Mac for Dummies etc.

[Eugene]

A friend of mine has recently switched from a Windows laptop to MacBook Pro - any recommendations for reference guides covering Mountain Lion and Office 2011 for Mac?

I've covered the basics but they need to get themselves up to speed quickly and want something in printed form anyway (which may be a reflection of my IT support skills). I know there are various "Missing Manual" and "for dummies" books available but reviews on Amazon etc. are mixed, so it'd be good to know if there's a stand-out alternative.

 

[vuk]

mas for dummies? can it be any other way? ;-)

i would advise this instead:
http://randomtutor.blogspot.ca/2013/02/installing-ubuntu-1304-on-retina.html


vuk.

 

[mmterror]

Hmm odd, most people I know that move from Windows to Mac..then run Windows on them.

Each to their own.

 

[Rasher]

I'm one of those because I have engineering programs to run and there are no alternatives. I only have to use two Windows programs luckily and the rest is native.

I had a Mac back in 1994 at home, but when Windows 95 came out I had to use it at work and that was that. I moved over entirely to a MacBook Pro in May this year and everything I do is now Mac based. It was a bit of a learning curve, but everything is so much easier anyway that I can't see it being any problem for your friend. Unless the world turns upside down I'll never be going back.

The era of using a Dummys book now is long gone and you'll find any specific process played out somewhere on YouTube.

I went to WH Smith and looked in the magazine rack at the Apple computing section, and there are several magazine format publications, one especially is a guide for people moving to Mac from Windows - about £10. Just about everything he'll need is in there and it explains any task that you would do in Windows and shows how that equivalent task is done on a Mac. I needed nothing else at all except a couple of YouTube guides when I got stuck.

The only place I tripped up was downloading Apps and running them immediately, which meant I was running programs from the Downloads folder instead of dragging them to the proper Applications folder, but even that was instant to fix, and only a housekeeping problem. Nothing ever stops working.

WH Smiths is the place to go.

Found it

 

[Eugene]

Ta Rasher, I'll pay WHS a visit as a starter.

 

[Derek Wright]

To supplement book knowledge there are quite a few Mac User Groups in the UK
see
http://www.macusersuk.org/

User groups do not appeal to every one but they are a useful resource of knowledge.

 

[Anex]

Assuming this is a finding your way around the system introduction, there are also videos and pages on the Apple site specifically about moving from Windows to OSX. I know that doesn't fit the printed material requirement, but it's free and might be useful.
http://www.apple.com/uk/findouthow/mac/#switcher

 

[Heath]

When I switched from Windows to Mac I found David Pogue's OSX Missing Manual to be excellent. Lots of references to the Windows equivalent of Mac tools, commands and ways of doing things, which helped with learning my way around the new system. Started with the basics and gradually moved onto more complex stuff. OK, it was a few years ago and I haven't looked at his recent editions, but they seem to continue to get good reviews on Amazon with few negative comments.

 

[Eugene]

Thanks for the additional links - enough to keep them busy over the weekend.