How to master Mac in 6 simple steps

1. Forget about Windows: If you've always used Windows, you've gotten used to do things a certain way. Well, here's a good and bad news for you: most of what you've learned for Windows is no use with a Mac. It's a totally different operating system and has a different logic. But if you approach it with an open mind, that can be an opportunity to learn a new and sometimes better way of using a computer.
   
   
   
2.  Look for help: Apple website holds plenty of video tutorials for beginners, very clear and helpful for who approaches MacOsX for the first time. You can also check online communities and forums such as MacRumors , Info-Mac, or Cult of Mac , but don't overlook Google because it can be your best friend in certain situations.
3. Practice, practice, practice! In I.T. you can learn only by doing, so start performing easy operations such as copying files or opening file information and then move to more complicated tasks, step by step. Don't get too mad if you don't get it the first time, but keep going. Any operating system has its learning curve but, after a while, you'll feel confident and you'll start thinking you've always done things that way. For more details, check my previous posts iMac first steps for dummies - guide to MacOsX Mavericks (part 1)   iMac first steps for dummies - guide to MacOsX Mavericks (part 2) and iMac first steps for dummies - guide to MacOsX Mavericks (part 3) .
    
4. Learn keyboard shortcuts: Keyboard shortcuts can improve your productivity and make things faster in OS X, too. Check this page for more information. 
   
5. Learn Terminal commands: though Terminal isn't strictly necessary for everyday management of your Mac, knowing how to use this tool may be very important to troubleshoot more complex situations. Here for more details. 
6. Drag files onto an App icon in the Dock to open them: One nifty trick that not everybody knows on MacOsX can save you a lot of time. Instead of opening a file as you would do normally (double-click the file or open the app first and then choose open from the internal menu of the application), you can simply drag the file onto the icon of the program you want to use to open it. For example, Preview is the default app to open images, but if you want to edit a picture with Photoshop, you can simply drag it on the Photoshop icon and...voilà the miracle is done!      

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