I have a MacBook. Make me like it, I beg you.

[Bigeggsinapackoften]

Dc persuaded me to get a MacBook. I’ve had it 6 months and I keep going back to my old laptop. It’s ridiculous. It’s an expensive piece of kit and it’s beyond time I used it.

I use an iPad and an iPhone.

Make me like the MacBook!

What are the shortcuts or quirks I need to know?

Talk to me like I am 3 and don’t understand please.

I’ve tried videos and things and they make my head want to explode.

You don't need Word or Pages - just download LibreOffice - it's Open Source, looks like Word, Free, will save in Word format if you set that option.

I use a Mac laptop, had to use Windows for work and hated hated hated the bloody thing. I'm a computer scientist and the Mac is simply more robust, less virus prone, less risk of malware,.... well worth getting your head around it,

Think of it like getting a new car, you know it will do all of the things the old one did - but you also know you'll probably be turning the wipers on instead of the lights for a few months. You just need to get used to the new layout - and you can only do that by using it.

I have word on it though - I pay for that for me and DC

I love my iPhone and iPad so convinced DH we needed a MacBook last time we replaced our home computer. Used it for university work during 2020/21 and found it SO frustrating.

For this academic year I've used all my birthday and Christmas money to buy myself to a Microsoft Surface laptop so I can do my job properly, it's so much better, sorry!

to get two monitors to display go to "system preferences" app, displays, arrangement then there's a tick box that says "mirror displays" - untick (you will need your second monitor to be plugged in here) then you can rearrange.

System Preferences is everything you need for settings etc.

Install Chrome or Firefox (safari is rubbish as a browser).

Set up 'hot corners" so you can access your desktop in a second (via system preferneces).

The search function is really excellent (magnifying glass top right of screen) - especially for finding documents in a second rather than via finder.

If you want to play videos third party software like VLC is good.

Sell it and buy a new laptop. Loads of software that you might discover you need will be incompatible with it. Your life will be so much easier if everything just works, rather than trying to find ways to make it work.

Or just give it to your DC - I'm sure that was their evil plan all along...

The switching between apps thing is exactly the same as on a Windows machine- well, the buttons are in the same place as alt and tab- use CMD and tab, and it will cycle through, if you pause after pressing once, all your open applications will show in the middle of the screen.

Yes Command is the equivalent of Control on a PC, so your old shortcuts will work by swapping this simple button.

I love my MacBook and wouldn’t be able to do anything with windows.

To toggle through open applications

• command > tab, hold down command and use the arrow keys to toggle across

To show all open documents tiled on the screen - F3 (or the key with the rectangles on it)

I’ve got mine set up to move all open documents to the sides and show my desktop if I press command > F3, but I think I might have set that up using - system preferences > keyboard > shortcuts. I’d have to look that up to remind myself how to do it again.

support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201236

I really don't like it. I don't like how if you open something it goes to a different place like just open. My husband loves it and has the desktop and several laptops but I avoid it if I can

Ugh, I never got on with Medelay on MacBook but that's 5+ years ago now. Sounds like it's still problematic.

Our uni library allowed you to copy+paste the Harvard reference style they wanted you to use - Google scholar did the same. I bunged them in a word doc, then command+A to select all and sorted paragraphs alphabetically.

They needed a little editing but it worked and there was no chance of loosing it in buggy software.

Other than that I LOVE my MacBook - Genius Bar is a great idea 😄💙

God I love my MacBook Pro. I have a PC laptop for work and detest it. I've been on Mac computers for almost 30 years though and am a dedicated fan!

I have literally thousands of references in mendeley though. I don’t think a word doc would cope!

It really is worth getting someone (Genius) to go through the issues with you. Once you get used to the Macbook, PCs seem so clunky. I absolutely love mine and would seriously hate to have a PC now.
Some (although few these days) applications just don't work on Mac - and it is probably easier to have an Office installed so that you can be compatible with Word etc.

Install bootcamp and then you can dual boot with windows, presume you can get student version via uni?

Mac is useful if you want to learn linx unix etc but for word excel tasks I find windows far easier to organise. It is nice piece of kit and hardware, but for such simple tasks windows can do, Mac is just horrible. Bootcamp with windows.