The "Official" N00b Needs Help Thread

Mr Jones · 20 Nov 2007 at 18:35

As inspired by EVH's comment on someone's help thread, I've decided to create this thread for all Mac users to post their problems/encounters whilst using their Mac OS / Software and allow an "under one thread" problem solving help thread. (For Hardware issue, click here)

Here's how to use it;

1) Identify your problem
2) Read/search this thread for similar problem
3) If not answered or not found post Problem or Encounter before typing your problem as fully as possible.
4) Wait patiently for the next few posters to reply/answer your problem.

Posters answering questions must quote the problem post and reply with Answer - this allows user to quickly spot the "Problem" and "Answer" in your post, instead of reading random comment/spam when people quoting the issue/problem.

e.g.

Dr Pharmacology said:
Problem
I can't find the # button...

Answer
Option+3

NOTE
Please refrain from posting/quoting unless you're answering the Problem - it is common courtesy to thank if problem is solved but 30 thank you will cost this thread 1 page and push problems/answers away from the much needed n00b
You are however, allowed to quote and correct the Answer if it is wrong / incorrect.

Hope this thread will come in useful

Deleted member 651465 · 20 Nov 2007 at 18:44

I'll link this to the sticky

Spyhop · 20 Nov 2007 at 18:48

Problem
Finder won't place folders first in List View. Sorting by the 'Kind' column places folders at 'F' in alphabetical order with other types of files.

Spyhop · 20 Nov 2007 at 19:05

wush said:
Problem
Finder won't place folders first in List View. Sorting by the 'Kind' column places folders at 'F' in alphabetical order with other types of files.

Answer
Ah, some Italian guy has found a hacky solution: http://blog.lipsiasoft.com/articles/2007/11/05/en-finder-order-directory-before-files

Mr Jones · 18 Dec 2007 at 08:27

Problem

Why is that there? It only appeared after a taskbar restart - due to an update with You Control Tunes - but there is no options to turn that off in the app - searched CD/DVD on system and no such option either.

Deleted member 651465 · 18 Dec 2007 at 16:53

Is that not just an option to eject the disc/device in iTunes?

Mr Jones · 18 Dec 2007 at 17:20

EVH said:
Is that not just an option to eject the disc/device in iTunes?

I've checked iTunes, can't find any of such - even closed iTunes and it's still there. :/

Deleted member 651465 · 18 Dec 2007 at 17:35

Dr Jones said:
I've checked iTunes, can't find any of such - even closed iTunes and it's still there. :/

Yes, but it's a part of You Control Tunes which ultimately controls iTunes, so I would imagine it has the same use as the forward/back/pause buttons, and was probably added by the update you mentioned previously.

Mr Jones · 18 Dec 2007 at 17:40

EVH said:
Yes, but it's a part of You Control Tunes which ultimately controls iTunes, so I would imagine it has the same use as the forward/back/pause buttons, and was probably added by the update you mentioned previously.

I've checked - even turning off you control tunes - that eject button remains. There's no options in YCT to edit and I can edit all the buttons to different "shapes and colour" but that eject button remains - anyone with YCT can correct me if they have the same thing?

Edit: Did a system restart in the end, it disappeared. Weird...

Mr Jones · 31 Dec 2007 at 09:11

Problem

How do you set mail to make one of the email accounts as the default?
I have 3 accounts on there and it keeps insisting on using my club's email address instead of my .Mac's or googlemail's. I can't find any settings on there to turn it on.

Answer
After googling, I found this
http://waldo647.googlepages.com/applemailsettingdefaultaccount

Deleted member 651465 · 1 Jan 2008 at 03:12

I thought you could drag the accounts to the order you wished them to be displayed?

Topmost being the default account.

Mr Jones · 1 Jan 2008 at 07:44

EVH said:
I thought you could drag the accounts to the order you wished them to be displayed?

Topmost being the default account.

By default, Mail uses the last viewed account as the account used when composing an email, e.g. if I use my work place email last time, that will be my "default" till I manually change it - eventhough my order is .mac being first and work account being last.

Deleted member 651465 · 1 Jan 2008 at 21:22

Well I didn't know that.. I must always switch to my Gmail account before I close Mail (subconsciously)

TheMagicPirate · 2 Jan 2008 at 00:29

Excellent idea for a thread! Suspect I will be in here quite a lot.

1) My dock has gone weird, the 'base' of it is now see through and when I open my stacks I cant see anything. Only a grey box that should have the name of the file and the icon is missing? I've tried 'force quitting' and that didn't help. Gonna try a restart in a second.

2) Where is the 'Print Screen', 'Home' and 'End' Keys (Can you tell I'm an ex windows guy?) I've tried the buttons above the arrow keys but they don't seem to do the same thing.

3) Where can I find a list of all my installed programs?

4) Go to your Apple icon in the top left and scroll down to 'Force Quit', I can find 'Alt' and I can find 'Cmd' but what the hell is the 3rd icon?!

5) Is there a setting somewhere that I can turn on so that when I'm looking at a folder in 'Icon' view I can click , left, left, left, left etc... Instead of having to click left, left, left, down, right, right, right? (I hope that makes sense)

6) Why don't any of my gif's work?

Thanks and I'll post more questions soon

kvfb97 · 2 Jan 2008 at 03:37

TheMagicPirate said:
1) My dock has gone weird, the 'base' of it is now see through and when I open my stacks I cant see anything. Only a grey box that should have the name of the file and the icon is missing? I've tried 'force quitting' and that didn't help. Gonna try a restart in a second.

No idea what has happened, but run "killall Dock" without quotation marks from the terminal (Apps - Utilities - Terminal) and it will restart the dock without restarting Mac.

TheMagicPirate said:
2) Where is the 'Print Screen', 'Home' and 'End' Keys (Can you tell I'm an ex windows guy?) I've tried the buttons above the arrow keys but they don't seem to do the same thing.

Print Screen- http://guides.macrumors.com/Taking_Screenshots_in_Mac_OS_X
Home/End Keys-

This picture is from a new Apple keyboard. The buttons can vary as mine are little diagonal icons.

TheMagicPirate said:
3) Where can I find a list of all my installed programs?

Erm, goto your applications folder. Applications are a little wierd on the Mac OS and may take a little while to get used to. Most applications simple need you to drag-and-drop into the app folder and it is installed! Some larger ones such as Adobe suites have an installation process though.

If you want to delete an application you should use AppDelete as it will delete all hidden files such as preferences. If you want to do it normally, just drag an application into the trash!

TheMagicPirate said:
4) Go to your Apple icon in the top left and scroll down to 'Force Quit', I can find 'Alt' and I can find 'Cmd' but what the hell is the 3rd icon

The other icon is ESC. SO its Apple + CMD + ESC.

TheMagicPirate said:
5) Is there a setting somewhere that I can turn on so that when I'm looking at a folder in 'Icon' view I can click , left, left, left, left etc... Instead of having to click left, left, left, down, right, right, right? (I hope that makes sense)

Apple Key + J. Works in all finder windows and on the desktop. In finder windows you should make a selection and select the default for all finder windows option at the bottom.

TheMagicPirate said:
6) Why don't any of my gif's work?

Hmm. As in gifs do you mean animated or just all of them? Do the work in a browser window? (Right click -> open with Safari for example). Make sure the images are opening in Preview (Macs default image viewing program).

JonB · 2 Jan 2008 at 14:48

kvfb97 · 2 Jan 2008 at 16:31

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1228728

Sic · 2 Jan 2008 at 17:02

TheMagicPirate said:
3) Where can I find a list of all my installed programs?

fire up the terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app) and run:

Code:

ls -A /Applications

and

Code:

ls -A ~/Applications

TheMagicPirate said:
6) Why don't any of my gif's work?

open them in a web browser, preview doesn't animate gifs

JonB · 2 Jan 2008 at 17:41

kvfb97 said:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1228728

Unfortunately I've had that too. This appears only in firefox!

theheyes · 3 Jan 2008 at 20:47

Didn't think this warranted a new thread so I'll mention it here.

Safari went a bit squiffy on me just now. Basically Javascript "broke", or seemed to. Pages would load but certain hyperlinks would not work and other oddities that seemed to be JS related.

All I wanted to say was if you go to Safari > Reset Safari... this seems to sort the problem out. Has anyone else come across this? FYI I don't run any add-ons to Safari.

**The "Official" N00b Needs Help Thread**

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The "Official" N00b Needs Help Thread