mac questions

Category: Geeks r Us

Post 1 by Henry the Great (Generic Zoner) on Tuesday, 12-Feb-2013 21:35:19

ok so my lap top recently died and i have only my 6 year desk top still running. I've been thinking about a mac for a while however there are some questions that i haven't seen yet.
when it comes to maintaining a mac is there such thing as a disk defragment or a disk cleanup like windows? how about checking the hard drive for errors? I know most people don't worry about viruses with a mac but how about spyware is there anything for that and are they free downloads? how long did it take each of u to learn the mac. I know we learn something every day but i mean enough to use it for web browsing and the other basics. finally, what helped you learn the mac the most: was it a internet web sight, a friend, or just simply the help that comes with voice over.

Post 2 by rat (star trek rules!) on Tuesday, 12-Feb-2013 22:23:21

There is no need to defrag a mac, i don't even know of any software that does it. There is a tool called onyx that can help clean up files and stuff like that, and it also can help you check your discs too. Voiceover helps you a great deal along with a few podcasts i know of, keep an open mind and the mac is reasonably easy to learn.

Post 3 by synthesizer101 (I just keep on posting!) on Wednesday, 13-Feb-2013 0:00:41

That is correct. The macintosh keeps its drive relatively defragmented. I use CCleaner on both platforms for deleting junk. Spyware also doesn't really show up much. I learned mine in a few days, like three or four, so much that I began to accidentally press mac commands in windows. I don't know, maybe that's just me.

Post 4 by starfly (99956) on Wednesday, 13-Feb-2013 10:10:58

antivirous software not free but good on the mac is caspersky

Post 5 by Henry the Great (Generic Zoner) on Wednesday, 13-Feb-2013 11:10:53

ok another question i have a external hard drive from western digital. can i just plug it in to the mac and have access to my music, pics, and files or is it more complicated than that.

Post 6 by rat (star trek rules!) on Wednesday, 13-Feb-2013 13:32:09

It depends on how the drive is formatted. If it is FAT32 you'll be good to go, but if it is NTFS your mac won't be able to write anything to that drive, only read from it.

Post 7 by Lisa's Girl forever (Help me, I'm stuck to my chair!) on Tuesday, 05-Mar-2013 6:40:53

I use the audible help in my mac. and i also use a iphone and a ipad. so i learn pretty well. It's great tools to use.

Post 8 by Lisa's Girl forever (Help me, I'm stuck to my chair!) on Tuesday, 02-Apr-2013 6:45:09

I like the user help guide in the mac. it works great.

Post 9 by zackmack2000 ( extreme killer of the keys) on Tuesday, 02-Apr-2013 23:49:16

another thing that you wont have to worry bout on the mac, are bios, and registry. mac doesn't have neither.

Post 10 by DRUM GODDESS (I can't call it a day til I enter the zone BBS) on Monday, 15-Apr-2013 22:13:39

My next computer will be a mac! I'm loving my i phone and finding that vary easy to learn. I've played with a mac in the apple store once and loved it! Thinking next year I will get one.

Post 11 by JawsGeek (Newborn Zoner) on Sunday, 19-May-2013 13:33:12

another good antivirus program for the mac is MacKeeper/911 bundle. it's a good program for doing tuns of matanince tasks. bit defender virus scanner, free from the mac app store, works grate too.

Post 12 by starfly (99956) on Sunday, 19-May-2013 20:56:37

ooh thanks for the post on anti virous, I just removed my caspercasy antivirous because the trial ran out.

Post 13 by dissonance (Help me, I'm stuck to my chair!) on Monday, 17-Jun-2013 21:34:15

I recently began learning to use a mac, and I would say that once you start to get the hang of it, it's relatively easier to use. I use applevis.com a lot, it's a forum for voiceover users. I also use the tutorials, and the menu bars and help tabs.

Post 14 by starfly (99956) on Tuesday, 18-Jun-2013 11:22:07

So I need some advice here, can a mac sighted or low vision user tell me how does a sighted person imulate with the mac's mouse Voiceover's control+option+shift M command to bring up a contextual menu that has open, open with etc. I will google search it but was wondering how a sighted person does this. I need to teach my wife how to do this because some of her movies are in AVI files and quick time does not support AVI.

Post 15 by starfly (99956) on Tuesday, 18-Jun-2013 11:44:41

okay this is for those who are like me and need to teach someone to right click on a mac or control+option+shift for voiceover users. 1. find the file you want to open, to point your mouse pointer at set file "screen 3" then press control while clicking on one the file with your mouse button "left click." Hope that helps some one on here.

Post 16 by starfly (99956) on Tuesday, 18-Jun-2013 11:48:35

I ment to say "control+option+shift+M, left out the letter M when I posted above sorry.

Post 17 by starfly (99956) on Tuesday, 18-Jun-2013 15:20:00

I have a question for voice over users of the mac, how do you get voiceover to read out your Skype chats when your in the chat table? I know it will read when your out of Skype the chat window will be read out. How do you get voiceover to read while your in the chat window your Skype chats? Is there away like it does on windows when you have skype talking or jaws scripts installed. Any help would be appreciated here.

Post 18 by Dana (Veteran Zoner) on Tuesday, 18-Jun-2013 22:19:57

I will try and explain how to review Skype chats with the new version of Skype. command tab into the Skype window. enteract with the table and make sure you are on the correct person who's chat you wish to review. VO right arrow to where you hear it say grid 1 and interact with that grid. here you can just VO right and left arrow through the chats, call times, etc. just type your response and press enter.
HTH

Post 19 by Striker (Consider your self warned, i'm creative and offensive like handicap porn.) on Wednesday, 19-Jun-2013 2:35:19

VO left and right arrow is so slow. use VO J to jump from the table to the grid view of chats, to the edit box...

Post 20 by starfly (99956) on Saturday, 22-Jun-2013 22:14:40

hmm... maybe I did not explain very well :), I was wondering if Vo has a way with skype so a person can hear the in coming chat while in the chat window with out ever leaving the field you type a response in.

Post 21 by Siriusly Severus (The ESTJ 1w9 3w4 6w7 The Taskmaste) on Sunday, 28-Jul-2013 6:06:18

understood you the first time, around, sadly, I don't believe so, you just have to do the o so hard task of manually checking. I know moving those fingers to push some buttons is so daaaaaamn hard!!!!!! so check it yourself and you'll be fine.

as to the first poster. probably the actual mac solidly maybe 2 or 3 weeks or less I had to learn where to get all my social networking stuff and how to use it so I don't know how long it actually took. but basics took me maybe all together 6 or 7 hours. not long. I see it once and I got it.

And, yep, I used the very useful tool called keep asking intelligent questions until you understand. oh so hard!!!! just kind of use that thing called a brain and then speak out what you think. yeah!!!!! and, some pure logic for me too. and then it all fit and I use the mac more now.

Post 22 by starfly (99956) on Tuesday, 30-Jul-2013 13:05:24

I figured out my answer after not getting a response on a mac IOS list for the blind but thanks.