PC vs MAC....thoughts & experiences appreciated

[Anonymous]

Hi people.

I am currently a PC user user..newbie status.

Is there any major difference working in MAC as apposed to PC. Which do you find works better for you and why?

Does the software run any better on one type than the other or is it much of a muchness?

Apart from the fact that MAC's are really expensive....is there any disadvantage in switching to it?

Your thoughts would be very much appreciated

[Anonymous]

I'm really interested to know how you 'log' on to a folder so that 'reads' and 'writes' are all conducted within that folder. Is there an option somewhere in System Preferences?

Also you say that path information is only an 'option' away. Is there some way to do this that I'm not seeing?

Your advice would be really appreciated.

[Dwight]

The path data is found by Command-clicking on the title of a document.

See attached.

[Dwight]

Clicking on any of those icons opens the folder in a finder window.

[Dwight]

As for rebounding to a specific folder, drag the folder into the sidebar of the finder dialog when you start a project. Then you click on the folder to select it. You can manage many separate projects this way.

I also use a utility called "Default Folder" that completes the remembering of folders to perfection. Until their next release, that is.

[Anonymous]

Okay - got to more careful about how I ask the question!

On a PC, when you open a file, you are 'logged' into the folder which contains the file. So if you do a 'save as' (to make a new copy of your file), your new file automatically goes into that folder.

On a MAC, when you do a 'save as', the operating system remembers the folder that you last 'saved as' to, and defaults to that.

In our office we have a folder for for each project, and then a system of sub-folders, sub-sub folders etc. for correspondence, cad drawings, layout files etc. These are the same for each project. So when you're in 'Finder' it would be really useful if 'Finder' displayed the path at the top of the window so you could see whether you're about to save to 'Current Project/CAD/LAYOUTS' (which you want) or 'Yesterday's Project/CAD/LAYOUTS' (which you don't want). Finder is only telling you you're in 'LAYOUTS' which is too little information. Is there a way of getting finder to display the complete path of the folder it's going to save to?

Clearly, if you take your time, and you're really careful, you can pan back along the folders window and check the root folder (i.e. the project number), before you save - but if you're in a hurry (which we mostly are), you keep saving files in the 'wrong' folder.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, Dwight.

I use 'Favourites' in the sidebar for shortcuts to the projects I'm working on - but this creates further problems, because you can't back up the tree once you've jumped into it. However, it sounds like your 'Default Folder' utility is the answer. Can you reveal where you got it?

[Dwight]

That would be harder to do: multiple targets for multiple files - "Default folder" will do this, but never automatically for numerous targets.

Whatever the situation, there's only one "automatic" path....

[Dwight]

Default folder:

http://www.stclairsoft.com/DefaultFolder/

[Dwight]

But that is why you'd click on the folder in the save dialog - to climb up that directory. see attached.

[Dwight]

So while it isn't totally automatic as you claim for windoz, at least everything is close by.

In default folder you can assign shortcuts to designated folders, too. I recently did 3000 repetitive catalog illustrations using three different folders. Saving and opening files were the most time consuming tasks - shortcuts saved the day.