PC or Mac

[MiknMinMouse]

Just wanted to thank all of you for your imput. I got my new MAC on Friday night . Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to set it up yet as I was sick ALL weekend ~ ARGH. But I'm really excited. When we went to the store and had the in store demo I was in awe of all this machine can do. Can't wait to get started

 

[debbiedoo]

Just wanted to thank all of you for your imput. I got my new MAC on Friday night . Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to set it up yet as I was sick ALL weekend ~ ARGH. But I'm really excited. When we went to the store and had the in store demo I was in awe of all this machine can do. Can't wait to get started

Your welcome

YAY!! My imac G5 took no more than 10/15 minutes to set up -- should be easy

I hope that you are feeling better

 

[SueM in MN]

I was just making a professional presentation in a major Chicago hotel last week and the tech staff came in and said, "thank gosh you don't have a MAC. They tend to be incompatible with almost any of the major brands of projectors. Great machines, but not when you need to depend on someone else's technology to access the Internet or a presentation projector." My students have also had problems emailing files that will be in a form that is compatible and preserves formatting on PC's. Beta max was a superior technology to VHS, but.... I'm not trashing Mac's, just saying that they are not seamless in interacting with the rest of the world.

I was at a major professional conference last year where some people had Macs and some had PCs. There were problems with both, so I think the tech staff's comments may have been more because he was used to what he had to do to work around PCs than what to do if Macs have a problem.
I have to use a PC at work and have had sometimes (and seen other people have) such major problems getting our own work PC hooked up that we had to do our program on a different machine (thank goodness for USB storage devices).
Also regarding formatting, I work in a setting with lots of computers and we are sending things back and forth frequently. I often have problems where the formatting that worked just fine on the person's PC who sent it to me doesn't work right on mine (like his document was 2 pages - on mine for some reason, it splits into 3). We have the same PCs with the same software. If you have a different version of the same software, there are even more problems.

Plug in USB wireless for desktop (cheap one at Sam's doesn't support Mac), we had to physically send the Mac back to have wireless installed internally.

I'm not sure what this means. All the current Macs have airport cards (wireless access cards) built in. With the older Macs (like 2004 and older), if they don't already have an airport card, it's an easy addition, that was designed for user installation. I installed one in my first ibook in 1999.

 

[Tinijocaro]

I
Also regarding formatting, I work in a setting with lots of computers and we are sending things back and forth frequently. I often have problems where the formatting that worked just fine on the person's PC who sent it to me doesn't work right on mine (like his document was 2 pages - on mine for some reason, it splits into 3). We have the same PCs with the same software. If you have a different version of the same software, there are even more problems.

I'm not sure what this means. All the current Macs have airport cards (wireless access cards) built in. With the older Macs (like 2004 and older), if they don't already have an airport card, it's an easy addition, that was designed for user installation. I installed one in my first ibook in 1999.

I was wondering about this too- all things are easy to add to a mac, nothing complicated about it.

Jackie

 

[MiknMinMouse]

I guess the only downside I'm seeing is that I'm losing all of my stuff I've got saved on AOL, favorites, addresses, etc. I'm trying to find AOl software for my new MAC, but until then I'm having to go through all of my favs and link them in an email and figure out what to do with them later.

Also, I'm losing some programs I love, but we're still keeping the PC so if I really want to use them, they are accessible. I'm just amazed at what I will be able to do with my MAC. The IDVD program looks incredible. Also, according to my salesguy, no firewalls are needed which is kind of nice.

I think it's just going to basically be getting used to a slightly new system, but once I"m used to it, all will be great.

 

[Pamlur]

I guess the only downside I'm seeing is that I'm losing all of my stuff I've got saved on AOL, favorites, addresses, etc. I'm trying to find AOl software for my new MAC, but until then I'm having to go through all of my favs and link them in an email and figure out what to do with them later.
:

I use AOL for Mac; the last time I had to install AOL on a new Mac, I just used one of the CD's that are scattered everywhere. There was a Mac version built into the CD. Have you checked for that?

 

[MiknMinMouse]

I use AOL for Mac; the last time I had to install AOL on a new Mac, I just used one of the CD's that are scattered everywhere. There was a Mac version built into the CD. Have you checked for that?

Of course not, this brain dead person didn't even THINK about that Thanks, I will check that, since I have about 3 disks at home. I bet those AOL techs are having a good laugh over the question I sent. SIGH.

 

[debbiedoo]

Of course not, this brain dead person didn't even THINK about that Thanks, I will check that, since I have about 3 disks at home. I bet those AOL techs are having a good laugh over the question I sent. SIGH.

how is things running for you??

It will be ok -- they and us here are here to help

 

[MiknMinMouse]

I'm coming to you from AOL on my new MAC!!! I'm so excited. This thing is AMAZING! I'm a convert. I'm a little overwhelmed by the IDVD and IMovie. I need to find a forum or somewhere to get a little help. Also, I'm still in PC mode so I'm having to learn left instead of right and all of the other new ways things work. This computer is so worth it though. The sound is amazing. I have my Itunes going while I'm typing and it's so cool to not have my computer slow as molasses.

 

[RadioNate]

Do you have an apple store near by. they have classes for iDvd and iMovie but the forums on apple.com can also be helpful. If you bought an apple care or pro care plan you can also get phone help from them.

you can also pm me any questions if you are stuck. I will say your best bet is to just jump in and see what happens. Start with a Magic iMovie or One step DVD just to see how it works and then move onto custom stuff.

If you plan on creating a lot, I'd invest in an external HD. You can get a 300gb one for less than $200. An hour movie takes about 10gb and you'll need an equal amt of free space for encoding so it can eat up HD quickly.

I tend to keep my current project on my Mac and archive the rest on the external drive. If I was working on several projects at once I'd clone onto the external drive so I could run off of that.

 

[MiknMinMouse]

Thanks for the hard drive advice. I think I'll look into it. I do have a store relatively nearby but it's not easily accessible due to traffic and timing. I think I'll check the forums for help, and of course any help you want to give is more than welcome. I did try jumping in and think once I get the hang of it, I'll LOVE it. I do have to say it's hard to beat the ease of Photostory by Microsoft, it's just hard for me to get it to burn to a CD. Anyway. I tried the Imovie but I can't figure out how to get my pictures to show up in the main page. I tried dragging and dropping but that won't work. And of course, my computer didn't come with a manual for the programs that were installed. I wonder if Apple will give me one or let me even purchase a manual.

I'm also having some trouble with getting my Quicken data to load on my MAC quicken version which is a bit of a pain. But I feel the benefits far outweigh the few inconveninces.

I do have one quick question for you. If you want to delete a widget from your dashboard, how do you do it? I downloaded a hangman game I really don't like and now I can't get rid of it. SIGH. Thanks.

 

[RadioNate]

Wigets - when your in dashboard there will be a little plus sign in the lower left hand corner. If you click the plus it'll open the dashboard manager and X's will appear on the wigets you are using. Click the X to close the widget.

PC quicken to Mac is a pain. This should help
http://web.intuit.com/support/quicken/2003/mac/2159.html

I actuall ended up just downloading my old statements from online banking and starting over rather than trying to convert the file.

Are you trying to do a movie with photos or video? There is an easy way in iDVD if you are just doing a photo slideshow set to music. You'll need the music in iTunes. You can also build photo slideshows in iPhoto and then export them to iDVD (under the Share menu).

You can import photos into iMovie using the import command under the file menu.

Under the programs help menu there is a searchable database that should be helpful. The people at the apple discussion boards are also pretty good.
http://discussions.apple.com/index.jspa

 

[MiknMinMouse]

Are you trying to do a movie with photos or video? There is an easy way in iDVD if you are just doing a photo slideshow set to music. You'll need the music in iTunes. You can also build photo slideshows in iPhoto and then export them to iDVD (under the Share menu).

I mostly have photos but since I have the option, I'd like to include some video clips. I have them on DVD so I hope I can import those clips, if not I can do just photos. I'm really excited about the option of using Itunes, which Microsoft doesn't have. The songs I want for my movie area already on my ITunes list. .

I'll check out the site for the Quicken. I did look briefly at the forums for Imovie but there were like 64,000 posts and it was a little overwhelming so I just read a couple that sounded a bit like what I'm trying to do. I'm just so impatient, I want to know immediately how everything works .

Thanks for the tips and if you think of more, please share .

 

[RadioNate]

Also in iMovie 06 you can get to all your photos in iPhoto from the media tab. It'll open to GarageBand and iTunes but there is a photo tab above where the songs are.

 

[tink2020]

Just another congrats on your new computer from a Mac user! We actually have both a Mac laptop and a Compaq Windows PC, but DH bought this desktop before I had him convinced otherwise...... now he can't wait for a new one, and you can bet it will be from the Apple store!

 

[Tinijocaro]

Don't forget to utilize the Apple forums for questions. Go to www.apple.com, then click support, then click discussions, then choose whatever category you need help with.

Something else to consider, especially for iMovie and iDVD is purchasing a book. There is a "Missing Manual" series, I have one for iPhoto that explained so much, and opened up so many features that I didn't even know iPhoto had. I'm sure there is one for iDVD and iMovie. Another author of Macintosh things is Robin Williams, we have his OS X book and it's an easy read, like the Macintosh OS X bible.

I'm glad you are so thrilled with your new computer- Macs really are great.

Jackie

 

[MiknMinMouse]

I'll look now for some books. Although i'm not great about reading them through, I'm way too lazy, give me a novel instead, I love having a reference where I can look for exactly what I need.

Just a side note. My DH is loving my computer so much he's decided his next laptop will be a MAC.

My latest challenge is getting my computer to recognize my HP all in one. I can get it print but scanning isn't working and I have to get that fixed quickly since I'm on a deadline with my little movie. It's for FIL & MIL's anniversary and I've found some great pictures that HAVE to be in the movie

Oh and if the tag fairy is lurking, if you ever want to tag me, I'm a MAC convert

 

[RadioNate]

I'd love to help you with the HP but I can't even get my HP all-in-one to work correctly on DS's PC.

For the Mac, I bought a cheap-o Epson (I don't do a ton of printing) and a dedicated scanner but I needed something that could scan medium format film and the HP couldn't.

 

[MiknMinMouse]

I got it to work. I called Apple support and they were great. It ended up that I just needed to download an updated driver from HP.

I've burned my first DVD from IDVD and I like it BUT I don't love it. I bought the only book about Ilife that I could find but it's for Ilife05 and I think they made quite a few changes to 06 or I just am book dumb

I wanted to make one slideshow with lots of pictures, different songs and panning effects. So far what I've made is one DVD with several chapters and a dissolve effect. With Photostory I could make the songs stop and start with whatever picture I wanted and each picture could have a different effect, I can't get that same thing with iDVD unless I'm missing something. The book so far isn't much help so I guess it's off to the apple forums to see if someone there can help. Unless you have any suggestions.