Switchers Unite!

Run Time: 28:34

Scott Bourne www.podcastingtricks.com and www.podcastgearguy.com
Derrick Story www.thedigitalstory.com
Chris Breen Macworld and Playlist Magazine
John Foster pixelcorps.tv and Beer School

It's all about switchers. Today we honor the brave souls who shunned the evil Redmonopoly and saw the bright white light of Apple. We applaud you brave souls, and we dedicate this episode to you...

Chris Kim from South Korea likes Pages but wishes it was more customizable and would like to be able to do some of the stuff without a mouse. He wants to know if there's a way to change the size of the Inspector in Pages. John says no. You could kind of cheat by using the scrollwheel zoom.

Mike Couples asks if there's a way to make Preview print / preview JPG's with the correct aspect ratio. In Preview, open Preferences, click on Images, and one of the options is Default Image Size. Try the "Actual Size" radio button; that might solve the problem.

Now on with the show.

Scott points out that we're seeing more and more switchers and Chris attributes it to the iPod halo effect (people like the iTunes / iPod experience and want that in a PC). Scott points out that the ability to run Windows on a Mac also has something to do with it. Derrick agrees and points out that he shows people XP all the time on his Mac and it changes their mind.

John recommends software called Move 2 Mac . It's a USB cable and two pieces of software... One for your Mac and one for your PC and basically what it does is transfer your files from a PC to a Mac over USB as well as any applicable settings and put documents where they belong on your new Mac. John points out that even though it's $50, the time it saves is worth it.

Chris explains that the dock is the equivalent of the Start Button and in the dock are the primary applications your most likely to use. Out of the box, the dock is configured with the most commonly used applications. He also points out that something like pulling photos off of a digital camera is a snap because all you have to do is connect your camera and iPhoto opens up and downloads them. Scott likes dazzling his friends with the Genie effect.

Chris also points out that things like My Documents have equivalents of Documents, My Pictures becomes Pictures, My Movies becomes Movies, etc. In Windows, all the individual user files are stored in Documents and Settings/Username. On the Mac, they're saved in /Users/username. (Note: In Windows Vista, there's no more "My" in front of document and media folder names anymore).

Derrick recommends Windows users get a 2-button mouse right away because on the Mac a 2-button mouse works almost identically to the way it does on Windows. Scott points out that you don't have to be a switcher to enjoy a 2-button mouse and it makes the overall experience better. Derrick points out that if you open an application, you can right click on a running application and click Keep In Dock to keep things in the dock after they're closed.

John points out the boneheaded move of Apple to make the Mighty Mouse act like a 1-button mouse out of the box. Chris doesn't like it, neither does Scott, and neither does Derrick. Chris points out that most people already have a 2-button mouse anyway so you'd might as well use it.

Scott points out that you shouldn't immediately try to shoehorn the Mac OS into what you know about OSes from using Windows (for example: using a right click in a folder to create a new document). . John agrees and points out that you should use a Mac as a Mac and you'll enjoy it more.

Chris points out that the Command key is the "do everything" key similar to what the CTRL key is on a PC. It'll take your brain a while to adjust but it'll happen. John points out that most commands are consistent across applications whereas on Windows, that consistency isn't necessarily there.

John points out how cool the Option key is for things like finding special keys for copyright, trademark, and reserved symbols as well as international characters.

Scott and Derrick disagree with folks that think the Mac isn't customizable. Most of it can be set up using System Preferences including various dock options, screensavers, backgrounds, fonts, and so on. Derrick advises people to sift through it all immediately and you will be more familiar with everything. Scott says that doing this will make you more familiar with your Mac than you could ever be doing the same thing with Windows' Control Panel.

Scott and Chris point out that hooking devices up to the Mac is idiot proof because Apple bundles tons of drivers with the OS. While that may not include everything, it does include a great deal of devices that most people would want to use (printers, scanners, etc.). Scott rarely has ever had to install drivers. Derrick can't remember the last time he did. Of course, Derrick does have the universal issue of having the USB cable pointing in the wrong direction when he tries to put it in, but that's an affliction we all suffer from!

John points out that legacy scanners might be a problem. Newer ones pretty much work out of the box, but older ones don't have current drivers. A tool like VueScan should make that much easier on you. As of right now, it supports 700 different models of scanners!

Chris' last word: If you still want to run Windows, run Parallels. Avoid Vista because it runs much slower than XP in Parallels. That should cover you.

Derrick's last word: When you close the last window in an Application, the App still stays open (pay attention to the little triangles under the application icon on the dock!)

John's last word: Empty the trash. You can click the trash to see what's in it, and if you see that there's paper in the trash icon, there's stuff that should be deleted in there.

Scott's last word: Give yourself a great big pat on the back for being smart enough to switch to the Mac!

We'll pick this up again next week, folks. More for the switchers is coming!

This episode was sponsored by Rogue Amoeba and ShieldZone .

The next show lands on April 1, 2007. For more information email us at info@ilifezone.com.

Thanks also to Vincent Ferrari for the shownotes!

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