# tell me what's so good about an mac?



## lemarq (Oct 24, 2007)

Having recently purchased an iMac after 22 years of using PCs my frustration level with it has reached a point to where I am about to return it. The lack of programs for it is disappointing. The programs that come with the O/S are limited to say the least. The ability to manage files is almost nonexistent. iPhoto, iTunes are dreadful. While the iMac is superior to the PC in many ways its short comings make the Mac not worth it. 

Before I bought the Mac I read many comments from people about how good the Mac was and that they would never go back to a PC and while the PC is very frustrating and the new O/S, Vista, is worse than awful at this moment I will take it over the Mac.

For example I imported 2200 pictures into iPhoto. The photos were from a number of directories and sub directories. iPhoto showed the pictures in groupings where the sub directories were not connected to the directory above it. When I chose to sort the photos manually the groupings that iPhoto put the pictures in was removed and now I have a screen of 2200 pictures all lumped together. I got so pissed off that I deleted iPhoto and reinstalled it hoping to start fresh but no I am right back to where I was before I deleted it. 

I am trying out a file management program called Macintosh Explorer and while it is better than nothing it doesn't come close to Power Desk 6 for the PC. The same with ACDSee, a photo viewer and management program. The PC version actually does something while the Mac version is so limited it is next to useless. It doesn't copy, delete or rename files while the PC version does.

How does one convert a wav file to a MP3 when it is already on the computer? Easy to do on a PC not so on the Mac.

Tell me what am I missing? What's so good about the Mac?


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## guytoronto (Jun 25, 2005)

Okay, take a deep breath.

You sounds like you need to sit down with someone who knows Macs and can show you a few tricks here and there.

iPhoto: iPhoto '08 groups your photos by event. Your folders and subfolders may need to be reorganized within iPhoto to this new method. Just dumping them in and expecting everything to adhere to your previous organization method just won't work.

What file management are you trying to do? Most can be down through the Finder, in your Home Folder. Spotlight is infinitely more powerful than most utilities I've seen on Windows.

What features of ACDSee are you looking for?

Convert a WAV to MP3? In iTunes, make sure your import setting is MP3. Take your WAV files into iTunes, right click, 'Convert to MP3'. Very easy.

There are thousands of little tips and tricks that are spread throughout the Mac OS. It will take time to get used to them all.


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## JustAMacUser (Oct 21, 2007)

Perhaps you're simply accustom to using Windows and that's causing frustration. I used Macs for 3-years at work before I "got used" to them and decided to get one for home. Now I wouldn't go back.

I'm sure you have a lot more questions than you've posted. The thing to remember is that a Mac might not be the best computer for everyone, and that's okay. If you give it some time to learn the ways Macs do things you may become more comfortable with it.

iPhoto '08 groups photos by what it calls (I believe) "events". So it takes photos that were taken on the same day (based on the meta data) and puts them in their own type of album. This is a nice concept when you're building from the ground up. If you're importing all 2200 photos at once, it might be messy to start with.

iTunes can convert a WAV file into MP3 (I'm not sure how that's different than Windows, since iTunes and Windows Media Player would be the free or included apps that do that).

The Finder (equivalant of Explorer in Windows) does things a bit different. Some people opt for a third party file manager, but most probably don't. I have yet to find anything that Windows Explorer does which Finder will not. Your post doesn't really critique the Finder so much as it does a third-party alternative; so if you post some comments about what you find are the short-comings, we may be able to provide some better assistance.


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## a7mc (Dec 30, 2002)

Simply put... your brain is still in Windows mode. 

Until you let go of the past and figure out that 90% of what you think you need, you really don't need, you continue to hate the Mac. It's not Windows. It doesn't work like Windows. And if you want it to work like Windows, you'll be disappointed.

But if you ever decide to let go, and give the Mac OS a fair shake by actually learning it, I'm sure you'll come to enjoy it.

A7


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## hayesk (Mar 5, 2000)

I've seen this so many times. The problem is not the Mac, it's you. And I don't mean that in a bad way. You've been using PCs so long that you now have a Mac and expect it to work exactly the same way, but yet somehow better. How is that supposed to happen?

The Mac is not Windows; you have to unlearn the PC way of doing things. The PC way isn't easier - you simply already learned to it. Let's look at some of your complaints:

iPhoto: why would the pictures be in folders? Folders are a file system way of organizing files, not photos. This is not a shortcoming of either the Finder or iPhoto. iPhoto has albums and events - that's how photos are stored because they related to real world ways of organizing actual photos. My recommendation to you is to import the photos one folder at a time, make a new Album, then click on "Last Import" (or Last Roll depending on version), and drag the photos into the album. Note, you can organize the albums hierarchically as well.

As for converting a WAV file to an MP3 - why is it harder? Because you know how to do it on a PC? That doesn't mean it is hard on a Mac. Anyway, it's simple - import it into iTunes, and choose "Convert selection to AAC/MP3" from the menu. It says AAC if that is what is set in your import preferences, or MP3 if you set that in the import preferences.

How do you do it on a PC that's so much easier. I know MS's media player agressively wants you to convert to WMA, not MP3. You really have to ask yourself if the Windows way is really easier, or you simply already know how to do it.

You haven't said what you don't like about the file management or iTunes - labelling them as "dreadful" as soon as you can't figure something out is only doing yourself a disservice. I would assume you just got frustrated because it wasn't exactly like windows.

I you are going to search out utilities like MacExplorer to make your Mac more Windows-like, then you have to ask yourself why did you buy a Mac if you weren't interested in learning how to use it properly?

The ease of use and productivity gains from using a Mac are not going to come instantly, you need to put the effort into learning to use it with an open mind, and stop trying to do things "the Windows way"


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## rpalace (Sep 17, 2007)

*Don't Uninstall*

Just a tip: 

Reinstalling a program to "fix" an issue like that seems very much like a Windows solution to me.

Don't get frustrated. Forums like this and the Apple Support pages will be able to answer all your questions.

Apple - Support - Discussions - Forum Home

Good luck!


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## Bjornbro (Feb 19, 2000)

Some former Windows users "overthink" how to do things on a Mac. On the Mac side, most tasks are simple and intuitive. We'll try to help you one question at a time, but like any good student you'll be expected to _help yourself first._

1. Use Apple's help menu
2. Visit Apple - Support
3. Use ehMac's "search" function to find topics of concern
4. If you still need help, post a question in the Mac & iPod Help & Troubleshooting forum, but tell us; which Mac you have and which OS you are using


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## darkscot (Nov 13, 2003)

Forget what you know. Explore it like a child would.


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## monokitty (Jan 26, 2002)

darkscot said:


> Forget what you know. Explore it like a child would.


Best advice thus far.


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## ifade (Oct 19, 2007)

I somewhat agree with lemarq espcially on the mess photos in a single place, it is the same on itune when use it to manage podcasts, music cd etc, there is one place always messed. It would be no problem to use iphoto to burn a cd, and import the cd to anther mac since they have the same iphoto. (I hope no trouble there, because I just bought a new macbook, I need to port my photos from the old ibook to the new mac)

Despite the messing problem, I still think iphoto and itune are brilliant tools, because I don't need install other softwares to manage my photos such as in pc, one iphoto can deal with every thing. I like Tiger which contains such brilliant tools, hope Leopard is better, that is why I decide to stay with Mac.


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## SoyMac (Apr 16, 2005)

ifade said:


> .... It would be no problem to use iphoto to burn a cd, and import the cd to anther mac since they have the same iphoto. (I hope no trouble there, because I just bought a new macbook, I need to port my photos from the old ibook to the new mac)....


ifade, if both your Macs have Bluetooth, you don't need to burn a CD of photos to transfer them from one Mac to another.
Just put the photos you want into a folder on the desk top, enable Bluetooth on both computers, and then follow the simple directions to magically (to me) send the photos from one Mac to the other.


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## darkmcs (Sep 1, 2007)

I agree with you on some points... I had some frustrations when I first switched (2 months ago)

My best advice is to forget everything you know about Windows when it comes to using OS X... I think it made my learning process easier!

If you can, go to an Apple Store when it is quieter and ask a salesman to answer your questions... they are very nice and will take time to explain everything!!

This forum is also very useful !! :clap:


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## Pelao (Oct 2, 2003)

> ifade, if both your Macs have Bluetooth, you don't need to burn a CD of photos to transfer them from one Mac to another.
> Just put the photos you want into a folder on the desk top, enable Bluetooth on both computers, and then follow the simple directions to magically (to me) send the photos from one Mac to the other.


Bluetooth can be cool, but it's slow for large file transfers.

Assuming both Macs use the same network, look up your new mac under Network in Finder. Log in and you have fast access to the desktop, and you can deposit a folder of images there.

But, even better...if your photos are in iPhoto, enable iPhoto sharing. Then in the new Mac open iPhoto and select the other Macs iPhoto Library - it will appear as another album. Select the photos or albums you want and drag'em to the top of your iPhoto, where it says Library. they will transfer across. Done.


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## ifade (Oct 19, 2007)

Thanks SoyMac, I would save your tips!

And this is out of topic, I am sorry for that. I can not post a new thread, I don't know why (I am quite new to this forum), but I can reply.


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## lemarq (Oct 24, 2007)

Thanks for the quick replies and all the suggestions. I would have replied sooner but my ISP was working on the system. The downside to living on a small island. I agree with all of you that I am still in a Windows mode and more than a little resistant to change and my frustration shows but I do want to find out what the Mac can do and see if I can ween myself off from the PCs. I am awfully tired of having to re-format my hard every 6 months and spend a couple of days reinstalling all the programs. I am hoping that the Mac will allow me to avoid that onerous task. 

Just when I think I am making some progress I run into wall such as iPhotos. I like the ability to do quick edits that it affords and the end result is the pictures are better looking than what I can do in Windows but I am going to have to rethink how to catalogue the pictures. How I like to catalogue is to create a folder say like My family and then under it a series of sub folders with the event and the year it happened and under that a folder a folder with the original unedited pictures. I of course imported all my pictures from my PC with that sort of file structure which iPhoto reorganized into something different. With 14 gigabytes of photos it's going to be a daunting task. 

Guytoronto asked what features I wanted in ACDSee. The ability to move files from folder to folder, rename files, copy and paste files and delete them. The Windows version does that and much more. There must be away to do that in iPhoto but I haven't found it. I wanted to copy 4 pictures from one folder to another which iPhoto would do but I couldn't paste it to the folder I wanted.

OBTY the Mac that I am using the 2.4 desktop with 2 gigs of ram with the 20" monitor. Very cool looking. That alone makes me want to like it..


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## Bjornbro (Feb 19, 2000)

lemarq said:


> Just when I think I am making some progress I run into wall such as iPhotos.


Since you're on about iPhoto, watch the tutorials at Apple - iLife - Tutorials . I think they'll help ya a lot.


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## DANdeMAN (Oct 20, 2006)

lemarq said:


> ....re-format my hard every 6 months and spend a couple of days reinstalling all the programs...


Mmmmm, let me see; I think I did that once in 7 years and that was because of a 3rd party ****ty program. On the other hand, I did it about 3 time in a couple of weeks on my windows partition due to viruses....Now I NEVER download anything when on that partition.


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## VTECMAN (Aug 14, 2007)

I was in this same position as OP. I thought mac osx was the worst thing in the world. I was on the verge of returning it. I came to realize that you have to unlearn the Windows, and relearn the MAC.

To put it in perspective, someone that does not know either OS at all will definitely find it easier to use a mac.

Keeping this in mind, most users are switchers. You just need to be patient. Judging from your post, you're a bright person. Once you learn that you are not using windows, you will be at a point to realize the true advantages of the osx.


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## thedave (Sep 8, 2006)

lemarq said:


> How I like to catalogue is to create a folder say like My family and then under it a series of sub folders with the event and the year it happened and under that a folder a folder with the original unedited pictures. I of course imported all my pictures from my PC with that sort of file structure which iPhoto reorganized into something different. With 14 gigabytes of photos it's going to be a daunting task.
> 
> Guytoronto asked what features I wanted in ACDSee. The ability to move files from folder to folder, rename files, copy and paste files and delete them. The Windows version does that and much more. There must be away to do that in iPhoto but I haven't found it. I wanted to copy 4 pictures from one folder to another which iPhoto would do but I couldn't paste it to the folder I wanted.


Hi lemarq,
Are you using iPhoto 08 or 06? I recently imported all of my various photos from the past 8 years or so, which were spread out over many dvds and websites into iPhoto 08. Importing and organizing such a huge collection is indeed a daunting task! but it's not as bad as one might think. One thing I've found VERY handy are 'keywords'. Given that you want to have "events" sorted by date, and iPhoto 08 automatically sorts them this way (assuming the photos were taken digitally or you've added the metadata yourself), you're already halfway there! Keywords come into play for the "my family" part - just make a keyword for each of these types of 'folders' you had in your old system (for eg. "My Family", "Landscapes", "Vacation Photos", etc.. Then simply drag the photos onto the keyword (can't remember exactly how this works, but it's pretty simple, and you can find it in the iPhoto's help file) that applies. Where it gets neat, though, is when you have cross referenced photos - for instance a photo of a landscape on your family vacation. No need to make copies, just apply as many labels (keywords) as you see fit. Then, if you want to see "My Family" photos, just filter your collection by that keyword. If you want to see "My Family" "On Vacation" in front of beautiful "Landscapes", then filter by all three. Again, no need to make copies in separate folders (believe me, I understand the obsession with folders - since the days of dos i'd had one of my own... cd\pictures\1991\ dir /a/p ... until i switched last year.. good riddance, I say!). As for the folder with the originals unedited - they are always there! iPhoto does not modify the originals in any way shape or form. edit away to your hearts content, and "revert to original" any time you like, whether it's 2 minutes later when you get over the novelty of sepia tones and blurred edges, or a year down the road when you decide you want to get serious about photo editing and want to export the originals into Aperture (apple's Pro photo app). Hmmm... I wonder if maybe you might be at that point now? It'll be even more of a learning curve, but with such a huge collection, and depending on your editing needs, it may be worth the investment of time and money... here's a link: Apple - Aperture
there's a free trial - it may be worth downloading, and importing just a small portion of your collection to get a feel for it.
anyhow, i've procrastinated from work for far longer than intended at this point, so i'd best be off. 
i hope your experience with your shiny new mac continues to improve (i'm sure it will). And don't forget that one of the greatest things about macs are their users - the folks here have been incredibly helpful to me since i've made the switch, whether i post a question myself, or as is more often the case, i find a thread where someone before me had the same question. the old adage of "the best salesman is a satisfied customer" could well be updated for the digital age to "the best tech-support rep is a satisfied customer." and there is no shortage of satisfied mac owners


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## MacDoc (Nov 3, 2001)

To make the OP feel better I don't like iPhoto either and I've been in Macs for 22 years.

GraphicConverter might be more to you liking.
GraphicConverter X 6.0.1 software download - Mac OS X - VersionTracker

There are thousands of great free and shareware apps here

Mac OS X Software Updates and Mac OS X Downloads - VersionTracker

and extensive user recommendations from this board here

http://www.ehmac.ca/anything-mac/23912-cool-mac-apps-freeware-28.html


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## MacDoc (Nov 3, 2001)

To make the OP feel better I don't like iPhoto either and I've been in Macs for 22 years.

GraphicConverter might be more to you liking.
GraphicConverter X 6.0.1 software download - Mac OS X - VersionTracker

There are thousands of great free and shareware apps here

Mac OS X Software Updates and Mac OS X Downloads - VersionTracker

and extensive user recommendations from this board here

http://www.ehmac.ca/anything-mac/23912-cool-mac-apps-freeware-28.html


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## lemarq (Oct 24, 2007)

I want thank everyone for all the helpful suggestions. I am making progress and I am not thinking of returning the mac and I am actually getting to like it. I am making a point of learning to use the programs that came with the computer rather than looking for 3rd party software. Feel comfortable with iTunes and yes it is easy to rip a wav file to a MP3 now that I know how to do it. 

Have been spending quite of time with iPhoto. Bringing in folder after folder into its library and now have 99 events. For quick edits iPhoto is great and for more serious edits I have been trying PhotoLine. If anyone has any suggestions for a better photo editor other than Photoshop I would be interested. I have Photoshop 7 on my PC but rarely use it.


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## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

Hey, hang in there. Like Yoda said, "You must unlearn what you have learned".

Basically, iPhoto can handle ALL photo organizing. It's meant to do this such that the folder system iPhoto creates for ITSELF is nasty. Any of he organizational scenarios you mentioned can be done in iPhoto -- AND the benefits go on, as all the work you do in iPhoto (or iTunes etc.) are available to ALL the other iLife apps in a quick and fluid manner. You can't get this from a Windows Explorer scenario, and as you start using iLife you'll see why.

So, abandon the notion of organizing media at the Finder/Explorer level. It's much more elegant and flexible using the iLife apps. And hey, even if you just want to copy a song or photo to the desktop, or drop it into an email, you can simply grab the file's entry in iTunes/iPhoto... and drop it wherever you need to. The iLife app will pull a copy from deep within those folders for you. Very transparent.

Stick with it


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## mr.steevo (Jul 22, 2005)

Hi,

I agree that doing things the windows way in OS X is disaster. Just try finding photos with the Finder. Misery.

It'll take a bit of time to sort things out with your new iMac, but you won't notice how nice OS X really is until you go back to a windows machine.

Enjoy.

s.


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## pictor (Jan 29, 2007)

Actually, with coverflow and quicklook, and spotlight improvements, I wonder if anyone else might drop iPhoto in favour of direct file system level management.

Personally, I enjoy iPhoto (and iTunes), and I am happy to let them just manage the file structure. Actually, once you get used to how they manage it, I don't find it so hard to browse by file system either....but I don't need to. I like the browsing options iPhoto itself gives you.

Only slight annoyance is remembering to delete the original after I import the picture/mp3/mp4/whatever


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## walkerp (Oct 20, 2007)

Long-time mac user here and I have to say that iPhoto absolutely sucks because of the file management. Apple ditched its traditional adherence to folder-based directory structure that appears the same inside the app as well as in the Finder. They did this with iTunes as well (and probably iMovie, but I don't use it so I'm not sure). So for instance, you can't drage a photo from one folder to another. Or drag a music file from one folder to another. It's not recognized by the app because the actual file structure is kept in that xml file.

I strongly disagree with this from a conceptual level. The whole point of apple was to mimic a real-world desktop. I have found, as the OP did, that it is also extremely frustrating from a practical level. iPhoto is so slow, and you are presented with the Library as the default screen, which is just a giant window of all your pictures, no organization whatsoever. If you try and resort them into albums (which are only available vertically, thus forcing you to scroll down all the time), it doesn't actually move the files. What if I just want to drag a folder of a certain set of folders and copy them to another drive? You can't even find them.

So sorry to rant. I'm glad the OP is getting some positive help and moving forward with his problems. Just want to say that his reaction seemed perfectly reasonable to me.

And the suggestion of going to the Help menu. Please. First of all, you'll wait an hour for it to boot up and then you'll get the least helpful, most top-level and obvious advice, written under the assumption that nothing ever goes wrong with the software ever.

Damn, I'm ranting again. I love the Mac, but Apple does some really frustrating things.

Is there a photo importing/stocking/organizing app out there that mimics the finder folder structure and knows when you move files around in the finder?


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## a7mc (Dec 30, 2002)

> I strongly disagree with this from a conceptual level. The whole point of apple was to mimic a real-world desktop.


Well if you look at it that way, what Apple has done instead is hire you an admin assistant to deal with it for you. Why use folders when you can hand it off to someone else and let them deal with it?



> If you try and resort them into albums (which are only available vertically, thus forcing you to scroll down all the time), it doesn't actually move the files. What if I just want to drag a folder of a certain set of folders and copy them to another drive? You can't even find them.


I'm going to assume you're on an old version of iPhoto. On the older version, it was vertical, but you could collapse the folders, so it wasn't that bad. With the new iPhoto, your comment is irrelevant. Albums are now in a grid layout.

And I have no idea what you mean by dragging folders to another drive... I fail to see what purpose that serves. If you want to do so for space reasons, then you go into your settings and set it up to point somewhere else. If you want to do it for backup reasons, you just drag the photos out of iPhoto into a folder wherever you like. This has always worked for me... easy as pie.

I'm not sure why people are so stuck on the "file folder" structure. I just don't get it. What advantage does it serve? 99% of what you would do with a file folder you can do just as easily with iPhoto if you know what you're doing (and actually try to learn new things).

That's MY rant for the day. 

A7


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## pictor (Jan 29, 2007)

I don't get the rationale really. Sure, it makes doing things via the file system tricky...but the point it that you don't need to. Do it via iPhoto, let the file system take care of itself.

With the new iPhoto, your 1 dimensional list of albums is now a 2 dimensional spread of events (which can be easily split or joined as it amuses you), and you can drag and drop from iPhoto to disk (for instance desktop, into mail...)

As to iTunes, I actually find the way it manages the directory to make a lot of sense, it does a far more organized job of it than I would, but there again, I just do my manipulations of the files in iTunes proper. I will admit, it's not as easy to go from iTunes, and for instance zip up an album, but the file structure is so easy to navigate in this case that I can go straight to the folder for that purpose.


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## pictor (Jan 29, 2007)

By the way, people need to consider software like Yep! and Leap
Ironic Software

Leap is still pretty buggy...such that I don't want to use it yet, but it's an innovative direction. We really need to life ourselves out of the file folder structure. There are better ways at managing data. These packages are iPhoto-like, tag driven file management. Whether you like how they did it, it's a step in the right direction. Computers have been stuck on folders of folders and file for too long. 

I only wish liquifile would update
Liquifile 1.5 | liquid browsing for your desktop


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