# PC to Mac conversion - A couple of questions



## raott (Nov 23, 2005)

I bought a Macbook Pro a couple of weeks ago. It is my first Mac. I still have a PC desktop (XP) and an HP laptop (Windows 7). 

I know several of you own Macs. I have a couple of questions and thought a thread was worthwhile to see if anyone can answer mine (or anyone else who may have questions).

What video editor options should I consider. Imovie is OK at best. It won't export to flash (not interested in why I should move away from flash, let's just say I want to share small videos easily with folks who may not have Apple). I downloaded a 30 day trial of Adobe Premiere Elements. It was a combo pack with the 30 day trial of Photoshop Elements. My use will be importing movies from my HD camera, doing basic editing, with a timeline and the ability to make DVDs for family movies and also to export small files to share. Anyone have other suggestions. I know a new version of Final Cut is coming out but I have never used that package before.

Which brings me to my next question. What photo editor options should I consider. Iphoto, from my experience so far, is terrible. From the convoluted import to the lack of basic editing options. I'm not looking for something extravagent, but need something more full featured than Iphoto. As I said above, I downloaded Photoshop Elements. I also downloaded GIMP, however that does not seem to be very user friendly. Any suggestions on a solid, user friendly photo editor, either free or at a reasonable price.

I'm open to any other suggestions a former PC user might need to know.

Thanks.


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## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

All the guys I know that are serious use Final Cut if that helps...I guess it just depends on how serious you are.


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## tunce (Jan 19, 2006)

Aperture is great for serious photographers, if you don't want to do full blown photoshop. I do use iPhoto and have found it to be ok for quick editing and storage, but it does have it's limits.

You can go to apples website and download a 30 trial of Aperture 3 if you would like to try it before you buy it. It is $79.99 which is a great deal as it used to be $300 dollars before apple released it on the App Store.

iMovie does just fine for me, so not to helpful there. I just export to quicktime and all is fine.


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## Greg Alsobrook (Apr 2, 2007)

I use Final Cut Pro. It is very intensive and probably overkill for the standard user. The new version will be very reasonably priced though, so it may be worth looking into. I'm not sure if it exports flash movies though. Never tried that. I think the new version is going to have the same look and feel as the new/current iMovie. Not sure if you prefer that or not. If you like iMovie, you may just want to look into a program that can covert the movie into flash for you. Something like MPEG Streamclip should be able to handle that with no problems.

For basic photo editing, I use PSE 8. I agree that iPhoto can be a bit clunky. It does some things well, but other things not well at all. And I don't think it's really meant to be much of an editing program as much as it is an organizing and sharing program. Other very popular photo editing programs for Mac include Adobe Lightroom and Aperture... both of which have free trials so you can compare them to PSE and see which one you like best.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

I, too, find iMovie all right for my needs. I use iPhoto but only for my iPhone or iPad photos.

I love Lightroom, and used to be very active in the LR forums. It's great for those who are primarily photographers. It's also cross platform which I always recommend other things being equal. 

I use Photoshop, too, and have the full suite in CS3, though oddly enough I helped on the beta for PS CS 4. I will get CS 5, but probably just PS alone—unless I delay long enough to go for CS6!

As to container of a movie, I am pretty sure there is an Export that'll play everywhere that isn't Flash based, but don't have the designation.


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## raott (Nov 23, 2005)

Great. Thanks for the ideas. I am going to try out Premiere and see if I like it. 

Imovie probably suits everything I would do (other than Flash) but I'll look at Final Cut when it comes out. 

I'm not set on using Flash, I just want to make sure I am able to export to something that can be easily reduced to a small size and easily playable for those I would send it to (who likely do not have quicktime). Flash seems to fit that bill.


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## Herdfan (Mar 18, 2006)

I use Elements and Premiere, but really only because they are what I know and am familiar with. Actually, they are what the wife is familiar with.


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## AttiTech (Feb 21, 2011)

raott said:


> I bought a Macbook Pro a couple of weeks ago. It is my first Mac. I still have a PC desktop (XP) and an HP laptop (Windows 7).
> 
> I know several of you own Macs. I have a couple of questions and thought a thread was worthwhile to see if anyone can answer mine (or anyone else who may have questions).
> 
> ...


I'd toss my hat in for Final Cut Pro. I did the editing for the local Fox affiliate here and that's what they had us use. They gave us the option of using Premier and since I use Premier at home I thought I'd give Final Cut a try. Hands down I would trade Premier for Final Cut every time. It's easy to use from the start and is very user friendly once you get into more.


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## ncxcstud (Apr 22, 2007)

I used Final Cut Pro 4 while in college pretty extensively. Awesome program.

I used Adobe Premiere a few times during then and it was trash compared to FCP4. However, for a small seminary fun project, I used the new Premiere demo as well. Worked really well. Though the constant shifting timeline really got bothersome after awhile.

I didn't do anything super fancy, but this is what I did...hated the banner across the screen though...

BTW - this was all on a PC too....


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## Chris Blount (Jun 22, 2001)

I'm really looking forward to the new version of Final Cut Pro. I like the iMovie interface and since its getting moved into Final Cut, I will have the best of both worlds.


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## BudShark (Aug 11, 2003)

Aperature is phenomenal for the price. We started in iPhoto, but have since migrated to Aperature. And with App store licensing, if (when) you do get more Macs, you can share libraries. Our iMac with external drive is "home" - and then we export libraries to the MacBook Pro to work on, and merge back in. Works great.

For video editing - iMovie has been fine for us to crop, make some quick edits, stabilize, and put some titles in. Nothing fancy, but it works. With that said, I haven't played with FCP yet - but based on the new version preview and the jump we saw from iPhoto to Aperature - I'll probably be buying FCP as soon as its available.

The last piece I'll recommend, but its not easy necessarily depending on your personal computer skills - look into and learn AppleScript. Your ability to manipulate photo, video, Metadata, names, and organization of photos on import from your different devices is in a whole other class if you use AppleScript. It can really tie things together and demonstrates the true underlining power of a Mac... which is often the most downplayed aspect of them.


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## raott (Nov 23, 2005)

OK, another question I ran into last night.

I have an email with a word doc as an attachment. I want to save the word doc directly to my dropbox rather than to "downloads".

From what I gather, the way to save a file to a specific folder is to right click and select "download linked file as", yet when I do that, it changes the name of the file to "mail", requiring me to re-type in the file name.

Surely there is an easier way, ie Windows "right-click" and "save target as"


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

raott said:


> From what I gather, the way to save a file to a specific folder is to right click and select "download linked file as", yet when I do that, it changes the name of the file to "mail", requiring me to re-type in the file name.


It sounds like the e-mail program thinks you want to save the e-mail as opposed to the attachment.

What e-mail program are you using?

Have you tried dragging the document icon to where you want the document saved?


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## bobnielsen (Jun 29, 2006)

With Apple Mail, when you click on the 'save' button it will save the attachment on your Desktop. However, if you click on "File" and "Save Attachments...", a Finder popup will allow you to select the folder where you want to save the attachment. If the attachment is actually displayed with the message, you can right-click, click on "Save Attachments..." and choose the location.


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## raott (Nov 23, 2005)

harsh said:


> It sounds like the e-mail program thinks you want to save the e-mail as opposed to the attachment.
> 
> What e-mail program are you using?
> 
> Have you tried dragging the document icon to where you want the document saved?


It is gmail.

I confirmed it is not saving the email, it is saving the attachment, however it is trying to give it the file name of "mail". It saves as mail.doc unless I manually change the file name.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

raott said:


> It is gmail.
> 
> I confirmed it is not saving the email, it is saving the attachment, however it is trying to give it the file name of "mail". It saves as mail.doc unless I manually change the file name.


One can access Gmail through a browser or an e-mail client. At least one can using Thunderbird, which I use in place of Apple Mail. 
You're using the browser then?


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## raott (Nov 23, 2005)

Laxguy said:


> One can access Gmail through a browser or an e-mail client. At least one can using Thunderbird, which I use in place of Apple Mail.
> You're using the browser then?


Should have been more clear. I am using gmail via the browser.

The gmail browser gives an option to "view" or to "download" the attached doc files. Left clicking the "download" option downloads the file (with the correct file name) to the downloads file folder, as expected.

Right clicking the download option and and selecting "download linked file as" (so that I can select a different folder to download to, ie dropbox) changes the file name to "mail", even though it is still a doc file. This forces me to manually type the correct file name in in place of "mail".

I did a quick google search and saw others complaining of the same issue with no real resolution.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

I guess I'd try several different browswers, then, esp. Chrome. It's possible that there's a setting that G-mail provides. 
I use G-mail but haven't messed with attachments yet. Will try to try it out later.


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## bobnielsen (Jun 29, 2006)

Laxguy said:


> One can access Gmail through a browser or an e-mail client. At least one can using Thunderbird, which I use in place of Apple Mail.
> You're using the browser then?


Apple Mail can also access gmail.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

bobnielsen said:


> Apple Mail can also access gmail.


Ah, good. This suggests that raott might want to set up an account in Mail for his G-mail e-mails that have attachments. At least it's an option.


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## ronton3 (Mar 15, 2006)

Some of us like a little browser called Camino, it is free, and a media player --VLC. Welcome to Mac land. ron


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## Greg Alsobrook (Apr 2, 2007)

I just downloaded Sparrow tonight from the Mac App store. Seems pretty slick so far. You may want to check it out. Looks like it offers full G-Mail support too.


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