OS X Transition: A Survival Guide for Designers and Design Management

Graphic designers and their managers making the move to Macintosh OS X will find a lot to be thankful for once they arrive, but a lot to figure out at the same time. Things that designers do all the time like choosing among printers, creating PDFs, managing fonts, uploading files, and mounting network servers are all done quite differently in OS X than in earlier versions of the Mac OS.

A couple years ago I created a one-day seminar on this very topic for Dynamic Graphics Training. It's called "OS X Transition: A Survival Guide for Designers and Design Management." Dynamic Graphics Training was bought by Jupiter Media in 2005 and Jupiter discontinued the travelling seminars. Ah well.

Luckily, I'm able to continue using the content and exercises I developed for that seminar (which was quite popular) for corporate training. Most clients prefer the 1/2-day mini seminar version, "OS X for Designers," available for Panther and Tiger.

We delve deeply into the new Finder, along with a special focus on topics vital to design departments like file sharing, printing, font management, working with Classic and more. If you need hands-on training, this is the way to go. Please contact me or fill out a Request for Quote form to discuss details.

OS X Tips from DesignGeek e-zine

Best OS X Resources for Designers from Apple's Web Site

Migrating to Macintosh OS X (PDF, 3.3M)

The subtitle of this 90-page Apple white paper is "A Guide for the Creative Professional." When I first downloaded it and paged through it, I thought, "Okay, my OS X Transition seminar is worthless. Designers can just read this thing instead." It's a FANTASTIC guide to upgrading older Macs, installing OS X, and configuring the system to best suit designers.

 

Fonts and Font Management in OS X (PDF, 2.8M)

This PDF goes into more depth about .dfonts, FontBook, the Character Palette, and font management OS X than any other publication known to woman. It even has special sections on configuring your fonts if you work in a service bureau. Its official title is "Advanced Typography in OS X" but that's only one section of this tome.

 

Mac OS X 10.4: Fonts List

Clean up your font folders or discover missing OS X 10.4 fonts by reviewing this detailed list of fonts. The list includes of all fonts that come with Tiger and its associated packages. But what makes this page more valuable is that the list is divided by package and notes the installation location of the fonts and which fonts cannot be disabled. If you've installed Tiger over a previous version of Mac OS X or if you customized your installion, compare the list against your fonts.

 

Mac OS X 10.4 Third Party Updates List

This huge list contains products that have been updated for Tiger to fix bugs, improve compatibility or add improvements. Don't forget to look for the third party updates for Adobe applications.

 

Printer Support in OS X

Comprehensive list of inkjet and laser printers that OS X Panther supports by default, including links to the printer manufacturer's sites.

 

Scanner Support in OS X

Comprehensive list of USB and Firewire scanners that OS X Panther supports by default, including links to the scanner manufacturer's sites.

 

Apple's site has many more resources of particular interest to designers. A linked PDF of the best of these, arranged by topic, is provided to all clients who take OS X training from Seneca.

Best Ways to Get Help from Other OS X Users

Mac OS X for Users Listserv

Out of all the OS X-centric mailing lists themacintoshguy.com runs, "X4U" (OS X for Users) is the best for support on a wide range of OS X topics, from beginner to advanced. A decent but not overwhelming amount of traffic means you'll probably get an answer to any sort of question you might ask within minutes.

 

MacNN Forums

These forums run by the Mac News Network site are THE gathering place for OS X gurus and normal users alike. Topics range from network troubleshooting to fine-tuning the Dock to useful Terminal scripts and more. They even have a dedicated, busy forum section for "Art and Design" topics (design software) though most of the OS X-specific talk are in the other sections.

Apple Discussions: Mac OS X Tiger | Panther

Apple calls their forums "discussions" just to be different (think different! name different!) I suppose. They are almost as heavily-trafficked as the MacNN forums and are a good place to get replies containing links to the Apple Tech Docs that officially explain the problem you're asking about. And yes, helpful users post original answers too. The link above leads to Panther-specific threads, but the entry page for Apple Discussions lists many more topics you might be interested in, such as DVD StudioPro, Apple Displays, GarageBand, etc

Best Online/Video Training for Mac OS X

Virtual Training Company's Mac OS X Tiger Course

VTC's Tiger course contains 146 QuickTime video lessons covering all aspects of OS X Tiger (10.4x). You can take them online, or purchase the CD; either way you get a full nine hours total training time. Check out the free lessons at the link above!

 

Lynda.com's Learning OS X Tiger Essential Training

Lynda.com also offers CDs/online versions of Quicktime training movies, including one for Mac OS X Tiger. At 12 hours of training for only $50 (about half the price of VTC's course), this might be the better deal. Like VTC, Lynda.com also offers free tryouts of their lessons, check them out!

 

Free Online Tutorial for Unix/Terminal

If you're using OS X but never open up its command line utility, Terminal, nor do you quite understand what "OS X is based on UNIX" really means, hie thee to this site. You're missing 80% of the coolness that OS X is all about! This UNIX-for-OS X users tutorial, done as a series of web pages with easy-to-follow exercises, is one of the best I've seen. Nicely designed and completely understandable to mere mortals.

 

Other Web Pages with Good Stuff about OS X

Mac OS X Hints

Almost 7,000 hints posted so far and going strong! I love this site because it's sort of a slashdot.com for Mac users ... virtually all the content (the hints) are posted by the Mac using community, and most of those are extensively commented upon by other Mac geeks.

 

Randy Singer's OS X Panther Solutions

A wonderful page with tested troubleshooting solutions for a huge variety of symptoms. Click on the symptom at the top of the page to scroll to the solution(s). Randy Singer is a Mac-using attorney who assembles and maintains this page (and one on Jaguar) out of the goodness of his heart, I guess. I love this symptom: "17. General Wonky Performance After Upgrade Install." Wonky — that must be legal jargon.

 

Mac OS X FAQ and Inside Mac Radio

A potpourri of news, tips and press releases all related to Mac OS X; but my favorite section is executive editor Scott Shepard's baby, Inside Mac Radio (where the link leads to). This is a live, 2-hour weekly radio talk show all about Macs, plus Scott goes to all the Mac and design expos and creates radio "specials" from there.
     So if you couldn't make the MacWorld, Photoshop, or Mac Design Conferences (among others); just double-click on Scott's "live from the Show floor" radio broadcasts on this page and it's almost as good. He interviewed me at the Mac Design Conference in 2004; scroll down to "Mac Design Dream Team" on the page; or just click here. (I'm the second presenter heard on the broadcast, near the beginning.) I'm just a minor player in his pantheon of Mac celebrity interviews. Be sure to listen to some others!

 

Be sure to visit the OS X Fonts and the Open Type pages in this section for more OS X help!