Mac questions
- Thread starter amber76
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nesser1981
Sweet Shoppe SugarBabe
Im thinking about switching over to a Mac...big step in my lifeI was wondering if it was going to be difficult to switch over. Like, will my EHD work, will the files Ive saved on my computer work on a Mac? So has anyone taken the plunge? What issues have you ran into? Thanks
I don't think your elements program will work that you just got. LOL!
We use Macs and school. I don't have any trouble switching from using one to the other through the day.
My harddrive works fine there.
And I think you'll have to get a different version of ACDsee.
MommaTrish
Well-known member
yeah there are different versions of programs for Macs than PCs and the only difference with short cuts is you push command not ctrl.
crecia27
New member
I switched a little over two years ago and I have to say that it was definitely more difficult and frustrating than I had expected and that was despite having used Macs before. It was definitely not as simple as learning some new shortcuts.
That's not meant to scare you just to give you another perspective because my experience was definitely not all rainbows and puppy dogs.
I would say it took me about a solid month to really get comfortable with everything. One thing to remember is that you really are learning an entire new operating system. Pretty much everything from shortcuts, to how you open folders, to even how you drag files into Photoshop is slightly different and depending on how set you are in your ways it will take you time to get comfortable.
One thing that helped me tremendously was the book The Missing Manual: Switching to the Mac. It did a great job of explaining what was different and why it was different. It also answers a lot of the questions you mentioned about moving files, EHD, etc. I don't think I would have survived without that book.
But I have to say all that frustration that first month was SO worth it. I absolutely love my Mac and you couldn't pay me to go back to a PC. Now the only time I get frustrated is when I have to use my DH's PC for something. But I'm working on getting him to switch as well.
That's not meant to scare you just to give you another perspective because my experience was definitely not all rainbows and puppy dogs.
I would say it took me about a solid month to really get comfortable with everything. One thing to remember is that you really are learning an entire new operating system. Pretty much everything from shortcuts, to how you open folders, to even how you drag files into Photoshop is slightly different and depending on how set you are in your ways it will take you time to get comfortable.One thing that helped me tremendously was the book The Missing Manual: Switching to the Mac. It did a great job of explaining what was different and why it was different. It also answers a lot of the questions you mentioned about moving files, EHD, etc. I don't think I would have survived without that book.
But I have to say all that frustration that first month was SO worth it. I absolutely love my Mac and you couldn't pay me to go back to a PC.
Now the only time I get frustrated is when I have to use my DH's PC for something. But I'm working on getting him to switch as well. 
It would depend on what format your drive was in. You should be able to read them but whether you can write to the drive may depend on what format it's in.
Paula
New member
That isn't the only difference, but they are minor.
yeah there are different versions of programs for Macs than PCs and the only difference with short cuts is you push command not ctrl.
Paula
New member
That is exactly right. I have a friend that switched over, and they sent her a link to download the correct platform and transferred her serial number over to her Mac version.
gracielou
New member
I switched a little over two years ago and I have to say that it was definitely more difficult and frustrating than I had expected and that was despite having used Macs before. It was definitely not as simple as learning some new shortcuts.
That's not meant to scare you just to give you another perspective because my experience was definitely not all rainbows and puppy dogs.
One thing that helped me tremendously was the book The Missing Manual: Switching to the Mac. It did a great job of explaining what was different and why it was different. It also answers a lot of the questions you mentioned about moving files, EHD, etc. I don't think I would have survived without that book.
But I have to say all that frustration that first month was SO worth it. I absolutely love my Mac and you couldn't pay me to go back to a PC.
Glad you said all that. You wrote my thoughts exactly. I bought a macbook last year and absolutely HATED it. I tried and tried to like it because everyone seemed to love theirs but after lots of struggling I finally took it back and I was so glad I did. I didn't work through mine for as long so who knows how I would have felt if I would have actually figured it out but I have no regrets at all for taking it back. I had been scrapping for over a year and it frustrated me to no end that I couldn't even sit down and do 1 page.
Susan Bartolini
New member
Most software companies will just give you a download link for their software when you switch. When I switched a little over a year ago, every single one gave me the software for free....and I have a lot of software since I am a designer. Adobe charged me a small fee because I actually upgraded to a newer version when I swtiched.
Switching is like anything new. It can be challenging at first (learning how to "right click" or "print screen") but I looked at it as exciting. I couldn't wait to figure out all the new shortcuts and whatnot. Anything you need to know is online. You can google any issue you have and there are a ton of blogs devoted to helping people switch over.
I am a huge Mac lover now and would NEVER go back to PC. In my opinion, Macs are much more stable and run software like Photoshop so much better. I never have to wait for my computer to "think" or "load".......PS never crashes....and I mean NEVER. I can run PS, Illustrator, Bridge, Firefox, Outlook, Messenger all at the same time everyday and it NEVER crashes. When you turn the thing on...it just works. Period. And it doesn't take forever to boot up (I'm looking at you Vista).
Plus, if you ever DO have a problem, you can just take your computer right into a Mac store in the mall and they fix you up lickety split at no cost (try that with an HP you bought at Best Buy).
Yes, I have drunk the Apple kool-aid......and it tastes soooooo good.
Susan
Switching is like anything new. It can be challenging at first (learning how to "right click" or "print screen") but I looked at it as exciting. I couldn't wait to figure out all the new shortcuts and whatnot. Anything you need to know is online. You can google any issue you have and there are a ton of blogs devoted to helping people switch over.
I am a huge Mac lover now and would NEVER go back to PC. In my opinion, Macs are much more stable and run software like Photoshop so much better. I never have to wait for my computer to "think" or "load".......PS never crashes....and I mean NEVER. I can run PS, Illustrator, Bridge, Firefox, Outlook, Messenger all at the same time everyday and it NEVER crashes. When you turn the thing on...it just works. Period. And it doesn't take forever to boot up (I'm looking at you Vista).
Plus, if you ever DO have a problem, you can just take your computer right into a Mac store in the mall and they fix you up lickety split at no cost (try that with an HP you bought at Best Buy).
Yes, I have drunk the Apple kool-aid......and it tastes soooooo good.
Susan
msteiner99
New member
I switched from a PC to a Mac five months ago. You could not pay me to go back to using a PC. As they say - once you go Mac, you'll never go back!
My EHD still works and recognizes the files, but I did buy an EHD made specifically for a Mac as well.
I did have to buy new versions of my software, but it was well worth it. I *LOVE* my Mac!
My EHD still works and recognizes the files, but I did buy an EHD made specifically for a Mac as well.
I did have to buy new versions of my software, but it was well worth it. I *LOVE* my Mac!
msteiner99
New member
Ditto! I have tons of of programs open right now - including PS, Illustrator, InDesign, Lightroom, Mail, Safari, iTunes ... and I have never once had my computer crash.
... and the part about booting up - I couldn't believe my eyes the first time my Mac booted up! I seriously press the power button and within seconds everything is ready. (and I have a lot of software on my computer) My husbands brand new PC, on the other hand, that has NOTHING on it (no pictures, so software other than MS Office) takes F-O-R-E-V-E-R to boot up.
I agree with Susan - the Apple Kool-Aid is VERY good!
aggiefamily
New member
The hardest thing for me to get use to is the magic mouse. LOL! I know there are still many things I need to learn (got mine in Dec) but the transition was not bad at all.
Macs can read NTSF drives but not write to them. It can read and write to a FAT23 drive. If you check the properties of your EHD it will say what type it is.
Macs can read NTSF drives but not write to them. It can read and write to a FAT23 drive. If you check the properties of your EHD it will say what type it is.
amber76
New member
I think this is one big reason...the stability. It seems like 2 out of 3 times I go to my laptop I have the damn "blue screen of death" and it happened after I installed a service pack. Aren't those suppose to fix the problems?
Julie Billingsley
The Ghost of Awesome Past
LOL.... keep talking because you are making me think about macs a lot. I'm planning on buying a new computer for myself early next year or maybe late this year.
My husband needs a new computer this year for sure but he is scared to switch to a Mac because he uses MS excel a lot for his work. Anyone run excel on a mac?? Is there a difference between the PC and the Mac versions?
aggiefamily
New member
I got a blue screen almost everyday. I really liked Vista but it just wasn't working for me. All of my blue screens were vista related. My pc laptop has a dual core processor, 4G memory, 2 250G hard drives and a graphics card with it own memory. Vista couldn't handle PS, ACDSee and FF open at the same time. My iMac has almost the same specs and I can have twice as much open. And my 27in iMac was only $200 more than I paid for my Dell laptop.
I recently set the Dell back to factory settings so the boys can use it but it still has issues. Hopefully upgrading to Windows 7 soon will help out.
I did have a few PS crashes on my mac but figured out that it was an action that was causing it.
aggiefamily
New member
You can get Microsoft Office for Mac. Or you can get iWork which can use Excel documents.
zakirahzakaria
Active member
I switched to Mac a year ago and I'm glad I did.
Windows always gave me problems and even crashed many times and usually at the most critical times. I'm a design student so using PS & Illustrator at the same time made my then-Acer laptop went nuts more than once. Redoing assignments because of hard disk failures was normal back then. It was frustrating. Especially coz I worked with really highes files (talk about designing A2 design posters).
I now have Windows 7 on my Macbook too, but I use it only to play games that aren't available for Mac. Everything else I do on my Mac. So far after installing Win7, my WIn7 partition had crashed 3 times and had been doing the disk-checking thing which took more than an hour. It's frustrating. But at the same time I still love the Win7 interface, hehe.
On a side note, Mac is very stable & easy to use. It took me one week to get used to using the Command key than the Ctrl key. Besides, I also use a Buffalo 1TB EHD as my back up and it works great with Mac's back up app, Time Machine. I also partitioned it to 2 partitions - 1 for Mac backup and 1 as external hard drive.
Mac is really easy to use. You'll love Finder & Spotlight
Windows always gave me problems and even crashed many times and usually at the most critical times. I'm a design student so using PS & Illustrator at the same time made my then-Acer laptop went nuts more than once. Redoing assignments because of hard disk failures was normal back then. It was frustrating. Especially coz I worked with really highes files (talk about designing A2 design posters).
I now have Windows 7 on my Macbook too, but I use it only to play games that aren't available for Mac. Everything else I do on my Mac. So far after installing Win7, my WIn7 partition had crashed 3 times and had been doing the disk-checking thing which took more than an hour. It's frustrating. But at the same time I still love the Win7 interface, hehe.
On a side note, Mac is very stable & easy to use. It took me one week to get used to using the Command key than the Ctrl key. Besides, I also use a Buffalo 1TB EHD as my back up and it works great with Mac's back up app, Time Machine. I also partitioned it to 2 partitions - 1 for Mac backup and 1 as external hard drive.
Mac is really easy to use. You'll love Finder & Spotlight
gracielou
New member
Is there just something in particular that causes the crashes because I am running Vista and have never had a problem with my computer crashing or the blue screen or any of that. At all times I have PS, Lightroom, at least 1 of my 2 EHD's, my Downloads folder and my internet browser (well this does get closed occasionally LOL) open and I have yet to have my computer crash on me. Am I just in the lucky PC club?
Susan Bartolini
New member
Yeah, I have my Mac LOADED with software and I would estimate that my start process takes about 30-40 seconds at the most.
To answer an earlier question, Microsoft has Office for the Mac....so you can run excel no problem.
Oh...and as someone mentioned, you can run Parallels which then runs Windows 7 or Vista on the Mac....so if you absolutely had to have some PC software, you could run it on the Mac.
Susan
Julie Billingsley
The Ghost of Awesome Past
Well since you all had said running photoshop was different, so much that it was hard to do a layout at first, I just wanted to ask if there were those same issues with changing over to the Mac MS office (especially excel). My husband is easily frustrated by computers and learning excel all over again would do him in. LOL I'd love to know if it runs exactly the same on PC and Mac. Thanks!
I'm using a free program called NeoOffice instead of Microsoft Office on my Mac but I didn't have hardly any issues switching since they're pretty much identical. I would guess that MS Office would be pretty similar to what he's used to once he gets used to how the Mac in general works.
One reason I had such a hard time with Photoshop & InDesign was that I also upgraded from CS2 to CS3 at the same time. So in addition to having to deal with an entire new OS, I also had to adjust to the changes within the program as well. It's not even that you're making any major changes. It's that everything is just different enough that you have to get used to a whole new way of doing things that are already ingrained in your mind.
1girl1boy
New member
this thread has me completely giddy! I hope to get my Mac within the next 2 weeks and I simply CANNOT wait! I've always been a PC girl, but was totally starstruck after seeing/using the new 27 in. Mac. God bless my sweet hubby who was just as mesmerized and told me I could get one!
aggiefamily
New member
You are going to love it!
xboxmom
Active member
I had always been a PC girl until almost 3 years ago. And I have to say that when I got my Mac I wanted to throw it out into the street and run it over with my car over and over again until it was crushed into a million pieces. My husband was like as soon as you learn how the OS works I will add on the capability for you to run windows on your Mac. Well once I learned how it worked and mind you this took quite a long time and sometimes I still am unsure what does what. But I refused to put any Microsoft software on my Mac at all. LOL and my husband works for MS! So anyway give it time and you will love it!
Ooo, that's exciting! I'm really hoping I can convince my DH to replace his dying PC desktop with something like this. Before he left he actually willingly went into the Apple store to look so I figure there is hope, haha.
zakirahzakaria
Active member
Hehe. I bought my Macbook aluminium the instant I saw it at the Mac outlet. Didn't even ask for offers/discounts. I could've got a lower price if I showed my student card. I literally drooled. It looked so great & using it IS great. It starts up & shuts down MUCH faster than Windows, I've never had "blue screen of death" or whatsoever, no starting up the laptop & suddenly having to do "disk checking" etc.
Loving my Mac & hoping everyone won't have to undergo the many problems of "disk checking" or BSOD anymore by switching to Mac
Loving my Mac & hoping everyone won't have to undergo the many problems of "disk checking" or BSOD anymore by switching to Mac
zakirahzakaria
Active member
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