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I am planning to give my daughter my old laptop for her birthday. It's a two year old MacBook that I have completely filled up. When it's all cleaned up from my files and programs, it will be perfect for her. Her only worry is that she is so used to a Windows machine, she won't be able to use a Mac.
I actually hear this a lot. Stories like Computer Buying Advice Wanted appear on BlogHer. People ask me about switching to a Mac. I tell them it's like the difference between a Ford and a Chevy. They may have slight differences to get used to, but if you can drive one, you can drive the other.
Here, for the sake of my daughter and any others who might be thinking of making the switch, is a review of the basic differences you need to know about to bring yourself up to speed on a Mac.
There's no Start menu on a Mac. Use the Dock to open programs. The Dock is normally across to bottom of the screen. To open any program, just click it in the dock. You can tell when a program is open by looking at the Dock. An open program has a little arrow marker under it. You can also close programs using the Dock. Ctrl-click on anything in the Dock to see a menu for opening, closing and other tasks.
There is no My Computer or Windows Explorer on a Mac. The same feature on a Mac is called the Finder. The column on the left lists the computer contents as well as the Documents Folder (which is the equivalent of the My Documents folder on Windows) and the Applications folder (which is the equivalent of Program Files on Windows). The Finder can be arranged to show icons or columns and can be searched using the search bar at the upper right. Programs can also be opened by finding them in the Applications folder and double clicking the application name.
In addition to searching in the Finder, Spotlight can be used to find files. To use Spotlight, click the magnafying glass icon at the extreme upper right of the screen. Then type what you are looking for in the search box. Spotlight can search almost anywhere on your computer by content or by file name.
Most Macs don't have left and right click buttons on the mouse. If you love that contextual menu you get with a right click on Windows, have no fear. You get the same menu on a Mac by using Ctrl-click.
A Mac does have a Ctrl key, but most of the keyboard shortcuts you know and love from Windows using the Ctrl key use the Apple key, which is also called the Command key. Print is Cmd-P and Copy is Cmd-C. The keyboard commands are the same, except with the Command key. The Command key is used with the Tab key to change from app to app, a keyboard option on Windows that uses Alt-Tab. You can also change from app to app by clicking open apps in the Dock to bring them to the top.
Things you might be accustomed to doing on Windows with the Alt key may be done on a Mac using the Option key, which is next to the Command key. If you don't see the contextual menu you are looking for with a Cmd-click, try an Option-click instead.
There's no big X in the upper right corner of a Mac window. Instead, there are three buttons on the upper left. The plus sign makes the window open up to full screen, the minus sign minimizes the window and puts in in the Dock. You can click the window in the Dock to bring it back up. The X will close the window. On Windows, the X closes the application. On Mac, it only closes the window, the application is still open. To close the application you must choose Quit. Quit is normally found in the menu under the application name. The keyboard command for Quit is Cmd-Q.
The equivalent of the Windows Control Panel is called System Preferences. You can open it from the Dock or using the Apple menu at the upper left of your screen. You also find the Log off and Shut Down commands under the Apple menu at the upper left.
