How To Use a Mac for Windows Users

We've very pleased to annoced Quick Backup now supports online backup for Mac computers. It seems alot of people are jumping ship to Apple these days so here's a few tips.

The jump from a Windows PC to an Apple Macintosh computer is a daunting experience for most users. Whether you have to use a Mac for work or if you've recently bought a MacBook, it will take some adjusting to get used to the differences. Here are the main difficulties that Windows users have when switching to OS X: 

The most obvious difference is that the maximize, minimize and close buttons are on the left of the windows rather than the right. Also note that by closing a window in OS X, you won't be shutting down the entire program as you would be in Windows – to close a program, go to the Menu at the top of the screen, click the name of the program and then "Quit" at the bottom of the drop-down menu. Alternatively, just press Command+Q.

The "right click" that Windows relies on is not a function on an Apple mouse. Instead, press "control" when clicking on an item to get to the properties and other options. However, you can use a two-button mouse on a Mac – OS X will automatically recognise that the right mouse click means "control+click", and you won't notice the difference!

The "Dock" is the Mac equivalent of the Window's Start Bar. The most popular programs (or "applications") are held in the Dock to provide quick access. When you click on an application, a black triangle will appear beneath the logo to indicate that it is loading. Once open, a white dot will take place of the black triangle.

To get to the rest of your files and applications, open up the hard drive icon on the desktop, or click on "Finder" in the Dock.  Any applications you open will show up on the Dock, making it easy to see what programs are running.

Now that you're using OS X, the "Recycle Bin" is called "Trash". It's located at the end of the Dock, in the form of a wire waste paper basket. Click and drag items into the Trash to delete them, then Control+Click onto the logo and click "Empty Trash" to get rid of them forever. You can click "Open" to view to contents of the Trash folder and restore items that fell in there by mistake.

Once you have mastered these basic differences, you will be able to get a grip on the operating system and start to explore its other variants. To help, here is a list of the ten most commonly used keyboard shortcuts:

Apple+N : New Window.

Apple+T : New Tab If the Application supports Tabs.

Apple+M : Minimize Window.

Option+Apple+M : Minimize All Windows.

Apple+Q : Close Application.

Apple+Z : Undo

Apple+X : Cut

Apple+C : Copy

Apple+V : Paste

Apple+A : Select All