Behind the scenes here at HeroMachine Central, I am writing this post on my "new to me" Macintosh Pro, just received a couple of hours ago. So far it's going well -- nothing has exploded and, even better, I have not yet turned into the dorky "Mac Guy" from the commercials.
So far the transition has been incredibly easy. I don't know how much of that is due to the supposed ease of use superiority of the Macintosh, and how much to my use of GMail instead of a local client. I used to hate migrating over all of my email, having it online is infinitely more convenient.
I have only hit two snafus in the first couple of hours. First, I couldn't figure out how to open the DVD drive and (don't laugh) I had to look it up in the teeny tiny manual booklet. Stamp "Loser" on my forehead and be done with it already!
Second, Photoshop was crashing every time I tried to scan, a big deal since 90% of what I blog about depends on scanning. Luckily a quick stop by Brother's web site got me a new driver version and the problem was solved.
I can tell already it's the little things that are going to trip me up. For instance, I can't figure out how to make the END and HOME keys work, something I do all the time while writing. (Funnily enough, I think I have figured out a workaround while typing this -- Command or Option and the arrow keys seem to be getting the job done.)
I keep hitting the "F13" key when reaching for "Backspace", or "delete" (with a lower-case d no less!) as my new overlords have deemed it. I also just don't have any "instinct" yet for how to find things quickly or easily. I don't have a sense of where I ought to look for stuff, or where it goes when I am done with it.
What's cool, though, is that the new stuff is coming fairly quickly, as with the arrow keys mentioned above. It does seem more organic and intuitive than my XP machine was. Speedwise there's just no comparison, but since my old system's four years out of date I suppose that's not really fair. We'll see what happens when (if) I figure out how to use Boot Camp and boot into the XP partition.
The guy who sold the system to me really did me right, too, by installing the entire Adobe Creative Suite 3. This matters to you, the intrepid HeroMachine blog reader who's stuck with this interminable post this far, because with Flash CS3 I can finally test out the Save as JPEG feature I've been wanting HeroMachine to have since I first started on it!
PLUS, earlier today I was testing out a "Load Image From Your Hard Drive" feature. I think I will be able to offer a HeroMachine version that will allow you to load any image from your hard drive into the program, with a mask or hole allowing just the photo's face to show through. That means you can choose and color all the items on a character and stick anyone's face on it you like. How cool is that?! You'll have to manually move it around and resize it so it fits in the pre-made face hole, but it still ought to rock.
Anyway, enough rambling. So far the Mac gets an A+. I should know more after I get all the data loaded onto it and start working with Flash CS3 in earnest tomorrow, but it's looking good. I wouldn't be surprised if I'm soon kicking myself for having waited till I was 39 to finally convert!
