ok...i finally got a Mac and was wondering the answer to some basic questions I couldn't find an answer for.

I like to have the dock displayed all the time,but then the windows don't go full screen properly. How can I have the dock be relegated to the background and the window go to the foreground (full screen.)

If you have the dock showing, it will always be over top of normal windows. One of the reasons I keep the dock hidden. And on the left side of the screen because vertical space is at more of a premium.

There are probably third-party programs (aka hacks) to manipulate the dock in ways not possible through Apple's own preference pane or command-line prfs. Maybe someone else can chime in with a suggestion.

In the meantime you can search MacUpdate and/or Versiontracker for "dock" or similar to see what programs turn up.

Actually, MacOS's notion of maximizing is one of the handful of things I really dislike about OSX.

If you're talking about the + icon in the title bar, then ya, its behavior is odd. And inconsistent enough to be flagged as buggy, especially with Mac OS 10.5 from what I've noticed. I believe it is supposed to be content-sensitive, but its behavior with some windows is completely puzzling. For instance, I can get it to toggle between 3 or 4 "size" states on some windows instead of the two you'd expect.

I believe you can get third-party programs that will allow you to do a real maximize (expansion of the window to occupy the full screen, excluding the menu bar).

Does anyone have any good recommendations for a third party program that will accomplish this? I have found some that will maximize a window, but not one that will enable me to have my dock up all the time, but in the background.

Also, does anyone know how to make iPhoto name'events' with the same name i have for the folders that the photos are in? all of the folders will say Untitled with the date....

Ok...new dumb question...The mail app in OS X...is there any way to get it act more like the iPhone's mail? (where it would replicate the folders on my yahoo account and also sync them.) I think the Yahoo mail on the iphone is like an imap, but the one on the mac is a pop mail. Is there a way to make the mac think my yahoo email account is an IMAP one instead of a pop mail account?

This seems to indicate they do not provide IMAP access. From what I remember hearing, Yahoo mail over IMAP for the iPhone was a special deal, and not something Yahoo has extended to any mail client.

Not that it helps with your direct problem, but Google GMail is the only free service I am aware of with IMAP access. It might be worth considering using, even if it is just to have all your yahoo mail forwarded there.

Here's another one for the list:

How can I convert an 'admin' account to a regular user account with usage restrictions? My wife (a rather long personal story) needs to have her computer usage limited on her macbook. Her account is the only user set-up on the computer now. Can I just add another user (me) give myself admin rights and then take them away from her account? Or must this be done in another fashion? Thanks!

Yes, you should be able to just open the Users preference pane and uncheck the single option that says "Allow user to administer this computer"

Thanks!

Has anyone found a good way (and cheap) to sync up safari bookmarks and firefox bookmarks? with Windows, I just use a plugin for Firefox that would let me use my favorites from Internet Expolorer and that worked great (especially since Firefox would occasionally crash and sometimes my bookmarks would be lost.) I haven't found a plug-in like that yet and found some paid software that didn't work very well. However, I figured there has to be a better solution out there that I am not finding.

Foxmarks is a bookmarks sync for Firefox that has a beta for Safari. I've been using Foxmarks for ages and love it, but I have no experience with the Safari Beta.