KEY POINTS:
Once upon a time, when you bought a Mac, you received not just an Apple sticker and a restore DVD, but some attractive little manuals.
These told you not only how to set up an ergonomic workstation but also where to plug what in, etc.
The Apple pro apps like Logic still ship with impressive tomes, but whether in the interest of preserving rain forests or revenue - or both - the days of the Mac computer manual are gone.
So what do you do when your new Apple arrives? Pull it out of the box and plug in whatever fits into the right sockets, basically, and turn it on. The system and the so-called 'iApps' are already installed. It boots up, plays an annoying tune and guides you though set-up, including setting up your online connections and registering and establishing contact with Apple. Then you're in business.
This is simpler still with a laptop, of course - you literally just take it out of the box and press the power key - the only thing you may need to plug in straight away might be that magna-safe magnetically-attached power cable.
But from then, you're pretty much on your own. You have to figure out which things require a double click (files and folders, and applications and documents inside folders) and which items only require a single click (items in the Dock, buttons...). This can be tricky for those from the PC world (and Apple's interface is inconsistent). PC users are used to closing windows, for example, which quits the application - on Macs the application usually stays running, but there are exceptions.
An Apple system, praised for its intuitive interface and simplicity, can still be a daunting prospect for those entirely new to computers. Without basic guidance, it may take a while to realise that the Finder and every other application has a Help menu as the right-most menu item.
You can search Help immediately - in OS 10.5 'Leopard', typing in a word that appears in a menu, like 'save', displays a list of menu items containing that word. Put your mouse over one of the words and its menu drops and a blue arrow shows the item, explicitly demonstrating where and in which menu it appears.
Help accesses a large Help database that you can, in turn, also search. For example, in the Finder, choose Help>Mac Help - you can search in the Help viewer window that appears. Help itself is searchable and cross-references other Apple assistive databases, although Help in Leopard (OS 10.5+) introduced the annoying quirk that the Help window can't be hidden, so you're stuck with it until you either minimise it into the Dock or Quit.
Help can also be accessed through icons in some applications - press on the little question mark in the circle icon in System Preferences, for example, and Help boots. Operations requiring more input from you sometimes have an Assist Me button (ie Network in System Preferences) that guides you through settings and can even make recommendations.
Best of all though, although Apple does rather disingenuously assume everyone has broadband, there are videos online that are clear and well-produced, plus step-by-step guides to all sorts of Apple applications right up to the Pro Apps like Final Cut and Logic. I highly recommend these.
However, I kinda miss the manuals. It's nice being able to leaf through something while you do stuff on your Mac.
There are some excellent books like Wallace Wang's My New Mac (No Starch Press, ISBN 978-1-59327-164-0m reviewed here and a few scarce training providers (among whom I must declare my own interest). Good luck!
- Mark Webster nzmac.com
