Mac OS X Help Line, Panther Edition (Paperback)

by Ted Landau (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Is there a Mac doctor in the house? The answer is yes, and guess what, it's you! With Ted Landau's Mac OS X Help Line, Panther Edition at your side, you'll find all the smart, common-sense solutions and sound advice you need to maintain Apple's latest operating system. In this new volume, Mac doctor extraordinaire (and MacFixIt Web site founder) Ted Landau offers a host of solutions for every Mac OS X glitch under the sun, plus the grounding you need to turn a diagnostic eye on your own Mac setup.

Filled with hundreds of tips, tools, and preventive measures for dealing with Mac OS X, it also includes a chapter on troubleshooting iApps. In-depth coverage of Library directories, file and font maintenance, crash prevention and recovery, Unix commands for Mac OS X, and more complete the doctor's bag of advice contained in this invaluable book. You'll learn:

How to fix problems specific to the new features of Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther).
How to diagnose, recover from, and prevent startup crashes, freezes and unexpected quits.
The smart way to install, reinstall, update and backup Mac OS X.
How to harness the hidden power in Mac OS X's Get Info windows, invisible files, preferences files, and packages.
How to master Mac OS X's permissions -- launching, saving, moving and deleting files even when the Finder says you can't.
Techniques to troubleshoot printing glitches.
How to set up (and fix problems with) your network--including local file sharing, routers, wireless connections and the Internet.
How to make sure your Mac is secure from network intruders or other unauthorized access.
How to take advantage of Mac OS X's high-power UNIX foundation to expand your troubleshooting powers.
Which third-party utilities you should get to help diagnose and fix problems.
How to troubleshoot problems with your i-software from iTunes to iSync.

From the Publisher
Best-selling author and founder of the MacFixIt Web site Ted Landau arms readers with all of the knowledge they need to keep their Mac OS X machines up and running smoothly.

Completely revised, with the latest Mac OS X information integrated throughout and restructured chapters that make it easier to locate information.

Hundreds of new tips and tricks, plus a new chapter on troubleshooting iApps and an expanded discussion of Mac OS X backup.

When Macs stop running, Ted Landau is the man people turn to, and this book illustrates why: Chock-full of easy, understandable advice for maintaining and troubleshooting Mac OS X—including the newest edition of Mac OS X—this is where people turn before they haul their Macs to the repair shop. The founder of the MacFixIt Web site offers smart, common-sense solutions and sound advice for maintaining Apple’s latest operating system, delivered in language the rest of us can understand. In this edition, Ted completely overhauls the book and revises each page with information on troubleshooting the latest version of Mac OS X. The resulting volume offers a host of solutions for every Mac OS X glitch under the sun plus the grounding readers need to turn a diagnostic eye on their own operating systems. Filled with tips, tools, and preventive measures, it includes in-depth coverage of Library directories and folders, file and font maintenance, crash prevention and recovery, Unix commands for Mac OS X, and more.

Noted author and Mac guru Ted Landau is the founder of the MacFixIt Web site and is a contributing editor for Macworld magazine. He is also the author of Sad Macs, Bombs, and Other Disasters.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 1184 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press (June 6, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321193873
• ISBN-13: 978-0321193872
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.6 x 2.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #860,814 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MyMac.com Book Review, October 30, 2004

By	Tim E Robertson "Publisher MyMac.com" (Battle Creek, Mi United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

MacFixit web site founder and author Ted Landau's newest book, Mac OS X Help Line, Panther Edition, has joined the ranks of David Weeks' favorite OS X books. Until now, I've recommended David Pogue's OS X The Missing Manual for beginners and intermediate Mac users. The nod for best advanced/expert level book has gone to Mac OS X Unleashed, penned by John and William Ray.

I've got to add Mac OS X Help Line (Help Line for short) to the canon of best OS X books. The Ray brothers' Unleashed is geared more toward the Unix-oriented sysadmin/expert user. In contrast, Landau's Help Line is written for the sophisticated OS X end user; someone who doesn't need the plumb the Uniy depths of OS X, yet needs detailed information on complex topics.

Landau has found the right balance: he provides 1144 pages of OS X depth and detail that "normal" people can use. Help Line does sit firmly in the "boat anchor" category (try holding it out at arm's length for a minute or so), but if there's an OS X question that you or I could pose, it'll most probably have the answer.

I could easily list the sections I found most interesting, but this review would swell to three or four pages. Suffice to say that you can find
detailed information on fonts (one of OS X's least intuitive areas), printing, permissions, and the OS X startup sequence. Each section has plenty of "Technically Speaking" or "Take Note" sidebars to add even more detail to particular topics.

Like almost all OS X books, Help Line covers the basics on the iApps that ship with OS X. Don't buy Help Line for the cursory coverage it provides on Safari, for example. Buy it for the detailed background information and troubleshooting tips for networking, instead.

Help Line's production values are very good: the screen shots are clear and legible. Sidebars are set off with background colors that don't get in the way of legibility. The binding has to hold 1144 pages together; I hope it lasts more than a year or two!

Now, Ted may object to my characterization of Help Line not being a newbie book, saying that he's written a book accessible to all. I beg to differ. The Mac newbie will probably be scared off by the pages of detail on complex subjects, as she pages through Help Line trying to find out how to just rename a file. Pogue's Missing Manual will better serve the beginner.

Even so, I can't speak highly enough of this book. If you want the best work for advanced/expert Mac users who seek to learn more about the guts of OS X, but not from a systems administrator's standpoint, buy Landau's Mac OS X Help Line Panther Edition.

MyMac rating 5 out of 5

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to understand, a life-saver, essential for OS X users, September 4, 2004

By	A. M. Concepcion "HerGeekness" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Ted Landau is the proprietor of MacFixIt, the pre-eminent web site for late-breaking information on what's working with OS X, what's not, and how to fix it. The site has grown to enormous proportions over the years, though, and it can be hard to find a fix or troubleshooting method for a particular problem or issue.

The answer is to buy this book. Not just for troubleshooting problems, but also for understanding how OS X works. And he doesn't hold back punches ... lots of times he mentions things like "Apple says [X] should work this way, but in my tests, it doesn't, instead, many users find [Y] works better." Trust this guy.

His book compiles and organizes just about everything on his site having to do with understanding and troubleshooting OS X/Panther and more, (and a lot of Jaguar, Classic and OS 9) in a crystal-clear, step-by-step way, with tons of sidebars that go into detail on tangenital topics. I've been using OS X for years, and train others how to use it, but via this book I finally understand the difference between a .pkg and an .app for example, and how to make a bootable troubleshooting CD, and tons more information.

It is a phenomenal piece of work. I don't know how he did it! I was on the waiting list for it for months, but it was worth the wait. I would've paid three times the price just in recognition of the amount of work it must've taken to write this opus.

Ted makes sure that complete OS X newbies are gently introduced to how OS X works, yet at the same time provides a ton of information and tips to OS X geeks who live in Terminal.

For example, in one small section of Chapter 3, he goes step by step -- in more detail and with more clarity than I've ever seen -- through the different application environments (Cocoa, Carbon, Classic, Java), making sure to always talk about why/when this should make a difference to you and how you can use the knowledge to help troubleshoot problems. In this same section, there's a page-long sidebar explaining a fundamental difference between OS 9 and X, that is, single-user vs. multiple-user. He mentions a couple different OS 9 technologies that I had forgotten about that tried to "enable" multi-user functionality in OS 9; and how OS X is set up from the start as a multi-user system.

Ted mentions in this sidebar that when you install OS X, the first user account is created (normally, the one for yourself, the installer) with admin privileges, and that *this user is by default set to "automatically log on" when the machine is started up or rebooted.* For this reason, many newbie OS X users don't realize that the mutli-user functions are in effect even if they've just installed OS X and are the only user. (And of course he tells how to turn off the automatic log-on feature.)

Many hard-core OS X users don't understand (or remember) how perplexing it can be for newcomers, and little facts like this one -- automatic login is enabled for the first user by default -- can easily escape them. New users wouldn't even realize there's a requirement to log on with a username/pw until they've created another account -- perhaps months later -- and are confronted by the login screen for the first time.

It's completely updated for Panther -- goes into detail about the new utilities and how to understand Activity Monitor, etc. -- yet contains a lot of info for Jaguar users as well. It's an essential book for ANY OS X user. It's the first book I recommend to students in my OS X classes, and the one I recommend to IT managers responsible for Macs on their networks.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MUST HAVE, June 30, 2004

By	Steven Ross (Port Jefferson, N.Y. United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you only buy one book for your MAC Computer-this is the one to get!
Ted Landau's advice is without a doubt invaluable. His vast knowledge of the MAC and the Panther OS comes thru in easy to understand and simple to carry out trouble shooting advice. Even though the MAC is usually reliable, problems can occur. This is the book to go to before panic sets in. I have used the previous additions over the years, and only can give his "Help" advice the utmost praise. I have recommended the prior editions to other MAC users, and they have blessed his words. There is not only advice for correcting problems, but also preventing them. Apple should include a copy with every MAC .
This book should be owned by every MAC user. IF YOU HAVE A MAC-
PUT THIS BOOK NEARBY!!!