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.

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.

Yes! Safari AdBlock: block ads in Safari

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

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).

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 :E

As for everything else - AppleMacster has it covered!

Good luck whatever you decide.

Jxy

Essentially non existent: as they say, take it out of the box, plug it in and off you go :ok: 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 :cool:

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.

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. :ok:

Applemacster

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

Why? :confused:

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

:ok:
:D

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 :)

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

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

mustpost,

This might work: Veescope Hub

It will do avi.

Applemacster.

Sorry, I can't work out from your post what you actual question is. Is the DVD intended for playback in a domestic (non-computer) player, for a start?

If it's a computer DVD, then it's likely that they don't have the correct decoder (likely to be one of the MPEG-4 family. Avoid AVI (which is essentially a container for many formats) if you can, since it's (yet another) deliberate attempt by Microsoft to lock out competing technology.

:O Er I have edited the whole thang in Avid Xpress Pro 5.8, normally no probs to burn to any format/region DVD, but this time it's on a small Mac, not networked, need to convert it on the machine..'cos they now want it to play as part of a PowerPissPoorPoint
Ta for the input

Mike

These things are a bit of a minefield, & I'm not a video expert. I'm only guessing (and may be wrong), but I suspect your Quicktime on the Mac has encoded with some kind of MPEG-4 that that the playback machine does not have. I'm not sure from what you say whether the target is Windows or OS X.

The best utility that I know of for troubleshooting this kind of thing (Windows only) is Gspot GSpot Codec Information Appliance which (on Windows) will show you what you have installed, and also for a specific video file, what is actually required to play it.

On OS X (and Windows), VLC player will give you quite a lot of information (somewhere in the media stream / information settings; I don't currently have a copy to hand to check).

Have a look in the settings for Avid Xpress (I've never used it) & see what it's encoding with. If it's H264, for example, then DivX is a good candidate if the target is Windows.

Sorry to be vague but that's about the limit of my experience.

Yup, :D, thanks Tim for getting back so quick, H264, and old divvix was next port of call - breaking news for students of this post, will call back in an hour

New (potential) Mac user here...
 

Hi folks!

Very tempted these days (due to probably fatal motherboard failure) to jump ship and bite the Apple but I have few concerns...

I am a fairly experienced CorelDRAW, Photoshop & Adobe suite user (not a professional one though) and I am a bit concern about availability of these packages as well as MS Word and Excel as they are the basis for my CV & Logbook.

Anyone that can share his/her experience even through PMs?

Many thanks

PZ :ok:

Photoshop, Adobe Suite and MS Office are all fine through OS X, Office as per previous comments.

No idea about Corel, though.

CorelDraw is not available for OSX - as you are used to Adobe products then the obvious alternative is Adobe Illustrator.

I'm trying to sync email to my better halfs iphone but coming up against a few problems. Problem is this, we have an mobile me account with two alias' one for her and one for me. My mail arrives and stays in the inbox and hers goes into a subfolder by way of a rule that redirects it. Works great on the imac. However when syncing the iphone/imac she only receives whats in the inbox. Can't work out how to get her folder to the iphone. I know that her folder is stored locally on the imac but is their anway it will sync?

OK! Staring at the beauty that is my (sorry, 'our') new 24" IMac is getting me no nearer a wireless connection! The Imac is telling me that access requires a WEP password, whereas the router has 'Security Disabled' which was the only way I could give access to Sammi for her laptop while she stayed with us when at Goldsmiths' College. Even activating WEP and using a password won't give me access.

Thoughts. oh Oracle?

Assuming that you're actually trying to connect to your own router (sorry to state the bleedin' obvious), then make sure the router isn't set to only allow specific MAC (as in hardware, not Apple Mac) addresses to connect. It won't have been set like that by default, but some people do turn on MAC-filtering.

Other than that, I've seen odd problems that sound exactly like this with some routers like this, but only with Windows machines. Do you have other machines that can connect wirelessly? Are you running any VPN or network software on your Mac? It's not an old router that doesn't support 802.11g?

Are you broadcasting your SSID, and can your Mac see it? Again, some people 'hide' their network SSIDs, however this doesn't really offer any security, since many network tools will still find them.

You may of course know all this; apologies if so.

Tim

Yes, I am trying to connect to my own router. And no, you were not stating the obvious. ;) Yes, it supports 11g and 11b. Yes, the SSID is being broadcast.

How do I find out the MAC of the IMac? Then I could add it manually.

Turned Access Control 'Off'. Connection made!:ok: And to prove it here I am.

Not a lot of security involved though. How important/'dangerous' is this?

Simplest way to find you MAC address is System Preferences/Network and then it's listed under the "Airport ID" heading.

(Here follows a bit of a stream of consciousness, owing to a bit too much beer on an empty stomach), and is all somewhat of a simplification. Regarding security, it depends. If you live more than a couple of hundred yards from anyone else, then I'd not worry at all (unless you're a Famous Person). If you're in a block of flats surrounded by teenage computer nerds, then it's more of a worry. The level of risk depends on many things.

I'd say: Set a decent access password on your router, so that if someone gets in, they can't lock you out of your own network. Then try to get some kind of security running somehow. Now that you've connected, try to turn on some level in the router: pehaps WEP, or ideally WPA. Reboot everything (router & computers) & check it all still works. Swear a bit if it helps.

I wonder if the password thing might be a misunderstanding between what WEP & WPA reqire: Generally, if you specify WEP (Which is an older standard), then keys are 26 hex digits (0..9, a..f), whereas WPA are 'proper' passwords. This might be a clue?

Macs are generally far more secure than any Windows machines (for several reasons), so the main danger to you I'd say is someone getting into your LAN by connecting to your router since there's no security. If they *can't* get onto your LAN, then (assuming your router is reasonable) then they can't affect your machines (unless the machines have opened ports to the Internet from themselves, such as some games etc. do), or you allow websites to install dodgy software etc.

If people do connect to your LAN, then if you have a strong password on the router, then the shouldn't be able to break your LAN, however you are then reliant on the strength of your computers (running Linux or Mac OS helps here). The best solution is multiple layers: Good Operating System (not Windows), don't run in an Admin account, run a firewall.

Personally, I run a mix of Macs, Linux & Even XP (with no anti-virus software at all) on my LAN, I broadcast my SSID (network address), using the old 128-bit WEP security (relative simply crackable if you really want to). I've never had trouble (and I've been using the internet since the early '90s), but then again, I know my neighbours (& having set some of their computers up for them, I know what they *don't* know.).

Problems on the PC of SWMBO!!
 

I function on my iBook G4, without any serious hassles.

The other day, I upgraded the iTunes and Safari for my wife on her PC with the latest versions available.

I find that I am now beset with sound problems on the iTunes there: as any song/ tune is playing, the sound keeps going off and on intermittently, in no discernible pattern. All speaker connections are OK -- the power light to the external speakers does NOT keep going on/off -- so it is not that. I have pulled out the connection to the CPU and put it back -- no difference.

Whilst I am not good at trouble shooting on a PC at all (having never really used one! -- always a Mac-person for the last 22 years!!) I am foxed with this problem.

So, two questions:

1. What is the problem here?
2. Should this question be posed by me on the parallel PC thread? &
3. Am I being paranoid or do some of you agree that this is a problem of someone of Bill Gates' nerds interfering with the functioning of Apple software on PCs?

I'm in the same situation as you. I use Macs and my wife is still on PCs. :ugh:

Without knowing specifics about your wifes pc, It is hard to narrow the problem down. I'd be tempted to post on the pc page as well (In case you havn't already?)

I know you mentioned gaps in the music, but is it skipping or lagging? If skipping, I would think it's to do with the audio side of things. If it's lagging, it could be to do with a memory problem?

Have you 'run diagnostics' (In the help column.)

Hope this helps?

Shinobi

Ta ever, shinobi1


As you had guessed, I had posted this on a thread for PCs in this Forum.

Honestly speaking, I was at a loss how to decipher what was required of me to do! But someone advised me to check all connections etc.

So, I methodically did that: powered off and disconnected the speakers, re-loaded the iTunes. Blew into the connectors, reconnected, powered up and volia! It worked!! :ok::ok:

Never look onto the mouth of a gift horse, me Dad used to tell me! So, I have left well enough alone -- and a happy SWMBO!

:D

These Apples! Enough to give you the pip!!

Slight problems with my IMac, but nought compared to you Juud!

The display makes my output look like that of a 'photographer'!

Papazulu,
Your Photoshop, and I believe your Adobe Suite, can be exchanged for the Apple versions for basically the cost of shipping. You will have to down load, complete and return a certificate of destruction of the Windows versions.
As long as your versions are the current ones Adobe will replace your Windows versions with the Apple versions.
If you have a version that is no longer current you will have to pay an upgrade fee to the latest edition. They do not replace previous versions.
If you contact Adobe make sure it is sales that you contact, not support.

Not sure where you are located but that is the procedure in North America with my experience being from Canada.
Altogether fairly painless as long as you deal with sales, as I mentioned.

I want to throw my Macbook Pro out the window!
 

Help! My Mac has been running soooooo slooooooooow! I have run a couple of virus/trojan finders and cleared six suspect files off my machine. The problem is still there. In particular every now and again (frequently), when I click on something with the cursor, the little disc that spins round occasionally to show you the thing is thinking just spins and spins, for at least 1 minute, so when on the internet it is getting very frustrating. Can anybody tell me what they think it may be and how to fix it?

Thank you!