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I thought the aluminum keyboards were a gimmick when they first came out--until I started using one. I loved it! The lesser keyboard travel lets me type faster. So much better than the old clear keyboards that caught dust, dirt and hairs and were impossible to clean. My only complaints about the new keyboards is the arrangement of the volume and Expose keys and the miniscule clearance for plugging in a flash drive.
Aluminum keyboard loses its luster
MultiQuote
#198
peanutbutter 
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Posted 03 June 2008 - 11:35 AM
Tom_Diola??just because some of us have had a problem and some keyboards are just fine, doesn't mean we don't like the new keyboard. I like it and I have had missing letters and it was almost time to throw it out as you suggest.
But, I took it to a Geek professional [3 times to the young Geeks with no results] and he believed me. He turned it up-side down and shook it. "Sounds like something is loose in there" he said. I took it home and believe it or not??it works good, and I don't have to go back and input letters anymore.
SO, USERS WITH PROBLEMS??TURN YOU KEYBOARD UPSIDE DOWN AND SHAKE IT! If it doesn't work talk to the APPLE people.
I hope this clears up any questions and it keeps on working OK, because it is quiet and easy to use. I used a PC at work and came home to my imac and said I would never have a PC of my own. I love the Mac.
Good Luck everyone with problems.
But, I took it to a Geek professional [3 times to the young Geeks with no results] and he believed me. He turned it up-side down and shook it. "Sounds like something is loose in there" he said. I took it home and believe it or not??it works good, and I don't have to go back and input letters anymore.
SO, USERS WITH PROBLEMS??TURN YOU KEYBOARD UPSIDE DOWN AND SHAKE IT! If it doesn't work talk to the APPLE people.
I hope this clears up any questions and it keeps on working OK, because it is quiet and easy to use. I used a PC at work and came home to my imac and said I would never have a PC of my own. I love the Mac.
Good Luck everyone with problems.
#199
FredTheOldGuy
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Posted 03 June 2008 - 12:29 PM
Walueg, dbutenhof, Gordon, Spinoza, and other previous posters,
I'm amazed by your responses. It's not like you're a bunch of high-school students telling me how cool the Mac is. You're knowledgeable computer professionals telling me how cool the Mac is! I guess in this sense, cool does count.
My iMac arrived a day earlier, and I'm typing this note on it--complete with aluminum keyboard! I have to tell you that I'm totally lost, though. I can't seem to figure out what all the keys do, and spell check doesn't work like I wish it did. There's no right clicking on a word to fix it! It just tells me the word is misspelled and leaves it to me to go back and retype the word. There's no numlock and the arrow keys are not integrated into the number pad. Plus, whenever I hit the little button on top, i get a weather report for Cupertino, CA. and some other stuff too. I'm glad they are having good weather, but I'm located on the other side of the country and truthfully the weather in Cupertino is not foremost on my mind. There's bound to be a way to fix it, but the differences are already pretty overwhelming. Like, how the heck to I tell it that the pop server and the smtp server for Cox are associated with the same e-mail addresses? Yet gmail seemed to configure itself! I do like the fact that if you squeeze the mouse on both sides the windows all separate and then you just click on what you want to go back to working on. That's pretty cool. But I'm already missing my right mouse button in a ferocious kind of way.
Ups4hot: this is going to take some getting used to. Already I've blown most of the afternoon because I can't pry myself 44444 away from this computer, and I have a job that needs to go out the door already. Yet here I sit posting notes to an online forum.
Anyway, thanks for all the postings so far. I'm astounded by what I'm hearing in part because of from whom I'm hearing it. Can't wait until I can give this thing my full attention. I'm going to buy that book someone recommended about Mac's missing manual. Maybe it will help smooth the transition a bit. In the meantime, though, I need to get out the box of Fusion and Windows XP what are waiting for installation. (BTW, how large of a partition do I need to allow for XP? I'm going to install Office Professional on it.)
I'm amazed by your responses. It's not like you're a bunch of high-school students telling me how cool the Mac is. You're knowledgeable computer professionals telling me how cool the Mac is! I guess in this sense, cool does count.
My iMac arrived a day earlier, and I'm typing this note on it--complete with aluminum keyboard! I have to tell you that I'm totally lost, though. I can't seem to figure out what all the keys do, and spell check doesn't work like I wish it did. There's no right clicking on a word to fix it! It just tells me the word is misspelled and leaves it to me to go back and retype the word. There's no numlock and the arrow keys are not integrated into the number pad. Plus, whenever I hit the little button on top, i get a weather report for Cupertino, CA. and some other stuff too. I'm glad they are having good weather, but I'm located on the other side of the country and truthfully the weather in Cupertino is not foremost on my mind. There's bound to be a way to fix it, but the differences are already pretty overwhelming. Like, how the heck to I tell it that the pop server and the smtp server for Cox are associated with the same e-mail addresses? Yet gmail seemed to configure itself! I do like the fact that if you squeeze the mouse on both sides the windows all separate and then you just click on what you want to go back to working on. That's pretty cool. But I'm already missing my right mouse button in a ferocious kind of way.
Ups4hot: this is going to take some getting used to. Already I've blown most of the afternoon because I can't pry myself 44444 away from this computer, and I have a job that needs to go out the door already. Yet here I sit posting notes to an online forum.
Anyway, thanks for all the postings so far. I'm astounded by what I'm hearing in part because of from whom I'm hearing it. Can't wait until I can give this thing my full attention. I'm going to buy that book someone recommended about Mac's missing manual. Maybe it will help smooth the transition a bit. In the meantime, though, I need to get out the box of Fusion and Windows XP what are waiting for installation. (BTW, how large of a partition do I need to allow for XP? I'm going to install Office Professional on it.)
#200
folklore
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Posted 03 June 2008 - 12:36 PM
On the right mouse button...
Launch System Preferences, then click Keyboard and Mouse. There's an option in there to enable right-click on the Mighty Mouse. If you were to plug in just about any USB mouse (and many RF mice, like those from Logitech) the right mouse button would just work.
Apple gives us a two button mouse that's configured as a one button mouse by default, apparently hoping that we won't notice. :)
Launch System Preferences, then click Keyboard and Mouse. There's an option in there to enable right-click on the Mighty Mouse. If you were to plug in just about any USB mouse (and many RF mice, like those from Logitech) the right mouse button would just work.
Apple gives us a two button mouse that's configured as a one button mouse by default, apparently hoping that we won't notice. :)
#201
spinoza2
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Posted 03 June 2008 - 12:54 PM
Whew, Fred, you do have your work cut out for you. Making the switch does take some time and patience, but pretty much everything you mentioned as issues or differences can be addressed according to your own working preferences. You're right about the spellchecking: I personally feel that the Word for Windows spellchecker is ultimately a bit more powerful than a Mac in terms of features and functionality (in spite of the minor annoyances). But the Mac dictionary/thesaurus is excellent, and the context menu has a slew of useful features. And remember that the Mac's dictionary/spellchecker works consistently for all Leopard apps, not just a text editor, or, as in Windows, with Word. You do need to turn on the right mouse button in Preferences to use the context sensitive menu, but once you get used to the Mighty Mouse 'buttons' you'll be fine.
I also agree with the others that Apple's foot-dragging over the years with right mouse-button support has been counter-productive, and is one of the few areas I believe they've stumbled a bit. It's been pretty obvious for some time that 'right-mousing' has an established usefulness in the world of personal computing. But Apple's support for it is now sufficient, even though they may not admit it...
I also agree with the others that Apple's foot-dragging over the years with right mouse-button support has been counter-productive, and is one of the few areas I believe they've stumbled a bit. It's been pretty obvious for some time that 'right-mousing' has an established usefulness in the world of personal computing. But Apple's support for it is now sufficient, even though they may not admit it...
#202
walueg
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Posted 03 June 2008 - 01:07 PM
There's no numlock and the arrow keys are not integrated into the number pad.
You're going to have to start using the directional keys instead. Sorry.
Plus, whenever I hit the little button on top, i get a weather report for Cupertino, CA. and some other stuff too. I'm glad they are having good weather, but I'm located on the other side of the country and truthfully the weather in Cupertino is not foremost on my mind.
When you're in the Dashboard which is showing you Cupertino I presume, hover your mouse over that widget and you'll see a small italic 'i'. Click on that and the widget will flip over and you can put your own zip code in there and be golden... or rainy as the case may be.
You're going to have to start using the directional keys instead. Sorry.
Plus, whenever I hit the little button on top, i get a weather report for Cupertino, CA. and some other stuff too. I'm glad they are having good weather, but I'm located on the other side of the country and truthfully the weather in Cupertino is not foremost on my mind.
When you're in the Dashboard which is showing you Cupertino I presume, hover your mouse over that widget and you'll see a small italic 'i'. Click on that and the widget will flip over and you can put your own zip code in there and be golden... or rainy as the case may be.
#203
dbutenhof
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Posted 03 June 2008 - 01:09 PM
FredTheOldGuy said:
Walueg, dbutenhof, Gordon, Spinoza, and other previous posters,
I'm amazed by your responses. It's not like you're a bunch of high-school students telling me how cool the Mac is. You're knowledgeable computer professionals telling me how cool the Mac is! I guess in this sense, cool does count.
My iMac arrived a day earlier, and I'm typing this note on it--complete with aluminum keyboard! I have to tell you that I'm totally lost, though. I can't seem to figure out what all the keys do, and spell check doesn't work like I wish it did. There's no right clicking on a word to fix it! It just tells me the word is misspelled and leaves it to me to go back and retype the word.
I'm amazed by your responses. It's not like you're a bunch of high-school students telling me how cool the Mac is. You're knowledgeable computer professionals telling me how cool the Mac is! I guess in this sense, cool does count.
My iMac arrived a day earlier, and I'm typing this note on it--complete with aluminum keyboard! I have to tell you that I'm totally lost, though. I can't seem to figure out what all the keys do, and spell check doesn't work like I wish it did. There's no right clicking on a word to fix it! It just tells me the word is misspelled and leaves it to me to go back and retype the word.
This depends on the program; some programs do offer replacements, others rely on a built-in dictionary that doesn't work that way. Many programs go behind that.
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There's no numlock and the arrow keys are not integrated into the number pad.
I don't know what you're comparing it to. Yeah, no NUM LOCK, which is kinda like INSERT... rarely needed, and often more of a nuisance than value. The edit keypad, including arrows (with the exception of the "fn" replacing Insert) is exactly the same layout as the HP USB keypad attached by my work-only HP laptop. So I guess it depends on which keyboard you're coming from.
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Plus, whenever I hit the little button on top, i get a weather report for Cupertino, CA. and some other stuff too. I'm glad they are having good weather, but I'm located on the other side of the country and truthfully the weather in Cupertino is not foremost on my mind. There's bound to be a way to fix it, but the differences are already pretty overwhelming.
Yes; lots of cultural gap to climb over. In this case, you've hit the DASHBOARD button, bringing up a "layer" of HTML/CSS widgets that are essentially isolated little web browser pages. The weather report, and most others, are configurable by pressing the little italic "i" in the lower right. The window will flip over and show a configuration page... for weather, you enter your town and state. You can enter your own stock symbols on the stock ticker, etc. Hold down the "option" key and each dashboard widget will show an "X" circle you can use to close the widget. (Use the "+" to add new widgets.)
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Like, how the heck to I tell it that the pop server and the smtp server for Cox are associated with the same e-mail addresses? Yet gmail seemed to configure itself! I do like the fact that if you squeeze the mouse on both sides the windows all separate and then you just click on what you want to go back to working on. That's pretty cool. But I'm already missing my right mouse button in a ferocious kind of way.
I don't happen to have a gmail account, but I suspect that if you enter a gmail.com address Mail will know how to connect. You can enter smtp and pop or imap directly, but with some protocols it understands where they go.
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Ups4hot: this is going to take some getting used to. Already I've blown most of the afternoon because I can't pry myself 44444 away from this computer, and I have a job that needs to go out the door already. Yet here I sit posting notes to an online forum.
Yes; there's an enormous amount to learn. Use the discussions.apple.com forums (or macworld!) to ask questions; you'll find lots of help from other people who've been on the platform "forever" as well as people like you who've recently switched.
#204
gballey
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Posted 03 June 2008 - 01:45 PM
Re: right mouse button
If you haven't enabled the right mouse button in System Preferences yet, you can also simulate the right button by holding down CTRL while you click the left mouse button. Pull down the Apple logo (upper left) menu to get to System Preferences, which provides a whole slew of system settings.
Note that the Mighty Mouse has an unusual method for sensing left/right mouse clicks. There is only a single switch, and the mouse determines which "button" you are pushing by capacitively sensing if your finger is resting on the left or right side of the mouse when you click. This causes problems for some who are used to letting both fingers rest on the top of the mouse when clicking either button on conventional mice. Some people never get used to it. If you are among those, as others have said, almost any multi-button PC mouse with a USB interface can be plugged in, and will just work.
Good luck.
-Gordon
If you haven't enabled the right mouse button in System Preferences yet, you can also simulate the right button by holding down CTRL while you click the left mouse button. Pull down the Apple logo (upper left) menu to get to System Preferences, which provides a whole slew of system settings.
Note that the Mighty Mouse has an unusual method for sensing left/right mouse clicks. There is only a single switch, and the mouse determines which "button" you are pushing by capacitively sensing if your finger is resting on the left or right side of the mouse when you click. This causes problems for some who are used to letting both fingers rest on the top of the mouse when clicking either button on conventional mice. Some people never get used to it. If you are among those, as others have said, almost any multi-button PC mouse with a USB interface can be plugged in, and will just work.
Good luck.
-Gordon
#205
ChrisLJ
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Posted 03 June 2008 - 02:25 PM
Fred,
I have The Missing Manual: Mac OS X Leopard Edition, and it is an excellent source of info. But you might want to get
'Switching To The Mac: The Missing Manual, Leopard Edition', also by David Pogue. It deals more with the differences of Windows and Mac. The Amazon link is: http://www.amazon.co...96514123/ref=pe6067892660pear_t6
Also, here are links to some Apple sites dealing with switching, using a Mac, and some video tutorials.
http://www.apple.com...port/switch101/
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/
http://www.apple.com...douthow/macosx/
Another option is a tutorial on DVD called KnowLeopard. http://www.knowmac.c...nowLeopard.html
And here is a MacWorld article on their very own Superguide for Leopard. It can be purchased and downloaded in PDF form.
I hope this helps a little. Believe me, it's well worth the effort to learn the differences (and foibles) of the Mac. It can be a very satisfying experience.
Have fun, Chris
I have The Missing Manual: Mac OS X Leopard Edition, and it is an excellent source of info. But you might want to get
'Switching To The Mac: The Missing Manual, Leopard Edition', also by David Pogue. It deals more with the differences of Windows and Mac. The Amazon link is: http://www.amazon.co...96514123/ref=pe6067892660pear_t6
Also, here are links to some Apple sites dealing with switching, using a Mac, and some video tutorials.
http://www.apple.com...port/switch101/
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/
http://www.apple.com...douthow/macosx/
Another option is a tutorial on DVD called KnowLeopard. http://www.knowmac.c...nowLeopard.html
And here is a MacWorld article on their very own Superguide for Leopard. It can be purchased and downloaded in PDF form.
I hope this helps a little. Believe me, it's well worth the effort to learn the differences (and foibles) of the Mac. It can be a very satisfying experience.
Have fun, Chris
#207
ElijahPost
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Posted 04 June 2008 - 11:13 AM
Hmm. I beg to differ. I think it's just a matter of personal preference. I for one, don't like the keyboards with the old style keys. I keep slipping and making mistakes. The only problem I have with the aluminium keyboards is when it's 2AM and in my tiredness, press Caps Lock instead of Shift.
#208
heimdall
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Posted 04 June 2008 - 11:23 AM
ElijahPost said:
Hmm. I beg to differ. I think it's just a matter of personal preference. I for one, don't like the keyboards with the old style keys. I keep slipping and making mistakes. The only problem I have with the aluminium keyboards is when it's 2AM and in my tiredness, press Caps Lock instead of Shift.
Do you ever use Caps Lock intentionally? I don't, so I have it disabled.
Keyboard & Mouse preference panes>Keyboard>Modifier Keys...
no more ACCIDENTAL ALL-CAPS.
#209
JavaAddict77
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Posted 04 June 2008 - 02:10 PM
I can type faster, with less effort, on the aluminum keyboard. My accuracy is about the same as it was with old the one. The key is the light touch. It doesn't require as much effort to press keys, so I don't what others are talking about with letters not showing up, etc. I liked it so much I use a wired for my PC and a wireless for my Mac.
