Mac OS X Tiger: Missing Manual

Mac OS X Tiger Killer Tips (Killer Tips)

Learning Unix for Mac OS X Tiger

Mac OS X Tiger for Unix Geeks

Mac OS X Bible, Tiger Edition

Unix

Mac OS X Tiger Pocket Guide (Pocket References)

Format: Paperback
Author: Chuck Toporek
ReleaseDate: 01 June, 2005
Publisher: O'Reilly Media
Rating:

Like a Lapdog-constant companion.
I like it. Convenient size to hang around for Quick and easy referral.

Review of Mac OS X Tiger Pocket book Guide
It is a well organized, pocket book style with easy to read table of contents and quick reference guide. The new edition of the Mac X Pocket Guide book is designed as a quick reference to the Mac OS X Tiger operating system with special attention to new features. It comes complete with overview of the Mac OS X Tiger System and it's new features. It discusses an array of systems and features such as user account, keyboard shortcuts, security issues, menu bar, window controls, the dock, trash, the finder, creating new folders, dashboard, spotlight, system preferences, applications and utilities, unix basics and configuring your Mac. The book was easy to read and provided screen graphics as illustration and shortcuts. One of the best features was it's easy to use reference style so you could look up and read only the specific topic you have interest in at the time. As one example of its efficiency, I was interested in finding out more about dashboard. I quickly looked up dashboard in the table of contents, turned to the appropriate listed page, was provided an overview of dashboard and all it's specifics and how to use them. I found this to be a great guide and have kept it close to my G 5 for quick reference. .

Excellent little reference
As the author acknowledges in his introduction, this book is a good starting point to explore Tiger, but it cannot provide the deeper level of detail that new users of the operating system will want eventually. In a little over 200 pages, Chuck Toporek discusses the various applications and features that are a part Mac OS X Tiger. I would agree with that statement. It is, after all, a pocket guide, and not an exhaustive manual.

With that in mind, Mac OS X Tiger Pocket Guide delivers pretty much on its promise. It goes through virtually every feature that Tiger has to offer; some in greater details than others.

Part V of the book, Applications and Utilities, for example, lists all the applications and utilities available, and very superficially describes their purpose. It does not go into any detail on how to use, say, Mail. The book does, however, go into great detail on how to customize your Mac, based on your personal preferences, in order to make using your machine as pleasant and fast as possible.

Mac OS X Tiger Pocket Guide is terrific for looking up solutions to problems that one may be struggling with. A good chunk of this book consists of FAQ-like steps to follow in order to obtain a certain result. A comprehensive index at the back of the book enables the reader to quickly locate the solution to the problem. In short, as a reference, is excellent.

People who like to work with keyboard shortcuts will find this guide especially useful: if it can be done through a shortcut, it is described in this book

There are screenshots in the book, but they are fairly sparse. Overall, these were well chosen, as the bulk of them illustrate new features, such as Spotlight and Dashboard, though perhaps not necessary.

It should be noted that if you are looking to get familiar with Tiger in the comfort of your couch or on a train or plane, this book is not for you. It is, overall, quite dry, and is not exactly a "fun read," especially compared to, for example, The Missing Manual series of books, wherein the authors go out of their way to make the books pleasant and light to read. Again, Mac OS X Tiger Pocket Guide is pretty dry. What you do get a book that is more compact and portable - and significantly cheaper - than The Missing Manual books.

The bottom line, then, is that Mac OS X Tiger Pocket Guide is very informative, but works much better as a reference tool than as a sit-down-and-devour kind of book. Being a relatively new user of Mac OS X, I learned a great deal from this book and I will likely consult it more often than I will my copy of iPod and iTunes: The Missing Manual.