Bulky guide but useful
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As a new migrant from Windows XP, I had absolutely no idea how clever the Mac OS X Leopard operating system was until I picked up this book. There are so many hidden features that it takes a serious user manual to ferret them out. Unfortunately, Apple provide just a tiny little white booklet and expect you to spend hours online searching their website for tips. Call me old-fashioned but I prefer hard copy to flicking back and forth between help screens and the work I am doing (even if it is easier with a Mac than a PC).
The step by step instructions are particularly useful to those who are sitting in front of a Mac for the first time. There's also some useful information about third party software which can enhance a Mac further; for example, if the user wants to run Windows alongside Mac OS X on the same computer. There's also advice about customising Leopard as well.
Yes, this is a heavy book and, yes, it does become a little anecdotal in places, but I recommend it to anyone who wants to unleash the full power of Leopard.
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Makes OS X seem complicated
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I have to admit I'm not used to reading this sort of thing, but this author - to me - has gone so far in the 'make it easy to read' plan that it's pretty hard going. I'm fairly convinced that if it had been written properly it would be around a third of the size; there's so much condescending (and misleading) chit-chat to work through that it gets tedious to read page to page, and it's badly enough organised that it's impossible to skim-read to find what you're after. In fact, OS X is rather simpler to get to grips with than the book is - just poke about in the OS until you find what you're looking for.
There is some useful information in there, but it's very well hidden.
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Does what it says on the cover
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I recently bought an iMac with Leopard pre-installed. Coming from a PC this operating system was a revelation, and even though I was immediately able to get to work on the Mac, some 'education' on the operating system was needed.
I have read this book from cover to cover (leaving out some of the techier sections) although had no intention to do so. This was not a slog even though it runs to over 800 pages - it does not read like a manual and the style is very chatty in a good way - good for what could have been a very dry introduction to this operating system. It really does cover just about everything you are ever likely to need to "make your Mac sing, dance,and stand on its head". It is packed with information about organising your Mac, the free software, controlling accounts, networking etc and is fully cross referenced with additional useful material on the Missing Manual website. An absolute must for newcomers to the Mac, I can unreservedly recommend.
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Expansive...
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If you're new to Macs then this book is for you. It starts off each chapter explaining the basics, then moves on to more detail as the chapter progresses. There are tons of stuff to learn not only for those new to Macs but those new to Leopard. In the absense of any detailed printed manuals from Apple, this really should have been included in the box.
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Worth every penny
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As a Mac newbie, I assumed there was no right-click option, but this book told me what I didn't even know about that within a few pages. In fact it's almost worth 20 quid to get my right-click working again!!
Ironically one of the strengths of the book is that it's not scared to debunk the much-trumpeted '300 new features' of Leopard, among them a Russian spellchecker and a Word of the Day screensaver.
Nicely pitched, well laid out with an easy-to-read style. It's proving indispensible for me, and I would totally recommend it to anyone new to Macs / OS X.
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