Thoughts of a returning switcher

[Caged]

Wether your using 1 finger or 2, it still equates to 2 taps.

The main thing that annoys me about my iBook, is that the mouse moves differentely to what it does on my main PC. It just seems slugish. Even with a mouse plugged into it. Its something ive noticed with all Macs.

Just turn the speed up then.

 

[BoomAM]

Just turn the speed up then.

Unfortunatelly, that doesnt seem to fix the problem.
Seems to be a problem with acceleration as far as i can tell.
Im not sure if the x86 Macs have the problem, but i know that all the PPC ones do.

 

[Floyd]

Unfortunatelly, that doesnt seem to fix the problem.
Seems to be a problem with acceleration as far as i can tell.
Im not sure if the x86 Macs have the problem, but i know that all the PPC ones do.

Correct, its how OS X handles mouse acceleration. It can be "fixed" using a program called steermouse.

Single button mouse + double finger scrolling + double finger click = the win for me anyway, I cant stand laptops that dont have the two finger scrolling

 

[Sharknose]

*No programs menu- To me, this is another almost inexcusable problem. You either have to keep apps in the dock or ferret through the apps folder; There is no way to have a simple menu with your apps subcategorised in it.

What I've done is have my main application shortcuts directly in the dock. (So Mail, Safari, Final Cut Express).
In my home directory, I then created a folder called Fav Apps (or something like that), which that contained a folder structure (things Like Utilities, Internet, Multimedia) which contained aliases/shortcuts to the applications I tend to use quite a lot.
Then, I drag that folder onto the Doc (changed it's icon too so I can spot it).
When you right click on it, this sort of acts like a "Programs" menu.
For any other apps which I hardly ever use, but sometimes need to fire up, I just use Spotlight.

 

[Echo toxin]

I actually use a Windows keyboard on my Mac and the MS Intellipoint software allows you to configure the right-Windows key to do something. So I have it as "open applications folder". So you can quickly hit that, type the first couple of letters of the application you want and then do CMD-O to launch it. Quite quick! Similar idea to that Launch Bar thingy.

 

[zeta101]

I find the trackpad on my powerbook 12" to be the best I've used on any laptop, mainly because of the smooth metal finish I can glide quickly across the pad and get a good response. However, on all standard macs, the mouse tracking speed is way to slow, even if you go into the preferences and put it to maximum it's not enough. Before I bought my powerbook I had noticed this from testing them in an apple store, so I did some research and found there are a few 3rd party apps to fix this (I use mousezoom, which basically allows you to increase the speed past the limit apple set). The test for me is to be able to move from one corner of the screen to the other in one quick movement.

If it annoys you having to go to the finder to launch an app then check out a program called quick silver by blacktree (you can invoke it system wide with ctrl+space and start to type the name of an app and it matches it quickly, press return and it launches), it does a lot more than launch programs however. You can also do a similar thing with spotlight (cmd+space). Finally, if you are a mouse type of guy instead of keyboard then you can actually drag your applications folder to the right hand side of the dock and then right click to get a menu with all your apps in.

Wireless: Check out an application called iStumbler.

Personally, I think your experience would have been a lot better if you had did some more research when you encountered problems. Join a good mac forum etc. There are A LOT of good 3rd party programs that give you flexibility.

 

[leezer3]

OK, weighing back in here
I did float around several of the bigger Mac forums, and I've seen plenty of the things that people have put forward here, but the fact is that they're hacks, and most importantly they're not ideal for what I'm after
The best example- Putting the apps folder on the dock is all very well, but this still has all the junk apps that you don't normally want in it. Yes, its possible to create a folder full of shortcuts/ symlinks and place this on the dock, but to access it, you still need right-click, otherwise it'll launch the folder instead. Right click is an utter pain in the backside; I strongly dislike the trackpad as it is, and the two-finger right-clicking doesn't really work well with the way I use the mouse. (I tend to have both hands on the keyboard, with a single thumb reaching back to use the mouse when I use a trackpad)

Keyboard- Oddly enough, I use an Apple keyboard with my Windows machine; I just find some elements of the layout easier to use. The Macbook keyboard is in no way bad, but those on Thinkpads are in a leauge of thier own.


I suppose a lot of this comes down to the way I've setup my previous Windows/ Linux setup over the past 9 years. I hope I'm not too biased though.

-Leezer-