5 Things To Get Used To When Switching From Windows To Mac

There are a few things you will have to get used to when you switch from Windows to Mac. Once you master these differences, you won’t really miss the old way of doing things in Windows at all.

There Is No ‘Backspace’ Key On A Macbook

Windows users are used to using ‘Backspace’ and ‘Delete’ to delete items backwards or forwards. After you’ve switched to your Macbook, it will take you about 30 seconds to realize how dependent you were on two buttons for the same function. ‘Backspace’ deletes backwards and ‘Delete’ deletes forwards on Windows machines. There is no ‘Backspace’ key on a Macbook. ‘delete’ deletes backwards and not forwards. To forward delete on a Macbook, hold down the ‘fn’ key and ‘delete’ at the same time. There are alternate methods of mapping different keys to create a forward delete option, but the easiest thing to do is re-map your way of thinking. Its actually pretty easy to do since ‘fn’ and ‘delete’ are two keys on opposite points of the keyboard.

Estimated time to comfortably re-learn: Probably 5 days, but maybe never.

Window Control Buttons Are On The Left

Windows machines have window control boxes in the upper right, Macs have the stoplight bar window controls (expand, minimize, close) in the upper left. You can’t truly appreciate how much of a difference in the user interface this is unless you’ve actually experienced the change first hand. It took me a long time to get used to the stoplight window controls being in the upper left hand corner of the application window on a Mac. In Gnome (Linux Windowing System) you can of course switch the window control boxes to either side. There is no way to switch the stoplight window controls from the top left of the window to the top right in the Aqua interface. This is something you are just going to have to get used to. Don’t worry, you will. If you learn to use the Aqua interface properly, you will see that you don’t really have too much of a need for the stoplight bar window controls at all and that’s probably why they are so far out of the way.

Estimated time to comfortably re-learn: 1 week.

Split Window Feature Of Aqua Interface

In the Aqua interface, the application menu bar is seperate from the application window. This takes some getting used to. Having all application menu choices seperate from the application window is a fundamental difference in the interface. On a Mac, the top menu bar displays only the active application menu choices. It is possible to have an active menu application that is not the top window. This can become confusing with many applications open at the same time. On a Mac, clicking an application in the dock does not automatically bring that application window to the forefront because the application can be active with no open window. On a Windows machine, each window has the menu application contained within the application window so no matter what application you are looking at, you will always be looking at the application’s menu bar as well.

Estimated time to comfortably re-learn: 2 weeks.

Closing A Window Does Not Quit An Application

Closing an application window in Windows will quit an application. Click the big ‘X’ in the upper right corner of any window and the application closes along with the window. Not so on a Mac. Clicking the red light in the stoplight bar of any window only closes the active window. To quit the application, you must choose ‘Quit’ from the applications top menu bar or choose ‘⌘’ and ‘Q’. I noted above that if you learn to properly use the Aqua interface, you won’t be closing many windows with the stoplight bar, that’s because the red light in the stoplight bar doesn’t quit applications. You will quickly become accustomed to using ‘⌘’ and ‘Q’ as the fastest way to quit an application on a Mac.

Estimated time to comfortably re-learn: 1 day.

Windows Resize By Dragging From Bottom Corner Only

On a Mac, windows resize by dragging from the bottom right corner only. This is just quirky and I can’t think of any reason why its like this. Its not hard to get used to at all, don’t even worry about it, its just weird.

Estimated time to re-learn comfortably: 5 minutes.