Mac “Welcome” Notes

A co-worker recently purchased a new MacBook.  I sent him this email just as a quick-start to help him get going.  I thought I’d share it here:

Some hot keys you’ll probably want to know: (fyi Cmd/Command = Apple key, you’ll barely ever use Alt or Control anymore)

Cmd-Q: Quits current application.  Just so you know, closing all windows for an application does not mean the application has been closed

Cmd-W: Closes a window for current application, or in FireFox, closes current tab

Cmd-T: Opens new tab

Cmd-H: Hides current application (use cmd-tab or click on it in the dock to get it back)

Cmd-Tab: Basically the same as Alt-Tab in windows, switch between apps.  You can press Cmd-Tab and hold it then use your mouse to quickly activate a program.  Or you can keep hitting cmd-tab to flip through them

Cmd-N: Opens new window for active application.  (so like a new window for FireFox)

Cmd-left arrow: Move cursor to beginning of line

Cmd-right arrow: Move cursor to end of line

——

Those are the are the real frequent ones, but there are others.  A couple good gestures:

4 fingers up: Move windows out of the way to expose desktop.  4 fingers down to bring windows back in.

4 fingers down: Hard to explain, but basically let’s you see all open windows, you can then click on one to bring it to the front. 4 fingers back up to exit it (or click on the app you want to see come to the front)

4 fingers left or right: Activates Cmd-Tab interface, click on the app you want to use or brush 4 fingers opposite direction to get it out of the way.

2 fingers up/down/left/right: When you’re in a window that can scroll, this scrolls in the direction you sweep towards.

——

Some applications:

AppCleaner:  More or less a free version of AppZapper, I own AppZapper, but this is supposed to be a good freebie.  Basically they help make sure applications don’t leave remnants on your hard drive when you uninstall)

Fluid

Adium: IM/Chat

NeoOffice: OpenOffice compiled specifically for Mac

Parallels: Virtual Machine software

Skitch: Good for quick and simple image markup

TextWrangler: Decent text editor for HTML/css, although TextMate is better in my opinion, but you have to pay for TextMate after evaluation)

Viscosity: OpenVPN client for Mac

Cyberduck (FTP):  — although I highly recommend paying for Transmit

Growl: Provides a notification system for many applications.  Note: it’s possible one of the above applications will prompt you to install it at some point and then install it for you, but if they don’t, you can grab it here.

——

Anyone else have any good tips for someone making the shift from Windows to Mac?  It’s been awhile for me, so it’s hard to remember all the neat things I probably take for granted now.