Now that we’re familiar with the Mac OS X desktop, let’s continue our primer for new Mac users with a look at how your Mac handles “basic communication skills”. Most potential “switchers” I talk to are concerned about continuity and compatibility within four basic computer functions: web browsing, email, media (music and video), and MS Office (particularly MS Word). Your new Mac handles these tasks with style and aplomb, and you should be able to move your “stuff” over from your PC and continuing using it without skipping a beat. Let’s look at each function in more detail.

Web browsing. Back when you were struggling with annoying (and sometimes disgusting) pop-up windows in Internet Explorer (IE), Mac users were blithely and safely surfing without viewing any pop-up windows due to the excellent blocking capabilities built into the Mac’s “native” web browser, called Safari. Your IE “Favorites” can be dropped right into Safari, where they’ll become “Bookmarks”. While there is still a version of Internet Explorer for Mac available as a free download from Apple’s web site, you won’t need to spend the time getting it, as its feature set hasn’t been updated in some time.

If you used Firefox on your PC, there’s an excellent version of it available for the Mac as well. If you’re adventurous, there’s another Mozilla-based browser on the Mac called “Camino”, which has fewer features-you-never-use than Firefox and is therefore a bit faster. I recommend Safari for all your browsing needs. It’s a true modern browser, offering the aforementioned pop-up blocking, tabbed browsing, and integrated Google search. And it’s faster than Internet Exploder. On any platform.

Email. If you manage your email through a web browser, you’ll see no changes on your Mac. If you used Outlook or Outlook Express on your PC, you’ll have to do a little finaglin’ (a technical term for data modification) to move your archived email over. Since Outlook Express stores its email in a different format than Apple’s Mail application, you’ll need to convert the email messages. No problem. The converter’s already on your new Mac, in the form of the MS Office for Mac 30-Day Trial. You simply drop the Outlook email files into Entourage, the Outlook-equivalent email application within Mac Office, and they are converted to Entourage format. Then, you open Apple Mail, which happily imports Entourage-formatted email, and you have it. I have used this technique personally several times and everything comes over – even attachments.

Of course, you can also just continue using Entourage if you decide to purchase the Mac Office suite.

What about your Outlook Address Book? Outlook exports email address in the standard .vcf format (sometimes called “v-cards”). These can be dropped right into Apple’s Address Book. Piece of pie. Easy as cake.

Media. JPEG files are JPEG files on any system. Simply gather them up off your PC, move them over to the Mac, and drop them on the iPhoto icon in the Dock. iPhoto will automatically import them into the iPhoto Library structure.

Pretty much the same with your music (MP3 and WMA files). Bring them over from your PC and drop them on the iTunes icon in the Dock. iTunes will automatically import them into the iTunes Library structure, and convert your WMA files into AAC files that will play on an iPod.

What about movies? Microsoft’s “Mactopia” website offers a link to a free plug-in for Apple’s QuickTime movie player, called Flip4Mac, that lets you view Windows Media Video files in QuickTime. They also offer a link to download their older Windows Media Player for Mac, which is less flexible than Flip4Mac and is no longer updated by Microsoft.

Next time: keeping Office compatibility is easier than you think!