Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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131 of 133 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
MyMac.com Product Review, January 19, 2004
David Pogue has definitely gotten the Missing Manual format down pat. His latest endeavor, the fourth in his Mac OS series, Mac OS X: The Missing Manual (Panther Edition) has built upon his previous versions and takes the reader through the "joys" of OS X Panther. From install to Terminal use, Mr. Pogue walks you through the process of getting down and dirty with Panther.Starting with what one sees when they first start up Panther, Mr. Pogue takes the reader through the basics of the Mac desktop; folders and windows, organizing things, the Dock, the Sidebar, and how to arrange and rearrange things to suit your own tastes and needs. Experienced Mac and OS X users may find things slow at the beginning, but Mr. Pogue does provide the whys and wherefores of Panther in a well-written, easy to understand manner that does make it a pleasure to read through every section. Mr. Pogue makes excellent use of hi-lighted boxes bearing titles of Frequently Asked Questions, Up to Speed, Nostalgia Corner, Gem in the Rough, Power Users' Clinic and Troubleshooting Moment to explain and add emphasis to what is being covered in that chapter or section. The screen shots also add to explaining things as you go along. As you read through the book, you are shown OS X programs, the use of OS 9 in the scheme of things "X", and then the components of OS X that are available with the software. You are also shown the free programs that come with OS X; Font Book, iCal, iTunes, iSync, Safari, Sherlock, QuickTime Player, to name a few, and how to make use of their capabilities. Want to import pictures from your digital camera to your Mac? Page 288 will show you how, and then show you how to share them, print them and finally email them out to friends and family. Mr. Pogue then takes you into the technology of OS X and its UNIX underpinnings. Administrator and Standard accounts are shown, their setup and usage, signing in, logging out, Fast User switching, Networking... the list just goes on. Every aspect of the OS is shown and explained, from A to Z. Best of all, Pogue does it with humor, wit and a writing style that doesn't bog you down or put you to sleep, particularly when you get into the aspects of UNIX. For new users of the Mac or new converts to OS X, Unix and the use of Terminal is geek-speak to the nth degree. Bash, tcsh, pwd, Is, cd, mv, rm, srm, using man; they're explained and their usage is also shown. While you might not want to use them, it's good to have the knowledge available just in case you have to use it somewhere down the line. I was a bit surprised at the amount of little gems that I picked up as I read through the book. Access to the Character Palette, keyboard viewer, storing Apple Software Updates... how many of you know that you can save that Software Update by choosing UpdateÆInstall and Keep Package? Want to play a game of chess but have no one to play with right now? Why not try playing against your Mac by going into your Applications folder, double-clicking on Chess and then choosing new game. Have a microphone available? Try using the voice-recognition feature and tell your Mac what moves you want to make where. Are you a new convert from an older Mac OS and you've just switched to OS X and you're not sure what happened to some of your favorite Mac features? Not to worry as Appendix C provides you with a complete guide as to what stayed and to what disappeared. Oh, and for the new Mac users who have switched from Windows, don't worry, Appendix D will provide you with a handy-dandy listing of what does what in OS X. Oh, by the way, when you first open the book, there on the inside cover is a drawing of the Missing CD-ROM that didn't come with the book and that just saved you $5.00 off the cost. Not to fear, you are directed to go to http://www.missingmanuals.com and click on the Missing CD icon. Once there, you will find links to 22 sites containing additional software that Mr. Pogue covers in the book. I really enjoyed reading this book. It is well written and covers what a Mac user needs to know to work with OS X Panther. As has been stated in the past with Mr. Pogue's other Missing Manual books- this is what should have come in the box with your Mac. But since it didn't, run, don't walk, to your nearest bookstore or online book seller and get yourself a copy of Mac OS X - The Missing Manual (Panther Edition) This is a definite must-have for Mac OS X users! Highly Recommended! My Mac Rating: 5 out of 5
http://www.mymac.com/showarticle.php?id=1313
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154 of 160 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must-have for Panther users, January 18, 2004
It shouldn't really surprise anyone that David Pogue has once again produced an unqualified success in the third edition of Mac OS X: The Missing Manual. Since OS X came out, I've read and reviewed some dozen Mac books, but when it comes time to pick a single volume to recommend to friends making the switch, I invariably choose Pogue's. It's true that OS X beginners can understand it without any problems, but that shouldn't suggest that it's somehow too simple for veteran users - it's just that the text is exceptionally clear, meaning that even beginners won't find it too scary or confusing. While other books are bigger (Mac OS X Unleashed) and others are written specifically for a more advanced audience (Mac OS X Power Tools), the Missing Manual is the best all-purpose book on the subject, and one that should be in the library of pretty much anyone who runs OS X.As I see it, there are really two groups of people who might be wondering whether or not they ought to buy Pogue's new Panther book: Mac users who own a previous edition of the Missing Manual, and those who don't. For the latter folks, the short answer is yes - you should buy this book. And for the former, the short answer is probably. Keeping in mind that all the various online retailers offer significant discounts on the book, and that you can also get 30% off if you've registered a previous edition with O'Reilly, it's going to only wind up costing you about twenty bucks, and it's definitely worth it. The book hasn't just been updated to reflect changes and new features in Panther - it's also been updated to reflect reader feedback on previous versions, including things like more information for people migrating from Windows, and mini-manuals on some of the iLife applications. There isn't a single page that hasn't been changed from the Jaguar edition of the book (and there are over seven hundred pages). Some of my Mac-using friends have told me that they haven't picked up anything from the Missing Manual series because they're under the impression that they're basically novice guides. This is both right and wrong - it's absolutely true that beginners will get their money's worth from a Missing Manual and that they won't get lost in an abundance of overtechnical discussion. The part that isn't true, however, is the implication that these are books only for beginners. I've been using Macs for over ten years now (and various Unix-like systems for five), but my copies of the Missing Manuals get dog-eared and underlined more than any other technical books I own. One of the reasons I'd dispute the claim that this book isn't useful for advanced users is that sprinkled throughout are dozens of little productivity notes - a keystroke here, a shortcut tip there - and this is the stuff that I, at least, really get off on, while it seems like novice users tend to be content with straightforward dragging and double clicking. I dive into Part One ("The Mac OS X Desktop") with my Mac in easy reach not because I don't know how to minimize a window, but because I had no idea that (for example) there's now a Finder keystroke to jump immediately to the parent directory. That's not to say topics typically associated with power users aren't given their due, though. Even people who know their Unices (and Unix workalikes) will probably welcome the coverage of NetInfo Manager and other OS X oddities. If you find yourself stuck on some particular topic, chances are it's covered here. It's not by any means an exhaustive guide to BSD, but it's a good way to get started with Darwin. I end up using this book often enough that it has its own place of honor on top of my G4 (my other Mac books are also nearby, of course, but they're not necessarily quite so handy). Aside from the little-bit-of-everything approach, one of the most refreshing features of the Missing Manuals series remains the writing itself - surprisingly readable, often funny, and rarely confusing. These are some of the few technical books that I'm willing or able to read cover to cover, and some of them I've even read in bed or on the subway. As for specific parts and chapters that stand out from the rest: the new mini-manuals dealing with iLife applications like iTunes and iPhoto are a welcome addition. They'd been more or less ignored in previous editions of the OS X book, since they've got their own books, but the Panther edition introduces a section on each to get you started. Another of my favorite portions of the book is the addition of Appendix F, the Master Mac OS X Secret Keystroke List. It will take a while before I'm able to memorize all of them, and in the meantime it's great to have them all collected in one place.
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48 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pogue delivers again, January 4, 2004
If you have read any of the Missing Manual book series, particularly ones by David Pogue (on OSX 10.1&2, iMovie, iPhoto, Switching to the Mac), you might expect this OS X Panther Edition to cover all aspects of Apple's newest operating system in depth, to offer plenty of tips not only about what the system and its programs do but why you might want to use them, to provide tips about undocumented features, to suggest additional resources including books, web sites, and news groups, and to employ a writing style that is clear and humorous without being condescending or smug. That's a lot to ask of any book, let alone a computer manual. Pogue delivers all of it. Maybe that's why he's "the #1 bestselling Macintosh author" (back cover). In fact, if all you want to know is whether to buy this book--and you do need a manual if you expect to learn how best to use your Mac--, here's the answer: yes.Here's a short list of reasons you'll want this book. Apple claims Panther has 150 new features, but Pogue says this is actually an undercount (2), and says about his book there's not "a single page that hasn't changed since the last edition" (7), which covered 10.1 and 10.2. While reading the book, I marked over 50 new features that are important to my workstyle, but in the interests of brevity, these are the ones most likely to appeal to all users. Panther has a new sidebar to complement the dock (18-20); Filevault can encrypt and decrypt your account transparently (363-66); window management is much easier with Exposé (124-28); servers and shared folders--even from PCs--appear automatically in the sidebar (18, 22, 397); Safari is improved and installed as the default browser (640-51); Text Edit can open and save Microsoft Word format, though not footnotes, unfortunately (311); Image Capture can work over a network, and can control scanners and web cams (275-76); Preview works much faster and can search and copy text from PDF files AND can open raw Postscript files, which means they can be saved as PDFs that can be printed at clear resolutions on cheapo inkjet printers (297, 435); print dialog boxes now offer saving as pure Postscript (427); color labels for files/folders are back from OS 9 (74); all menus, dialog boxes, and the dock now can be controlled from the keyboard (18, 138); Digital Color Meter can grab color values from images and web pages (316); Font Book allows you to form sets that you can turn on and off as needed (436-42); the calculator finally acquires scientific capabilities, a "paper" tape, and performs conversions (263, 331); Disk Utility now offers the option to clone a hard drive--good news for people in charge of Mac labs (317-18), and it can burn multiple sessions on a CD (340); faxing is now built in (431-35); GIMP-Print is included, a Unix collection of print drivers for scads of older printers (421); Virtual Private Networking to connect to corporate networks is much improved; Mail has at least nine major improvements, including seamless cooperation with Microsoft's Exchange Server; iChatAV is free along with a free iChatAV account at .Mac is (615-16). Oh, and the default volume format for hard drives is journaled (692) for better troubleshooting, and for security Panther redoes group designations for user accounts (407, 511) and adds a master password that sits between administrator privileges and root (365, 376). If anything in that last sentence is foreign to you, that's another reason to buy this book. Also, Panther permits scheduling of print jobs (427)--a big boon on networks--and of unattended startup and shutdown (241). It even includes the ability to Zip and unZip files (94), and to clone your .Mac iDisk on your hard drive (564) for greater speed. Overall, it's also faster than previous versions. The book now contains mini-manuals for iDVD, iMovie, iPhoto, and iTunes, even though the Missing Manual series has book treatments of each. Of course, the Panther book skips all the tips, tricks, and resources for these programs, but it has enough to get you going successfully. And the appendixes include installation (A), troubleshooting (B), and "secret keystroke list" (F). Also, the book is fun to read. Pogue's style faintly resembles that of Miami Herald columnist Dave Barry. For example, in his discussion of AppleScript Studio (216), his aside is "ASS for short--how did that one get past Marketing?" All is not perfect, however. Grammar snafus occur about one per 100 pages (!) and of five factual errors, only one (583) is really confusing because it refers to a picture that doesn't exist in the text (although what you're supposed to see has just been explained clearly). And two discussions confused me: about Firewire networks (390ff) and about command-line (Unix) file searching (518). But another benefit of the Missing Manual series is that once I've reported these miscues to Pogue, they'll be incorporated into subsequent printings of the book. Pogue pledges (9) to keep the book current with Apple's continuing updates of 10.3 (this printing [11] covers through 10.3.2), and to keep errata lists--along with much of the software mentioned in the book--on the website (www.missingmanuals.com). My previous experience with six other books in this series suggests that Pogue will indeed keep book and web site updated.
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