Apple stuff - Mac, iPad, iphone

[Juud]

After a few days of particularly heavy PPRuNing (me), my Viking has reached the limits of his endurance.
Not with the pruning itself, but with my continued "forcefull expressions of displeasure with everything Microsoft".
As he has also noted a distinct lack of forcefull expressions whenever I use the iBook, he exclaimed yesterday: "Go to the shop and buy us one of those bløødy iMacs puhleaeaeaease!!"
Since the Norwegian government, keen to have its citizens on-line, gives a jolly nice tax-break for buying a computer, getting an iMac will not in fact leave me with too bad a conscience about impact on the family economy.

Have read this thread start to finish, have delved into Mac forums, have spent 2 hours at the Apple shop with a young man patiently answering most of my questions and am about ready to order the iMac+Apple care.
Few last questions, hoping the resident Mac-heads will indulge me.

• The mighty mouse gets very mixed reviews. Something wrong with its acceleration curve making it sluggish/too speedy and anti-intuitive according to some, while others swear by its functionality. Should I get a mighy mouse or a logitech top model instead?
• Viking wants something so he can check/work with online work-generated Excel & Word documents. The online shop recommends Office for Mac, the chap in the shop touts iWork and Mac the Knife breaks a lance for NeoOffice. I am inclined to go for NeoOffice, but is it functional and familiar looking enough for an inveterate Windows user without a shred of computer patience and an aversion to anything new or unfamiliar?
• I now again use Firefox as my default browser on the Dell, and plan to do same on the Mac. Since life is easier with 2 different browsers open at the same time, is there an easily installable adblock feature for Safari?
• I have found the working with pictures option on the 4 year old iBook cumbersome. Uploading and picture editing I prefer doing on the PC. Has this improved with the iMac, is aperture a programme worth getting or are Gimp/iPhotobuddy better options?
• Is the wireless timecapsule back-up machine as smart as it sounds and worth shelling out for?

If there is anything else you think I should think about, please post.
Thanks in advance.

[AppleMacster]

The mighty mouse gets very mixed reviews. Something wrong with its acceleration curve making it sluggish/too speedy and anti-intuitive according to some, while others swear by its functionality. Should I get a mighy mouse or a logitech top model instead?

If you're buying the iMac, it comes with a Mighty Mouse. Try it out and see what you think, you can always get another mouse later. There are two different packages of the iMac in the AppleStores – each iMac model comes in a choice of wireless or wired keyboard and mouse.

Viking wants something so he can check/work with online work-generated Excel & Word documents. The online shop recommends Office for Mac, the chap in the shop touts iWork and Mac the Knife breaks a lance for NeoOffice. I am inclined to go for NeoOffice, but is it functional and familiar looking enough for an inveterate Windows user without a shred of computer patience and an aversion to anything new or unfamiliar?

Office for Mac works fine with current Excel and Word documents, and is ideal if you need to send the files to Windows users as the files are completely compatible. NeoOffice, however is free, and has almost all of the functionality of Excel and the other applications. iWork is much easier to use than Office or NeoOffice, and integration with the rest of the applications on your Mac, such as iPhoto is seamless. It really depends on what you need. I would download NeoOffice for your immediate needs, but take the free trial of iWork (Apple - iWork - Dokumenter, regneark, presentasjoner. Slik Mac gjør det.) and see how you get on. Office for Mac is almost as dull as it is on a PC.

I now again use Firefox as my default browser on the Dell, and plan to do same on the Mac. Since life is easier with 2 different browsers open at the same time, is there an easily installable adblock feature for Safari?

Yes! Safari AdBlock: block ads in Safari

I have found the working with pictures option on the 4 year old iBook cumbersome. Uploading and picture editing I prefer doing on the PC. Has this improved with the iMac, is aperture a programme worth getting or are Gimp/iPhotobuddy better options?

iPhoto (which comes with your Mac) proves enough for most people. It now has the amazing new feature of face recognition as well. If your needs are more advanced, then Aperture is a very powerful way to manage and colour-correct your photos. A new kid on the block is Pixelmator, which is very powerful and lies halfway between the two, in terms of picture editing: Pixelmator

Is the wireless timecapsule back-up machine as smart as it sounds and worth shelling out for?

Yes. Time Machine, the software which performs the backup, will do it to any hard drive connected to your computer. Time Capsule enables this wirelessly and provides a pretty good wifi router as well (modem still required, nonetheless).

[WeatherJinx]

Juud

No problems at all with the Mighty Mouse here (wireless in my case) - apart from the tiny trackball gunking up occasionally, which is soon fixed. There are sufficient mouse control options in System Preferences to accommodate most peoples' requirements, in my view. I just have it on full-blast speed settings for everything

As for everything else - AppleMacster has it covered!

Good luck whatever you decide.

Jxy

[Juud]

Thank you Amacster & Jinxy. Looks like Office for Mac is the least desirable yet most husband-friendly option then.

Regards Safari Adblock; it´s what I have on the iBook, after finding it recommended here. Senior moment there, sorry.

Will take the plunge today and order it.
(weird, why is ordering a new computer so scary? ...afeared of the inevitable set up hassle, wire tangle nightmares, configuration times and brain breakers ahead.. yes even with Mac.... I´m afraid I will be back here.)

[Senior Pilot]

afeared of the inevitable set up hassle, wire tangle nightmares, configuration times

Essentially non existent: as they say, take it out of the box, plug it in and off you go Everything, but everything, just works.

AppleMacster has covered just about all of your queries admirably. Re the mouse, it does take some getting used to the fact that it is programmable for left click/right click, although the design intuits otherwise.

I have OfficeMac, works fine, but it is an MS base, and frustrating for that. But it's cheap, and can be installed on countless Macs, unlike the PC limit that you'd be used to on MS.

Time Capsule is just brilliant, I've restored whole directories that mysteriously disappeared plus restored a lost MacBook when the original was lost. No reinstalling programs, finding passwords, etc. Complete ghost of the lost MB at the push of a button: brill

[foresight]

Mighty Mouse - great to use but I have got through three in the past two years. The scroll ball just gets gunked up and eventually gives up. Trying to take it apart eventually leads to disaster.
I now use a Logitech mouse.

Trouble with Time Machine is, as far as I am aware, there is no way to password protect the disk.

[AppleMacster]

(weird, why is ordering a new computer so scary? ...afeared of the inevitable set up hassle, wire tangle nightmares, configuration times and brain breakers ahead.. yes even with Mac.... I´m afraid I will be back here.)

The iMac need only have one cable (for power) if you get the version with wireless keyboard and mouse.

Good luck at the 'Store. Help is at hand here for any other unforeseen events.

Applemacster

[Background Noise]

A tin of compressed air is useful for cleaning the little scroll ball. Once it gets bad, taking it apart is not that difficult although a bit fiddly and you can't afford to lose any of the little rollers - info here: Cleaning inside and dismantling the Apple Mighty Mouse: Shropshire, brought to you by LinkLink, the independent directory

[Jet II]

Originally Posted by Juud

Since life is easier with 2 different browsers open at the same time,

Why?

Personally I use Firefox exclusively and Internet Explorer for the 2 or 3 websites that insist on it.

[redsnail]

Juud
Feeling nervous when shopping? I was thrilled when I hit "send" for my iMac. Best thing.

[Miserlou]

Very happy with new iMac. 4 months now.
I use NeoOffice which works as well as I need it too. Read- haven't yet found anything it doesn't do.

[Miserlou]

Hmmmm!
Having a problem with a Xerox Phaser 6110 which goes on to pause whenever I try to print and says somehing about 'unable to read document'.

I tried updating software but only managed to get a response when I re-installed the software package. This is obviously not a workable solution.

It won't do anything at all from the Windows PC which I re-installed Bonjour onto to try and fix it.

Any help appreciated.
OX10.4

[BeechNut]

Office for Mac

Beware Office for Mac 2008. Word on it positively sucks. Numerous crashes in one case all my saved files were corrupted killing an entire day's work.

Moreover in Excel, there is no more macro support. That really sucks, the nice W&B program I had written for my plane no longer works.

I strongly recommend if you go Office, you use the previous version. Stay away from 2008. It isn't even beta-level quality. Or use iWork.

With the latest Intel machines you can always use Boot Camp to run Windows natively as well. I do that and use VMWare which can pick up the Boot Camp partition and open a Windows session in OS X. You can even blot out the Windows background and run the Windows app to look just like an open window on OS X with an icon on the app bar as well. But to work effectively you need 4 GB of RAM. I do have the odd Windows app that I must run, so that's a very important feature for me. The advantage to doing it this way is that if you really do need to run Windows natively, you can.

[seekayess]

Skype Hassle

I work on 10.4.11.

I have just installed Skype, which I use once in a while.

My problem is that Skype starts up whenever I start up the laptop.

Could someone please point me to how to avoid this?

Thanks.

[Tim00]

Probably System Preferences/Accounts then look at Login Items. If it's there, then remove it. Note that the ticks indicate that the app should be hidden on login; the don't mean load or not load.

[seekayess]

Thanks, Tim00: I knew it was something quite simple but had forgotten how to do it!

[Wonderworld]

Cbuck the not so mighty mouse in the bin. Thats where it belongs imho. I use a Logitech with more buttons to customise which I use for exposé.

I upgraded to the new top spec 24" iMac a few weeks ago from a 20" iMac and fell in love all over again

[mutt]

I moved to the Mac world about a month ago, based upon suggestions in this thread i downloaded NeoOffice, got to admit that i love it. It actually converts spreadsheets and presentations much better than MS Office with Arabic support.

Mutt

[mustpost]

Help! video Format converter

Hi, love Mac, used to use it a lot in previous work, Big problem - client not content with DVD made on imac (not mine) now needs a meejaplayer avi,wmv, etc file from the Quicktime I have produced - which is 10.6 gb.
Suggestions for a suitable converter please? Thanks to this site now a happy user of Super (for windows) but need sumfink similar for the posh machine...
Cheers

[AppleMacster]

mustpost,

This might work: Veescope Hub

It will do avi.

Applemacster.