setting up a VM eventually, which shouldn't be an issue since I've got plenty of RAM. I've got a full version of MS Office. I may do it so I can use Visio.

OOoh yea I forgot about Visio and MS Project not on Mac.

I need Visio, but luckily my employer tortures me with an HP laptop for mapping duties.

rjp

RWebb 07-23-2020 04:00 PM

relatedly... I found an old ThinkPad under the bed in the guest bedroom last night - I thought that area was reserved for Sauternes but there was all sorts of crap under there

I may fire it up for the sake of nostalgia - there was a Win95 install disc sitting on top of it...

RKDinOKC 07-23-2020 04:19 PM

If you do databases, Filemaker is worth every penny. Any platform, but mac scripting is the best.

Paul_Heery 07-23-2020 04:45 PM

I second the opinion to use Excel for Windows versus the Mac version. It is a night and day difference. I use Parallels for running a Windows VM as well as a Linux VM. Parallels makes things easy to do. I can fire up a Windows VM and be using it in under 6 seconds.

I use Windows on my Macbook Pro for both Excel and MS Project. They run great, actually better than on the crappy HP Windows laptop that work gave me.

It is also nice to see that others are recommending the use of AV on your Mac. There are so many Mac OS vulns that are being exploited that you need to have an additional level of protection. I've found Bitdefender to be one of the better programs.


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 07:52 AM.

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0
Copyright 2025 Pelican Parts, LLC - Posts may be archived for display on the Pelican Parts Website


DTO Garage Plus vBulletin Plugins by Drive Thru Online, Inc.