Hello all,

Well after waiting for the recent update, I am the proud owner of a new iMac.  I am getting more comfortable with OSX, but have not yet had time to dig in and learn the intracacies.

Here are a few random questions regarding the Mac, and working with Sibelius.  I would love if anyone can give me some feedback on any of this stuff:

1.  One little annoyance is that every now and then, Sibelius will no longer recognize my midi keyboard (M-Audio Radium).  I check my input devices under the preferences menu, and it lists the device, but when I test it, it isn't recognized.  This is easily fixed by quitting out of Sibelius and restarting, but should I really have to do that once every couple of hours?  Except for that, the midi keyboard works just fine.

2.  In Windows, I used Audacity to record my Sibelius stuff as mp3's for my students.   I seem to remember someone saying there is something built into OSX that will do that.  Can I do that through Sibelius?  I know that I could do some research to figure this out fairly quickly, but that tells you how little time I've had lately.  I will check into this, but would also be most grateful if any of you can clue me in :)

3.  Same basic question as number 2, but regarding converting Sibelius chart to pdf files.  I had a free pdf creator to do this in Windows, but I seem to remember that you can do this with a Mac.

4.  Finally, a pretty quirky little annoyance with my Mac.  Every now and then, when I go to move the mouse, the cursor will jump to an edge or corner of the screen.  I don't think I am moving the mouse any differently when this occurs.  Is this a default action that I am triggering, or just one of ";those things";?  Not having worked with such a large (24";) screen, it can be a bit frustrating for this to happen when I am trying to navigate across the sreen, only to have my cursor shoot to shoot to an opposite corner where I have to take a second or to and hunt for it.

Thanks for your help/advice.

The new machine is pretty awesome by the way.

OK...

After a quick search of these forums, I found the tutorial someone posted on Garage Band (Garage Band...duh...should have known that...that shows how new I am to Mac).�� Since I am already used to using Audacity, I am going to use that for now.

Would still appreciate advice on the other issues.

Clay, I can't help you with all of these, but I can with a few.

1. ��Not sure. ��I'm sure someone else around here has an idea.

2. ��I use Wiretap Pro to record to mp3. ��There's a free version that does everything I need it to, which is basically just record the computer audio to mp3 format. ��[url=http://www.ambrosiasw.com/download/download.php?product=WireTap+Pro&OS=MacOSX]Here's a link.[/url]

3.  Printing to pdf is an option built into OSX.  Just go to print, then select PDF (should be in the lower left corner).

4.  I seem to remember my mouse doing this at first.  I can't remember exactly what I did to fix it.  It was either a sensitivity issue (which can be adjusted in System Preferences) or it was the surface I was using my mouse on.  Sorry I can't be of more specific help than that.

Hope that helps.

Keith,
As always...YOU are the man.

Thanks.

Jumping mice seem to happen sometimes if you're mousing on a reflective or overly smooth surface. See if using the mouse over something different helps remedy that.

Check out the Export>Audio feature from the File menu in Sibelius. It'll export your entire score as an aiff file, which you can then convert to MP3 with something free like itunes.

Congrats on the new machine!

Thanks Jim.

Will try your suggestions.

My iMac's mouse was doing this to me a couple of years ago.  I found that I was putting a little too much weight on the R button and I was sometimes hitting the scroll wheel.  It seemed that a lot of people had the same complaint. 

Sweet computer!

I took the mouse off the mousepad I was using, and no more problems there.

Thanks for your help.

There are still little quirks.  I have grown fond of using the two side buttons on the (Apple) mouse to display all open windows.  Every week or so, somehow the system preferences turns this feature off, and I have to go in and set it again. 

Odd...

Clay, are you using hot corners?  I didn't for a long time, and then started after a friend showed me how he set his up and I can't live without it.  I've got one corner set up for Spaces, one corner for all windows, and one corner for hiding all windows (show desktop, Expose, whatever it's called).  I got tired of the clumsy feeling (for me) on the side buttons.

Keith,
That's the kind of thing I need to learn.  Got it set up now.

Thanks!

Alright...

Here is a new one for you. Two times now, my scroll button has quit working when scrolling down a page.  All other directions work.  The first time this ";fixed itself";.  Any suggestions?

I love this machine, but there seem to be a lot of little things like this happening.

You'll find many answers at www.apple.com/support

[quote author=J Mattson link=topic=2496.msg13399#msg13399 date=1212612428]
You'll find many answers at www.apple.com/support
[/quote]

Indeed. Once you're there, click on the ";discussions"; link and there's a pretty vast network of forum topics that cover nearly anything Mac related. I've certainly had good luck finding solutions there numerous times in the past.

I too just bought a Mac Book Pro to write with while I'm on Tour. . . The learning curve is large. Thanks for the pointers folks. . . The spaces thing is sooo awesome. It's like have 4 desktops runing at once without any system issues!

Great pointers, I agree.  A few Google searches have taken care of most of my concerns.  I am also fortunate that we have had a new Apple retail store open in the area in the past few days.  I am going to go to the source whenever possible.