You took my advice and got a Mac. Now what? This note is intended to be used with the help of an experienced Mac user, as a kind of guide to discussion topics.

Apple basic "Find Out How" tutorials are at  http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/ and at  Mac 101.

Lifehacker published a useful web page on how to  Set Up and Get to Know Your New Mac, with lots of links.

If you are coming from a PC, Apple has a helpful page about "new to Mac" at
 http://store.apple.com/us/browse/campaigns/new_to_mac.

Read The Fine Manual that came with your computer.

Essential concepts:

• Desktop. What you see on the screen when the computer starts. It shows icons for files, folders, and volumes and has a background picture.
• Dock. The strip holding application icons along the bottom of the desktop.
• Application. A program you can run to do something for you.
• File. Stores information.
• Folder. Holds files and folders. Sometimes called a "directory."
• Finder. An application that lets you see what is in folders and files, and search for things on your hard drive.
• Menu Bar. The strip of words and icons across the top of the screen.
• Volume. Your hard drive is a storage volume. You could attach more volumes to your computer, or partition a disk into more than one.

Basic concepts (mouse, cursor, folders, etc) are well explained at  Mac Essentials.

How to shut down

Use "Shut down" from the apple menu. (Don't just power the computer off; you can damage files.) Putting the computer to sleep is not the same as shutting down. See "Sleep and Shutdown".

How to force a shutdown if the computer won't shut down normally: hold power key 10 seconds.

Running Applications

Applications are programs that run on your computer and do something for you. Many applications can be running at the same time. You tell what applications are running by looking at the Dock: the running applications have a glowing dot below their icons. One application is "in front." It has its name next to the apple in the menu bar, and its menus are shown to the right of that. You can switch a different application to the front by clicking on its icon in the Dock. When you do this, the windows for that application come to the front. (Big difference from the PC: an application can be running but have no windows open.)

Your Mac comes with a lot of applications. Apple has  nice web pages about them.

The Finder

The Finder is an application that is always running. It gives you a view of the files that are stored on your computer. The Finder also lets you search for files. Type a filename in the search box in the upper right and you will see a list of files matching it.

To dismount an external drive without damaging it, click the eject button (little house shape) next to the drive's name in the Finder's left sidebar.

Menu Bar

• The apple menu
• name of frontmost program, and its About, Preferences, and Quit
• frontmost program's menus: File, Edit, ... Help
• keyboard shortcuts e.g. command-Q, option-command-H
• switching between running applications with command-Tab
• other menubar widgets (icons): TM, Bluetooth, keychain, WiFi, iChat, sound, keyboard, battery, time, spotlight
  
  

Application Switching

Make another app become frontmost.

• Click on icon in the dock.
• Switch between running applications with command-Tab
• Hide current application with command-H

Running an Application

Click on the icon for Safari in the Dock. It will open a window if your connection to the Internet is working.

Mail

• In Safari, go to  http://www.gmail.com and click Sign up for Gmail. Go through the signup. Then set up a bookmark for your mail, in your Safari Bookmarks bar.
• Or, if you use Yahoo mail, set up a bookmark for your mail.
• Or, launch Mail and configure it to fetch your mail from your ISP (you'll need the mail details).