First, a little background. I flirted with Macs in high-school Graphic Art lessons and then again, very very briefly, in the late 90s when a colleague handed me a PowerBook and said “Here, you could use that if it’s any good, but I don’t know if it even works…” It did work, but to be honest, it really wasn’t any use to me at all. Anyway, even if I had wanted to use the Mac, everyone I knew was working on a Windows PC of some flavor or other, and though the PowerBook had a working copy of Microsoft Office (such as it was in those days) incompatibilities were an ever-present problem.

Here’s an example of a conversation I had, many times, with the one person I knew who used a Mac;

Gloria: Liam, that file you sent me…
Liam: Yes, the Word document.
Gloria: It doesn’t work properly. I’ve lost all the formatting.
Liam: What do you mean, you’ve ‘lost’–
Gloria: It’s a mess.
Liam: Did you open it using Word?
Gloria: Of course I did! Look, will you just paste the text into an email for me, yeah?

I used to think the problem lay not with her computer, but more with her inability to use it. I later saw for myself, however, that she was absolutely right. Word documents created on a Windows PC didn’t fare well in Word on her Mac. Crazy.

The short of it is that I used Windows for everything and I had no compelling reason to want to switch. At home and at work, even on the road with my Windows Mobile devices through the years, I was 100 percent a Microsoft customer. Throughout those years, every experience I had with the Mac was a bad experience. And it was usually, as in the example above, related to the same tedious issue — incompatibility.

By 2005 I’d certainly heard about Mac OS X, though the closest I came to it was reading Paul Thurrott’s reviews and opinions on his SuperSite for Windows. He spoke of a decent OS, but reassured me that I was missing nothing. Then Apple released the iPhone and, despite my aversion to all things Apple, the Geek in me couldn’t resist and I bought one.

The experience on the iPhone was simply amazing, far better than any I’d had on any other device in… well, forever. It made me question my assumptions about the Mac. So in the summer of 2008, I wandered into the Apple Store on London’s Regent Street and spent a half hour pratting-about on different machines. I left with a MacBook. And on that very day, Windows died for me. Leopard was a breath of fresh air.

But let me be clear; I didn’t switch because I felt the Mac was a superior platform. Honestly, I feel that, for the majority of people, it’s no better or worse than Windows at the mechanics of making email, word processing and web surfing possible. I switched because it offered a far superior experience in doing those everyday things. When I think about Windows and where it fails for me, it always comes down to that same issue; experience.

Despite the “XP” in its 2001 OS name, it was only with Windows Vista that Microsoft finally seemed to “get” that user experience matters. Yet, beyond Vista’s eye candy there’s not a lot in the way of a unified, cohesive and organic experience that makes me want to use it as my everyday computing environment. This isn’t blind fanboy-ism talking; I used Vista since its Longhorn days right up until last summer, so I know I gave it a long-enough evaluation!

The user experience in Windows 7, too, has not changed since Vista, save perhaps for the addition of some fiddly new UI gimmicks (Aero Peek anyone?). To me, 7 ‘feels’ just like Vista did. I keep moving around the OS hoping to have an epiphany; “Aha! There’s the cohesive, rewarding experience I was searching for!” — but it just doesn’t happen.

I want to like Windows 7, but after trying various beta builds for the last year and repeatedly doing my best to enjoy it, I found myself feeling relieved whenever I returned to the elegant lines of Mac OS X.

I don’t hate Windows 7. I don’t think it’s shoddy, unattractive or fundamentally flawed. But just as Thurrott would say of Snow Leopard, when it comes to Windows 7 there’s just not much there. Windows 7 is a perfectly capable operating system that looks nice and gets the job done. Ultimately, however, it’s just not very interesting and, for recent switchers to the Mac, it’s too little, too late.

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Windows users have long had the ability to create a new document for any application they have installed from the desktop with a simple right-click. Many switchers probably miss that capability, and I must admit that I never understood the need for it on the Mac — until I actually started using it.

Document Palette, a free application from Cold Pizza Software, gives Windows switchers and long-time Mac OS X users searching for yet another way to save time, the ability to create new documents in the Finder with a quick keyboard shortcut.

Creating a new document from the Document Palette bezel

Document Palette runs in the background and is invoked by hitting Command + Control + Option + N. Doing so brings up a semi-opaque bezel (much like the built-in Application Switcher) containing document icons from which you can choose to create new documents. By default, a plain text, rich text and HTML file are available, but you can add your own document types simply by dragging a document into the Document Palette application list window.

Adding application documents & shortcuts

What makes this a really handy app is that all documents created are copies of the original document you drag in the Document Palette app list. This allows you to essentially create a starting template for any type of document.

You can also assign a keyboard shortcut for each specific type of app document which you can use once you invoke the Document Palette bezel window.

This is one of those features I wish Apple had built into OS X, and I’m sure one many Windows switchers are left scratching their head looking for. Document Palette is free, and requires Mac OS X 10.3 or later — great news for those who haven’t upgraded to Leopard yet!

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Having worked for a few organizations with global footprints and being in a position where I need to switch from Windows to OS X on a regular basis, I can tell you from first-hand experience that it is sometimes quite frustrating when I need to include accented characters in a document and wind up using Windows key sequences out of habit. Many switchers may be in this situation as well, having just entered the world of OS X after being longstanding Windows users.

OS X aficionado, Rainer Brockerhoff, feels this pain too and has released an new OS X Leopard-compatible key layout called USInternational which maps Windows key shortcuts while preserving most of the standard OS X option-key sequences.

Installation is a snap: just copy the “U.S. International” bundle from the install source disk image to /Library/Keyboard Layouts (HINT: Use Command-Shift-G while in the Finder and paste that path in the dialog for quick access to the destination folder). If such a folder does not exist, just create on in /Library. You can also install the layout bundle in your local ~/Library/Keyboard Layouts folder (again, create one if necessary) if you do not have administrative privileges or do not need to install it for “all users” on your system.

Once installed, you’ll need to head over to System Preferences > International > Input Menu and choose the new layout option:

If you have OS X Keyboard Shortcuts enabled, you may notice that this new layout conflicts with some of the default ones or ones you have modified:

If that is the case, you may have to either disable or re-work your shortcuts if the functionality of this new keyboard layout increases your productivity or reduces your frustration enough.

This layout bundle works on OS X 10.5 and should also work on OS X 10.4. Rainer has older versions that may be useful for those folks running OS X 10.1-10.3 as well. He offers them all for free but is open to donations if you do find USInternational useful.

If you’re a switcher or a frequent user of accented characters, what keyboard tricks do you have up your sleeve to maintain your productivity?

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