Mac transition: a 'reailty' check

Its been over a month since my transition to Mac, and I had set myself a review touchpoint at around this time to reflect on the migration, and had perhaps hoped to feel good about the smooth transition and cool productivity hacks learnt. Unfortunately, its not been a happy ending, atleast not just yet! I continue to struggle with the new machine and the transition is far from complete. 

Here is an update on what has worked and where I need urgent attention. Firstly the good:

• Hardware: I'm thoroughly enjoying all aspects of the hardware performance, whether its the gorgeous display that makes almost anything look great, or the blazing-fast performance with the i7 processor, 16 GB RAM and SSD HD. The machine is truly mobile, with a battery life of 4 to 5 hours (perhaps it might last the supposed 8 hours, with energy saver on)
• Apps compatibility: The machine has worked fine with most apps I use and I haven't had any platform specific issues, apart from an instance where it was unable to write back to my External HD that was setup on Windows.
• Settling down with Safari: There is some new-found familiarity with Safari, and its a good thing since 90% of my time is spent on the browser. Features like pinned tabs, easier navigation and some shortcuts at browser & gmail level have made life easier.

.. and the niggles:

• Mac Office: Powerpoint, Word & Excel would rank amongst my top used applications of all-time & I used to have a reasonably efficient way of getting stuff done. I'm at a loss of words on the extent to which I'm struggling on this now. Perhaps its got to do with the version (MS Office for Mac 2011 v14.4) which feels like a poorly built office with badly designed shortcuts, and I really hope an upgrade will sort this out.
• Managing files: Yes, I did manage to find my Hard Disk eventually! But I still suck at accessing and moving files through the 'Finder'.
• Mac native features & apps: I'm yet to figure out efficient ways of working with in-built apps like iTunes, iBooks, Pages, nor have I explored any new useful Appstore application. There is scope to improve on usage of cool features like the multi-touch gestures, or even try out basic customisations & system preferences. 
• Shortcuts & efficient ways of working: Inspite of the early ground covered, I've lagged in learning shortcuts across applications, for instance I still don't know how to 'lock' or 'put to sleep' with keystrokes. 

I'm working on these, and hope to publish a 'happy-ending' to this migration story sometime soon.

Pains of switching over to a Macbook

At work, we had decided to migrate from Windows machines to Macbooks. The excitement and supposed 'coolness' of using a Mac notwithstanding, there was anxiety considering that the Apple ecosystem is a platform I've never been exposed to.

The first day I started setting up the machine, the pain in the transition was evident at multiple levels. I spent a good 30 minutes 'searching' for the Hard Disk and eventually found it by googling for help. My day On Windows machines used to start on the desktop and all activity was driven through 'My-Computer' icon or the Win-E shortcut. Don't believe me on how this query stumps first-time users? Check this Google snapshot on what's searched for most:

Having 'found' the hard disk, the next obstacle was in moving files. For a new user it was frustrating that there is no straightforward way to 'cut-paste'. Googling led me to Apple's discussion forum with several threads on the matter and many experts providing 'easy' ways to copy-paste and cut-paste files! Here is another screen grab showing that this is the top search query for Mac users.

The biggest handicap for Windows users on Mac is the absence of keys like Win, Ctrl, Alt, or the universal SOS combination Ctrl+Alt+Del ! Earlier, when I used to switch between Windows machines of Dell or Lenovo, a minor irritant used to be the changes in location of the Pg-up/Pg-down and other secondary keys. However, a radical change in keystrokes was something that went right against my muscle memory of many years. I'm still getting used to Mac's all powerful 'Cmd' key and the secondary 'ctrl' & 'option' keys, but I guess it will take a while for my fingers to learn that.

These irritants notwithstanding, there were some pleasant surprises that are to-good-to-be-true on Windows machines, for instance the lightning fast 'Spotlight search'. But more about these in a follow-on post. For now, I'm looking at immersing myself in the experience and getting used to the Mac shortcuts and ways of working, for the intent is not to survive but to leverage a lot of the platform's productivity hacks. 

I strongly believe that the first 2 to 3 weeks is a golden period of any transition since it keeps your mind open to explore and learn at an exponential pace. Post this, the learning curve drops steeply and one just gets used to the ways of working learnt by then, even if its inefficient or inconvenient. Surprisingly, I've found this to be true, not just for a new platform, but for new devices or even a new physical location.