Guidance needed. Santa came early and he brought me a MacBook Pro (13")

[Paper Roses]

I am lost! I've used my old Dell PC for years. Still have not mastered my iPhone and now I have this MacBook Pro and I'm scared to death.

If you use this machine, can you suggest a good on-line tutorial and a good book that I can use to navigate this machine?

My granddaughter(all of 20 years old) set it up for me on Wednesday. We had one hour together before she had to leave and I can't remember 95% of what she told me.

I tried to find a beginner tutorial that made sense to me but I guess I am better with a book in hand.
We had a bad storm yesterday and if the roads were good, I'd be on my way to Barnes & Noble for some book for 78 year old grandmothers who can hardly remember how to turn the machine on.
I need any suggestions you could give me for on-line help and the name of a good book with pictures(!) that I can follow.

My plan was to update my HP Laptop but I guess I have to meet this challenge. Have never used a Mac.
Help if you can.
Thanks,
PR

[mr_lebowski]

1. DId you inherit this then, or did someone go out and buy it for you?

First question

[Paper Roses]

7. New. My family are all Mac users and thought Grammy should be too. n/t

[mr_lebowski]

8. It's one of those 'well, none of us can help you with your PC issues cause we're all Mac people

and therefore we'll get you a Mac' type of shots?

Personally, having just started (at 53) on a Mac for work, and being someone VERY tech savvy (started programming in 1979 and I've built like 50 PC's in my life), I'm here to tell ya ... if I was 70+ years old and reasonably proficient with a PC ... I wouldn't go to the trouble of switching to a Mac for just that reason alone ... better help from my family I mean.

There's so much help for PC stuff available online.

But I guess if it's a gift and you have no choice (can't say take this back and get me a new Windows laptop lol), my first question is ... do you have a backup drive with Time Machine set up? Cause if you do that, and backups are regularly running, then you can just have at it and not worry about breaking anything because Time Machine makes it very easy to just 'go back to 5 days ago' or whenever.

Just the fact that the windows min/max/close are on the opposite side, and the fact that the CTL button (actually it's CMD on mac) is in a different place is enough to make me f***ing hate using my Mac.

[secondwind]

2. I'm a 74 yr old with a MacBook Pro and rely completely on my daughter to help me, lol.

[SheltieLover]

3. Sorry, no Apple knowledge

My brain doesn't work that way.

Was gifted an Ipod some years ago as a gift. After 20)+ houras on the phone with support, I gave it away. Counter intuitive.

Good luck! (Can you exchange it for a PC?)

[nykym]

4. If brand new there should be a tutorial there.

If not you can try seeing if you can get one through Apple on their website.
May take a bit of doing to find it.

Here's a link to the support page.
https://support.apple.com/mac

[CentralMass]

5. Here is link to a begineers guide video.

[Paper Roses]

9. Thanks for the tip. I found this one you provided but:

I could not follow this gentleman. I'm not sure if it was his accent or just my ignorance.
I really feel on the spot. My kids thought this was a great idea. I'm getting severe headaches even thinking about it.
I use my PC and had used my old (win 7)Laptop without trouble. I can't even make any connection as to functions, Icons, whatever on the Mac.
I will contact Apple Support when I play around with this machine. Could not face it today.

I need a book. I need visual that I can study. Boy, with everything going on now, I don't need this challenge.
The kids tell me to just play with it. OK, the first time I did, I messed up and had to call my granddaughter for help. Great way to start!.

How can I not be thankful and at the same time, wish this never happened?

[OAITW r.2.0]

6. Me Too!

He brought me a truck battery and placed it under my non-existent tree. Must have been a heck of a pull for the reindeer moving the sled with that battery in it....

[Elwood P Dowd]

10. I would love it if someone gave me a new MacBook Pro.

It's a fantastic device. I'm still trucking along with my old 2011 iMac for the desktop and a little ASUS Chromebook with Chrome OS for my laptop. Your MacBook Pro is more advanced and better than both of those. I switched from Windows to Apple in the late 1990s and never looked back. Never, ever had a repair issue with any Apple desktop, laptop, phone, or iPad I've owned.

Call up Apple Support. They can get you started. 1-800-275-2273

Find out which operating system is on your MacBook Pro and buy a Mac OS for dummies book from someplace like Amazon. The newest OS is Big Sur, but many new ones I've seen still have the Catalina OS. You can get a Mac OS for Dummies book on both of those and even older Mac operating systems.

https://www.amazon.com/macOS-Catalina-Dummies-Computer-tech/dp/1119607884/ref=pd_sbs_3?pd_rd_w=ybqrp&pf_rd_p=ed1e2146-ecfe-435e-b3b5-d79fa072fd58&pf_rd_r=5CNMDE33HA8C6W4JZM5H&pd_rd_r=9425efb6-da85-43fe-bea7-e219441f7b90&pd_rd_wg=5r3DH&pd_rd_i=1119607884&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/macOS-Big-Sur-Dummies-LeVitus/dp/1119730104/ref=sr_1_8?crid=3S2KRUCVTDIVZ&dchild=1&keywords=mac+os+for+dummies+2020&qid=1608335293&sprefix=Mac+OS+for+%2Caps%2C162&sr=8-8