Lots of people are switching to Macs these days... And for good reason!  The platform is beautiful, logical and functional beyond what many people think is possible.  But it does take a bit of learning and unlearning to begin getting the most from your Mac.

Here are 12 tips to get you on your way!

1.  The Menu Bar:

One of the first things you'll notice is that the menu options -- "File, Edit, View, Window, Help" -- are not on inpidual menus.  They are always on the top line.  Everything on a Mac has been thought through to be the easiest.  In this case, whatever program you are in, and wherever the open window is, your eye always goes to the same place for those menus.  The top line.

Notice that the menubar changes depending on what your active window is.  You'll quickly get used to this and learn to like it very much.

2.  Program Preferences

The program that your open window is in will always be the first item in the Menubar.  For example, I am writing this in mail.  In the upper left hand part of the screen I see the Apple and then the word "Mail".  Click on Mail and you will see "Preferences".  These are all of the system preferences for Mail. Whatever program you are in, this is how you change preferences.  Once you make the program your active window the name of the program will always be there right next to the Apple, and Preferences for that program will always be right there.  No more searching for "Options" or "Configuration" or however windows programs call themselves.

3.  System Preferences

Preferences for your computer, like screensaver, mouse settings, etc., are also easy to find.  Click on the Apple at the upper lefthand corner of the screen and then click on "System Preferences".  You may also access system preferences through the icon with the gears on the Dock.  They both go to exactly the same place.

   3.a  System Preferences - Trackpad

   If you have a laptop, go to "Trackpad" under system preferences.  Make sure "Two fingers to scroll" is clicked and "Clicking" and "Dragging".  Here is what they do:  Two fingers to scroll works in all programs including this message.  When it is selected you can put two fingers on the trackpad side by side and move them together up or down and your window will scroll.  It rules.  "Click" means that you can just tap the track pad to select something (without having to click).  This is very easy to get used to.  "Dragging" means that you can double-tap something and drag it around with your finger to where you want it to go.

   3.b  System Preferences - Dock

   The Dock is where your application icons are found.  You can pull things out of the dock and they disappear in a whoosh.  You can pull applications into the dock and they will stay.  (You can try this.  Click on the Finder (the Mac face in the Dock) and on the left side click on "Applicaitons".  All your applications are here.  All installed applications will go here.  You can pick one and drag it to the dock and it will stay.

   The Dock can be moved to the left, right or bottom of the screen.  It can be made bigger, smaller, made to hide, and made to expand more or less when you mouse over it.  Set it for something you like.

   3.c  System Preferences - Expose'

   After you get used to this you'll never use another system.  Expose' can be activated by putting your cursor all the way into a corner of the screen.  I like to set the upper right corner to "Show Desktop" and the bottom left corner to "Show All Windows".  Try this!  Set the corners and then, with a few windows open on the screen go into one of the corners.  For "Show Desktop" you undo this going into the corner again.  For "Show All Windows" you can either go into the corner again or -- and this is typically the use -- picking a window you want to be on top.  The one you click moves to the top and all the others stack below it.   

4.  Opening and Closing Programs

Since your eye is learning now to go to the upper left for information, the three icons for closing, minimizing and maximizing a window have also been put on the upper left.  In Windows you will be used to them being on the upper right, but upper left makes more sense in this context and you'll get used to that very fast.

One important note about closing a program:  In Windows the "X" always closes the program completely.  This would be fine except for one thing... what if it's a program you use a lot and are very likely to use again in about 5 minutes (like your web browser)?  In the Windows case you have to wait while the whole program cleans up and totally closes, and then the next time you use it you have to sit there while the whole thing starts up again.  

Macs do this differently.  If the program is one you are likely to use again, hitting the "X" will not close the whole program, it will just close that window.  Try it with Safari.  Open Safari and then take a look at the Safari Icon on the Dock.  There's a little blue light under it.  Now click the little button in the upper left hand corner to close the Safari Window.  Do you see that the blue light is still "on" under the Safari icon?  Safari is still running, just way in the background.  It won't bother a thing, but when you click on Safari again the window will instantly appear.  The program has been waiting for you!

To totally close a program, either hit Command-Q, or go under the Menu (top left) of the program name and click on "Quit" or right-click on the icon in the Dock and choose "Close Application".  

Note that some programs will actually quit when you close the window.  iTunes is one of those.  You'll learn quickly which is which.

5.  Drag and Drop

Macs are awesome when it comes to dragging and dropping.  You can drag absolutely anything to anywhere on a Mac.  Try it.  On a webpage you can click on an image and drag it to the desktop.  There it is!  When you have your word processor open and you want to bring in an image you can click on the image on your desktop and drag it onto the page and it will work.  For this reason Mac users often use their desktops like real desks, where there is a certain amount of messiness from dragging onto it and off of it.  But this is active messiness and is quite useful.  When you get used to this you'll begin screaming at your Windows computer for being so recalcitrant as to not give you the same freedom.

6.  Your Desktop

Right click on the desktop (not on an icon but "in space").  Click on "show view options".  This can be fun to play with.  You can also do this by clicking "in space" in a Finder window (when you are navigating looking for files).  "Show Icon Preview" is awesome on the desktop, I think.

7.  Basic Image Editing and PDF

You may or may not have Photoshop, but "Preview", the default program for opening images and pdf's, gives you some nice power totally free.  You can change the image size, adjust color, even introduce a so-called "Alpha Channel" which makes part of an image transparent.  Alpha channels can allow you to take a square image of a teddy bear on a white background and "erase" the white background so that your image is now just the teddy bear - no square, no white, just teddy bear.  With pdf's you can also add pages by cutting and pasting or dragging in pages from other pdf's. You can erase pages and re-order them, too.

8.  Print to PDF

Oh yeah, you can now make anything you want into a pdf.  This stands for "portable document format".  PDF's are ideal on the web as they are small and they retain their formatting.  When you want to make something a pdf, click print, then go to the bottom lefthand corner of the print window.  You'll see something there like, "PDF or Save to PDF".  Click that and click save.  There you go.

9.  Spotlight Search

You never have to worry about finding a file again.  Macs come with an instant search of the entire harddrive, including all text within files - not just the file names.  This also works with files made years ago. Just copy them onto your mac and they will be indexed and ready for instant search.

So say you're looking for an old seminary paper.  You have no idea where it is or what you called it.  But you know that it contains the words "Escatology, Confession, and marriage".  That's all you need!  Click Command-Spacebar and notice that the window has popped open at the upper right of the screen.  It's awaiting your search.  

As you begin to type it'll start showing you all sorts of files that match your terms.  By the time you have typed, "Escatology, confession, marriage" your paper should be looking you right in the eye.

The best thing is that this can work within programs, too.  So say you have a pdf of your parish directory.  Open the pdf and in the search bar click "Johnson". You'll be given all the instances of Johnson and allowed to click instantly to those places.  You can do this, too, within your word processor, when you are opening a file.  Spotlight rules.

Oh, you can also click on the magnifying glass in the upper right hand corner to get spotlight.

10.  Spotlight Extras -- Calculator and Dictionary

The spotlight field is not just a search.  It works for tons of other things.  Type in "esoteric" and one of the options will be to open the word in "Dictionary" to read the definition.  Type in 467*5523 and you'll get the answer to the math problem below.

11.  Flip4Mac and DoubleCommand

These two programs can be useful on your Mac.  You'll need to do an internet search to find and install them.  They are to be trusted.  They are very common.

Flip4Mac allows wmv (windows media files) to play on your mac.  The program is free.

DoubleCommand is very optional.  If your keyboard does not have a so-called "forward delete" button (instead of backspace), you can install DoubleCommand and tell it to make the slash key under the delete key into a forward delete.  The program is free.

12.  Safari Tabs

Tabbed browsing is awesome, but many people don't know about it.  In Safari Preferences there is the option to make a Command-Click open a new tab.  This rules.  Do it.  Now you can try this out by going to a news site that you like.  Let's say nytimes.com.  Read over the page, and every time you are interested in an article hold down the Apple Key (the Command Key) while you click the title.  You'll notice that the page doesn't change, but near the top of the window a new "tab" has opened with that article in it.  Keep going through the page Command-Clicking until you have opened all the articles you want.  Now you can page through them in the tabs.  Command-W closes the tab, or you can click on the "X" on the tab.

That's It!  As a bonus tip, you may want to consider subscribing to a Mac magazine for a few months, just to keep picking up some new ideas until you feel much on your feet.  

Take heart, though.  There is certainly a learning curve, but in about a month you should be feeling great!!