Last night I shared the story of how I visited two old friends, helped give birth to half a Gigabyte of RAM, laid an old Classic environment to rest, and then proceeded to type up an article in perhaps the unlikeliest place yet. But somewhere in between it all, I managed to attend a Mac User Group meeting, and that's a story all unto its own. Learned a lot, shared a little, and laughed way too much. After all, that's what it's all about, right?
My contribution to this particular NATMAC meeting was to show off the many new features of iTunes 4.5, and while the schedule said that I was supposed to present first, it ended up not working out quite that way. The upshot of it all was that when another presenter stepped up to do a thoroughly knowledgeable presentation on MacOS X interface efficiency, my PowerBook was already connected to the projector, so he used it for his demonstration, instead of connecting his own machine. This little detail ended up working out perfectly for me, because the modifications he made were all to my Mac. And while such a thing could amount to a nightmare scenario if in the hands of someone who didn't know what they were doing, it can be a fantastic thing if in the hands of someone who knows all the ins and outs of the interface.
My Finder toolbar now sports half a dozen icons that I probably should have had there from day one. It's entirely possible that I'll end up removing some of them, but why not take a shot at filling the toolbar's empty space with some icons that just might end up saving you a lot of time, once you get used to using them? Just because you're not used to something, doesn't mean that it can't turn out to be a great benefit to you. Ease of use shouldn't just be about what you're used to; it should be about what you can get used to. Sometimes it takes a little complication in order to make things simpler.
And for reasons that are just now coming back to me, I actually had Exposé turned off entirely. Why on earth would I do that? It took me all night of wondering just that, until I finally recalled having decided to turn it off when I first got the PowerBook, because during my initial attempts to readjust to a laptop-size keyboard, I kept hitting the F9-F10-F11 keys inadvertently while typing. But with that initial bout of klutziness now (mostly) out of the way, there was no reason not to have Exposé turned back on. Only I'd forgotten to do it. Until someone else discovered it for me, that is.
There's something just plain cool about seeing your baby in the hands of someone who knows what they're doing, whether it's watching desktop items being manipulated via the Terminal command line, or some other such fun. And it doesn't necessarily have to be your machine that's undergoing the interface surgery, in order for it to be effective. There were a number of audience members who were following along, trying some of the changes and enhancements on their own laptops. Others were taking notes with pen and paper, presumably so that they could go home and try it out later.
Of course, not every piece of advice is right for every user. But by watching such things being demonstrated, you have the chance to see what you think might work for you. Since the advice was all actually carried out on my Mac, I'm now coming at it from the other angle; all the changes have already been made, and now it's just a matter of what I decide to keep. There'll be a few changes I'll undo now, a few that I'll try out for awhile before bailing out of, and some that I'll keep around permanently. And that's the name of the game.
No matter how much you might know about the Mac, don't think for one minute that there isn't a bunch to be learned by watching other Mac users in action. And now matter how little you might know about the workings of your Mac, never back away from watching another user have at it. You might not manage to pick up on everything being done, but you'll doubtless pick up enough to make it worth your while.
When it was my turn to present, I launched into a scripted presentation of the new features and enhancements in iTunes 4.5 before cutting loose and taking the whole group into collectively creating an iMix that has got to represent the most eclectic playlist I've ever laid eyes upon. We published it, it's out there, and we'll see what happens. I've written the whole experience up, in detail, over on the iPod Garage, because it's essentially an iTunes thing and not just a Mac thing. It didn't strike me until afterwards that the iMix stunt could have been carried off, just as easily, at a PC User Group meeting, as long as the PC being used for the demonstration just happened to have iTunes installed on it. As a Mac user, that thought was kind of a shock. but in that vein, I'm going to encourage PC user group members who visit the Garage, to try out the whole collaborative iMix at one of their meetings as well. Hey, you never know just what might endear some of them toward Apple products to the point that they actually consider buying one (an iPod) or two (an iPod and a Mac).
That's all for me, for now. As much as I'd love to hit up the Gold Coast Mac User Group meeting tonight in Miami, I simply must draw this particular User Group Tour to a close and get back home. After all, tomorrow's moving day, and the new house awaits. See you from the new digs.
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