Mac n00b / Switcher Tip: Keyboard Shortcuts

One of the hardest things to overcome when switching from PC to the Mac, or when adjusting to any new operating system, is learning all of the keyboard shortcuts that are *cough* at your fingertips.  If you are used to using Windows and Office for Windows, then on the Mac side of things a good deal of the keyboard shortcuts will be the same with the simple substitution of the Command / Apple key for the Control /
Ctrl key that you have always used in Windows, and the Option key for the Alt key.  For example, to Select All in Windows, you hit Ctrl + A, while in OS X, you instead hit Command + A.

A lot of people hate having to recondition their hands to these new key combinations. Fortunately, there are solutions for this problem. Navigate to Apple Menu—>System Preferences—>Keyboard and Mouse and click on the Keyboard Shortcuts tab.  Here, you will find a list of some of the default keyboard shortcuts, and you can even add new ones to fit your own tastes, although they will not always work in all programs. If you screw up, all you have to do is hit the "Restore Defaults" key to put everything back to normal.

If you really want to remap your Mac's keys so that they behave more like the Windows machine you grew up kicking and endlessly rebooting, then you can grab a keyboard remapping program like
uControl to help hack away at all the keyboard shortcuts. Also,
if you simply would like to work in another default keyboard layout, say Dvorak or German, simply go to System Preferences—>International and click on the Input Menu tab, where you can activate the input menu through which you can switch your keyboard layout.