Macolytes Rejoice, and Advise!

Gdiguy · Aug 29, 2015

Orange Julia said:
I will probably keep my desktop machine at the office because it has all the finances on it in Quickbooks and it is up to date, but I don't want to get a MacBook Air and find it is really too small a screen to edit these short (1-5 minutes or so) on it. I thought about a Mac Mini, because I already have a 27 inch monitor, and a 22 inch (for my PC--do i have to get an Apple specific monitor?) Or can I get away with a nice thin laptop and a monitor for docking?

I'm not as up to all the options for the Macs themselves, but I'll just say that I went with the bolded option and it's really great - I get a really light laptop for non-important use, and even my Macbook Air (~2 years old I think?) has no issue driving a 27" 2650x1440 IPS monitor. The only real issue as you suggest is the number of USB drives (the dual-link DVI adapter takes both the displayport and a USB port, so with an external monitor I'm down to 1), so when I need that I have another USB hub... and I've just defaulted to only using wireless mice/keyboards/etc that don't need extra ports, which other than sucking up batteries isn't really a problem. It looks like you can even do 4k external displays (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202856 ) with the newest MacBooks/Airs/Pros.

If you definitely never need to move it, and you're not paying for it, Apple's displays are widely considered top-end, so just buying an iMac wouldn't be a bad option (but you'd have another monitor). If you're not going to ever use the laptop as a laptop, then Mini would certainly be cheaper than the laptops and give you more ports.

derekson · Aug 29, 2015

I'd say get a 13" Retina MacBook Pro. It's only 2 cores (vs 4 in the 15") but that should be plenty for mainly office use and occasional iMovie/Adobe stuff. And it only weighs like 3 lbs. I believe the current one can drive 2 or 3 external 4K displays as well, if you ever upgrade your external monitors to "retina" resolution you should be all set as far as ability to drive them. I bought a 15" MBP last year, largely because i figured i might want a 4K external monitor at some point, but if I were buying today I'd probably buy a higher end 13" model rather than the base 15" one.

B H Kim · Aug 29, 2015

Orange Julia said:
Is there any reason not to consider a refurb macbook pro? Is there one or another I should avoid (even in refurb by apple) or look at specifically? Since this will be the machine I will doing video editing and stuff on, it will have to have some sort of way to get the video files from my Sony HD Handycam and my numerous digital cameras (micro sd cards and regular sd cards) if there isn't a USB port of some sort...?

The current 13" MacBook Pros have multiple USB ports (and an SD card slot).

I bought one earlier this year and I use it at home with the 27" Apple Thunderbolt monitor. It's a great set up and I have have no problems whatsoever editing video on it.

derekson · Aug 29, 2015

You can use any monitor (and keyboard/mouse), either with a thunderbolt/mini-DisplayPort to DVI adaptor or the HDMI port.

The Thunderbolt display is pretty out of date and overpriced at this point. Presumably they'll replace it with a version of the 5K display on the big iMacs at some point. I'd get a Dell 4k or 5k monitor before the Apple display if I were buying one now.

stp · Aug 30, 2015

Orange Julia said:
I also have an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription so I would like to be able to use it on the Mac as well (I can put it on one desktop and one laptop as long as both are mine) but that shouldn't make a difference if I have it on one PC and one Mac since it is basically cloudbased, yes? Please advise!

Thanks in advance.

Yes, you will be able to use the Creative Cloud subscription on a PC and a Mac. If you are at all worried about this, call Adobe, or chat through your account page to confirm this.

I just bought a refurbished iMac, and you can't tell the difference from new other than the box it came in. I wouldn't hesitate to buy an Apple refurb again.

As derekson said above, you can use the monitor you have now with the appropriate adaptor. If you still have the manual that came with your monitor, bring it to the Apple Store, and they should be able to help you with the adaptor you need.

HriniakPosterChild · Aug 30, 2015

You need a (free) iCloud account to do almost anything interesting with iOS or OSX. That account comes with, I think, 10gb. You can double that for $0.99/mo.

HriniakPosterChild · Sep 3, 2015

Do you also have a plug like this that you can plug into a non-grounded (2 prong) outlet?

That plastic brick takes up space you may not have at your outlet. The alternate cord (never heard "duckhead," but I don't get out much) is a grounded (3 prong) cord that can go into that brick, saving you some space near the outlet.

There may be other, better explanations for what's going on there.

crystalline · Sep 3, 2015

Orange Julia said:
Based on all the great advice here in in PMs I pulled the trigger on a refurbished MacBook Pro (Circa March 2015) 13" i5 with 16 g of RAM. It ships to me by Tuesday and when I'm back in the office I will take the monitor cord to the Apple Store and get the adapter so that I can use the big screen at the office. I also have a big screen at home. I have two external WD Harddrives for back ups and the like and I suppose I'll start to transition from this current laptop which feels like it weighs 50 lbs after handling that Air. Do I get a cloud account with the laptop? I didn't even check.

Thanks everyone, for the input. Greatly appreciated. You guys are gonna love all the cat videos I start churning out.

The video adapters can be expensive, especially for big monitors with lots of pixels. You can use this if your monitor has a displayport connection.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00C7RJQPY?gclid=CPrnhb6n3McCFY6EaQodatIEUg
($10 mini displayport -> displayport cable)

HriniakPosterChild · Sep 3, 2015

crystalline said:
The video adapters can be expensive, especially for big monitors with lots of pixels. You can use this if your monitor has a displayport connection.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00C7RJQPY?gclid=CPrnhb6n3McCFY6EaQodatIEUg
($10 mini displayport -> displayport cable)

OJ, my 13" MBP is a "late 2013" model (older than yours), and it has an HDMI port on the right side, opposite the power connection. Can you use HDMI to connect to your monitor?

crystalline · Sep 3, 2015

Displayport is better than HDMI, as it supports higher resolution (higher bandwidth).

HriniakPosterChild · Sep 7, 2015

I keep my MBP in the same soft-sided briefcase that once carried my old Toshiba laptop. If I weren't retired, I would probably buy a TSA-friendly bag, but now I make do with an iPad when I'm away from home.

HriniakPosterChild · Sep 12, 2015

Orange Julia said:
Ok so now that I am a Mac User after over 15 years of not being one--What's the browser of choice? What about virus protection? What else do I need? I have a license for Office Suite, and will be adding a seat to my Creative Cloud account for this machine once I get a mouse and maybe a bigger keyboard for docking use.

I feel like i have gigantic man hands on this tiny keyboard. But then when I pick up my samsung laptop it is like hoisting a piece of luggage onto my lap.

Also I have this weird thing where the MacBook won't connect to the wireless extender on the second floor but has no problem connecting to the actual wireless router. What's up with that? I seem to have plenty of coverage all over the house so it isn't an issue (yet) but I am curious why it works on all my other bits of machinery but not this one.

I ended up getting a hard snap on cover that has a nice tactile grip on it and I will probably just use one of my Jack Spade bags as its laptop case, or maybe get one of the Tom Bihnn bags that all the hipsters have. For now the neoprene sleeve that came with the snap on works fine.

Thanks again for the advise and help.

I use Chrome for most things. I use Safari when Chrome doesn't work. (Google feels free to break Chrome every month in new and different ways.) I have Firefox but don't use use it much at all.

I use Office via a 365 subscription. I tried Pages and Numbers, but I have 20+ years of Office burned into the base of my spine. I'm too damned old to change now.

I stopped using Avast free AV when it started silently blocking Sosh.net. There's a thread about that somewhere in this forum. Right now I am running with no antivirus software. (Let's keep that our little secret.)

Someone else might have an idea about your wireless extender issue. I get coverage all over my house with my Airport Time Capsule on all my tablets, phones and PC's, so I don't have need of an extender.

derekson · Sep 13, 2015

Orange Julia said:
Ok so now that I am a Mac User after over 15 years of not being one--What's the browser of choice? What about virus protection? What else do I need? I have a license for Office Suite, and will be adding a seat to my Creative Cloud account for this machine once I get a mouse and maybe a bigger keyboard for docking use.

I feel like i have gigantic man hands on this tiny keyboard. But then when I pick up my samsung laptop it is like hoisting a piece of luggage onto my lap.

Also I have this weird thing where the MacBook won't connect to the wireless extender on the second floor but has no problem connecting to the actual wireless router. What's up with that? I seem to have plenty of coverage all over the house so it isn't an issue (yet) but I am curious why it works on all my other bits of machinery but not this one.

I ended up getting a hard snap on cover that has a nice tactile grip on it and I will probably just use one of my Jack Spade bags as its laptop case, or maybe get one of the Tom Bihnn bags that all the hipsters have. For now the neoprene sleeve that came with the snap on works fine.

Thanks again for the advise and help.

Safari is the fastest and most memory efficient Mac browser by far. I have Chrome installed too but only for sites that use Flash, so I can use Chrome's built-in Flash player rather than installing the normal version on my computer. Macs really don't need anti-virus software.

I'd try updating the firmware on your wifi extender if it isn't up to date. I've seen routers not work well with newer devices until they get firmware updates for whatever reason.

NortheasternPJ · Sep 14, 2015

I wouldn't use any other browser but Safari when on battery. Chrome and Firefox are complete battery killers.

Rudi Fingers · Sep 29, 2015

Orange Julia said:
So, I am kind of surprised at how hard it has been at get used to the Mac environment again. I continue to struggle with things that really should be simple, like importing my outlook contacts into mac outlook--they keep coming across with empty fields. I am frustrated because I'm not this stupid--I used to work doing user support at Brown (15 years ago) so I feel I should know how all this works. I still haven't even figured out whether I can dock this at the office with my big monitor. This keyboard is so tiny too. I am thinking I will get a full sized bluetooth (?) keyboard and mouse for the office.

I do love how long the battery life is, though. I am lucky to get 2 hours out of my Samsung laptop and I haven't even been able to wear this bad boy down to half status after 5+ hours. And I finally figured out how to check my spelling when typing online. That only took 3 weeks. The lack of a "right" click is really got me hosed up.

Try tapping on the touchpad with two fingers at the same time to get a "right click"

If it doesn't work, go to the trackpad settings, and make sure "secondary click" is set up (it's in settings, and looks like the screen below).

HriniakPosterChild · Sep 30, 2015

Hey OJ,

There's no reason you should know everything about this platform because you used a product with the same brand name many years ago. No, you are not stupid. It's OK to be ignorant, though. Ignorance is easier to fix than stupidity.

When I bought an iPhone years ago, I ran iCloud on the Windows machine where I ran Outlook. That populated my Contacts in the phone with everything in my Outlook address book. When I got my Mac and opened Mail, they were all just there. I don't know if that will work if your mail system is Exchange. But it worked for me.

They keyboard is not just smaller, it's different on the MBP. I find it very hard to switch when I need to use a Windows machine. The fn/control/option/splat on the MBP does not map well to control/windows/alt on Windows machine. I have to s-l-o-w way down when I switch between a Windows keyboard and my MBP. At my last job, I had them buy me a full-sized Mac keyboard so the keys would be in the right place when I connected the MBP to an external monitor. It was just awful. The action on the keys felt like garbage, and it made a difference even to a hunt/peck/cuss typist like me. Have you figured out the fn+delete is the "delete forward" key? If not, that's nice to know.

Are you close to an Apple Store? Genius time is part of the purchase price when you buy these expensive machines. There's no shame in taking advantage of it. Of course, post your questions here if you like, but I doubt you'll find as many Geniuses as there are at the Store.

derekson · Sep 30, 2015

The MacBook Pro keyboard isn't any smaller than any other keyboard; the key spacing is standard. The flat "chiclet" style keys are different. Personally I vastly preferred them after getting used to them starting with a 2007 MacBook and actually got a similar keyboard for the desktop PC I had at the time (before eventually replacing it with an iMac).

HriniakPosterChild · Sep 30, 2015

derekson said:
The MacBook Pro keyboard isn't any smaller than any other keyboard; the key spacing is standard. The flat "chiclet" style keys are different. Personally I vastly preferred them after getting used to them starting with a 2007 MacBook and actually got a similar keyboard for the desktop PC I had at the time (before eventually replacing it with an iMac).

Many PC keyboards, including my Toshiba laptop, have full numeric keypads and directional keys (PgUp, PgDn, Home, End). The MBP keyboard feels much smaller, because it has fewer keys.

NortheasternPJ · Sep 30, 2015

derekson said:
The MacBook Pro keyboard isn't any smaller than any other keyboard; the key spacing is standard. The flat "chiclet" style keys are different. Personally I vastly preferred them after getting used to them starting with a 2007 MacBook and actually got a similar keyboard for the desktop PC I had at the time (before eventually replacing it with an iMac).

I find it uncomfortable typing on regular keyboards now after using the MacBook Pro for the last 5 months or so. I can type at a high rate and I find using a normal keyboard now I'm constantly running into the side of the keys or making more mistakes.

As said above what you used 15 years ago isn't even the same system as it is now. It's completely different than 9.x so don't feel bad.

Are you using Office 16 on the Mac? I've found 98% of the issue I had with office 11, which is a pile of crap, is fixed and 16 and even Outlook 16 feels 90% like Windows Outlook and not the shitty Mac prior versions.

HriniakPosterChild · Sep 30, 2015

Hypoallergenic kitten, please.

crystalline · Sep 30, 2015

I remap caps lock to command on all Macs. Much more comfortable for me, and it allows you to use a Windows keyboard too. I've gotten so used to it I remap my Windows machines caps lock to control too.

System preferences->keyboard->modifier keys

mt8thsw9th · Sep 30, 2015

Orange Julia said:
Shaving one right now!

Removing the tongue would be more effective.

nighthob · Sep 30, 2015

Orange Julia said:
I do love how long the battery life is, though. I am lucky to get 2 hours out of my Samsung laptop and I haven't even been able to wear this bad boy down to half status after 5+ hours. And I finally figured out how to check my spelling when typing online. That only took 3 weeks. The lack of a "right" click is really got me hosed up.

And it keeps going, my MacBook Pro is nigh on 3 years old and I still don't need to plug it in until I've been running it for four and a half hours or so.

HriniakPosterChild · Sep 30, 2015

crystalline said:
I remap caps lock to command on all Macs. Much more comfortable for me, and it allows you to use a Windows keyboard too. I've gotten so used to it I remap my Windows machines caps lock to control too.

System preferences->keyboard->modifier keys

If I could touch type, I wouldn't be so hesitant to remap keys. But sometimes I need to actually HUNT as part of the HPC method.

derekson · Oct 8, 2015

I don't know if you've found a work around or not yet, but this is probably the bug that was screwing up your contacts, OJ:

New Office for Mac 2011 update fixes Outlook sync bug with OS X El Capitan

derekson · Oct 10, 2015

Perhaps the update to Outlook will have fixed the contact import that was giving you issues before? Or perhaps it's another issue altogether...

How has the rest of the adapting to the Mac gone? It's been a few weeks now.

crystalline · Oct 10, 2015

Finder->File->new finder window
Click Favorites->home directory("OJulia"), looks like a house (or Finder>Go>Home).
Cmd-3 (or click the 3 pane windowlike icon above View)
Edit:click Dropbox folder

To select files: left click first file, shift-left click last file. Or left click hold and drag a selection marquee over them. Or hit cmd-A to select all.

All My Files stinks. It's slow. Using Finder with directories is better.

crystalline · Oct 10, 2015

Try spotlight.

Cmd-Space
Type filename
Cmd-Return (cmd-left click) to show it in Finder.

Then cmd-I to show you where the file actually is.

Did that help?

swiftaw · Oct 11, 2015

Orange Julia said:
What is strange is that while the pics automatically go to my dropbox "Camera Uploads" folder, they are not not visible when I go to upload a picture to Facebook, or attach it in an email. It is visible if i use all files. That is what is making me crazy. The pictures should be sitting in dropbox, because that's the path I am shown when use All Files to look for it. I know this is making little sense but so far that is my reality with photos/iphotos/pictures vs the dropbox vs All Files

Are you saying that when you want to select pics to add to Facebook or attach to an email you cannot find the Camera Uploads folder?

If so, click on the black triangle to expand the dialogue box, this should then allow you to navigate to any folder.

swiftaw · Oct 11, 2015

Okay, I get it now. The default for Photos is to store the photos in a Library package (behind the scenes) so you can't access they photo files directly. What you need to do is use the Image Capture app to import photos to a folder of your choosing on your HD that way you can access them from anywhere.

Then you can open Photos, go to settings and turn off the option to copy photos to Library (or whatever it's called) and then import the pictures into Photos from the folder you imported them into.

swiftaw · Oct 11, 2015

Orange Julia said:
Cool. Thanks. Now, because I am a dolt, I get that at the app store, for my MacBook Pro? I never thought Apple would make things complicated like this, but they sure have.

Image Capture is already installed on every Mac, just search for it in Spotlight

swiftaw · Oct 11, 2015

Orange Julia said:
PS do I want to upgrade to El Capitan?

Your choice, it's not much externally different to Yosemite. I upgraded all my macs and haven't run into any problems yet.

Macolytes Rejoice, and Advise!

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