8 Useful Tips for Mac Beginners

Despite how drastically different the Mac operating system may appear from a PC, learning how to operate one is actually much easier than you may think. Here are eight useful tips every Mac beginner should know to help make the transition easier and quicker.

Connecting to a Wireless Network – To change your wireless network settings (like select a preferred Wi-Fi network), select System Preferences and then Network. You can also select a network (such as your home) that you want to the Mac to connect to automatically.

Find Files – When you first make the switch from PC to Mac, finding files can be a bit cumbersome if you don’t know how to do it. If you need to find a particular file, simply select the spotlight icon on the far right of the top Menu Bar and type in a keyword. The subsequent results (all of which contain the keyword) are pulled from files stored on your computer and bookmarked Internet pages.

Customize Finder Windows – To change what appears in the left sidebar of every finder window (like applications you don’t normally use), select Preferences under the Finder menu and click the sidebar tab; there you can customize the window.

Terminate Unresponsive Programs – On Windows, you press Crtl+Alt+Delete to abort unresponsive programs. On a Mac computer, you can do the same thing by right-clicking on the unresponsive program and selecting “quit.” Or you can press Command+Option+Escape, choose the right program and click on “force quit.”

Customize the Dock – A default setting on the Mac, whenever you mouse over the dock, it pops up from the bottom of the screen. You can change the size and position of the dock by going to System Preferences and clicking on Dock. To add applications, simply drag and drop them into the dock.

Keyboard Shortcuts – Just like Windows-based computers, Mac computers also have an array of keyboard shortcuts, many of which are similar to PC shortcuts. From copy and pasting to opening a new browser tab, learning the shortcuts of Mac OS X (at least those you use frequently) can provide convenience and usability.

Change Shortcuts – In a similar vein, you can even customize your keyboard shortcuts. Simply select System Preferences, Keyboard Shortcuts, and Keyboard & Mouse. From there, you can customize any keyboard shortcuts you regularly use.

Mac Backup Software – With the increasing popularity of Mac, there are now a wide variety of specifically-designed mac backup software programs and services. These allow you to backup important data as easily as you would on a PC.