There are three main pieces to each Mac station. These include the monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Each piece helps students and designers create and learn new skills.
Here is where you can sign into your Stevenson account to use the Mac desktops. You will need your SU username and password. Then, once you're logged in, you can use it just like any Mac. It has access to the Adobe Creative Cloud and the printers in the Studio. It will save any work you make onto the Mac. If you need to offload any files onto your laptop, be sure to use an external drive to collect the files. Using the Adobe Cloud makes file retrieval and sharing much harder to do. Some Mac computers will be linked to special kinds of printers, such as the vinyl printer. With these kinds of computers, only one person can use them at a time.
The keyboard found on every Mac is a full QWERTY keyboard with a keypad on the right. It is a Mac keyboard though, so it does have the “command” key for shortcuts. This key is your best friend in the Adobe Suite if you can memorize the shortcuts for some of your most used actions. Mac keyboards also have special functions that work differently than Windows keyboards. One such function is the "Mission Control", which allows you to view everything that is open on the computer. Always make sure the keyboard is plugged in before using it.
The mouse is a basic Apple mouse. However, it does have a rollerball instead of just a wheel. This is nice for creatives because it allows you to scroll side to side. The mouse scrolling will always go in the opposite direction of the way you spin the ball. The downside of this type of mouse is that you cannot right-click with it. Some students will choose to bring in their own mouse to replace the Apple mouse. If you want to use this mouse, make sure it is already plugged in before you use it. Some students will forget to plug the mouse back in after taking it out.