DaveTrenholm.com

This is a bit off-topic, but I just had to write about it. After all, people in youth ministry need computers! I’ve been a mac user for less than a year now. I had thought about switching for a few years, but it was the Mac OS X Tiger that won me over. Such features! Such ease of use! Such reliability! I had to switch! And now that Leopard is out and running happily on my iMac, I am all the more delighted that I made the switch. I’m not sure how any sane person can continue using Windows when they know Leopard is out there. But I digress. This is not meant to be a Windows vs. Mac dissertation. This is meant to tell you about three really cool new features that make the Mac OS X even better. Now I realize that these are not terribly technical, mind-blowing features, but they have certainly made my computing experience a whole lot more enjoyable.

#1. Stacks

If I were to pick only one awesome feature of Leopard, this would be it. Stacks are folders that live on your dock. When you click them, they spring up in either a fan or a grid. Then, when you click one of them, that file opens and the stack jumps back down onto the dock. You can add whatever folders you want. I have my applications folder and my documents folder as stacks. I just click to spring open my application stack and there they all are. I could add one for my pictures, my music, my videos - whatever I want.

#2. Icon Preview

This is another feature I really like. Instead of having the same old icon for every picture - with icon preview the icon becomes a mini version of the picture. You can see exactly what’s in every file without opening it. This isn’t just for pictures this works for documents, keynote presentations, .pdf files - the works! For an even more in-depth look in your files, Leopard has an ipod-style coverflow feature that allows you not only to scroll through the files and see an image of what’s inside, but you can also view multiple pages INSIDE the file - all without opening a thing! Gone are the days of opening 300 poorly named files just to find the one you want - you can see inside each one! It’s truly fantastic.

#3. Time Machine

Probably the most talked about feature of Mac OS X Leopard, the Time Machine allows you to do daily backups of your computer automatically. But that’s not all - no, that’s barely the tips of the iceburg. The real winner is that you can scroll ‘back in time’ to find lost files or accidentally deleted documents and with one click, bring them back into your computer today. Isn’t that a headache saver?

And if that doesn’t convince you to get Leopard right now, go to http://www.apple.com/ca/macosx/features/ to see the other 297 new features of the new Mac OS X Leopard.