iNewbie looking for favorite tricks and apps

[taberah]

Hey everyone. I'm a longtime Windows guy...using primarily Word, Finale, Sony Movie Studio, Corel Draw X3, IE, and Easy Worship in my job as Creative Arts Pastor. I've known for awhile I needed to make the switch over to Mac. The finances finally lined up to do so.

So, now I have a MacBook Pro in all its glory. Final Cut Express is on its way, iWork is installed, Firefox, Boot Camp and Parallels are taking care of my two Windows needs (Corel Draw X3 and Finale - until I can afford the Mac upgrade there). So far I'm loving it.

I'd like to know some of your tips and tricks and shortcuts and all...for anything.
What are your favorite things...for fun or for faster productivity?
What are your favorite apps...for fun or for better productivity?

BTW...I bought mine through Fowler because they could offer 24/7 tech support for life in addition to Apple Care. I spent about 30 minutes on the phone with one of their Mac guys and he showed me some tricks with Expose and Spaces. Good stuff!

Thanks in advance for any help!

[[Director] Joseph B]

Well, my favorite trick was to go to the local Apple store and teake every free class they offered.

[yeshua]

I recently came across a couple of shortcuts and programs over the past few months:
1. cmd-space = spotlight (search at top right)
2. if you use the Expose->All Windows shortcut at all, push the spacebar and hover above a window....shows it at regular size....really handy....
3. Adium - instant messenger - It allows multple accounts to be used within 1 program, gmail, hotmail, facebook, ichat, etc.
4. Screen Recycler - allows you to use an old computer as a secondary monitor without it being physically connected to your mac....the trial version only lasts 20 minutes before you have to reconnect....
5. the new "App Store" program
6. If theres multiple macs on site that you need to watch over (or someone else needs to), "SpyMe" is now free, just install daemons on the macs you want to monitor live, and your main host mac can watch them....pretty cool....
7. Miro Video Converter - This has come in handy for the last few weeks....converts any video to pretty much any format....now when you receive a wmv file, you convert it to mp4 so mac can play it...
8. cmd-shift-3 = screen shot
9. ever need to remove white (or other solid colors) backgrounds from a picture? open the png file in preview, select "Instant-Alpha" from the select drop down options, then drag over the background color till it gets highlighted....push delete!
10. need sound to output to speakers and earphones or to the sound board too? open up "Audio Midi Setup" and create a new aggregate device and select your inputs/outputs within that new device....should work...started using Reaper recently for recording services and needed that.....

Thats about it at the moment...

[jean11]

Well, my favorite trick was to go to the local Apple store and teake every free class they offered.

hmm, good idea to get the free class!
Well, I got many apps/games site for my iproduct, such as this iPad app:
pocket-lint.com/news/39307/best-ipad-2-apps
And free ipad games: mahalo.com/free-ipad-games/

I always turn to iclarified.com to learn iKnowledge

[EricE]

Originally Posted by yeshua

9. ever need to remove white (or other solid colors) backgrounds from a picture? open the png file in preview, select "Instant-Alpha" from the select drop down options, then drag over the background color till it gets highlighted....push delete!

AHHHH!! That's awesome. How did I totally miss that?

I love Preview - probably one of the greatest apps ever included for free with an OS. It never ceases to amaze me what is hidden away in there...