If you recently purchased a Mac or if you are thinking to use a Mac for work, you might be frustrated trying to use OS X at first if you have been a long-time Windows user. This is completely understandable and Apple really doesn’t care to change their OS to match that of Windows anytime soon.
Apple loves OS X the way it is and it will probably remain the way it is for the remainder of its life. So, you’ll need to get used to some of the differences between Windows and Mac.
In this post, I am going to give you a couple of my favorite tips for Windows users who have to use a Mac OS. Once you get used to MAC OS, you may find it much easier to use and even like it more than Windows. There is a small learning curve, but it’s worth the effort.
1. How to do Right Click
One of the most annoying things as a beginner Mac user is trying to figure out how to right click. There is no separate right-click button for Macs and this can be really annoying for some people. Luckily, the Apple method is actually kind of more intuitive and easier to use.
All you have to do to right-click is to use two fingers when you perform a normal click. When you click with two fingers, you get the right-click context menu. This is more convenient than having to move the finger all the way down to the correct button like on most Windows laptops.
You can change the settings for how right-click works by going to System Preferences – Trackpad and clicking on the Point & Click tab.
By default, the right-click option is called Secondary click in OS X. If checked, it is normally set to Click or tap with two fingers, but you can click on the small little arrow and choose from two other options also: Click in bottom right corner or Click in bottom left corner. If you just love the way you did it in Windows, you can tweak OS X to get the same behavior.
Also, another quick tip is to check the Tap to click option also. Most Windows laptops allow you to tap to click, but OS X does not have this enabled by default so you have to manually press down the button to click. If you go to Scroll & Zoom, you can also change the scroll direction to whichever is more natural for you.
Add Applications to the Dock
The other major change is there is no Start button in MAC OS as Windows. There simply isn’t any central button in OS X,you have the small Apple logo icon at the top left, which can do a few things like get you to System Preferences or let you restart/shutdown your computer.
The Dock is basically like the Windows taskbar, but only with shortcuts and nothing else. The other annoying thing is that it starts out completely full of default Apple apps. I almost never use more than one or two, so the first thing I do is get rid of them. You can do this by right-clicking on the icon in the dock, choosing Options and choosing Remove from Dock.
Once you have done that, you can add a kind of All Programs folder to your Dock that will let you see a list of all programs installed in OS X. To do this, you have to drag the Applications folder to your dock.
Eject Drives
Apple has confused people when it comes to ejecting devices from the system. In order to eject a flash drive or DVD, you just simply right-click and choose Eject.
Learn to Use Spotlight
If you’re used to the search box in the Start menu on Windows, you’ll be happy to know there is an equivalent search option in OS X called Spotlight. To use Spotlight click either magnifying glass at the top right of your screen or by press the Command + Spacebar keyboard shortcut.
You can find your files, change settings in MAC OS, find apps, find emails etc. Also, it shows result from the web, so you could search for Apple and get suggested websites.
Capturing the screenshot of Desktop
Like in Windows we can take the screenshot but there is not a single button like “PrtScn” in MAC OS. To capture a screensot in MAC you need to Press “command + shift + 4” together. You can see the mouse pointer converted to plus focus symbol with X/Y Coordinates. You can simple select the area which you want to capture.
But if you want to take whole desktop as screen shot then as soon as you see different mouse icon along with X/Y Coordinates press Spacebar. You can see camera picture highlighting whole area, now simple click mouse and your screenshot is saved in Desktop as a .png format.
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