MacBook

[YellowHammer]

Office was was originally designed for Macs, and are easily available. So you can still use Word, Excel, etc.

Just buy Office for Mac.  

 

[SwampDonkey]

I use mainly Excel these days, and not just number crunching. Use it in design by making use of cell formatting and color. I have used Access quite extensively and wrote two database programs for it, one for tracking wood trucking and another for timber cruise data. I've used Word a lot in the past, but I'm not writing reports much these days, although occasionally use it to document how I did a certain task, sometimes a one of thing that I might forget in 2 years.

That's all for now.

[YellowHammer]

Don’t forget about Airdrop on your Mac, where you can transfer pictures and video effortlessly to each machine, as well as iCloud, which allows you to access them over any and every IOS device you have automatically.  Take a picture with your phone, plug in j. To charge for the evening, sit down with the Mac, and everything is there at your fingertips.  

I also love that my IPhone and Mac are always connected when within range, so when my phone rings, I simply answer it on my Mac. 

[zinc oxide]

Selecting multiple pictures on a MacBook air:

1) open photos
2) hold down command key for the duration
3)use the trackpad to 'hover' over photo
4) click trackpad to select photo
5)Remembering to hold down the command key, move cursor to next pic, click trackpad, etc

[Magicman]

Thank You, I needed that.  

I still am not doing well with Preview although I have resized a few pictures.  

EDIT:  Yeah, I resized and uploaded multiple photos!!  Your "command" tip did it.  

[zinc oxide]

You are quite welcome, Magic Man.

 David Pogue I believe is the gentleman's name. I think he has a series called "the missing manual" for Macs. Phenomenal resource.

"Thank you (God) I needed that"… Was how I was exposed to Mac products through my little sister whom I house/pet set for 2 years to the day in Richmond Virginia.

 I can't say it enough. It is I who wish to thank you, and many others, present or not, for this vast cornucopia of knowledge and effort.

Willy

[Magicman]

Thank you Sir, ordered. 

A Grandson is coming this week which will be helpful, but I have already done all of the day-to-day stuff.

[SwampDonkey]

It's funny when the first home computers were on the market, the motherboard schematic and the programming manual was included. Now it's a secret, unless you go digging.

[Stephen1]

My son convinced me 7 years ago this month to buy this mac, still runs, battery is still good, i have problems with photo's but that is just me. I am not fussy on everything costs on a mac, but no virus, no worries, it just works, along with my phone.  My GF has a mac 14 years old, leaves it plugged in and she still uses it for her old editing programs she likes. 

[SwampDonkey]

As far as bootup time on PC's, you can have instant on if you just power up and down with the power button. You don't need to do a deep cycle shutdown or restart every time you use your PC. You'd only need that when updating. Mine comes right back up and ready to go in less than 2 seconds.

[Magicman]

The Grandson came and I learned a few nice shortcuts.    Now if I can remember them....

[Tacotodd]

@Magicman I know how you feel!

[Magicman]

There is no question that I am keeping the Macbook Air.  The Trackpad, Bootup speed, Battery life, Battery recharge time, Physical size/weight, etc. are all deal makers.  Firefox is transparent with what I was already accustomed to.

I can easily resize my photos on my iPhone "Image Size" app and quickly upload them thus avoiding the, to me, cumbersome and multi-step "Preview" app on the Mac.  I have always had the phone's Image Size app, just never used it.  Recent photos are automatically transferred to and viewed in the Mac and I choose which or whether to actually upload them.

If/when I get a text or phone call I get a notifier like I do here on the FF.  I can then respond to either on the Mac if I desire.

Not trying to convince anyone, just stating my thoughts (so far).

[btulloh]

The interoperability of apple devices is nice. They function together really well and just seem to work the way you want without jumping through hoops. I’m on pc for desktop and laptop but my ipad and iphone work together very well and I appreciate the synergy.  I especially like how text messages show up on both devices. Do they show up your laptop too?  

 Maybe someday I’ll move to apple for the desktop but no real reason to at this point. 

Good report MM. I’m glad your new laptop is working out for you. 

[Hilltop366]

I don't recall ever having to resize photos when uploading them from the apple Photos app. It must resize them automatically because my photos are usually 17 to 26 MB.

After I have opened the FF photo upload page I open the Apple Photo App and select the photo(s) I want to up load and drag and drop to the "Or drop photos here" box and let the computer do the rest.

To select more than one photo in a row hold down the shift key and click with track pad on the first and last photo that you want to move the release the shift key.

To select more than one photo that is not in a row hold down the command key and click with the track pad the photos you want to move then release the command key.

Then you can click (and hold down) on any of the selected photos and drag and drop all of them to the "Or drop phots here) box.

This photo of a deer trimming the vegetation around the flower garden at my back door was 25.2 MB, (select, drag, drop) no resizing was required.

[SwampDonkey]

Thank Jeff for that, not Apple. Give credit where it is due. Windows can do much the same as Apple. I have programs that I need to use that are not available on Mac computers. I just don't have any issues with the hardware or functionality and I get done what I have to get done.

This one was 3.4 MB

[Hilltop366]

Thank Jeff for that, not Apple. Give credit where it is due.

I know little about the inner workings of computers, software and websites.

I once compared my usage of a computer to a circular saw to a bunch of extreme computer enthusiasts the look on their face was priceless, I had to explain my comment to them " if I turn it on I want it to work".    

[Magicman]

Yes, the FF software can/will automatically resize your photos when uploading them to your Gallery.  My situation is that I have relatively slow internet service and I have found that if I resize them they will upload really fast.  If I do not it's like watching paint dry.  There really is not a great difference between this Mac and a PC and I am aware about using the Command key to select multiple photos.

I had no problem with getting another PC except that I have had several bad experiences with several bad PC's and had grown weary.    I probably could have spent the same $$ and gotten another PC and been OK.

I did not make my final decision whether to keep or return this Mac until last evening.

[Bandmill Bandit]

My son just told me that the little black Macbook the Grandson was using for games that we bought in 99 died this week so he bought his wife a new MacBook Air fully maxed out and passed the 4 year old 15" MacBook Pro that she was using to the Grandson. He's pretty pumped over it as in; " Grandpa, I can play ALL the games now and it's so fast!"

He started on an IPad at 16 months and he can do more with Grandma's Iphone than Grandma can.  

Also has an IPhone 7 that is very tightly tethered to his Dads phone and has no sim card in it at this point.