Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition
A Reference Book for OS X-Tiger…
There’s an old Apple commercial that contrasts a Windows PC and the large stack of manuals that come with it to a Macintosh and its single, thin user manual. The commercial exemplifies the ease-of-use of a Mac as compared to a PC, but in reality, is that single, thin user manual all you need for a Mac? David Pogue, author of Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition, certainly thinks not, and many Mac users tend to agree with him.
The retail box of OS X-Tiger contains one of those thin manuals from Apple. Maybe you glanced at it as you pulled the Install DVD out of the box, but you probably didn’t come back to it for OS X help very often! Apple does provide Mac users the OS X Help menu (which is quite well-implemented in Tiger) and the Apple.com website is a comprehensive and useful source of information, but these electronic sources simply cannot provide that wonderful experience of curling up late at night to read a hefty tome (about 850 pages) like Mac OS X: The Missing Manual.
The intended audience of this book of the Missing Manual series is advanced beginners or intermediate Mac users. I would agree that these groups are well served by this book. Yet even the brand new beginner will find informative side bar “Up to Speed” articles with introductory information whereas the more advanced user will find “Power User’s Clinic” boxes filled with technical tips, tricks and shortcuts intended for the more experienced Macintosh aficionado.
Having read the book cover-to-cover (no small feat, mind you), I found it to be sprinkled with delightfully witty comments that serve as a brief break from the serious and informative text that covers every aspect of OS X-Tiger. Truly all aspects of OS X are covered, from installation options to new Tiger features like Spotlight to System Preferences and the use of all of the “free” programs included in OS X. Although you won’t become an iLife expert by reading this book’s chapters on iTunes, iPhoto, etc., a fine overview of these programs is presented and you’ll be able to use the iLife applications productively with the basics that you learn from Mac OS X: The Missing Manual.
I’ve been using OS X since it first came out and I feel pretty comfortable using it. Given my long experience with OS X, I didn’t expect to learn much about it from this book. Yet I was repeatedly surprised at finding tips and tricks previously unknown to me that this book noted about most every aspect of OS X-Tiger. My one regret is that I didn’t take notes or mark up the book as I was reading all the tips that were new to me.
This experience leads me to make a recommendation to you about Mac OS X: The Missing Manual. To get the most of it, read it a bit at a time with one of those yellow fluorescent hi-lighter markers in hand and don’t be afraid to mark up important information. Then grab the book and sit in front of your Mac and review the information that you’ve highlighted via hands-on experience at the keyboard. If you do so, I guarantee you’ll be a Mac expert when you finish this book.
Mac OS X: The Missing Manual has appendices about OS X installation choices, troubleshooting, “Where’d It Go?” (relative to previous versions of OS X, OS 9 and Windows), sources for obtaining more info and a comprehensive “Master Mac OS X Secret Keystroke List.” The index is extensive and inclusive of all of the important topics covered in the book.
In contrast to many “manual” books of this sort, Mac OS X: The Missing Manual does not provide a CD-ROM full of programs. Instead, the reader is encouraged to visit the MissingManuals.com website to view a chapter-by-chapter list of links of the shareware and freeware mentioned in the book. The “missing CD” reduces the cost of the book and provides a method of keeping the software listings up-to-date, so I don’t consider the lack of a CD-ROM to be a drawback, especially now that most users have high-speed access to the Internet.
Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition is 100 pages longer than the previous Panther edition and the author claims that every page that has changed since the last edition. So even if you own a previous edition of this book, you should consider purchasing this new Tiger Edition. Apple keeps adding new features to OS X with every new version… are you using them to your benefit? You may never know what you are missing until you read Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition! I highly recommend it to each and every one of you...
Title: Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition
Author: David Pogue
Publisher: Pogue Press/O’Reilly Media Inc.
ISBN: 0-596-00941-0
List price: $29.95
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