“It’s About Time” to learn the Switch to Mac is a learning tool that interactively guides users through “a typical day in Windows; then, teaches you the equivalent on your Mac.”
MacDailyNews Take: No, it doesn’t teach you how to wipe your drive and reinstall your OS or waste money and processor cycles running multiple anti-virus programs; it concentrates on daily tasks that Windows shares in common with the Mac. All kidding aside, anything that helps Windows sufferers make the transition to Mac sounds good to us.
According to the developer, “It’s About Time” Products, before this learning tool, users had to purchase a nearly four hundred page book to learn how to “Switch to Mac.” The goal in creating “It’s About Time” to learn the Switch to Mac was to minimize the two to four week period of time to become familiar with using the Mac to about one hour.
Throughout the learning tool, Saied, the instructor, reminds the user what steps they went through to complete a task in Windows; then, teaches them to perform the same step on with Mac. The best part is right after Saied shows the user each lesson, they can try it on the Mac and receive immediate feedback to find out if they are correct.
Topics covered include:
• how to configure and check e-mail
• scheduling events with alarms in iCal
• adding contacts in your Address Book
• changing your desktop background & right-clicking
• many more features
Apple is featuring the demo of (22.5MB) of “It’s About Time” to learn the Switch to Mac on the company’s website.
More info and download link via Apple.com here.
Now matter how easy something is, there is always someone out there trying to make a buck by convincing potential customers that it is difficult, and that you need to buy their guide.
#1 – turn windows machine off
#2 – turn mac on
#3 – live happily ever after
It’s really HARD to break a Mac by exploring the settings and apps. I guess this product is helpful for some. I suspect that if I decided to make a cold turkey switch to Windows I would consider something like this just to have a resource when stuck.
Qka never underestimate the natural lack of curiosity on the part of your average human being. I make sure to try every menu option and every pref setting just to see what they do. My mother has had a Mac for 15 years and still doesn’t think to try stuff to figure out what it does. My wife, who got an iBook as a first anniversary gift is just as bad. I love ’em both, but neither wants to try and figure stuff out on their own.
Did I miss something?
Shouldn’t this be a Quicktime file for Windows users?
I never had to buy a several hundred page book to learn how to use my Mac. I just figured it out on my own.
Although, I agree that installing apps is something that screws up Mac newbies. They are so used to going through some install wizard that it freaks them out when one doesn’t appear.
Actually, this probably would have been a help to me when I switched. While some keyboard shortcuts simply substitute the Command key for Control, there are other functions that aren’t intuitive when you’ve used Windows all your life and you’re now trying to learn Mac OS X. There’s certainly more to it than the Disney movie-esque idea:
1 – turn Windows machine off
2 – turn Mac on
3 – live happily ever after
Jim – TIV
That’s pretty much it!
It seems to me the 400 page book is for switchers from Mac to Doze.
I hear they only printed one copy!
Hey great new market for MS! I am sure they will tell you that millions would need to be published!
Are there stats on the # of doze to Mac and Mac to doze support publications/dvds…that would be interesting!
TR
Think about it, guys. This is a demographic that is completely accustomed to reading gargantuan manuals and doing a ton of configuration to make the most simple operations work properly. They NEED manuals. IIf you just tell them “no, dude, really, it’s easy, it’s not a big deal.” they’ll say “No, surely not!!! Why, I can’t use any machine with confidence unless I know how to hack the registry, start in safe mode, boot from a floppy, defrag my email, recomplie my fonts, password-protect my desktop background images of cheese…”
So they NEED this. Let ’em waste their money, it will be significantly less than they are wasting on Windows.
-c
All you need is David Pogue’s book “Switching To The Mac.” Every switcher should have it as it covers everything and does so in a manner that is very easy to understand. Amazon carries the book for about $16.
But will they PAY for it. Most Windroids only get warez.
ChrissyOne,
The condescending arrogance of your comment is unfortunately what many new switchers encounter in the Mac community. Really, do you think that’s the best way to treat others who want to learn more about the Mac? Spitting on them?
I would think encouraging people and helping them understand how things work on “the bright side” could benefit Mac marketshare more than, “You’re too stupid to be here.”
Some people simply have a “Windows mind set” and have trouble doing something different – even if it’s a Mac. My son-in-law bought a 2 month old iMac at half price because the couple couldn’t adjust to the Mac, even after taking lessons. They were a bit old, but certainly not ignorant.
I’m old also and buy a manual with every other version of OS X. It’s simply faster for me to find an answer to a question in a manual (old people are used to doing that) than it is digging through the internet or Help files, which is probably why my MW is “effort”!
Islandgirl,
Sometimes when you tell the truth, there’s no way to keep it from sounding condescending. The plain truth is that it’s easier to take a novice computer user and stick them in front of a Mac than a veteran Windows user. Why? Because the Windows user has strong expectations that there will be trouble. It’s what they’ve experienced for years. Even after using a Mac for a while, they’re often waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Hey ChrissyOne …
I just noticed you actually found a way to use “gargantuan “ in a sentence !!
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I’ve had a couple of concerns voiced to me by switchers ..
1. “Wheres the 2nd button on the mouse ?”
Somehow, they tell me that the Control Key is
too strange to get used to .
(They usually end up buying that 2-button MS mouse)
2. Trying to explain that on a Mac — Command Q (or File / Quit) is the best way to “Exit” from an app, and not just closing a window … and then try to explain why it actually does work on some apps but not others, is a little difficult..
But, I’ve always used the Command Q … it just seems natural to me !
@Islandgirl
Sometimes trying to teach someone something with a little humor, is the best way for them to learn …
I dont think Chrissy was being condencending, just using her wit to make a point ..
And.. she’s right ! Ive had a tough time trying to explain to switchers how much easier is to do things on a Mac..
Sometimes humor is the only way to get through to them !
Do I have the only copy of OS X that has “Mac Help” in the menu bar?
ChrissyOne is right. So there.
Apple didn’t substitute the Command key for the Control key. Microsoft, in copying Apple as it continued to do and still does with that bloated POS Vista, substituted the Control key for the Command key. Look who’s arrogant. So there.
People are sheep.
“…Do I have the only copy of OS X that has “Mac Help” in the menu bar?..”
@neomonkey
uhh nope … I just noticed mine, right after you mentioned it !
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I can’t speak for other (former) Windows users but I didn’t spend a lot of time looking through multi-page Windows manuals. Nor wanted to. Nobody thinks that’s fun.
Chris & oh my,
Yes, I *get* humor, too. But jeez people, do you not know how some of your comments sound to folks who are just learning a new operating system? Sorry, but truth by itself NEVER is condescending. That’s the difference between good and bad teachers.
Imagine you were a skilled Mac user who had never used Windows or some obsure form of Linux and you suddenly had to learn one of those systems? You know, for like…work. Do you think it would be a cakewalk? Would you look for some help, either from other users of the same OS or maybe a book?
Just as one example, renaming a file in OS X is done differently from Windows. I didn’t automatically know how to do that.
And when the screen on my iMac went black and I saw a message telling me to restart my computer — several times in the first week I had it — don’t you imagine I felt a sinking feeling and immediately thought of the corrupt file on my Windows laptop that required the hard drive to be erased and the OS reinstalled? I didn’t know what the hell was going on. How would I know what a kernel panic looked like?
It turned out to be related to a wireless mouse I was using…I think…and I haven’t seen it since. But yeah, it was scary.
Try to empathize rather than criticize us, that’s all I’m saying.
You guys forgot a step:
1. Turn WIndows machine off.
2. Throw Windows machine out the fucking window.
3. Turn on Mac.
4. Live happily ever after.
@ Islandgirl
Really, I wasnt criticizing.. and I do empathize with what youre saying.. and yeah, some things on a Mac are very different than on a PC, but, on the other hand, you must realize that some people dont get it, unless you use humor to aid in your “teaching” of the subject at hand ..
Yeah.. kernel panics are scarey … I had a Wallstreet with 192 mgs of RAM, that I installed Panther on !! .. Wasnt much fun !
But, to be honest .. I’ve only been “forced” to use a ‘Doze box once (years ago) … it was running Win ’95, and I found it to be the clunkiest thing I’ve ever seen …
Luckily, tho … fortune has smiled upon me, and I have been using Macs (exclusively) since OS 7.1..
My (limited) WinDoze experience has reinforced my preferences…
As I mentioned earlier, it became my “duty” (by default) to be the “Mac guy” for the several switchers I know ..
And I can tell you of some very trying times I’ve had explaining things to them …
Very often, I’ve had to resort to humor to get my point to sink in !!
MDN MW = “students” … how ironic, huh ?
You’d think one or the other was frikking brain surgery. They’re COMPUTERS, for gawd’s sake. What mental moron wouldn’t know to double-click a file to open it, click the buttons at the top of a window until the one that closes it closes it and turn the thing off by hitting the start . . . oh, never mind.