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27 October 2006

Last week, we introduced the concept of being a literate Mac user. There are lots of things a literate Mac user needs to know without necessarily being a Unix expert. Let's start with the notion of structure.

Suppose you signed up for a Calculus class. On the first day, the professor announces that there will be no textbook, no notes, no lectures, no homework and no lab. He invites you to open your MacBook and Google the word Calculus and see what comes up. Do a little reading here and a little reading there. That's it.

Wouldn't you feel cheated? When learning a skill, be it Calculus or skiing, we expect to learn in a structured way. One starts with the basics in an organized way and builds on the knowledge and skills.

And yet, when new users buy a Macintosh, they're confronted with the vague notion that everything will be easier, it'll all just work, and there's nothing much to learn. After all, where's the big thick Apple manual in that pretty box? Not there? It must all be pretty simple, right?

Well, not quite.

I remember a humorous tale about a fictional astronomy class -- intended to make a point. The students were all excited about learning about black holes, warped space, dark matter and alien life. But the professor starts with the basics -- two weeks of the history of time keeping amongst the Mayan culture. Yawn. Too deep.

So the first thing to look at in a complex OS with 40 million lines of code is, "Where do I start?" Obviously the Mach kernel is not it. Too deep. Instead, let's think instead about what we want to typically do with a Macintosh, then list the basic skills required to conduct those tasks.

I can think of no better place to start than David Pogue's book Mac OS X The Missing manual. In this book, David has thought out, in a (guess what?) structured way, what typical Macintosh users need to know. He opens with the Desktop and files, moves on to applications, then looks at the technologies of Mac OS X. That book's table of contents is the structure you need. In places where you may want to go into more detail, David puts the details in a side bar so that you can be selective in how deep you go. The publisher, O'Reilly Press, puts their stamp of approval on this book by publishing it -- they're no slouches when it comes to publishing readable technical books.

That's what I was talking about last week when I mentioned building a library. If you run out, buy a Mac at Christmas, bring it home, set it up and then start complaining about the fact that you can't find the Windows "Start" button, you're just a doofus. Really.

Digital Help

Once you've worked your way through The Missing Manual, you'll have a lot of new skills. Maybe even more important, you'll have a feel for what you don't know. Having a good feel for what you don't know is actually an excellent way to calibrate your knowledge and get more comfortable with it. With David's book, you're on a path. You haven't arrived.

The next step is to start to utilize resources that Apple has provided when you have additional questions. These are:

• The Apple Help Viewer
• The Apple Support pages at their Website

The Help Viewer, in the Mac OS X menu bar, is often overlooked even though it's in plain sight. It can be used to pose a question in a natural language mode like "How do I rename a file?" or to just enter a keyword or two. Like "Screen Shot." Mac Help will usually give you step by step directions on how to perform a certain task.

Apple's support page is at www.apple.com. Look for the Support tab at the top. It does a fairly good job of helping you identify the product you bought, then guide you to a Knowledge Base article that discusses various support issues that you've asked about.

Of course, if you haven't been through David's book on how to cut and paste text from an application like Safari, you'll have the cart before the horse because you won't be able to capture information and take notes.

A Personal Log

You wouldn't attend a Calculus lecture without taking notes, right? A Macintosh is a superb instrument for collecting and managing information, so the next step is to use it. One way I do this is with a text file called The Captain's Log. This is a file that has special status on my Mac. It isn't tucked away in the Documents folder where I can't find it. It resides at the root level of my home directory where I can keep an eye on it, and I place an alias to it in the Dock. Now, you could use Apple's TextEdit application, but if you want to start becoming a more literate Mac user, you may want to consider purchasing BBEdit from Bare Bones software. This is the quintessential text editor for Macs. If you want to get a feel for what it's like, download its free little brother, Text Wrangler and try it out. A capable text editor is a good thing to have.

Instead of scribbling on stickies, write everything interesting you've learned in the Captain's Log. (By the way, it doesn't just have to be just about Mac OS X material. Think of it as a diary.) Date each entry and create a little header with key words -- so you can search on them later. An entry might look like this.

10/27/06
Screen Shot, JPEG, PDF, PNG
Missing manual - page XXX
CMD-SHFT-4

In time, you may want to step up to more powerful software tools for managing information. Just remember, a simple text file that can be accessed in a single click of the Dock has merits. Sometimes, simple is better.

So where are we? We've started with a structure. We've laid on more structure by investing in a well thought-out book. We've learned how to look for digital help. What's next?

Community

Everyone who specializes in a certain knowledge area needs to have a network. A network, in this case, is a community of people who are invested in each other and are willing to help each other. For example, you wouldn't write a note to Steve Jobs at Apple asking him how to create an Alias to a file. But you might ask your brother who already has a Mac. Family has a strong investment in each other. Similarly, technical professionals are also invested in each other via on-line communities where members get to know each other by virtue of related interests. For example, if you are a physician, there may well be a formal collection of Mac-using physicians who gather around the waterng hole of a list server.

Being able to pose a question to another human being is a great way to learn, but it has to be done in such a way that the receiver of the question doesn't feel imposed upon. You get there by being willing to honor their professional questions.

In time, you'll expand your library of books to cover topics of interest to you, say, movie editing or Web page building. You'll have a Captain's Log full of personal notes, and you'll know how to get help from both digital resources and human beings. If you do this, you'll find yourself able to calmly solve problems, and you won't be tempted to march down to the Apple store in the Mall and yell at them. By the way, the Genius Bar at the local Apple store is another great way to ask a few lingering questions. Just remember to make an appointment.

Next time, we'll talk in a little more detail about some specific skills and techniques that lead to being a more literate Mac user.

This is Warp Core column #81. The Warp Core archives are here:

Year 2000

Year 1999

* Your humble author also writes a column for TMO.

John Martellaro is a senior scientist and author. A former U.S. Air Force officer, he has worked for NASA, White Sands Missile Range, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Apple Computer. During his five years at Apple, he worked as a Senior Marketing Manager for science and technology, Federal Account Executive, and High Performance Computing Manager. His interests include alpine skiing, SciFi, astronomy, and Perl. John lives in Colorado. He can be contacted via his Website or the Applelinks Contact link.