Mac Facts:  Cool Features You Should Know

Remember those Mac commercials from a few years ago? You know, the one with those two guys. One, a tragically un-hip PC guy just trying to fit in and the other, an “I did it before it was cool” hipster Mac guy. Those commercials were an obvious sales pitch to get the consumer to switch from a PC to a Mac with facts about all of the cool things that the Mac guy could do and PC guy couldn’t. While many remain loyalists to PC guy, many others over the years have decided have decided migrate to the Mac Operating System.

It can be hard to un-train the brain from years of PC use. I know; I did it myself a year ago. That’s why today, we’re sharing Mac facts and cool features you should know about the Mac when you take the plunge.*

The Dock

The Mac dock is a navigational “toolbar” of sorts that you can anchor on the bottom, left or right side of your screen. The dock holds icons to give you access to your most used applications and files and is completely customizable under your system preferences. In addition to customizing what is shown in your dock, you can have it permanently shown, or hide it so that it only shows when you hover your mouse over it.

The Dashboard

The dashboard, accessible through your dock or launchpad, is a highly convenient feature that is also customizable to your needs. The dashboard contains widgets such as weather, calculator, calendar, ski reports, stocks, dictionaries, you name it. Think of it as an equivalent to those standard apps that come on an iPhone. These widgets are all in one handy place to access as needed.

Where’s My CTRL+ALT-DEL?!?!?

This was a biggie for me. I lack patience so if a program was stuck, I used CTRL+ALT+DEL so much that I practically wore down the keys. When I switched to a Mac, I struggled a bit without access to forcibly quit a program until I learned the Mac equivalent. To force quit on a Mac, the function (aside from a right click option) is COMM+OPT+ESC.

Easy Navigation

We often work with many programs open at one time. Many of us prefer to not have to use our mouse to go between programs. On a Mac, by typing COMMAND+TAB, you can quickly see what programs are open and simply tab through them to go from one to another.

A Note About Command

For many of us former PC folks, the CTRL key is heavily used in keyboard shortcuts. When using a Mac, you will note that the Command key is used most often in its place. For example, the CTRL+C for copy (and the X and V functions that follow) is used on a PC. On the Mac, while the C, X and V are still used to denote copy, cut and paste; COMMAND takes the place of CTRL.

These are just some of the cool features you can find on the Mac OS. While some are loyalists to the PC, there are others just as loyal to Mac. Then there are those in the middle who make the switch from one to the other.

What about you? Is the Mac guy your style or the PC guy?

*This is in no way an endorsement of a Mac over a PC. But if Apple wanted to send me a freebie, I’d have no complaints. Kidding…sort of.

 

Sara Husted is a partner, blogger and social media manager at Virtual Office Admins out of their west coast location. For a free consultation, click here to contact VOA today!