Friday, October 23, 2009

My first day with a Mac

Everything I already had... printer, external speakers, external hard drive... works with the Mac. I'm glad about that. When I first hooked the Mac Mini to the monitor I already had, I thought something was horribly wrong, because the Safari browser only took up half the screen. I downloaded Firefox for Mac, thinking that would be different. Nope, only half the screen. I have ninety days in which I can get support by phone, so I called. Guess what? An American answered!
She told me the very simple solution, which I may have eventually figured out (click and drag the lower right-hand corner till it fills the screen; duh). Hey, at least it saved my daughter from having to come by here after a long day at work!
I'm going to need a word processing program, I can already tell that. I've googled around the Internet and found some free ones for Mac, but without anybody to recommend them, I'm not going to trust them. The wrong download could kill a computer. Amazon.com has IWork cheaper than the Apple store, and with free shipping, no less.
I have my music and pictures moved onto the Mac.
The Mac Mini is so quiet! Of course, I'd gotten used to the gurglings and grindings of a slowly-dying PC. The old Dell was much quieter when it was new, but not this quiet.
I decided to go back to using a regular mouse. Honestly, that's the biggest adjustment for me; I've used a trackball mouse for years. I don't even own a mouse pad, so I guess I'm going to have to buy one.
I haven't yet figured out how to cut, copy and paste with this thing, but I'm working on it.
So that's day one with my Mac.
Somebody asked me how Sadie is doing: You wouldn't know she had ever been sick. And to think that a week ago today I thought she was dying.
Oh, I finally went to the doctor (nurse-practitioner) to discuss the blood pressure pills that made me cough. I was expecting an argument, but when I explained it to her, she smiled and said, "We call that an Ace-cough." Ace inhibitors cause a cough in some people, she said, and gave me a prescription for a different kind of blood pressure med.

10 comments:

  1. glad you're liking your mac, i'm sure it'll take a little time to get used to it.
    happy sadie is well.
    i have a "allery" to ace in hibitors too, causes me to cough. :)
    have a good wkend.
    huggies...

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  2. Congrats on your new computer! Day 1 went pretty well I think. Hope Day 2 goes just as well!

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  3. Cut, copy, paste on a Mac: http://www.ehow.com/how_5280092_cut-copy-paste-mac.html It's basically the same as the keyboard shortcuts on a PC (ctrl key with c,x,or p) except you use the 'apple' key (actually called the command button)

    Hope that helped!

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  4. Glad that you are liking your new Mac. Glad that you got you some new B/P meds. That is great that Sadie is well. Helen

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  5. Lindie8:20 AM

    All good news from you this morning! I don't think it would be so easy for me. I would be pulling out my hair. My doctor is forever asking me if I have a cough. Did you see PW is going to be on Bonnie Hunt next week?

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  6. you don't need mouse pads for new mice, they don't have moving parts

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  7. How do you feel about openoffice.org? Their stuff is pretty good, and free.

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  8. Congratulations! And Welcome to the Mac World. Remember... you also have email support if you need it. Mac is kinda pretty too isn't it :)

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  9. Glad you are enjoying your new toy.

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  10. Here's a big list of Mac keyboard shortcuts:
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1343

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