Your advice please, for the MacBook-toting students
1:35 am, September 17th, 2008, Giles Turnbull
Every high school and junior high student in the Ballinger school district near San Angelo has been given a brand new MacBook. Lucky them.
Let’s assume that most of these youngsters have not owned a Mac before. What advice should we give them? What tips would make their computing life a happy one?
Here’s my list, which in some respects is similar to Alex Payne’s, linked above:
- don’t let your Mac automatically log you in. Pick a good system password and make sure you have to enter it to gain access
- back your stuff up. If your computer is going to die, the chances are good that it’ll die the day before you have to hand in that important assignment
- don’t overload your Applications folder with stuff you don’t need
- use a text editor to write. Only use a word processor for final formatting, if it’s necessary; even then, TextEdit or Bean are just fine for most of the basics
- learn about properly quitting apps (not just closing their windows); about using disk images and installing software from them; about grabbing screenshots with Command+Shift+3 and Command+Shift+4; about Expose and Spaces and Quick Look
Just a few tips off the top of my head. If you were in that school hall while those MacBooks were handed out, what advice would you have been giving the kids?
Posted by Giles Turnbull in News | Comment on this article
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I’d let them know about NeoOffice and OpenOffice (to save them from having to buy MS Office) as well as Firefox and Adium as alternatives to Safari and iChat. Other tips include versiontracker.com for finding apps and using Boot Camp or Parallels for running Windows when needed (the virtualization option lets them use both at the same time). Also, sites from switchers, like Dave Allison’s blog, have lots of useful info… links to good sites can be found at macsurfer.com
ckilner, on September 17th, 2008 at 5:49 am
1. don’t even bother with ms office. give iwork a try. for most word processing, its good enough… actually its better. and your parents won’t mind paying only $80ish instead of a few hundred.
2. don’t load osx on a pc. its a sin against god.
peruchito, on September 17th, 2008 at 5:52 am
Although iWork and OpenOffice are great alternatives… if these Macbooks are being used in a district where PCs are also used, make sure that software is in line with what they use. If the district prefers Microsoft Office, get that.
Being in IT at a school district myself, I highly doubt that students will have absolute free reign to install whatever they desire on these Macbooks. We’re a fully Windows environment (not by my choice, heh) and have very strict policies on our PCs. I would absolutely CRINGE if I knew any student was able to install and configure whatever they like.
As far as basic use to a new Mac user…
-You don’t have to double click Dock items. Although this doesn’t affect the program as it’s loading, it’s just kind of annoying.
-The Apple does NOT replace the Start menu–the Dock does.
-The menu bar at the top contains common menus (like file, edit, view, etc.) and changes when you focus on a different program.
-To quit an application, either use COMMAND+Q or visit the menu bar and select quit.
-DO NOT run an application from a downloaded disk image, and leave all the DMGs on the desktop. Thankfully most installers nowadays are very straightforward on how to do this.
-Right-click does work… you can connect any 2-button external mouse and do it just fine.
-Yes your printer/scanner/digital camera/keyboard/mouse will work with your new Mac as well as thousands of other devices.
-DO NOT install AOL Instant Messenger from AIM.com –iChat has the functionality and, unlike the AIM client, HAS been updated this century.
-Although Firefox is a MUST on Windows, don’t worry about immediately installing and “switching” to it on your new Mac. Safari is an amazing, fast, and powerful browser and will do everything you need it to just fine. If you’re a true FF fanboy, have at it. (ANYTHING is better than IE6/7/8)
-Contrary to what you’ve heard or believed, yes you can get a virus. Macs are not immune–it’s just really uncommon. And I mean REALLY uncommon. This doesn’t mean you can immediately install Limewire and download to your heart’s content. Please, don’t steal music/software.
My name is Tim, and I’m a use a Mac.
tobryan, on September 17th, 2008 at 7:57 am
“use a text editor to write”
Wah? Why?
And yes, quit, quit, quit, quit, quit, quit, quit, quit, quit your apps! I can’t tell you how annoying hearing this is:
“I thought Macs were fast, mine is so slow!”
“Uh, you’re running fifteen applications, playing music with iTunes, downloading files and trying to watch a youtube video…ANY computer would be slow doing all that.”
Command-f*&%-Q
Now, since they’ll be using laptops, knowing useful keyboard shortcuts will be infinatly helpful.
My contribution:
Command-S = Save, do often!
Command-space = Open spotlight, search your computer
Command-(shift)-Z = Undo (Redo)
Command-<A> = Select all, make bold, italic, underline
Command-Shift- = Take whole screenshot, drag a box
Command-(option)-W = close (all) windows
Command-F = Find
Command-(shift)-` = Cycle application windows (in reverse)
Command-Click = (Safari, FF) open link in new tab
Command-Double click = (Finder) open folder in new window
Command-click window title See the path
Command- = Cut, copy, paste
(Command-Shift-Option-V to paste and match style)
Command-(shift)-Tab = Cycle through applications (in reverse) also press q to quit the selected app
Option- = move (delete) one whole word to the left, right
Command- = Move (delete) to beginning, end of line, paragraph
Command-Option-Esc Force quit menu when you get the rainbow pizza of death
Also:
⌘ = Command
⌥ = Option
⇧ = Shift
^ = Control
Church of Apple, on September 17th, 2008 at 11:10 am
So, uh, I guess you can’t use “” in the comments?
Church of Apple, on September 17th, 2008 at 11:12 am
Most characters are fine in comments, although we upgraded our site’s back-end today and are having a few wee issues with character encoding. Apologies for any inconvenience.
Craig Grannell, on September 17th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
I worked with Maine’s roll out of iBooks to middle school students for two years. My advice is this:
These computers are expensive. Every part of them is going to cost you several hundred dollars to fix if you break it because the school doesn’t fix it, they pay someone to fix it. Do not, under any circumstances, break your computer. Always zip up or velcro the case shut, and be careful in the halls. Put it in the case and then into your backpack even.
We had a kid drop his down the stairs and completely obliterate the hinge. We had a girl break her screen and basically cry when I told her that it was going to cost her five hundred dollars to fix. The school will provide you the tools to take care of your computer. Use them.
On another note, these Macbooks will likely be completely locked down in software. Ours had no installation privileges, you couldn’t even change the desktop, and I don’t think you could even move the dock icons around. There are preferences that can be set on these computers that you never would have thought of. Plus they’re using it on filtered internet, so good luck getting to SourceForge or VersionTracker anyway. These computers even had the Open Firmware passwords set.
That’s not to say that you can’t get around all that. You can reset the Open Firmware, boot into single user mode and create a new admin user, but that’s way beyond middle school minds. Thankfully.
Kids: try adding .nyud.net:8090 after your top level domains.
Good luck.
Dean
Dean Putney, on September 17th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Last but not least…backup up your Macbook in case anything should go wrong!
I work for G-Technology and I approve this message.
Erin, on September 19th, 2008 at 10:10 am
Configure the Preferences
FireDune, on September 19th, 2008 at 11:44 pm