Making the Switch from Windows to Mac OS X, Part 1

On Tuesday, April 5th, a small but intrepid group got together in the MPR to talk about making the big switch from Windows to Mac OS X. In an hour or so we were barely able to scratch the surface. So I decided that that session should be the first in what will be several get-togethers—of course, any and all of you are welcome to attend. Meanwhile, I thought it would be a good idea to recap the material we covered here, in case it’s helpful to those of you who couldn’t make it on Tuesday.

This is the document I shared with the group for reference. This Bootcamp guide was compiled by Robert Appino, Alfredo Papaseit, and myself. It includes:

• A quick-start “Make the Mac Do What I Want It To” introduction
  • Keyboard Shortcuts
  • Installing Software
  • Going from Windows to OS X
  • Useful Apps
• Hardware
  • keyboard
  • trackpad
• Finder
• Folders
• Searching
• Desktop
• Spaces
• Shortcuts
• Backing Up
• Other

With this document as our reference, our group went over some common stumbling blocks and initial questions, such as:

• The “Holy Trinity” of keyboard shortcuts (⌘+c, ⌘+v, and ⌘+f)
• Additional keyboard shortcuts:
  • Commonly used shortcuts
  • Advanced shortcuts for accessibility
• Equivalent functions between OS X and Windows:
  • Finder = Windows Explorer
  • System Preferences = Control Panel
  • Control, Option, and Command (⌘) keys on the Mac
  • Force Quit = Control + Alt + Delete
• The “Get Info” function (⌘+i) and when to use it
• Minimizing, hiding, and tabbing among multiple applications
• The Dock
• Connecting to servers and shared folders

As I said, we ran out of time before getting through all there is to discuss. But many initial questions were answered, and I think we resolved some of the more nagging issues teachers had.

It was clear to me that we should continue this series of sessions, so I will be posting a continually-updated signup sheet for those who could not make the last meeting, or who have additional questions. Now that we’ve answered the big migration questions, moving forward it might make sense to focus each training session on a particular theme: Google Apps on OS X, Third-Party Apps, etc. That just depends on where the demand is (you tell me).

Of course, if you have any questions about this material or other issues when making the switch from Windows to OS X, feel free to add them to the signup sheet or email me directly.