Bringing the Mac to the Masses: Presenting To PC Users
Bringing the Mac to the Masses: Presenting To PC Users
by , 3:30 PM EDT, July 9th, 2008
In the past eight days I have been contacted by two groups of PC users. Each group has asked me to make presentations to them about Macs and how they operate. One group is primarily curious, but seems very interested. The other is desperate because their work environment is changing from PC to Mac. The members of both groups are experienced computer users, but their experience is only with PCs.
Both of these will be "standing in front of a group" kind of presentations. In other words, an overview of how to accomplish basic tasks using a Mac.
The first presentation is early next week and the contact person gave me a long list of things they were interested in. Then she commented that "she knew I couldn't cover it all in an hour and a half so I should just pick out what I thought was most important."
Here is the deal, though: Even with explaining the organization of the Finder window and throwing in how the Dock works, it will only take about 30 minutes to demo all the things on her list. They include things like how to create a new folder, how to move documents into a folder, how to transfer something from a thumb drive, and how to burn a CD.
I have been away from the PC environment for so long that I have forgotten how many steps it takes to do things on a PC and how easy things are on our Macs.
How Do I Spend The Rest Of The Time?
Oh The Pressure! This is important stuff, folks. Here I am, standing in front of virgin minds as it were. What do I tell them to help them understand what a Mac can do for them?
Lest you be worried that my non-techie brain will be answering techie questions, let me reassure you that a friend who is a true techie will be along for the first group to explain the differences in the operating systems. The second group doesn't care. They just want to know how to use a Mac.
What Did I Come Up With?
After a great deal of thought the following are the things I came up with: If you disagree with me, or think I left something out, I would really like to hear your thoughts and suggestions. I have a feeling that this may the first of several opportunities for such presentations and I really want to get it right for the sake of the audiences.
Tutorials and Help
Nobody, least of all me, every said the Mac tutorials and/or the Help menu are perfect. However, they are pretty darn good and for basic things they can keep you going. And nothing works as well as being able to keep on going. Not only that, the Help menu is right there in your face, easy to access.
Spotlight and F5 Search Abilities
The ability to find things on your computer, no matter your organizational skills, is a true asset and one that I think needs to be emphasized to anyone being introduced to a Mac.
Microsoft Office Works Just Fine, Thanks
PC users often don't know that they have options (or are not allowed options by their work environments) so they sometimes obsess about being able to use the Microsoft Office products. They need to know not only that there are Microsoft Office products for Macs, but that also products created on the Mac can be opened on a PC and vice versa.
iWorks Products Are Cheaper and Can Be Saved in .doc Format
Although an overview doesn't allow for much more than a visual introduction, I think it is important for people to know they have less expensive alternatives that do basically the same thing when they use a Mac.
The Uniformity of Interface
As a Mac user, I take for granted the uniformity of interface of all the applications that I use. Nay, I truly expect that it will just be there. Of course my Mail program will talk to my Address Book and my iCal. Of course, the File Menu is the same in all my apps. Of course, of course, of course.
My we are spoiled, aren't we?
This concept is easily demonstrated while showing off the attributes of Mail, Address Book and iCal, so they will be part of a quick demo as well.
Flash and Dash
OK, There has to be some flash and dash. First of all the whole presentation has to be done with Keynote. PC folks are used to PowerPoint for goodness sake. They need to see a really good presentation application. The final demo needs to be Screen Sharing with an emphasis on the fact that with a Mac, screen sharing is a secure process.
I Hope It Works
I hope this works. I hope it is enough to give a good overview of what it means to use a Mac today. How user friendly they are. How easy they are to use and all you can accomplish. Remember that your suggestions are more than welcome. You can contact me directly at nancy@macobserver.com.
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Observer Comments
Wed Jul 09, 2008 9:08 pm Subject: It is all about the applications...
Highlight iLife products.
These folks haven't seen applications that really work in unison.
Pull out the stops and do a D & D, (down & dirty), slide show in iPhoto using a tune from iTunes.
Tell them about iMovie, iDVD and GarageBand.
Blow them away with a TextEdit demonstration of the ?Speech? command under the edit menu. >> Copy text > Paste it into TextEdit > Edit Menu + Speech. If that doesn?t wow them not much will.
I sell Macs every day and these things matter to a new user and to the Mac curious.
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As a long-term techie PC user who switched to Mac 6 months ago, I would say the following have been the greatest 'pain points' I've had to endure (in some cases had to get used to), in no particular order:
- Keyboard shortcuts (the 'alt' key is referred to as 'option', 4 fingered shortcuts etc. 
. CMD-Tab is wonderful in OS X and should be one of the first shortcuts mentioned! On MacBooks, also how to delete a character (Fn->Backspace) and how to access F1, F2 etc. (by default you have to press fn->F1 to get F1 functionality)
- Use of the Finder for full *cut*/copy/paste operations (in addition I now assume that it's not possible to helpfully cut/copy/paste files in an 'open file' or 'save file' dialog window as you can in Windows Explorer..?)
- Installation / Uninstallation (does pulling an .app file out of the Applications folder *really* uninstall it fully?)
- The CD/DVD drive on MacBooks - how long did it take me to realize that (a) there is no CD/DVD 'drawer' to slide out and (b) there is a keyboard button for eject instead of a button on the CD/DVD drive itself!! This I had to work out before being able to insert the DVD to install OSX on my new empty MacBook Pro...
- Getting the bootup options menu after starting the computer by holding down the <opt> key
- Mention that Windows XP / Vista can be fully installed and run on recent Macs with Bootcamp / Parallels / etc. to provide backwards compatibility where necessary
- OS X Preview can show multiple file types (PDF, PSD, ...)
- On MacBook Pros (at least) there are no indication lights to show disk activity, network activity etc. - that still feels a bit weird
- How to use the '1 button mouse' for context menus, scroll etc. There is still some paranoia about this among Windows users. I LOVE the two-finger scroll method of my MacBook Pro trackpad, and would never go back to a separate mouse, I think!
- OS X Control Panel - how it works (e.g. setting up printer settings), and related: in OS X there is almost never an 'Apply' or 'Save' button for settings. You change a setting and it's saved -- again different from Windows
- How to take screenshots - definitely better than the default Windows method
- For more tech orientated people: how to change Finder to show *all* files and folders; this affects a lot of applications
- For programmers - the wonders of TextMate or TextWrangler, MacPorts
- For everyone - the excellence of Adium for multiple IM accounts (MSN, Yahoo, GTalk, AOL, ...)
No matter how easy and obvious YOU think things like Burning a CD, copying files, making folders are DO NOT underestimate the minds of anyone, especially a current Windows user, to overcomplicate it in their mind and get totally confused by the simplicity of it. I would recommend a slow pace to the initial list of requested demonstrations, followed by a review at the end.
Cover Sharing, Network, Printer, and Account. It has been my experience that those 4 are crucial for those who want to step into the mac gently. Especially if they intend on hanging on to the pc box for a month or more.
Printer networking in a work environment and networking to each other, ichat via bonjour for collaboration and I may need a check for more information javascript:emoticon('
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One other small but useful piece of advice - you can't just plug in a cheap PC headset via the earphone and 'microphone' sockets on a MacBook [Pro] (I don't know about the iMac etc.). The earphone socket is fine, but the 'microphone' socket is actually a line-in socket for audio input, not for classic headset / PC microphones.
Instead (I discovered) MacBooks need to use the USB connector to a headset (supplied with better headsets from LogiTech etc.) - then you'll get the microphone to finally work. In this case, however, you do then have to check that this adapter is selected in the System Preferences -> Sound -> Input / Output settings
One other point - there's a lot of good advice in these comments. Maybe someone could create a easy-to-find 'PC to Mac Migration' website with all this reference material, maybe in a wiki / editable format? It would be *so* useful for hapless PC users such as I was a few months ago.
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