2 questions re switch from PC to Mac

[Bonnie RV]

Looks like I'm ordering an iMac today since I saw no announcement about a new iMac, and I see no reason to wait indefinitely. I'm switching from a pc to the mac.

I have two questions (for starters) regarding the switch.

First, I use Outlook Express for e-mail. Is there a way to transfer to mail my address book and my stored e-mails? According to the Apple store, they can't or won't move those files over.

Second, I currently use Adobe Photoshop Elements 6. My photos are tagged with collections and keywords. I will be importing the photos into iPhoto. Now, the collection re-labeling isn't that big a deal. I can import the photos folder by folder, I think, and then label the albums in iPhoto as I do it. But the keywords is another thing. These have people's names, and it would be very time-consuming to redo the keywords for thousands of photos. I know there's a way to save some of this data in PSE 6, but would iPhoto then recognize and import the keywords?

Thanks.

 

[Michel Corbin]

Not sure about your keyword question, but regarding your Outlook contacts, should be able to export them on your PC in some csv type format and you can then import that into the Apple Address Book. You could also set Outlook to sync contacts to Gmail if you have an account (or I think you can do the same with Yahoo Mail and Hotmail) and then sync Gmail to Apple Mail.

I am surprised the Apple Store said they could not do this, they make a big deal of advertising their switch program. You might try asking again.

 

[Bonnie RV]

I could try calling again, but it seemed that the problem was related to my using Outlook Express, instead of straight Outlook.

 

[Conchita]

But the overwhelming majority of windows users use OE. That doesn't seem like it can be right. None of my OE using students have reported having this problem, FWIW, but then I don't know whether they really tried in the store or not, but this should still be relevant:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1534

If you can transfer AOL mail, you for sure can transfer OE.

 

[Conchita]

For your keywords question, use the Write Tags and Properties to File(s) command in the Organizer before exporting the photos to the mac. That will (hopefully) turn your tags into metadata keywords that can be read by many mac apps, but it doesn't work for raw and doesn't always work for other files, so do a test run first.

 

[kd4ttc]

The iMac is beautiful. Macs also will last you 2 to 3 times as long as a PC because with upgrades of the OS you won't need to always upgrade the hardware.

Now, on another vein, I've been very pleased with the MacMini. You can get it with a big drive and you can pick your screen. If you want to upgrade your computer you can to it without losing the screen you've gotten used to, or conversely, when you tire of your small monitor and want to upgrade you can without having to migrate your files.

Very attractive pricing.

Steve

 

[Bonnie RV]

Would the keywords have to be established in iphoto first before they would be recognized in the imported photos? I guess I can try a handful of photos first.

 

[Conchita]

iphoto, aperture, etc. all pick up metadata keywords when they find them.

 

[WT21]

Call Adobe -- you can get your Windows PSE license switched to a Mac PSE license, and move your library that way (I'm assuming you mean you are managing photos in Bridge?). Then, you can move to iPhoto at your leisure. (also, I'm sure you know this -- but PSE and iPhoto are not equivalent. iPhoto has better photo management features, but PSE has layers and better editing features (though iPhoto's basic editing is pretty good). I have both, and do adjustments and edits in iPhoto 80-90% of the time, with PSE for the other 10%).

One word on iPhoto -- it's a very good basic program, and the new iPhoto 09 looks great. BUT most PC/Mac switchers can get frustrated w/iPhoto sometimes. I recommend you make an effort to learn iPhoto, and spend some time on good iPhoto chat sites to learn it's quirks and ins/outs. It's not well documented, but a good program.

Good luck with the switch. I switched about 18 months ago, and haven't regretted it a bit.

 

[James C. Murray]

--

There is a method in David Pogue's book "Swiching to the Mac". (Search on Pogue Press, O'Reilly. I have the Tiger edition, not sure if he has updated it for Leopard but Google should tell you.)

It involves using Netscape as a translator. It takes a bit of time but it worked for me and it is free. It will move your address book and your E-Mail messages also.

I found the book very useful as it is set up on the basis that you can look for what you were familiar with in Windows and it explains the OS X equivalent or way of doing things, where there is one.

E.G. when it comes to the registry his comment is "There is no registry, let the celebration begin".

 

[cheshirekat]

For your email, try Emailchemy.

http://www.weirdkid.com/products/emailchemy/

 

[Bonnie RV]

Thanks everyone, for your suggestions. I ordered the imac last night.

 

[Paul Grupp]

. .. you're going to slap your forehead for taking so long to make the switch. I make my living with my iMac 24", and couldn't be happier with it. I can't believe how much I prefer Apple, and Apple software in particular, to the XP and especially Vista versions of things.

Enjoy!
Paul
http://upstatephotographers.com

 

[WT21]

Looks like I'm ordering an iMac today since I saw no announcement
about a new iMac, and I see no reason to wait indefinitely. I'm
switching from a pc to the mac.

I have two questions (for starters) regarding the switch.

First, I use Outlook Express for e-mail. Is there a way to transfer
to mail my address book and my stored e-mails? According to the
Apple store, they can't or won't move those files over.

Second, I currently use Adobe Photoshop Elements 6. My photos are
tagged with collections and keywords. I will be importing the photos
into iPhoto. Now, the collection re-labeling isn't that big a deal.
I can import the photos folder by folder, I think, and then label the
albums in iPhoto as I do it. But the keywords is another thing.
These have people's names, and it would be very time-consuming to
redo the keywords for thousands of photos. I know there's a way to
save some of this data in PSE 6, but would iPhoto then recognize and
import the keywords?

Thanks.

One other thing -- they just released iPhoto 09 that claims to do face recognition to auto-gather pictures of specific people. The proof will be in the pudding of course, but if it even comes close to working, this will be huge boon for home/family uses.

 

[Bonnie RV]

I just thought of another question: If PSE6 saves metadata, including tags, will it save it to the original jpg files or to some separate adobe file? Because my plan was to copy the jpg files over to the mac. Will these files have the metadata saved to them if I execute the save metadata to file command in PSE6?

 

[Conchita]

It's not metadata to file, it's Write Tags and Properties to file. Yes, it does what it says, except in the instance of Raw files, where it would go to the Xmp file if it worked, but it doesn't so that's moot.

 

[Bonnie RV]

Wouldn't the file date of the particular jpg in question then change to the date on which the tags were written to file? I think I tried writing tags to file for a couple photos at some point but saw no file date changes.

 

[Conchita]

Are you talking about the creation date or the last modified date?

 

[Bonnie RV]

I'm talking about the modified date. I just tried again. I selected a photo in PSE6 and saved keyword tags and properties to photo. But when I looked at the file afterward, it still had the previous date under "date modified," not today's date.

 

[noirdesir]

In PS proper (CS3), on the Mac, the file modification date changes when I add any metadata. Maybe Windows OS (you are still on Windows?) is not picking up the changes properly. Did you try a refresh in the Explorer?