Such a Mac Noob...

Youngbinks · 03-28-2008, 12:54 PM

Well, due to both of my Laptop PCs crashing in the same week (one is $1700 to repair, and I think the other one is simply too far gone) I went out and purchased a MacBook Air, and so far I am in love with it. However, I am a complete noob when it comes to operating on a Mac, it's been since 5th grade since I actually used one.
My questions begin with the program "Spaces". I have no idea what this does, and one of my Mac owning friends said he never used it so he doesn't know either. Also, my other Mac friend has something enabled so that when she moves her cursor over a certain corner, a program opens up (that she chose to be enabled by the movement), so does anyone know how I can do that?

Also, how do I create ringtones using Garageband? I thought I remembered hearing somewhere that Garageband users were able to create free ringtones and put them on the iPhone, but I could be mistaken.

As usual, any help is greatly appreciated.

patrickj · 03-28-2008, 01:01 PM

I'm in your same boat - or maybe a slightly smaller, less expensive craft, but anyway - bought a MacBook last week, first time on a Mac in years as well.

Someone else will probably have a better explanation, but Spaces lets you group apps (e.g Mail and IM in one space, browser in another etc) and reduce desktop clutter, and toggle between various spaces with ease - see HERE for a good overview.

I also found Apple's Switcher 101 site quite useful for quick rundowns on various features and apps - it's at:
http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/

aggieman · 03-28-2008, 01:05 PM

I'm still fairly new to mac as well, but Spaces is an awesome feature. It minimizes desktop clutter by virtually letting you have 4 desktops. In other words I can have iTunes/iPhoto running and synching with my iPhone in space 1, Firefox/Safari surfing the web in space 2, along with maybe having some music playing, space 3 I can have Photoshop open and cutting my fiance's face out of a pic and pasting on Carmen Electra's body and dreaming a little bit, and in space 4 I could have Garageband open creating ringtones and EIC open and looking up how to use Garageband to do so. The beauty of it all is it is very simple to switch back and forth between spaces. Just use control and the arrow keys to switch between windows.

patrickj · 03-28-2008, 01:39 PM

Originally Posted by aggieman

I can have Photoshop open and cutting my fiance's face out of a pic and pasting on Carmen Electra's body and dreaming a little bit

Good explanation and illustration - you are a *bad* man for that work in Space 3 though

aggieman · 03-28-2008, 01:43 PM

Originally Posted by patrickj

Good explanation and illustration - you are a *bad* man for that work in Space 3 though

yep, that was mild compared to most of my stunts

acosmichippo · 03-28-2008, 03:11 PM

Originally Posted by Youngbinks

...my other Mac friend has something enabled so that when she moves her cursor over a certain corner, a program opens up (that she chose to be enabled by the movement), so does anyone know how I can do that?

seems like Spaces has been pretty well explained, so i'll try to cover this one. This is a feature called Expose'. If you go to Apple->system preferences->Expose' and Spaces you can tweak both of them there. The specific feature you are talking about is called "active screen corners". You can assign different functions to each corner of your screen... like going to sleep, popping up app windows, showing all windows, dashboard, etc. It's very handy, but i found that when i'm navigating my desktop, i would overshoot something (like the Apple menu or Spotlight), and accidentally trigger an active corner, and have things happen i didn't intend to. So i now only have my bottom-left corner assigned to dashboard. Maybe you have better eye-hand coordination than i do...

Originally Posted by Youngbinks

Also, how do I create ringtones using Garageband? I thought I remembered hearing somewhere that Garageband users were able to create free ringtones and put them on the iPhone, but I could be mistaken.

As usual, any help is greatly appreciated.

I'm pretty sure all you do is import an itunes song (or create your own), edit it down to <30 seconds, and then go to Share->Send ringtone to iTunes. I haven't tried it myself (yet), but i can't imagine it being any more complicated than that.

in fact, i'll try it now, and take some screenshots while i do it.

acosmichippo · 03-28-2008, 04:59 PM

ok, i created a quick tutorial for creating ringtones with Garageband here.

hope it helps.

kokogirl · 03-29-2008, 09:47 PM

Is this all in the Mac's for Dummies book? I really need to catch up!

Lincoln · 03-30-2008, 01:32 PM

Originally Posted by kokogirl

Is this all in the Mac's for Dummies book? I really need to catch up!

I wrote that book.

I'm no Genius with any kind of IM, but I do have iChat set up. Anybody that needs help with the Mac, just open iChat and set it up with whatever kind of account you have and go into Buddies > Add Buddy, and my name is jbanks290@gmail.com. I usually have iChat open in the background, so you'll get me most of the time.

- John

patrickj · 03-30-2008, 01:35 PM

Originally Posted by John

I wrote that book.

I'm no Genius with any kind of IM, but I do have iChat set up. Anybody that needs help with the Mac, just open iChat and set it up with whatever kind of account you have and go into Buddies > Add Buddy, and my name is jbanks290@gmail.com. I usually have iChat open in the background, so you'll get me most of the time.

- John

Cool, I just added you. No questions yet, but sure I will have