Mac Help.

[daryl00000000006]

With my schools recent decision to change all the Cyber Cafe, Library, and some of the computer class computers from PCs to Macs, I figure it'd be worth it to learn a bit about them.

They're intuitive enough, but a few things still bother me, like... What do you do on a Mac, where you'd normally right click on a PC? Is there a way to do stuff like copy and paste text without using a keyboard shortcut? And how about stuff like getting the link for an image, from the properties window?

Also, can the Safari browser be fully maximised, so it takes up the entire screen, as opposed to just enough so the page doesn't need a sideways scroll bar?

And what does that button on the sides of the mouse do? You know, the one that your thumb and ring finger touch while holding the mouse, and when pressed by both fingers, the screen just darkens?

That's it for now, though more questions are likely to arise as the year goes on. Any help greatly appreciated.

[Hauskaz]

In OS X, every function found in the Windows context menu can be found in the menu bar. If you prefer, you can still open a context menu by holding control and clicking. From the description, it sounds that the Apple Mighty Mouse is being used, which is actually a two-button mouse based on touch-sensitive technology. When configured properly in system preferences, you can right click with it like a standard two-button mouse.

Zooming windows in OS X will make them resize to appropriately fit the content instead of filling the whole screen. The concept is that maximizing is an unnecessary waste of screen real estate and hinders productivity. If you insist, you can still move the window to the top right corner and drag the bottom right corner to the bottom right of the screen.

From what it sounds like, the squeeze function on the Apple Mighty Mouse is currently configured to initiate Dashboard, but since it is most likely disabled by the administrator, it simply darkens the screen. This function, as well as all the other functions of the mouse can be completely configured in system preferences, although administration has probably restricted access to it.

[daryl00000000007]

Thanks alot, especially for the "hold control and click" tip. And you're right, the computers are heavily restricted; You can't save any information to the hard drive, and the computers in the Cyber Cafe don't even have the System Preferences button under the apple menu, I think.

One more thing, for now; I know all modern OSs support all the standard keyboard layouts, but is it easy enough to change (and unchange) the layout on a Macintosh, so that I could change the layout in under a minute, and set it back to Qwerty in a similar time frame?

[Hauskaz]

Yes, and it doesn't look stupid like the language bar in Windows either. However, as it is configured under system preferences, there is nothing you can do about it.