Given the iPhone is coming to Australia, and how great MobileMe looks, I’m relying more and more on synchronization tools.

Check it out.

Powerpoint files are easily handled on a Mac:

• iWork 08 will import it, there is a 30 day trial available.
• NeoOffice (the native Mac OS X port of OpenOffice.Org) will open it and run all but the most complex .ppt file. It’s free
• Microsoft offers a free PowerPoint 98 viewer
• Lastly and most easily consider using Google Docs in your browser.

Lot’s of choices should be enough for any Mac convert

I moved full time to a Mac a year ago. Here’s part 1 of my occasional series Your New Mac: a Guide for Windows Users

Things to do with Your New Mac

1. Download the Skype client for mac and for chat use Adium http://www.adiumx.com/ multiprotocol on Windows Live Messenger, GoogleTalk, ICQ, AIM, Jabber, QQ, Gadu-Gadu etc. Both are free.
2. Running Windows: Bootcamp is faster than parallels because bootcamp runs windows on your intel mac hardware, but you’ll have the stability and security issues of windows all over again. Bootcamp ships with Leopard
3. Create another folder in you “home” directory in finder and call it Applications – this is where you should drag and drop application that you install and test out. Keep your normal “Applications” folder for Apple default apps or stuff that must live there. Add/Remove programs is as simple as drag ‘n’ drop to your Applications folder. To remove drag the icon to the trash.
4. Email importing. If you were using POP3 with outlook or outlook express, copy your mail folders to a USB drive then mail.app should be able to import them. I moved via thunderbird and that imported my mail into the windows version of Thunderbird and then I dragged and dropped into mail on the Mac. see Moving Email from PC Outlook to Apple Mail for a brilliant guide
5. .mac is available as a 30 day free trial. A friend swears by it – I’ve never used it.

I’ll add to this series as time goes on. In the meantime comment below and I’ll answer your questions.

Firefox on Mac OS X does not clean up temporary files in the same way as the Windows version. When you right-click a PDF file and view it (instead of save) Firefox downloads it and then runs the browser helper application. Firefox has no way of knowing when you’ve finished with the file, so by design it does not delete it.

This can leave your desktop cluttered with PDF files and other assorted detritus of the web.

The location for saving temporary files from the Open with command is set by your Safari preferences on the General tab. Change Save downloaded files to… and pick something like Documents | Downloads | Temp. Firefox will now download files there with you chose Open with instead of Save. Your default Save location is still set in Firefox preferences.

Thunderbird also displays this behaviour.

The fix is

1. Go the the URL about:config (type it in the address line of Firefox)
2. Right/Control-click anywhere on the page and select New > Boolean from the context menu
3. Type or paste browser.helperApps.deleteTempFileOnExit as the preference name in the dialog box that pops up and select True for the value

Firefox will now automatically delete these Temp files when it exits.

For Thunderbird get to the config editor via Thunderbird > Preferences… > General > Config Editor… and add the same Boolean preference

If you’re keyboard-oriented, go into System Preferences | Keyboard and Mouse | Keyboard Preferences and Turn on full keyboard access. Now you can deal with dialog boxes the way you’re used to, as well as accessing menus and toolbars with the keyboard.

There is even a hint on getting the home and end keys to work more like Windows users expect them to. I’m struggling with their Mac behaviour, but I’ll perservere for now. Check out the Windows Centric tips