# Macbook boy, At Last!



## Detail My Ride (Apr 19, 2006)

Finally, 

Taken the plunge and bought a Macbook today. Bought the £699 one, but am planning on upgrading the ram soon.

I have a few questions that are confusing me at the moment...

How do I save an image from the Internet? It would appear that I can't "Right Click" as I would on PC? 

Where is the 'Delete' button?!!

Any good websites that I should know of for tips, tricks and more would be great.

:thumb:

Gaz


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## swordjo (Sep 17, 2006)

Pretty sure if you hold the CTRL button down and click it acts as a right click :thumb:


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## Detail My Ride (Apr 19, 2006)

Woo! Works now, thanks. So many little things that are different to PC that actually are really annoying at first :lol:


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## Wheelie_Clean (Jun 16, 2007)

Beggar the laptop, did you get your pressure washer working?


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

You need to hold the special apple button on the keyboard while you click to right click I think.


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## RP84 (Sep 3, 2007)

to right click

tap 2 fingers on the mouse track pad


to scroll up and down, touch 2 fingers on the track pad, and with one of the fingers move up and down,


oh and ive upgraded my macbook to 4gb, paid about £40 roughly


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## Detail My Ride (Apr 19, 2006)

Thanks Rick.

Where did you purchase yours from, and how easy/how did you fit it?

Gaz


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## Trist (Jun 23, 2006)

Nice purchase Gaz :thumb: Good luck with it, you'll soon get into it


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## mikecc (Dec 10, 2007)

Nice one!

I use the 'Spaces' a lot, so set them up right  And F11 to temp remove the screens. And also in the system preferences, i'v set up the corners of the screen to split the screens so i can jump from page to page.

It's really annoying at first, but great once you get used to using it.

Mike.


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## Detail My Ride (Apr 19, 2006)

PS, anyone got any good sites for some 'free' software IE office etc. PM if needs be


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## Neil_S (Oct 26, 2005)

Macbook memory is a piece of cake to upgrade, use the crucial memory finder to make sure you get the right memory for it. Here is a guide

http://guides.macrumors.com/Upgrading_MacBook_RAM


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## Detail My Ride (Apr 19, 2006)

Thanks for that Neil, its bookmarked for when I get the Ram.


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## Mark J (May 10, 2007)

Gaz,

You can save web images by simply dragging them onto the desktop as well


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

Yeah for your RAM I imagine it is cheaper to buy your own. I could see Apple charging a premium for it.

As for office software there is MS Office for Mac. Or OpenOffice - http://porting.openoffice.org/mac/download/

Not sure if it as good as Windows/Linux one as I don't have a Mac.


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## Neil_S (Oct 26, 2005)

OpenOffice is awesome, it fits the bill for me perfectly, work have an Office license, but OpenOffice is great so I choose to use that and distribute documents in word format or save in PDF for my customers.


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## parish (Jun 29, 2006)

Gaz W said:


> Finally,
> 
> Taken the plunge and bought a Macbook today.


Way to go Gaz :thumb:

And don't forget that the underlying OS is Unix (OK, Unix-like to be strictly legal) - that's a man's OS, puts hairs on your chest 

Macbook? Is that the one with the 13" screen? What do you think of it? Sounds too small to me since I don't think you can get a PC laptop with less than 15" now - but when PC laptop screens were that big they were only 800x600 which was naff.



Gaz W said:


> Any good websites that I should know of for tips, tricks and more would be great.


I had a read through much of this a while back and it gave me a really good feel for what Macs are all about - http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/

When you've had time to get to know it will you post back giving your opinion of it from a Windows user's perspective (being objective about it)? How do the bundled apps etc. compare to Windows etc.?


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## Detail My Ride (Apr 19, 2006)

Yeah its a 13.3" Screen, its pretty small although i'm not keen on big laptops. So far its great, not had any problems with it and am adapting to Mac pretty well.


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## Detail My Ride (Apr 19, 2006)

No thanks, kinda ruins the effect IMO.

And which childish moderator decided to change the title?


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## Mark J (May 10, 2007)

Gaz W said:


> No thanks, kinda ruins the effect IMO.
> 
> And which childish moderator decided to change the title?


Edited for accuracy I presume


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## Jakedoodles (Jan 16, 2006)

welcome to the world chap!

I now have a macbook, same as yours, a macbook pro (cos I got fed up of the small screen) and an iPhone. All the best singular gadgets I have ever bought


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## RP84 (Sep 3, 2007)

Gaz W said:


> Thanks Rick.
> 
> Where did you purchase yours from, and how easy/how did you fit it?
> 
> Gaz


to change memory, its the most easiest thing to do,

this is the memory i ordered (i think, will have to check receipt as it was a while)

ordered 2 x 2gb

http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=777_11&products_id=103275


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## RP84 (Sep 3, 2007)

mikecc said:


> Nice one!
> 
> I use the 'Spaces' a lot, so set them up right  And F11 to temp remove the screens. And also in the system preferences, i'v set up the corners of the screen to split the screens so i can jump from page to page.
> 
> ...


thats mad,  even i didnt know that, still learning the shortcuts, but how do you set up the corners


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## Johnnyopolis (Oct 25, 2005)

rickparmar said:


> thats mad,  even i didnt know that, still learning the shortcuts, but how do you set up the corners


Hit the apple sign (top left)

Then System Preferences

Then Expose & Spaces

Select the Expose tab at the top

Then select what you want the corner to do 

Sit back and Enjoy

Johnny


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## RP84 (Sep 3, 2007)

thats well good, thanks mate

any other tips ?


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## CraigRx8 (Jun 6, 2008)

ive had my mac two years now. Its been dropped god knows how many times and still works perfectly with no problems. Ive had one virus to date (i dont use any protection). Cant recommend it enough


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## [email protected] (Jan 9, 2006)

Gaz W said:


> PS, anyone got any good sites for some 'free' software IE office etc. PM if needs be


You have pm


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## Russ and his BM (Jan 1, 2008)

I use the apllication 'Grab' to capture images on my screen. Open it up and use the help to show you how to use it; it's straightforward but I'm pressed for time and have to get out the door!

Enjoy. I have had my iMac for 2 months and haven't missed windows at all. ever.


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## Detail My Ride (Apr 19, 2006)

Screenshots aren't a problem, have been using CMD, Shift + 3 to take them.


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## fjs (May 12, 2006)

OS X has been certified as Unix, rather than unix-like.

Apple is trying to get Leopard and Snow Leopard adopted by the business world, which accounts for this change.

When OS X boots, it instantiates the kernel and wires down RAM. The more RAM, the more free RAM that saves you paging out to VM.

This is getting more critical with Leopard. Upgrading RAM is cheap. Get a decent 0 or 00 point Philips screwdriver to access the slots.


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## King Eric (Feb 27, 2006)

Gaz, if you have a HD screen thats under 28'' IIRC (its size restricted) you can get a mini DVI to HDMI cable and hook up your Macbook with a wireless keyboard and mouse then you have a pretty nifty desktop with a HD screen....

That would be my tip


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## fjs (May 12, 2006)

Buying a well-ventilated external drive for Time Machine comes in useful.


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## parish (Jun 29, 2006)

fjs said:


> OS X has been certified as Unix, rather than unix-like.
> 
> Apple is trying to get Leopard and Snow Leopard adopted by the business world, which accounts for this change.


That figures, Apple has good reason for having certification - and the money, which is the main reason why the Open source *nixes aren't certified (basically it's a humongous fee to the owner of the Unix trademark - The Open Group last time I looked)


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## rich-hill (May 13, 2008)

i bought mine just after christmas, im still learning things about it..


But they keyboard doesn't have a hash key on it lol. Can anyone shed some light on that?


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## wickee (Apr 12, 2008)

There is right click if you connect a mouse to it. If you use the apple mouse, you can setup right click in system preferences under mouse. IF you dont use a mouse you will have to use the control tap technique


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## fjs (May 12, 2006)

Hash is option-3 on the UK keyboard.


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## rich-hill (May 13, 2008)

oh yeah, hank for that ##### yay


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## Johnnyopolis (Oct 25, 2005)

Ok heres one for the mac buffs!

When I press Shift and 3 I get - #

When I press Option and 3 I get £

How do I swap them round?

Johnny


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## david g (Dec 14, 2005)

Johnnyopolis said:


> Ok heres one for the mac buffs!
> 
> When I press Shift and 3 I get - #
> 
> ...


Same here ,its a bit like getting my flip flops on the wrong feet ,walking about in flop flip


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## fjs (May 12, 2006)

You are using the US keyboard layout. Select the appropriate keyboard layout in the input method section of the International preference pane, by checking 'show input menu in menu bar' temporarily.


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## klaus (May 11, 2007)

david g said:


> Same here ,its a bit like getting my flip flops on the wrong feet ,walking about in flop flip


Sounds like you have the input menu set to U.S. or something as well as british.

Go to system preferences and select international.

Click the input menu tab and untick all the countries and leave british ticked.

Hope this helps


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## Mossman (Jan 10, 2008)

Welcome to a better world!  Glad you're enjoying it!
I tend to blog a fair bit about Mac Stuff - click


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## PWOOD (Apr 30, 2007)

CraigRx8 said:


> ive had my mac two years now. Its been dropped god knows how many times and still works perfectly with no problems. Ive had one virus to date (i dont use any protection). Cant recommend it enough


A virus on a Mac! How did that come about?


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## Johnnyopolis (Oct 25, 2005)

Sorted! 

Thanks fjs & Klaus :thumb: I even looked in there too! Just missed the input tab


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## rorton (Jun 29, 2006)

Gaz, in the System Preferences>Keyboard and Mouse section, select trackpad, and ensure 'use 2 finger scrolling' is selected.

You can then put 2 fingers on the trackpad, and scroll up and down web pages 

Also in same page, select 'Tap Trackpad for secondary finger click' and then when you put 2 fingers on the trackpad and press the trackpad button, thats the same as right click

Having one trackpad buton is wicked, i went to use a windows laptop with 2 buttons the other day, and couldn't get my head around using the second button!


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## Detail My Ride (Apr 19, 2006)

Its amazing how quickly you get used to all of the little changes, and how much simpler it makes some things. I'll never go back to PC ever I don't think!


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## parish (Jun 29, 2006)

Gaz W said:


> I'll never go back to PC ever I don't think!


That's what I like to hear :thumb:


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## Detail My Ride (Apr 19, 2006)

Sorry, another noob question. On Dashboard, how do I change the Widgets? IE, weather to my location and add other things etc.


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## cdti_sri (Jul 17, 2006)

Press the wee plus in the bottom left hand corner


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## Serkie (Dec 8, 2007)

I've joined the dark side today and although the Mac experience is a little alien at the moment I'm suitably impressed. Just setting up Spaces and have Mac Office to put on next.

I went for a 2.4Ghz 15" MacBook Pro and right from the moment I connected the magnetic power jack I was smiling. The whole unit just feels right, so solid and what an absolute thing of beauty to look at and use. 

Anyone know any good sites for Mac Newbies with FAQ etc...?

PS: Got a 3G iPhone coming Friday too.


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## klaus (May 11, 2007)

Apples own discussion forums are always good for answers

http://discussions.apple.com/index.jspa


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## S63 (Jan 5, 2007)

Good news for you Apple fans!

"Apple has knocked the price of the world's thinnest laptop down to £1,719, from £2,029 due to the fact that Solid State Drives (SSDs) have gotten cheaper."


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## 182_Blue (Oct 25, 2005)

is that cheap though lol


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## S63 (Jan 5, 2007)

182_blue said:


> is that cheap though lol


no.......................cheap.......er:thumb:


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## Serkie (Dec 8, 2007)

I've just setup Parallels and created a XP Pro Virtual Machine so I can now switch between the two OS's at the push of a button. The coherence mode in Parallels is absolutely superb. Well recommended for anybody wanting the best of both worlds.

I understand what all fuss with Mac's is about now.


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## beardboy (Feb 12, 2006)

I can recommend a program called Quiksilver :thumb:

Makes life much easier when you get used to it 

As for Parallels - that's something i need to look into getting setup at some point.


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