help new apple owner.

[big chief77]

help please have recently bought i book and don't have a clue how to download software. all attempts end in me being told that quick time player cannot open downloads. cheers.

[khehr]

Sounds like all the downloads are opening with the wrong default application. IE: odf files opening in QuickTime instead of preview or Acrobat. This can be solved in a couple ways.
1) Right-click (or ctrl-click) on the file and choose the appropriate application
2) Click on the file once, get info using command+i and change the default application there.

Hope this helps.

[Hughvane]

Originally Posted by big chief77

help please have recently bought i book and don't have a clue how to download software. all attempts end in me being told that quick time player cannot open downloads. cheers.

Step-by-step please:
1. Are you experienced with Mac computers?
2. What OS are you using?
3. What browser are you using?
4. Do you know how to use Preferences to tell your chosen browser how to download and where to put downloads?
5. What type of files are you trying to download?
6. Have you tried using the Mac Help function? [in Finder, top menu bar, Help]

Most software downloads for MacOS X come as .dmg files, some come as .sit, some as .zip. All those file types should open with a 2x-click. However, if you can successfully download a program file and see it on your desktop as a .dmg, .sit or .zip, then R-click the item and choose Open With.

There (hopefully) you will see DiskImageMounter.app (part of OS X). That should be the default (usual) prog to open .dmg downloads.

For the other two file types, StuffIt Expander usually opens (unstuffs) them.

If you download a .pdf file, you can still do the R-click and choose Open With, and I recommend using Preview for that - it's quicker than Adobe Acrobat.

[ex2bot]

Big Chief 77:

Can you give us the name of a file you'd like to download and use? Then we should be able to give you a "step-by-step".

Doug