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Switching to Mac


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I'm switching from Windows to Mac. I'm going to have to give up CS2 as part of the swap. So, the question becomes: Will PS Elements feel familiar to me, thus making an easier transition from CS2 ? Or should I consider Corel instead?

 

Thanks, folks.

 

Scot Steele

Direktor

Bureau of Space Penguin Affairs

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Rent Photoshop/Lightroom for $10/mo. It's the best bargain of the year, and always kept up to date.

 

I have the full CC package for may desktops (including a worn out PC workstation), but popped the mini-package into my laptop. Yes, you can install up to two copies.

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I would really look at Affinity as I find it very capable.

 

Just a friendly heads up or IMHO - I'm a long time Apple user and I do desperately need to upgrade my Mac Pro and my laptop. I don't want to get into an Internet thread debate as there are so many unknowns for your specific needs. I personally am not upgrading until the next hardware release hopefully in June. Having followed a lot of Mac forums the latest OS seems to be rather beta, the next mid price level updates could have 6 cores. And with Apples new file system, while it might work great for immediate working files on SS drives - time really has not tested it with archival files on spinning hard drives.

 

Of course I have a friend who just got a Macbook and loves it.

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My Architectual Photography:

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I switched from PC to Mac a little over a year ago. The basics of operation are fairly simple to master, The hardest part was identifying and securing software that allowed me to do the same things in a new environment.

 

Adobe products were made to order, with a couple of exceptions. Premiere Pro tended to crash when compiling video into other output streams. Things that worked in Yosemite conflicted with Sierra (which I installed, unknowingly, when transferring files). Take this as a precaution to avoid loading High Sierra until you know everything you need works in it. Adobe is okay, but other things are lagging (like certain Photoshop plugins).

 

Ordinary office software remains a problem. I've used Microsoft Office since it was Microsoft Word only, but on a PC. The least expensive crossover product is Microsoft Office 365, a subscription service with up to 5 installs. File operations under Office 365 are buggy beyond belief. In order to avoid lockups, I copy files to and from the desktop, which usually works. Talking directly to hard drives with Office 365 is unreliable, sometimes requiring a hard power shutdown.

 

Returning to the topic, if you like CS2 and are comfortable with its controls, then the latest version of Photoshop (and/or Lightroom) will be familiar to you as well. PS Elements is an 80% solution with significant differences from Photoshop. You might like it, but once you've used the real thing, it's hard to step back.

 

Yes, you can crash a Mac. Mac also nags you to "upgrade" to High Sierra, but not as badly as Microsoft touts Windows 10 (my main reason for switching). A valuable benefit of Adobe products is the support you get from Adobe and millions of users. If you can't find a solution on the web, there probably isn't a solution. Apple is like that, except factory support is not very good, and there aren't any real user manuals. Support from other users is superb.

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Ordinary office software remains a problem. I've used Microsoft Office since it was Microsoft Word only, but on a PC. The least expensive crossover product is Microsoft Office 365, a subscription service with up to 5 installs. File operations under Office 365 are buggy beyond belief. In order to avoid lockups, I copy files to and from the desktop, which usually works. Talking directly to hard drives with Office 365 is unreliable, sometimes requiring a hard power shutdown.

 

I'm still carrying some "baggage" from my first Mac, and I actually have Office 2008, 2011, and 2016 installed. People look at my computer and wonder why that is, but fundamentally I prefer the UI of 2008 and I find 2016 the least buggy. 2011 is still around because I haven't had a reason to uninstall it.

 

I've often joked that the biggest instability problems I've had have been with Microsoft products :) . I can remember in graduate school trying to copy a table from Excel to Powerpoint(2011 at the time) and sometimes it would get into an endless loop of each program waiting on the other to do something and I'd have to force quit both. I drug my feet on upgrading past 10.9(UI preferences) and that kept me from using 2016 for a long time.

 

I can also remember on one occasion when I was getting ready to do a conference poster presentation. I had a 4:00 deadline to get it to the print shop, and around 2:00 I was emailing back and forth to my advisor(who was already in Indianapolis at the conference) to get it "approved" before I sent it. He got REALLY irritated with me over not getting rid of some text that was poking out from under the title. I couldn't see what he was talking about. Finally, I pulled it up on Powerpoint on one of the lab PCs and saw just exactly what he was talking about-for whatever reason PPT 2011 wasn't rendering the same way. BTW, I sent it to the print shop as a PDF to avoid that :)

 

One other thorn in my side until I started using Apple Mail was Outlook online. Through the course of the day, it would gradually grind my computer to a halt and I'd have to restart the browser. For a couple of more complicated reasons, my office computer(a Mac Pro 1,1) is still running 10.9, and when we switched from regular Exchange to Office 365, that version of Apple Mail would no longer work. Until I can get the time to upgrade it to 10.11(not straightforward, since even though the computer runs it fine anything past 10.7 has to be "hacked" on) I'm back in the web app.

 

Still, though, life can get very easy when you live in something of an all-Mac ecosystem. I'm the "official" Mac guy for our department, and aside from instrument computers(which are usually offline and running some very old versions of Windows-I have one on 3.1) Macs are all I ever really touch. Some of the Mac users are amazed at how easily I can fix problems since I have the know-how and tools to do diagnosis and do repairs from other Macs.

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Many of the graphic interface applications actually started on the Mac (Word, Multiplan/Excel, Photoshop, etc.) so there is a lot of the same DNA in the Mac and "PC" worlds.

 

If the Mac is a Porsche, Windows is a Chevy, but both will do the job. When I retired from an administrative position long ago, I was delighted to be able to work full-time on MacOS. However most of the work was in the same programs on both platforms so I could work on and save files on the Mac and carry them to the office on various media.

 

The cross-over has got a little more sticky lately, but you won't notice a lot of difference.

 

HOWEVER, when looking at actually spending money on applications, be sure you are aaware of the impending "breaking" of legacy software when the Mac goes from High Sierra to its successor

to wit

High Sierra will, in Apple's own words, be the last macOS release that can support 32-bit macOS apps “without compromise.”
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