Danny B

First time *ever* Apple user, both me and my Wife were up until 2.30am this morning trying to figure things out.
I got connected to the Internet fine, Airport Extreme was a doddle to setup. Managed to get my e-mails working, install all the latest updates etc but what I cannot do is import all my IE favourites from my pc backup on CD to Safari.
Can anyone help?

I have just ordered a book called "Mac OSX the missing manual" hopefully by this time next month things will be a lot clearer.

One last question, where is the best location to store your data? eg- in Windows it was in C:\ documents and settings\user name\my documents.. but not so sure with the Mac.

Cheers

angrynorth

Firstly congrats You won't regret it

I'm not sure how you can import your IE bookmarks, but everything else should come over fine. Safari stores all it's bookmarks in a plist file which is basically a text file full of URL's, not sure how IE has its but I think you would probably be better starting afresh, or manually for that one.

The Missing Manual is a handy tool to have, that along with the fact there are a few Macheads on here and you should be fine.

For data storage I tend to put everything in the "Documents" folder in your home directory. Obviously Music ends up in the Music folder, Photos in the Photos and Movies in the Movies.

Let us know how you get on. I switched about 18 months ago or so as a first time user, and there is no way I would go back now. I have a fairly powerful PC which sits next to me all day, swtiched on, getting dusty.

Iain Young

Each ie bookmark is stored as a .url file (a text file) in the favorites folder. The format of the file looks something like this...

[DEFAULT]
BASEURL=http://www.opensymphony.com/quartz/
[InternetShortcut]
URL=http://www.opensymphony.com/quartz/
Modified=209E9E2BDF31C4015C


I guess the only way to transfer this into Safari would be to open each url file in turn, copy the URL setting, and paste it into Safari by hand....

angrynorth

PS,

Some recommended things to start now that you will appreciate in a couple of months.

Turn on Exposé hot corners in system preferences, at first you will keep on Exposing by mistake but once you have got over it, it is one of the most powerful productivity (and fun) boosters in OSX, if used correctly.

**EDIT
Using it correctly
EDIT**
Get Quicksilver installed as this will not only blow your mind, but it will also help you get deep into the system using just a couple of keystrokes.

The above may even hamper your progress for a couple of weeks, but as it is a completely new system to you, then you can adapt to these as you normally adapt to the new type of OS. Once they have settled in though you will be laughing!

Markus

Hi Danny (Am working on the other thing we discussed

bookmarks. Try Safari Enhancher - http://www.lordofthecows.com/safari_enhancer.php

It says IE, but that *might* only be Mac IE, would not suprise me if it was. Have a search round the internet, someone might have knocked up an applescript to do just this.

** edit **
Just did a quick search, found this on macosxhints. Seems a chappy switched, and used SE to get his PC bookmarks into Safari. so give it a whirl

** end edit **

Data storage, yup, put everything in the documents folder. All Mac Apps should, in the save/open dialogs have "Documents" as an option, so it makes finding it easy. It's very similar to Windows's "My Documents" folder.

One other thing, for advice, a) ask on here, as you can see, there's a few mac geeks here, b) pop over to... www.macosxhints (for hints, and use their forums for questions) and www.macfixit.com (known problems, plus great forums).

Danny B

Thanks for the tips & links guys, really appreciate the help. It is so frustrating knowing what I want to do but not having a clue how to do it. The manual about OSX that came with the mac isn't worth the paper it's written on.

My Wife is at home right now playing on it and got herself in a right mess she calls me up and accuses me of buying a foriegn keyboard as the @ key is above the no.2
And asks where the DVD eject button is.

One last thing, I bought the machine from an authorised Apple reseller but it was a reconditioned/demo machine and the account I am using is called "demo". If I were to be brave enough and do a clean install from scratch, is it just a case of booting from the CD whilst holding the C key down and following the instructions ?
Not to worried about the demo account, just want peace of mind that there are no trojans installed etc.

Markus,
No rush on the other stuff...when ever you get time..Cheers

Thanks again

Markus

Danny - You have an email

If you boot from the Mac OS X CD, you will be able to do a complete and utter reinstall of everything.

Trust me, I seriously doubt you have ANY trojans or viruses on the machine. It's not a pc

angrynorth

2nd that, its very unlikely their is anything unsavoury installed. But I would say a clean reinstall might we worth it considering it was a demo machine, you never know what numpty has been on it before moving things here there and everywhere. They may even have had root enabled, which you won't want.

Markus

Interesting point about root. I've got it enabled on all my machines, simply as a last resort if everything goes wrong and I *need* to use the GUI to do something. OK, so you can probably boot into single user mode and do most of the stuff, but I'm sure there are some things you can't do, plus the GUI is easier to use lol.

If you've not loaded any *cough* additional software *cough* onto the machine, and you've not setup too much, and you can remember how to do it all, a reinstall might be a good plan. As said by others, will make it totally your machine.

AllanB

Welcome to the fold Danny. I'm not as technical as some of the others but if you do need help please ask as I work for MacWarehouse.

Did you get your refurb from Cancom ?

I think I may have a spare of the book you want sitting on my desk, I'll check tomorrow.



AllanB

Figment

If Danny doesn't need that *spare* book, I'd be interested. Had an iMac for a few months now and I know I'm not using it to it's full potential as my *cough* PC is far too handy when I get stuck.

Rab

I got my first apple as well yesterday, a 12" iBook G4 and im posting this from bed via the wonders of airport. I cannot get over how simple things are compared to PC. Still got a lot to learn

angrynorth

While I agree it may be good for a power user, the average user could probably do with out, just sudo when needed if necessary, at least there won't be any chance to go around changing groups by accident.

I leave it off and don't run as an admin in my everyday main account, forces me to use an administrator password to do any kind of installation/ important file movement.

angrynorth

Good news!

My mate switched about 4 months back after me nagging First day he got his new 17" PB home, he opened the lid, switched it on and was taking in emails and browsing the web within 3 minutes of power up via his already in place windows wireless network. Needless to say he was hooked.

It should be said though, not absolutely everything will go that smooth in moving over and there are things that are a complete about-face compared to windows and take some time to get used to (the finder for example). But once you do, its worth it .

Danny B

Allan, Thanks for the offer but I have just ordered one via Amazon I bought the Mac from a bloke in Feltham called Breffini aka "The Apple Doctor" comes with 12 months warranty etc and I got it for a very good price so I'm well chuffed.

I did a system erase and a full re-install last night, only took about 1hr to get back up and running, no messing around with drivers etc like on my old XP machine.

One question I have is whenever I download an application after installing it I am left with the icon on my desktop. How can I get rid of this without rebooting? I have been right clicking on it and selecting eject, that seems to work but is it the proper way?

Sorry I lied, another question. What do I use to burn a CD ? I have no additional software at the moment so am looking at something built into OSX.
Did a "help" and searched and it suggested I use Finder, what do you reckon?

Cheers

angrynorth

Removing the "disk image" left after an install is as simple as ejecting it. Right click and eject or drag it to the trash. So yes thats the proper way.

CD Burning, assuming you have a combo/superdrive installed. Keep your eyes peeled for this You might see this in iTunes, iPhoto, iDVD etc. But if you just want to burn data, when you put a blank disk in, OSX will ask if you want to "Open Finder" or ignore plus a couple of others. Choose "Open in Finder" and your CD will mount like a hard drive. You can then just drag stuff onto it. Once you have finished and filled it up, click the icon above and it will burn it. No extra software required. Although Toast is a nice app.

Danny B

I was right to eject it then

Thanks for all the help, my book should be with me by tomorrow so over the weekend I will be *studying* come Monday I'll be a guru

Cheers

rich101

Welcome to sanity !

Seriously though get a nice optical scrolling mouse M$ do one and that is probably as far down that road you should go

rich

Danny B

Ah yes, slight confession there. I didn't plug in my apple mouse, I kept my scroll mouse

Markus

Danny,
For burning, well, pop a CD in, drag and drop what you want to it, eject it and it'll ask you if you want to burn it. Simple as that.

As said by others, the burn symbol appears in some apps too.

If you are looking for a fine degree of control, then you could always look into Roxio's Toast software. Use it here and it's great.

Danny B

Toast CD's eh, that extension rings a bell
Cheers