MAC OS X: THE MISSING MANUAL, by David Pogue.
Published by Pogue Press, O' Reilly Books, $24.95.
Reviewed by Francine Schwieder
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MAC OS X: THE MISSING MANUAL, by David Pogue.Published by Pogue Press, O' Reilly Books, $24.95. Reviewed by Francine Schwieder |
One of the first Mac books I bought was MAC & POWER MAC SECRETS by David Pogue and and Joseph Schorr, way back in 1994, when I got my first Mac at Christmas time. David Pogue, a former columnist for Macworld magazine, and currently writing a computer column for the New York TIMES, has been writing about the Mac for a long time, and is very good at it. Indeed, the demise of manuals provided by companies that make computers and/or software has given him a wonderful opportunity for his own cottage industry--the "Missing Manuals" series of books. These books are actually better than 90% of the manuals I ever used, which generally seemed to either be (a) translated by a bad computer program from Japanese, even when written originally in English, or (b) boring, dry, and a torment to read. Pogue's books are written in an easy to read style and contain way more information than those old manuals ever did. MAC OS X: THE MISSING MANUAL is no exception. It is packed with facts, help and instructions on OS X, and covers not just the operating system itself, but also the various free programs that come with X. This is great because there is no manual from Apple telling you anything much, and the online Help is, to put it charitably, inconvenient to use and awfully skimpy in the amount of help it actually provides. If you want to use OS X you are going to need to buy a book.
There are now a number of books out on OS X. Which one you buy will depend on just what you need. Pogue's book has pretty much everything you would want to know about X, but the coverage of OS 9 is rather perfunctory. This is no problem if you are already familiar with OS 9, or won't be using Classic programs, but otherwise you might consider something with more than a single chapter about the old Mac operating system. However, if learning X is your main desire, this book is for you. Incidently, it weighs less than the chief reference book I've seen on X, and is thus far easier to hold and actually read. If you've got a touch of arthritis in your hands, as I do, this is an important point. Besides, those 10 pound reference books leave bruises on my stomach when I try to read them in bed.
Part One of MAC OS X: THE MISSING MANUAL deals with the nitty gritty of using OS X, the Desktop, especially the new Dock, the new Finder windows and their parts, managing your files, what's in the menus, setting preferences, and all that sort of thing. There are lots of tips, some of which I didn't know, and I've been experimenting with OS X for quite some time. For instance, if there is a folder or file whose name is too long to display in the window view you're using, just hold down the option key and single click on the name. A little yellow box appears displaying the full name--up to 256 characters. Here's another little tidbit: it is now possible to operate every menu from every program, including the Finder itself, entirely from the keyboard. This is a pretty major feature, not just a neat little tip, that I hadn't a clue even existed. If you do a lot of typing and hate having to reach for the mouse this bit of knowledge is worth the price of admission all by itself.
Part Two is called "Applications in Mac OS X" but this is a bit of a misnomer. One chapter is about managing programs in X, another is about OS 9, there's one on exchanging data between programs and between Macs and Windows machines, and the final chapter is an introduction to AppleScript, which is pretty bare bones, but it would probably get you started.
Part Three is where the free X applications are described. It includes instructions for running such programs as TextEdit and is sufficient to enable you to actually use the program. You'll discover much more than is evident from just launching and trying it. Did you know that TextEdit can be configured so that it looks like a "real" text editing program, with a ruler showing margins and indents? That you can actually embed an entire program in a TextEdit document? I sure didn't. There is also a full chapter on CDs, DVDs and iTunes.
Part Four is a bit of a hodge podge on various topics. There are excellent chapters on multiple users and networking, a chapter on fonts and printing, with a smidgen of information about graphics, a chapter about sound and QuickTime, which has a good discussion of QuickTime and QuickTime Pro. There are two chapters on the Terminal and all that UNIX stuff, and a final chapter on hacking your Mac to make it suit your tastes. Incidently, there is a free download of the various freeware and shareware programs discussed in the book at the Missing Manuals web site. This is fine if you have a speedy connection, but if not you may miss having the CD come with the book. On the other hand the book costs $5 less this way.
Part Five considers the Mac and the Internet, and includes help for using iDisk and iTools, instruction on the free OS X mail program, getting the most out of Sherlock, using web sharing and ftp, and connecting to your Mac from your laptop when you're traveling.
Part Six is a collection of Appendixes (I always thought the plural was "appendices"), including a VERY useful "Where Did It Go?" section detailing where the things from OS 9 can be found in OS X, if they can be found, and, if not, what to do instead. There's a menu by menu discussion of OS X, how to install and troubleshoot X, and other places to look for help.
Is this the perfect X book? Well, no. There are occasional minor errors (you can too make a copy of a CD using nothing but what is built-in to your new Mac, you don't have to purchase Toast), and there may not be enough about OS 9 for some users. But then there probably is no perfect X book, just as there are no perfect people. I recommend Pogue's book without reservation to anyone who is seriously interested in learning how to use the latest, greatest, "insanely great" Mac operating system.