Girona Mac

...this Mac aficionado

A dozen years ago I got my first computer, an Apple Power Macintosh G3 with a 266 mhz processor, 128 mb of RAM, and a 4 Gb hard drive. It was pretty good for it's day and having used tools all my life at every job I had, I decided I would learn everything I could about the Mac. After all, most of my friends far and wide used Macs and wondered why I didn't have one. Now they call me with their questions.

What I've learned

One of the first things I learned is that computers are essentially thrown into the lives of many users with nary a thought as to what they will be able to do with them or how they will go about learning what they need to know to use them in ways they need or may want. Most people I know have a self-developed skill set for their computer and are perfectly happy with it. If you would like to go beyond yours and make your time on the computer easier and simpler while avoiding common mistakes, I can show you how. There are even simple tricks to avoid things due to repetitive motion.

Would you like to learn more about the applications you have or about ones that may be helpful to you? I have long been fascinated by all the myriad apps developed by wizard entrepreneurs, not forgetting those created by Apple such as the iLife or iWork suites. Most are not difficult to use. It usually comes down to crossing the initial hurdle with a bit of guidance and then off you go.

• The Finder, the gateway to your Mac.
• The browser, be it Safari, Firefox, Opera, Camino, etc. Your key to the world wide web and how to make it work for you.
• Word processing with Mail, TextEdit, Pages, Bean, etc. Even Word.
• Photo editing & processing with iPhoto, optimizing, colorizing, and manipulation and more with Photoshop.
• Desktop publishing with InDesign or Pages.
• Web design with Dreamweaver or Coda. Web publishing with tools such as Wordpress or Blogger.

Without the frustration, computers can be fun.