Macintosh Bible, The (8th Edition) [Paperback]

Marty Cortinas (Author), Clifford Colby (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 16, 2001 | ISBN-10: 020170899X | ISBN-13: 978-0201708998 | Edition: 8

The original and much-imitated Macintosh Bible has undergone a complete rehaul--and returned to its roots. The Macintosh Bible, Eighth Edition is the most comprehensive volume ever, and like the original, was written by a group of Macintosh community leaders, each an expert in his or her subject.

Fully updated to cover Mac OS 9 and X, The Macintosh Bible, Eighth Edition exhaustively covers the spectrum of Macintosh computing. This all-in-one reference is everything to everyone: Beginners will appreciate the clearly organized, matter-of-fact approach, and veteran Mac users will find new tips, shortcuts, and tidbits of Mac trivia in every chapter. The Mac has changed a lot in the two years since the last edition, and this one fills all the gaps, with sections on the latest iMacs, iBooks, and G4s; iMovie, desktop video, and other multimedia; new developments in the Internet and the Web; USB and FireWire; and more. It's a must-have addition to any Mac library.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

To listen to some Macintosh fans, you'd think they take the title of The Macintosh Bible literally. Their fondness for their computers can verge on zealotry. It's easy to understand why, though: the latest Macs are the best ever, capable of handling home computing with style and business computing efficiently. Macs, as they always have, also excel at specialized work with publications and graphics. The Macintosh Bible introduces its readers to the full range of modern Macs' capabilities, leaving them well prepared to buy, configure, use, and troubleshoot their computers. Clifford Colby and Marty Cortinas aren't as good as some other Mac writers at conveying the liveliness of the Mac-user culture--authors David Pogue and Robin Williams excel in that area--but they and their collaborators have done a great job of compiling facts, procedures, and ideas about Macs and their software.

For a how-to book, this one is unusually dense with text, and that's a good thing. After all, most aspects of Macs are pretty easy to figure out unaided, so it stands to reason that when you turn to a book for help you'll want the kind of detailed explanations that the authors provide here. There's lots of information on the history of Mac products, as well as peripherals offered by third-party vendors. Procedural details about how to do work in Mac OS X and other programs are right on, though more information about the Unix underpinnings of Mac OS X would be nice (there's hardly any, a characteristic typical of most recent Mac books). Background information about, for instance, how database management programs work also helps novices and intermediate users gain familiarity with the Mac environment. --David Wall

Topics covered: How to use a modern Macintosh computer, at a level suitable for someone new to Macs or moderately experienced with them. Coverage of hardware options, third-party software, productivity tools, utilities, and local area networks (LANs) is nice, though there's little coverage of AppleScript, Cocoa, or other programming subjects.

From Library Journal

Some 30 experts contributed to this all-encompassing, beginning- to intermediate-level guide, much broader in scope than Gene Steinberg's Upgrading & Troubleshooting Your Mac (Computer Media, LJ 2/1/02). It will win over new users with its interesting history of the Mac and life-saving information on the desktop and troubleshooting. Because OS X and other recent innovations are treated here, libraries owning older editions should purchase.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 984 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press; 8 edition (November 16, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 020170899X
• ISBN-13: 978-0201708998
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 9 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,988,187 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Full of Information, Fudges a Little, October 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Macintosh Bible (Bible Series), 7th Edition (Paperback)

This book should probably ship with every new MacIntosh. It brings out the Mac's potential in a way that gave me new appreciation for its elegance and simplicity. In an enjoyable--albeit hokey--style, the author not only presents the information about hardware and software that it is expected she give, but often does the MacIntosh user's work for him. In the section on the software application QuicKeys, for instance, the are several pages of useful suggestions as to what keys the reader should assign to various tasks when using that program. That is amazing, that is not even the book's main task and it is more nuts-and-bolts, time-saving information than the very manufacturer of Quickeys supplies with their own software. The same is true in the section on how to set up an Apple menu. I just followed every suggestion the author made; it saved me time, works like a charm, and I'd never have come up with that stuff on my own. It's even a fun book (for Macheads) to just jump around in in one's free time; such browsing will almost always yield new knowledge or a useful trick or shortcut. I doubt that Windows users have this much fun learning about their OS, and I doubt that Windows could yield a book that makes such integrated sense as this one.

I only have one annoyances with this book. First, the author fudges and glosses over real explanations of some of the more difficult concepts such as Apple Script and memory. It's as if she's so determined to make the book all-inclusive that she settles for doing a less than satisfactory job with advanced material that she'd have been within her rights to simply leave out of the book. In these instances, she seems to lift a lot of information out of the Mac OS's documentation, and fails to supplement those often spotty explanations. No one is going to understand how to use Applescript by reading her account of it. Also, the book supposedly comes with an interactive, "readers only" website, with the password to that website hidden somewhere in the pages of the book. It's so well hidden that I've had the book for 9 months and still not found it.

All in all, indispensable, and I'll be buying the OS 9 version when it comes out.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Probably the single most useful mac book on the market., February 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Macintosh Bible (Bible Series), 7th Edition (Paperback)

I have been using macs for about ten years and had read earlier editions of the mac bible and loved them. But after becoming an old mac hand (ignorance is bliss!) I had stopped feeling the need for newer editions of the mac bible. But last week my mother bought her first ever computer, a really sweet G3 Powerbook, and in preparation for flying across the country to tutor her I went shopping for some reference books to give us a hand. I bought the Mac Bible, the Mac OS 8.5 Black Book, and the Microsoft Office 98 Visual Basic Book. The Mac Bible is far and away the most helpful of the bunch. Easiest to read, most in depth and with valuable opinions, real life applications and a sense of humor. In fact I decided to return the Black Book and buy a Mac Bible for myself to take home.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is THE BEST Mac book!, July 6, 2001

By 

skunktrain (So. California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Macintosh Bible (Bible Series), 7th Edition (Paperback)

I got my first Mac ever about a year and a half ago, being a PC person before that. Being a book fanatic, I used this Mac purchase as an excuse to go out and buy lots of Mac books! The Mac Bible was one of the first I bought. It still remains the book I consult most often.

I found it had an absolutely fabulous "history of Mac" section, so I was able to catch up on all the Macs through history. I was keenly interested in that, and still am. I love to read about the old LCs, and such. (Yes, I'm a pathetic geek.)

But there's more to that to this book. Just lots of explanations on OS features, different kinds of problems you'll encounter, and some of the best software to use on a Mac. It has a great index, so you can find the information you need quickly. I have it by my Mac at all times. What would I do without it?

I can't explain it - this book has EVERYTHING. I read it eagerly (I even had it before I got my Mac! I ordered the Mac, and read this book while waiting for it to arrive.) This book helped me adjust to the world of Mac-dom very quickly. And now, a year and a half after my first Mac, I am a full-fledged Machead, thanks in part to this book.