We've just bought an iMac.

[CoralRose]

It's very pretty.

No idea what I'm doing.... Anyone got any hints/tips to share?

I've already nearly wet myself over the 'sticky notes'

I've had mine for a year.
Still don't know what I'm doing.
But it's sooo pretty! And yes, sticky notes how do I love thee...

We've had ours for a year, what's a sticky note?

My biggest hint is to make sure that your account doesn't have administrator rights. You only need those rights when you're making reasonably serious changes on your computer, so taking them away limits the amount of damage that can accidentally happen.

All of this can be done using the user accounts bit of the System Preferences.

Add a new user called "administrator" with password you can remember and make sure that that user is the only one that is allowed to administer the computer. Then check your own account and that that option away.

Much safer :)

we have bought one recently and everybody except me loves it.

Same here Typicalvirgo. I want to like it, I really do, I accept that there are lots of very good things about it, but it just doesn't do much for me .

Download VLC (google it) It opens just about any video file you could possibly want to play:)

There are loads of shortcuts for anything... google is your friend:)
Then just mess about until it feels like home! I switched to mac 3 years ago and would never go back to windows ever ever ever! No antivirus crap, plug and play stuff just works!

I had hours of entertainment getting mine to read my emails to me in a deadpan voice...(I'm a bit juvenile )

Download Firefox. It's way better than Safari for surfing the web.

Launch iPhoto and feed it a load of your photos then behold the joy of creating a funky slideshow to music!

Go into System Preferences-> Energy Saver and set the computer to go to sleep in x minutes and marvel at the fact it actually works without a 1 in 2 chance of not waking up afterwards. Feel happy that you are now doing your bit for the environment (and your electric bill).

Also in System preferences, check out the parental controls and ponder at your new found powers to limit your kids surfing habits. Flex muscles in mirror as the kids bow to your superiority.

Before some smartarse comes along and claims you can do all of the above with a Windows PC, yes I know! But with the mac, it's all there without having to download anything else, it's easy to use even for amateurs and it just works!