Customer Reviews

iMovie 08 and iDVD 08 for Mac OS X: Visual QuickStart Guide

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Apple overhauled iMovie for its "2008" release (actually revealed in 2007), and Jeff Carlson did the same for his book. I found iMovie '08 rather mystifying at first, because of how differently the program handles tasks that I've been using iMovie to handle for years. But Jeff's book helped me sort it out.

iMovie '08 also doesn't play very nicely with iDVD '08, and Jeff's book provides the necessary missing information (Apple left it out) for better using the two programs together. (iMovie '08 is really oriented towards YouTube and online, not burning DVDs.)

I do almost no video editing, but when I had to dive into iMovie recently, Jeff's book was a big help. The Visual QuickStart Guide approach of explaining a single task per page, with steps accompanied by screenshots, was just what I needed to import a movie taken from my digital camera, superimpose a title, add some scrolling credits at the end, and publish it to my .Mac Web Gallery. Sure, that may sound like simple stuff, but when you've never used a program before, it's helpful to have explanations of what to drag where. The only problem now is that I saw instructions for doing all sorts of other cool things in the book that I'd love to try, but there are absolutely no instructions for finding more time in the day to play with iMovie.

I have used this series of books for a long time and they are excellent. This book is easy to follow and has a good deal of diagrams and pictures to help you learn both of these excellent applications. I have used this book with people new to iMovie & iDVD and those with a lot of experiences. I highly recommend it.

Having quicky tired of Vista, I took the plunge and bought a Mac laptop. This was one of the first books I bought for the Mac.

Author Jeff Carlson does a great job explaining the basics of movie-making with iMovie. Although I've quickly stepped up to Final Cut Pro (although very cool, iMovies is pretty limited), I still find myself referring back to this book from time to time.

If you're new to Apple computers and like to shoot movies, then this book is a must have!

Happy Filming!

Peachpit's Visual QuickStart Guide series is one of the best how-to series out there for beginning to intermediate computer users. In this book, the author does a great job of explaining the basics of video, giving readers a solid base of information for what follows. From there, he explains how to create your own movies and DVDs using the two video components of Apple's iLife '08 software package.

While most of the book sticks to the step-by-step approach that's part of the Visual QuickStart Guide style, I found the general information about lighting, cameras, and movie-making invaluable.

No, I'm not a video expert -- but if I were, I don't think I'd be using iMovie. This book is right on target for the iMovie/iDVD audience.

I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone looking for a technical how to guide. It has ok pictures but unfortunately the written explanations at times simply did not work as described or left me with more questions.