We went into the Mac Lab and sat down at the computers, which had huge flatscreen monitors and a small CPU with no buttons known as the Mac Mini. I took notice of the famous white and grey Apple keyboards with that little green light on the caps lock button. Some of the words on the keys were different ("return" on the middle-row enter key and "delete" in place of backspace, and the "command" key is in about the same spot as the Windows logo key on Windows computers). The mouse, which plugged into the keyboard via a USB port, had a very small wheel that appears to have a reverse configuration of Windows-made mice. I had no trouble logging on because the college's computer network goes through every single computer, even the majority that have Windows.
Once I logged on I clicked the Google Chrome icon in the bottom area that has the icons of various programs. Files and folders on Macs are still placed on the desktop. I did my research and chose a photo to transfer into Photoshop to edit. But I didn't know how to get it onto the computer from Google Images. There are no Windows-style right-click menus on Macs. I tried moving the cursor over the picture and pressing Command+C to copy it, then Command+V in Photoshop to paste it, but that didn't work. I tried to put the image in full screen in Chrome and drag it into Photoshop, but it would only let me drag it onto the bookmarks bar and tabs bar. Then I wondered if I could drag the image from Chrome to the desktop and that worked. I then dragged the image from the desktop to Photoshop and began editing.
I left Chrome running while I used Photoshop, and I was having some trouble with some of the editing functions in Photoshop. I looked up what I was trying to do on Google and I tried to do it in Photoshop, but I didn't see the file/edit/etc. toolbar like it said on the website I went on. Since I know all about that in Windows I thought maybe that was only a Windows thing and Macs didn't have it. Then I realized that the file/edit/whatever bar I was looking for was the same bar on top of the desktop that contains the clock and everything, and the options changed for each program, rather than each program containing it individually like in Windows. So I closed Chrome and the text next to the Apple logo (log off/sleep and other general options) changed from "Chrome" to "Photoshop". Then I clicked "Edit" and was able to make my desired edits (although not without getting the "spinning wait cursor", an indication of a program or system hang, a couple of times). I then learned that the red, yellow and green dots on the top left of each window were the Mac equivalent of Windows' close, maximize and minimize buttons. Finally, I saved my picture in Photoshop and put it in a draft in my email.
Using a Mac computer for the first time as a Windows user was definitely a learning experience. It helped me soften my views on Macs, as I previously thought they were bad compared to Windows. But I have come to realize that many of their features are the same as Windows, and I really enjoyed using an operating system that was new to me. But I plan to stick with mainly using Windows, although I'm open to continuing using Macs for certain things every once in a while.
No comments:
Post a Comment