Entering The World of Mac

“People work in their muscle memory,” says Leander Kahney, editor of CultofMac.com and author of the book The Cult of Mac. “You have those shortcuts on the Mac, and it’s just slightly different enough to throw people through a loop. It takes a long while to get used to it. Every time someone tries it and goes to a Windows key, people get very frustrated by it.”

Mac users can make their lives easier by going to Apple’s page for shortcuts with a listing of almost every shortcut they can use on the computer. You can also customize certain shortcut functions with a program called DoubleCommand that you can download for free.

Simple is Good

One of the things the Mac has going for it is a reputation for being easy to use. Even Steve Wozniak, co-creator of Apple and the inventor of the personal computer, says that he constantly strives toward simplicity in his work.

This may be a welcome change for anyone who has threatened to throw a PC out a window after a document was lost. However, in the first 30 days, you may get frustrated at how not simple a Mac appears because it differs from the Windows platform.

“When people switch to a Mac, their expectations are generally very high. They think everything will be smooth and they won’t have problems anymore,” Knaster says. “In fact, it’s a little harder than that. Something really simple will seem impossible and you can’t figure it out. The good news is that those moments fade away and you slowly start to appreciate little moments of delight—when the computer works the way you expect it to. You’ll start to ‘get it.’”