A Windows User's Roadmap to the Apple Macintosh User Interface

by Lee Hudspeth
(This article appears in The Naked PC #6.10, May 27, 2003)

** 03. A Windows User's Roadmap to the Apple Macintosh User
       Interface (by Lee Hudspeth)

I am using a Macintosh, along with various Windows PCs, for my
current on-site consulting assignment. As most of you know, I've
been using, writing about, and training people how to use Windows
user interfaces since Windows version 1.x, but have only had
minimal opportunity or need to use Apple personal computers. As
soon as I realized I would be putting some serious miles under my
belt with a Mac, I started keeping notes on the keyboard, mouse,
and screen behavioral differences between the two worlds, er,
operating systems. In this article I'll share what I've observed
so far, primarily about the keyboard and mouse.

I'm using an iMac running Mac OS 9.0.4.

Mousing around--
The first thing you'll note in the Mac world is that the mouse
has only one button. No problem. If you're a right-click
aficionado like me you'll be happy to learn you can display pop-
up menus on the Mac by holding the Control ("Ctrl") key and then
clicking the mouse.

The Mac Command key--
This key (a.k.a. the Apple key) is one you'll be using quite a
bit, and in this article I'll abbreviate it as "Cmd". It sits on
either side of the space bar. It has an Apple icon in its lower
left corner and in the lower right corner an icon that has one
small circle at each corner of a parallelogram.

The Mac Option key--
This key has the word "option" imprinted on it as well as "alt"
in small letters in the key's upper left corner. This key has a
variety of uses (more on it in a subsequent article). To learn
about it and other keyboard matters see various help topics in
Mac Help: look for the topic "keyboard shortcuts" and "window
menu shortcuts" among others.

Exiting an application--
WINDOWSPC: File, Exit or Alt+F+X or (my favorite) Alt+F4
MACINTOSH: File, Quit or Cmd+Q

Switch between multiple running applications--
WINDOWSPC: Alt+Tab
MACINTOSH: Cmd+Tab

Select an app's menu commands with the mouse--
WINDOWSPC: Alt+(accelerator key) where the accelerator key is the
underlined character, e.g., in Word the "F" in the File menu
command is underlined, and once the File menu is displayed its
various commands like New, Open, and so on each have their own
accelerator key
MACINTOSH: n/a -- I have not found a way to use just the keyboard
to activate an application's menu commands

However, I have discovered that when you see a pop-up menu on the
Mac, at first the accelerator keys are not underlined, but if you
press and hold the down-arrow key for about two seconds then the
accelerators are underlined. This "show me the accelerator keys"
trick also works inside Mac dialog boxes. This does not mean that
there aren't keyboard shortcuts for some commands inside a Mac
application, there are plenty. For example, in the Macintosh
version of Word Alt+Q will close Word, but that's not the same
process of using the Alt key and accelerator keys to manually
control the display, and subsequent selection of, menu command
lists (in the Windows universe the manual steps to see Word's
File menu then select the Exit command would be Alt+F+X).

Shifting--
WINDOWSPC & MACINTOSH: As far as I can tell, this key works the
same in both universes, e.g., Shift+Home. However, note that the
Ctrl and Shift keyboard shortcuts you've become accustomed to
having at your fingertips while inside a dialog box's edit (text)
field in Windows do not apply on a Mac.

Control-keying--
In Windows the Control ("Ctrl") key serves many purposes. It can
combine with another key as a shortcut (like Ctrl+B for bolding
text in Word) or it can provide quick navigational movement like
Ctrl+Home to move to the top of a document (which works fairly
universally across any Windows-based application that edits
textual or even numerical content). I haven't done an exhaustive
comparison, but I've looked at how Excel and Word and Outlook
Express--on a Mac--handle jumping the cursor to the top of a
document (workbook, email message). Remember, in Windows this is
*always* Ctrl+Home.

Excel on a Mac............... Cmd+Home or Ctrl+Home
Outlook Express on a Mac..... Cmd+Home
Word on a Mac................ Cmd+Home

My brain and fingers haven't quite gotten used to this shift (no
pun intended). This inconsistency could be due to the
applications themselves, or the operating system; at this time I
don't know.

Getting out of application freezes--
WINDOWSPC: Ctrl+Alt+Del, locate the "Not responding" application
in the task list, click "End Task"
MACINTOSH: Cmd+Option+Esc

Office shortcuts--
For keyboard help while inside the Mac version of an Office
application, ask the help interface character "keyboard
shortcuts". Here's a neat Word trick (works in both the Mac and
Windows universes): Tools, Macro, Macros, in "Macros in" select
"Word commands", select ListCommands, click Run, select "All Word
commands" then click OK. This produces an exhaustive map of all
Word's keyboard commands.

The Mac's Key Caps applet--
Run Key Caps from the Apple menu; this utility pops up a keyboard
image and, according to the help file, "shows you the characters
produced when you type certain keys and key combinations in the
fonts available on your computer."

I'm sure I'll discover additional shortcuts and tips as time goes
by. Meantime, if you have any to offer I'd like to hear from you.

(c) 2003, Lee Hudspeth
You can reach Lee Hudspeth at:
mailto:LeeHudspeth@TheNakedPC.com

You can reach Lee Hudspeth at:
leehudspeth@TheNakedPC.com

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