Customer Reviews

Mac OS X Pocket Reference: A User's Guide to Mac OS X

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

O'Reilly's new "Mac OS X Pocket Reference" hits a home run right out of the stadium!

Yes, Missing Manuals are good. As are Little Books, Bibles and Inside books. However few of those tomes fit your pocket, purse or brief case as beautifully as this little gem does! It's an essential quick-reference on OS X that all new users will use at least several times on the very first day it arrives.

Not only does it contain all the really essential commands and keys, it includes basic UNIX command info, printer, modem configurations, and a host of other important help one may need while at the desk or on the road. Add a user, remove a user, tune the dock, correct OS preferences, log in, log out, change passwords, and do just about anything the unfriendly new OS requires you to do.

I actually like it better than the frustrating online guide help. It is well organized, has a good table of contents and index, and is designed with a simple, easy to understand format.

But it's not just about help. Just thumbing through it you'll pick up tips that you hadn't thought of before. (Like building and using the powerful locate database!) It's a great little book, fits nicely in the brief case for travel and gives you the support you need when you need it.

Yes, I bought David Pogue's "Missing OS X Manual" for the kids and at home. I bought Robin William's wonderful "Little OS X Book" to send off to college with my son. But this one . . . it's in MY brief case all the time.

Although the Designer's Bookshelf concentrates on books in the visual communications fields, the Max OS X Pocket Reference caught all our Mac User's fancy and won itself a place in the Design-Bookshelf.com Editor's Choice Circle for July 2002.

This book is invaluable - it's small, it's concise, it has what you want to know, and it's small enough to pack in your pocket. The main reason it deserves the five stars in full is because it delivers on all the Mac OS X content with depth that fits a pocket-book, plus some UNIX code. In essence, what Chuck Toporek has done is to create an all-purpose Mac OS X book small enough to carry with you. Mucho content in a mini size - that's why I recommend this book.

This reasonably edited pocket guide was designed for two groups of 'Mac' learners: those who have limited time to invest on a more detailed textbook and those who simply need a handy mini reference.
Either way, this edition of "Mac OS X Pocket Guide" fulfills its obligations. The book is very straightforward. No unnecessary detail will be found in it. In fact, this book is so compact and concise that an average reader can finish reading its entire chapters in less than three hours with full comprehension. Fast readers will accomplish that much earlier.
This is the book to invest on, if your need includes a quick and reliable memory refresher. In a very short time, it will familiarize its reader with all the important issues about the new Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar software.
It is a reasonable and dependable handbook which every 'Mac' stalwart should benefit from.

By Sean Alexandre
Bishop Eastern Sierra Macintosh User Group (beSMUG)

People are a bit reluctant to make big changes when it comes to technology, especially computers. Just when you think you've learned all you could about your Mac, the great minds in Cupertino go and change the whole scheme of things. Mac OS X has caused a lot of Mac users to wonder, worry and squirm. I've watched a more than a few Mac users being dragged to OS X kicking and screaming-but it was really for their own good. In fact, many Mac users are still finding it a bit scary to make the big switch.

Well, fear no more. The good people at O'Reilly-publishers of such indispensable references as Mac OS X In A Nutshell, Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Mac OS X Hints: Jaguar Edition and Office X For Macintosh: The Missing Manual-have slapped a picture of a German Shephard on a great little paperback entitled Mac OS X Pocket Guide written by Chuck Toporek. This is the second edition and covers Jaguar with over 250 hints and tips for everyone. It doesn't matter what your computer skill level is, this handbook will show you what you need to get moving in the OS X fast lane.

This book is a series of individual, short hints and tips and how-tos, organized by your approach to the new Mac OS:

Are you a Classic Mac user? The Mac OS X Pocket Guide will give you step-by-step plain English instructions to transfer all your important files and give you side-by-side comparisons to explain the OS X equivalents of the Classic functions that you've grown to love and need.

Many Windows users want to make the switch-now there is no excuse. Much like the Classic switcher, the Windows switcher will also enjoy the ease of learning presented in this book on how to transfer and convert all those valuable files from their PCs. Again, there are many tips and hints with Windows to OS X equivalents to make the Switcher feel more comfortable.

...

This book is valuable as a quick start guide to Mac OS X, both for users of earlier versions of the Mac OS and for "switchers" from Unix and Windows--Part I of the book is all about converting.

Part II covers the basics of Mac OS X including window usage and keyboard shortcuts, the Finder and Dock, the Classic environment, and managing user accounts and logging in. The "Basic Keyboard Shortcuts" chart is especially handy.

Part III discusses system preferences and the applications and utilities that come with OS X. A future edition of this book would be much more useful if it provided information on the various "iApplications" (e.g., iPhoto, iMovie, and iTunes) and the other applications that come bundled with OS X. The book currently provides a one-paragraph description of the various applications but nothing on how to use them. The section on Developer Tools is so brief as to be almost useless.

Part IV covers the Unix interface to OS X, focusing on using the Terminal application and basic Unix commands. This section seems to be confused about its target audience. Some things are discussed at a very basic level, but at the same time it assumes the reader knows why they want to work with the Unix interface in the first place.

Part V is called "Task and Setting Index" and tells how to accomplish various tasks and configure the system.

Any book about a specific computer technology will become dated. This book was published in May 2002, and at the time of this writing (November 2002), some items discussed in the book are already out of date with the release of Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar). For example, iTools is now .Mac, and Sherlock is no longer used to find files (that function has been moved to the Finder).

Why do I give this book four stars? Much of the information is so abbreviated that it is not helpful, for example, the coverage of the applications and utilities. There just isn't enough content to justify the book's billing as a "pocket reference". On the other hand, it does provide a good overview of Mac OS X.

This is a wonderful guide. It is small and very easy to follow. To perform a function it just lists the steps, no extra verbage, no pictures, just steps to easily follow. A good index makes things easy to find. It is perfect for me because I just want to use the basic things, nothing exotic. It might not be enough for someone who wants to do more, but for a basic user it is Terrific and small enough to carry easily. Don't hesitate!!