Another Mac vs. PC (always fun) May23 '04

I love the fact that I can work on both a Mac and a PC. I love both platforms for their distict features, and subtle differences.

What a PC can do, a Mac can’t. What a Mac can do, a PC can’t. It’s my availability to work with both on a consistent basis that allows me to notice these subtle differences. Sometimes these differences are annoying – and sometimes, they’re a "breath of fresh air."

A Windows benefit

One difference I noticed lately is that on Windows, you can right click inside any folder or on the desktop, and select New >, which opens up another menu, and lets you create a folder, shortcut, or document – which is what I love. Creating a document "on the fly" like this has numerous benefits, and saves a ton of steps.

It basically allows you to create a file, but not add content to that file until later. Often times, we want the file to exist, but we don’t want to add anything to it just yet.

On a Mac, there is no way to do this. Sure, you can easily create new folders, or directories, but there is no way to create just a document, such as a simple text document.

We take this time–saving feature for granted. Think about all the steps that it would take (and sometimes does on a Mac) to create a simple text document:

1. Find the location of the application shortcut that you wish to create the new document in.
2. Launch that application.
3. Once the application is launched, go to File > New (or whatever it may be), and create the document.
4. Go to File > Save, and save the document.
5. Select the folder or directory where you want the file to be saved.
6. Close the application.

Now, I don’t have to stress how many unwieldy tasks that took to create just a simple document. I think you get the point. (You can also do the same thing for creating shortcuts, which is awesome)

A Mac benefit

Since I mentioned a drawback to the Mac, it’s only fair to do the same for a PC.

Since I am more of a Mac fan, I feel I could mention a lot of things here, but I will stick to just one, for now.

Sticking with the whole "folder/directory/document" theme, I want to mention the Finder in Mac OS 10.3.

The Finder on the Mac is like Windows Explorer (Start button + E) on a PC. However, I strongly believe the Mac method is light years ahead of it’s Windows counterpart.

One thing that’s particularly appealing on a Mac is the "column view" folder structure. This was introduced in Mac OS 10.1.

This method of folder display is incredibly addictive. It allows you to span through folders, back and forth, without ever leaving the main Finder window. Plus you can see the contents in each folder, and also the contents of the previous folders (depending on how wide you make the columns).

And for even quicker file access, using the column view, you can simply use the arrow keys on the keyboard to jump back and forth, along with hitting the first letter of the folder or file that you want to go to, within each folder.

This is what I call the "hip hop" method of exploring your files. You just hop back and forth.

An even playing field

For the record, both PC’s and Macs are great, in their own ways. They both have advantages and disadvantages. Althought I do prefer the Mac environment for it’s intuitive nature, and "human touch" – a PC works just as good to get the job done.

The bottom line is, a computer is a tool. Use whatever tool feels the most comfortable to you, and gets the job done efficiently and without pain.

Categories: Computer Platforms

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