27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Overall a good book (reviewed by Alaskan Apple Users Group member Ronald Schoedel), October 13, 2005
Review by Ronald Schoedel
Once again, the "for Dummies" series has come to the rescue of newbies and others who just want to learn more about their Macs. I am not a newbie. I've owned Macs for well over a decade. Even so, "Tiger for Dummies" had some great tidbits of knowledge that I was reading and learning for the first time. I always enjoy reading articles and books by "Dr. Mac" Bob Levitus, too. His style is easy-going and helpful, and he doesn't assume you know more than you likely do.
The true test of a "Dummies" book, however, is how much it helps someone unfamiliar with the Mac become a more efficient and better-informed user. The book is broken down into a number of tasks, and then walks the reader through a task step by step. Playful icons guide the reader through the task, warn of potential pitfalls, clarify matters, and direct the reader to additional software or resources that may be helpful.
"Mac OS X Tiger for Dummies" will help you configure a printer, get on the internet, use cool new internet services, get the most out of the included software on your Mac, and navigate the system preferences, explaining in detail (but not too much detail to bore you) many of the customization options your Mac has available. You will learn about Spotlight and how to find anything on your Mac exceptionally quickly. You will learn about downloading and installing Widgets to complement the ones Apple provides in the default Dashboard. Dr. Mac will also explain to you the Finder and the metaphors common to the Macintosh experience (concepts such as documents, the desktop, folders, windows, icons and menus). You will get a good education on removable media, disk images, downloading things from the internet, backing up your files, and even a couple chapters on networking.
In reviewing this book, I loaned it to a couple brand new Mac users; they now own their own copies, which they purchased after enjoying my copy for a brief time. They said that "Tiger for Dummies" is a great book and helps them acclimate to the Mac, especially helping them overcome some common hang-ups or sources of confusion encountered by switchers from Windows.
My only gripe: too many bad jokes. Not enough to dock it any moose in the 5 out of 5 moose rating that I am giving it, but suffice it to say that after 400 pages, the jokes wear thin. Less jokes, more content, would be my desire for the next version. I enjoy Dr. Mac's humor, generally, but like anything else, it's best taken in moderation.
I recommend "Tiger for Dummies" to any Mac user, but especially to new users or as a gift for new Mac users in your life. Pick up a couple copies for the Mac users on your gift list!
Pros: Easy to read, well-illustrated, another fine Dummies book
Cons: Too many bad jokes.
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44 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
It's okay but there are better books, August 1, 2005
"Dr. Mac" has been a fixture in the Macintosh world for about as long as Macs have been around. He certainly knows his stuff. The problem is that when he shares his knowledge with us he tries to be a standup comic. I know, an appreciation of humor is totally subjective. I actually appreciate LeVitus' Dr. Mac columns, but a style that works well in 500 word articles really wears in a 400 page book.
Geek humor aside, the book rambles. Explanations get filled with asides and interjections making this a kind of shaggy dog story of a computer manual. It does get to the point eventually but sometimes loses me along the way.
This may sound like I hate the book. I don't I'm just mildly irritated. The basic Mac information is all there. Explanations are okay. If you are given the book keep it. It's a decent book, better than some. It's just that there are some excellent Tiger books out there. The Mac OS X Tiger Book by Andy Ihnatko is one I'd recommend first. Close behind is David Pogue's Missing Manual. For an absolute beginner Maria Langer's Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger : Visual QuickStart Guide is a gentle and well conceived manual.
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good Even if You're Not Really Dumb, June 9, 2005
The Mac has a new operating system, the fourth in the kitty cat series, this time called Tiger. You could say that this is version 10.4, but that'd make you sound like a geek or something. As nearly everybody knows by now, OS X (that's X as in Roman Numerals or 10 in Arabic, pronounced ten not X) is the Mac GUI (Graphical User Interface) on top of Unix.
Why, you might be asking, do you need a book if the Mac interface is so easy to use. Because if you just start using it, and using the help screens you don't get a solid overview. You tend to learn what you need for right now and never get around to all the things that you can do if you just realized that you wanted to do them.
Having written a whole bunch of previous books for dummies, this one has benefitted from all the comments made about the previous editions. Dr. Mac doesn't think you're really dumb. He would have liked to name this book Mac OS X Tiger For People Smart Enough to Know They Need Help With It. But alas, there's a publisher who is writting the check to make this book possible, and "... For Dummies" it is.
This review is written in my poor attempt at the sarcash, clever wordplay, shortcuts, awesome techniques, bad puns that the book uses. But I'm not as good a writer as he is, so I'm going to stop now.
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