Switching to the Mac

764 Pages·35.357 MB·English

by  David Pogue

“Pogue, the New York Times computer columnist, is among the world’s best explainers.”
—Kevin Kelly, co-founDer of Wired
Switching

Mac
to the
M o u n t a i n
L i o n
E d i t i o n
David Pogue
MacinTosh
Answers found here!
What makes Windows refugees decide to get a Mac?
Enthusiastic friends? The Apple Stores? Great-looking laptops?
A “halo effect” from the popularity of iPhones and iPads? The
absence of viruses and spyware? The freedom to run Windows
on a Mac? In any case, there’s never been a better time to
switch to OS X—and there’s never been a better,
more authoritative book to help you do it.
Why I
started
The important stuff the Missing
Manual
you need to know
series.
People learn best when
n Transferring your stuff. Moving files from a PC to a Mac
information is engaging, clearly
by cable, network, or disk is the easy part. But how do
written, and funny. Unfortunately,
you extract your email, address book, calendar, Web most computer books read like
bookmarks, buddy list, desktop pictures, and MP3 dry catalogs. That’s why I created
files? Now you’ll know. the Missing Manuals. They’re
entertaining, unafraid to state
n recreating your software suite. This book identifies the
when a feature is useless or
Mac equivalents of your favorite Windows programs.
doesn’t work right, and—oh, by
n learning Mountain lion. Apple’s latest operating system the way—written by actual
is faster, smarter, and more iPaddish—but you still have to writers. And on every page, we
learn it. Dictation. AirPlay. iCloud. Facebook and Twit- answer the simple question:
ter integration. Gestures. iMessages. AirDrop. If Apple “What’s this feature for?”
wrote it, this book covers it. From the author of OS X David Pogue is the New York
Mountain Lion: The Missing Manual, the #1 bestselling Times tech columnist, an
Mac book on earth. Emmy-winning CBS News and
NOVA host, and creator of the
Missing Manual series.
US $29.99 CAN $31.99
ISBN: 978-1-449-33029-3
missingmanuals.com
twitter: @missingmanuals
facebook.com/MissingManuals
Switching Mac
to the

Mountain Lion Edition
The book that should have been in the box®

Switching Mac
to the

Mountain Lion Edition
The book that should have been in the box®
David Pogue
Beijing | Cambridge | Farnham | Köln | Sebastopol | Tokyo
Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Mountain Lion Edition
by David Pogue
Copyright © 2012 David Pogue. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
Published by O’Reilly Media, Inc.,
1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472.
O’Reilly Media books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales
promotional use. Online editions are also available for most titles: safari@oreilly.
com. For more information, contact our corporate/institutional sales department:
800-998-9938 or [email protected].
September 2012: First Edition.

The Missing Manual is a registered trademark of O’Reilly Media, Inc. The Missing
Manual logo, and “The book that should have been in the box” are trademarks of
O’Reilly Media, Inc. Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers
to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations
appear in this book, and O’Reilly Media is aware of a trademark claim, the designa-
tions are capitalized.
While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the
publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages
resulting from the use of the information contained in it.
ISBN: 978-1449-33029-3
[LSI] [09/12]
Table of Contents
Introduction .......................................................................................... 1
What OS X Gives You ......................................................................................................................... 3
What OS X Takes Away ...................................................................................................................... 5
About This Book ................................................................................................................................. 6
The Very Basics ................................................................................................................................... 8
The Mountain Lion Difference .......................................................................................................... 9
Part One: Welcome to Macintosh
Chapter 1: How the Mac Is Different .................................................. 19
Power On, Dude ................................................................................................................................. 19
Right-Clicking and Shortcut Menus ................................................................................................. 20
Logging Out, Shutting Down ............................................................................................................ 22
The Menu Bar ..................................................................................................................................... 24
Finder = Windows Explorer .............................................................................................................. 25
Dock = Taskbar ................................................................................................................................... 25
Menulets = Tray .................................................................................................................................. 26
Keyboard Differences ........................................................................................................................ 28
Disk Differences .................................................................................................................................. 33
Where Your Stuff Is ............................................................................................................................ 34
Window Controls................................................................................................................................ 37
Terminology Differences ................................................................................................................... 46
Chapter 2: Folders, Dock & Windows ................................................. 47
Getting into OS X ................................................................................................................................ 47
The Four Window Views ................................................................................................................... 51
Icon View ............................................................................................................................................. 51
List View ............................................................................................................................................... 62
Column View ....................................................................................................................................... 68
Cover Flow View ................................................................................................................................. 71
Quick Look .......................................................................................................................................... 73
The Dock .............................................................................................................................................. 77
Setting Up the Dock ........................................................................................................................... 78
Using the Dock.................................................................................................................................... 85
The Finder Toolbar ............................................................................................................................. 90
Getting Help in OS X .......................................................................................................................... 91
table of contents v
Chapter 3: Files, Icons & Spotlight ...................................................... 95
Renaming Icons .................................................................................................................................. 95
Selecting Icons .................................................................................................................................... 97
Moving and Copying Icons ............................................................................................................... 100
Aliases: Icons in Two Places at Once ............................................................................................... 105
Color Labels ........................................................................................................................................ 107
The Trash ............................................................................................................................................. 109
Get Info ................................................................................................................................................ 112
Shortcut Menus, Action Menus ........................................................................................................ 115
The Spotlight Menu ............................................................................................................................ 118
The Spotlight Window ....................................................................................................................... 124
Customizing Spotlight ........................................................................................................................ 136
Smart Folders ...................................................................................................................................... 139
Chapter 4: Documents, Programs & Mission Control ....................... 141
A Word About Apps ........................................................................................................................... 141
The Mac App Store ............................................................................................................................. 142
Other Ways to Get Mac Software..................................................................................................... 144
Opening OS X Programs.................................................................................................................... 147
Launchpad ........................................................................................................................................... 147
Windows that Auto-Reopen .............................................................................................................. 151
The Application Menu ....................................................................................................................... 152
The “Heads-Up” Program Switcher ................................................................................................. 154
Mission Control: Death to Window Clutter .................................................................................... 155
Dashboard ........................................................................................................................................... 163
Exposé .................................................................................................................................................. 169
Hiding Programs the Old-Fashioned Way ...................................................................................... 174
How Documents Know Their Parents ............................................................................................. 176
Keyboard Control ............................................................................................................................... 180
The Save and Open Dialog Boxes .................................................................................................... 186
Auto Save and Versions ..................................................................................................................... 190
Documents in the Cloud ................................................................................................................... 195
Chapter 5: Entering, Moving & Backing up Data ............................... 199
Power Typing ...................................................................................................................................... 199
Dictation .............................................................................................................................................. 205
The Many Languages of OS X Text ................................................................................................... 210
Data Detectors .................................................................................................................................... 215
Moving Data Between Documents .................................................................................................. 216
Exchanging Data with Other Macs ................................................................................................... 220
Exchanging Data with Windows PCs ............................................................................................... 225
The Mountain Lion Share Button .................................................................................................... 226
Time Machine ..................................................................................................................................... 228
vi table of contents
Part Two: Making the Move
Chapter 6: Transferring Your Files to the Mac ................................... 243
Transfers by Apple Genius ................................................................................................................ 244
The Windows Migration Assistant.................................................................................................... 244
Manual Network Transfers ................................................................................................................ 248
Transfers by Disk ................................................................................................................................ 248
Transfers by File-Sending Web Site .................................................................................................. 249
Transfers by Email .............................................................................................................................. 250
Where to Put Your Copied Files ....................................................................................................... 250
Document Conversion Issues ........................................................................................................... 254
Chapter 7: Special Software, Special Problems ................................. 255
ACDSee ................................................................................................................................................ 255
Acrobat Reader ................................................................................................................................... 256
ACT ....................................................................................................................................................... 256
Ad Subtract (Pop-Up Stopper) .......................................................................................................... 257
Adobe [your favorite program here] ............................................................................................... 258
AOL ....................................................................................................................................................... 258
AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) .......................................................................................................... 258
Children’s Software ............................................................................................................................ 258
Chrome ................................................................................................................................................ 258
Easy CD Creator.................................................................................................................................. 258
Encarta ................................................................................................................................................. 259
Eudora .................................................................................................................................................. 259
Excel ..................................................................................................................................................... 259
Firefox .................................................................................................................................................. 259
Games .................................................................................................................................................. 260
Google Desktop Search ..................................................................................................................... 260
Google Earth ....................................................................................................................................... 260
Google Chrome .................................................................................................................................. 260
ICQ ........................................................................................................................................................ 260
Internet Explorer ................................................................................................................................. 261
iTunes ................................................................................................................................................... 261
McAfee VirusScan ............................................................................................................................... 261
Microsoft Access ................................................................................................................................. 261
Microsoft Money ................................................................................................................................ 262
Microsoft Office .................................................................................................................................. 264
Microsoft Publisher ............................................................................................................................ 264
Microsoft Visio .................................................................................................................................... 265
Minesweeper ...................................................................................................................................... 266
MSN Messenger ................................................................................................................................. 266
NaturallySpeaking .............................................................................................................................. 266
Netscape .............................................................................................................................................. 266
table of contents vii
Newsgroup Readers ........................................................................................................................... 266
Norton AntiVirus ................................................................................................................................. 267
Norton Utilities.................................................................................................................................... 267
Notepad ............................................................................................................................................... 267
Outlook/Outlook Express/Windows Mail ....................................................................................... 267
Paint Shop Pro .................................................................................................................................... 267
Palm Desktop ...................................................................................................................................... 268
Picasa ................................................................................................................................................... 268
PowerPoint .......................................................................................................................................... 268
QuickBooks ......................................................................................................................................... 268
Quicken ................................................................................................................................................ 269
RealPlayer ............................................................................................................................................ 269
RssReader ............................................................................................................................................ 269
Skype .................................................................................................................................................... 269
SnagIt (Screenshots) .......................................................................................................................... 270
Solitaire ................................................................................................................................................ 271
Street Atlas USA .................................................................................................................................. 271
TaxCut, TurboTax ................................................................................................................................ 271
WinAmp, MusicMatch ....................................................................................................................... 271
Windows Media Player ...................................................................................................................... 271
WinZip .................................................................................................................................................. 272
Word .................................................................................................................................................... 272
WordPerfect ........................................................................................................................................ 272
Yahoo Messenger ............................................................................................................................... 272
Chapter 8: Windows on Macintosh ..................................................... 273
Boot Camp .......................................................................................................................................... 275
Windows in a Window ...................................................................................................................... 281
Life with Microsoft Exchange ............................................................................................................ 283
Chapter 9: Hardware on the Mac ........................................................ 287
Mac Meets Printer .............................................................................................................................. 287
Making the Printout ........................................................................................................................... 290
Managing Printouts ............................................................................................................................ 293
Printer Sharing .................................................................................................................................... 295
Faxing ................................................................................................................................................... 296
PDF Files .............................................................................................................................................. 296
Fonts—and Font Book ........................................................................................................................ 298
Digital Cameras .................................................................................................................................. 306
Disks ..................................................................................................................................................... 306
Startup Disks ....................................................................................................................................... 307
Erasing a Disk ...................................................................................................................................... 308
Burning CDs and DVDs ...................................................................................................................... 309
iTunes: The Digital Jukebox ............................................................................................................... 312
DVD Movies ......................................................................................................................................... 323
viii table of contents