couple quick mac questions for the neophyte

im a new convert to macs from windows, im just learning all the bells & whistles of this operating system. i need a couple questions answered first. i am having trouble with the trackpad, its painful and awkward. coming from windows where i just had to swipe a single finger on the edge of the trackpad to scroll, the only way to scroll is with 2 fingers on the mac. and its very awkward, as i keep the 2 fingers, and press hard to scroll a window, any solution, am i doing it right? then the other thing is the secondary click, i have it set to so that when i put 2 fingers on the trackpad, its secondary click, but its not effective all the time, i have to keep touching the trackpad with 2 fingers and 1out of 7 times the secondary menu opens. solution please? last question, since i got the mac i updated it to the recent version of 10.5.2, even from the original release the internet is very slow, especially the initial homepage search, i set it as www.google.com, and it takes it a while for it to search, and also surfing the internet in general is slow. any solutions? thanks sorry for long msg

 

Dont know about the trackpad, I think youll just have to get used to it. As for web browsing, you can always try a different browser to see if that does anything. Have you tried connecting from different routers/access points? Maybe your internet is just slow...

 

I'm a PC to Mac convert too. With the trackpad, I find the trick is actually to have a very light touch. And I agree that the secondary (right click) is erratic - that is why I use a mouse too. I don't have any problems with surfing, so not sure what that could be...

 

control + mouse click will act as a secondary click as well, that is if you don't mind using your other hand for a right click. I myself always have one hand on the keyboard anyway.

Light touches are the best. Just let your figures glide on the touch pad. You don't really have to use a lot of force.

 

I find it's best to get rid of tap clicking all together. I keep my thumb on the button, and alternate putting my middle finger down for scrolling or right clicking. I agree with keeping a light touch on the pad, also.

 

if its that bad, you might have a defective trackpad...

i find that anything, from a very light touch to a 2 finger smack, will register as a right click. scrolling also works as expected for me.

 

I disagree. Sometimes if I hit it hard it doesnt register.

 

As for the slow internet connection, have you also tried using other browsers and trying to use Ethernet and seeing if there's any difference? Its hard to just say the internet is slow with 10.5.2 without knowing if its a WiFi issue or what .

As for the trackpad "issues"...well, I think its a personal thing, I think you'll get used to it. I don't mind, I find the trackpad is just perfect for me and I love the two-finger scrolling. And it always recognizes my second finger...

 

I love the trackpad! (when it works). I don't have any problems with mine registering 2 finger taps/scrolls (when non-frozen). It is so convenient to be able to right click on the touchpad itself and to be able to scroll anywhere and any direction. Now I find it very awkward to use the touchpads in windows laptops. Now if I can get it to start working again...

 

I use very light taps on the pad, and the second click won't respond about... oh 1 in 20 times, usually because i did it wrong. Scrolling, I just slide 2 fingers up and down. I find it very sensitive, as it recognizes me just making contact and putting no actual pressure on it... so I'm not sure why you need to put a lot of pressure on it. Maybe your trackpad has some problems.

 

As masterchef341 suggested, it sounds like you may have a defective trackpad. I'm also new to mac and a long time windows user but I had the opposite experience. I found the two-finger scroll and taps to be amazingly useful and practical. Light to heavy touches register the same on mine. Yes, occasionally the two-finger tap doesn't but I would say that happens about 1 in 20 times for me.

 

I think that the 2-finger scrolling is the best for the touchpad. You do not need to use the down button to scroll down.
As for the second click, I usually use a usual mouse, actually I am using a Dell optical mouse right now.
In the case that you have no mouse, I think that you can use ctrl+click on the touchpad to bring out the right menu.
You have a slow internet maybe because you have a really slow internet speed at home. I update the 10.5.2 patch and it take me less than 1 minute to download all the required update. I do this at school and my downloading speeding is 400kbps.
Mac's touchpad is the best of all the touchpad that I ever used.
I am using a macbook pro right now and I am so happy with it.

 

thanks fellows, got the hang of the scrolling, just a gentle caress of the touchpad helped. but like i said secondary click is tricky. but otherwise, internet i used both safari and firefox. both seem slow when loading the homepage, and also when browsing. i dont see a problem with wifi because my other windows laptop works perfectly and with great speed. also one quick question, is there any program that apple provides on leopard for maintenance such as defragmenter or something of that sort which will keep it in optimum performance. i saw something in disc utility but didn't feel like messing with it. Also, one more, sorry, when i close an application thats running by pressing the red x button on the application, the application still stays at the finder menu, then i click somewhere on the desktop the finder menu comes with its default list, does this still mean the program is running even after pressing exit, is there an option for it close permanently when i hit exit, or thats how mac works.

 

OS X auto defrags whenever you move/alter/delete a file, so don't worry to much about that.

For all your other questions:
http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/
http://www.apple.com/mac/

 

Also the trackpad is a really sensitive I sometimes notice that is you touch a tiny tiny part of the pad it will not register as what you first intended. And two fingers scroll is the best stuff ever man no more need too have those weird things on the side and you can have a bigger touchpad.

 

That's how Mac works. Notice that in Windows the application is confined into a window, while in OS X there can be multiple windows for the same app all over the screen and the top menu bar becomes the bar for that application. Closing the window will only close what you were viewing or working on. If the arrow or light in the dock is activated it is still running, because all you did was close the current window, and not the program itself. Quickest way to close a program is Command+Q. You can also go to file -> Quit, or right click it in the dock and go to Quit.

 

thank you everyone, understanding mac a little better now, and enjoying learning this awesome os.