March 27, 2007: There are thousands of people switching to the Mac every day but most of them are accustomed to using Windows machines, and are quite lost when it comes to doing the most basic things on the Mac.
Last year, I read about a life-long Windows user who bought his first Mac from the Apple store, but when he got it home he couldn’t figure out how to turn it on. It was a flat-panel iMac, and the “On” button is hidden around the back. The guy was a very, very savvy computer user: a gamer who could disassemble a Windows PC and put it back together with his eyes closed. But he’d never been around Macs before, and their conventions were alien to him.
To help people here’s a need for a very, very simple guide to using the Mac.
a visual guide — simple, step-by-step instructions for doing the most basic things: switching the MAc on; cutting and pasting; shuttign down.
Each step should be illustrated by nice, big photogrpahs. Each picture explicitly illustrates each and every step — almost as though you were there int he room and you were instructing an alien from another planet how to use the computer, which isn;t such a bad analogy.
this is where the Mac community comes in: it’s written by its members for new members. a user guide written by users: a user user guide.
sign is as a contributor — include name, emial address and website. upload a picture of yourself if you like.
write 10 posts that are published, and i’ll send you a signed copy of my book, cult of mac. (take a picture of yourself with the book, and i’ll upload it to a gallery)
instructions for writing a post
example posts: how to turn on an imac; how to cut and paste a block of text; the apple key;
list of topics: crowdsource?
press release
crowdsourcing
creative commons license?
template?
cult of mac initiation:
10 classic macs you must be able to recognize
10 dates in mac history
mac personalities you must know
