Mac Annoyances

Rating:
Summary: What? You Mean The Mac Isn't Perfect As Is?
Review: I am not a Mac user, so I can't comment much on whether or not I agree that the annoyances addressed in the book are the things I would find annoying.

I can say that, contrary to the hype, I found the Mac to have just as many quirks and annoyances as Windows when I was supporting both operating systems. The annoyances might be different, but the operating system was not as perfect and intuitive as one might be led to believe. Suffice it to say, I believe a book like this will be just as welcome to the Mac audience as similar books in the PC and Windows world.

The title of Mac Annoyances may be a little misleading in some ways. It almost should be called Mac Hacks (O'Reilly does offer Mac OS X Panther Hacks as well) because many of the tips are not so much about an annoyance, but rather provide insight into tweaking or modifying the OS or application to work in a particular way.

Some of the tips or advice are not as helpful as you might hope for. For instance, tips on how to get the Safari web browser to work the way you want or perform certain functions often end with "switch to another browser".

Overall, the book is written fairly well and the tips will make sense to most beginner to intermediate level users.

Tony Bradley is a consultant and writer with a focus on network security, antivirus and incident response. He is the About.com Guide for Internet / Network Security (http://netsecurity.about.com), providing a broad range of information security tips, advice, reviews and information. Tony also contributes frequently to other industry publications. For a complete list of his freelance contributions you can visit Essential Computer Security (http://www.tonybradley.com).



Rating:
Summary: Tough to pick out annoyances...
Review: I suppose it's pretty tough to write a book about annoyances - since what annoys me may not annoy somebody else. However, I did find a few answers that I didn't already know. The book is definately written for someone between beginner and advanced. A good portion of the "annoyances" are things an advanced user would already know (or be able to figure out easy enough) and there isn't enough detail for the beginner.

The section on Microsoft Office annoyances (and fixes) was pretty helpful, but you could fill an encyclopedia with things that are annoying in the Office apps - Mac or Windows. The stuff on browsers is ok, but most of it was "since Safari can't do X, use browser Y". I was also a bit confused by the discussion of the "new, free browser Thunderbird". I suppose you could browse with an email client... =)

The annoyances are all over the Mac spectrum - my guess is you'd be lucky to find 20 or so of the 150 annoyances included that might pertain to your situation.

Rating:
Summary: Some annoyances, many tips
Review: Mac Annoyances is full of useful tips. Some really do banish annoying behaviors, such as the Microsoft Office Assistant and Microsoft Word's autocorrect features (and some that are not, in fact, from Microsoft), but others are just useful, such as option-mute-speaker-key bringing up System Preferences and information on how to keep the iTunes library on an external drive. Macs may not be as annoying as PCs, but there are enough non-obvious settings and tricks that a book like this is useful.

The book is aimed at an intermediate level, for people who are competent Mac users but who might not feel comfortable figuring out Terminal commands (there are a few, but it's at a cookbook "cut and paste" level) or using the Developer Tools.

I think it's a good book for intermediate Mac users who want to know some of the hidden tricks that can help make their Mac experience easier.

Rating:
Summary: Improve your Mac usage
Review: Most computer books about a program tell you of its strengths. But sometimes you'll meet a book like this, which talks frankly about the many quirks and how to circumvent them. The subject is the Mac. Rizzo shows that even a keen Mac user can run into roadblocks.

So he offers quick fixes to many problems. It should be said that the suggested fixes are all short. No doubt the problems were chosen with this in mind. Like when sending mail and you want to hide the recipients' addresses from each other. Then use BCC. This particular problem is true in any operating system, of course, and with any mailer.

Actually, there are other problems like this in the book, that are not specific to the Mac. But presumably, because they are so common, Rizzo included them. Slightly stretches the title description; just so you know. But most of the problems are indeed specific to the Mac. Like many concerning the use of Safari, the Mac browser. Given the importance of browsing to many of us, you should peruse this section carefully.


Rating:
Summary: Reviewed by a novice Panther user
Review: The author covers methods of dealing with a wide assortment of quirks and interesting default settings that the wizards at Apple chose to use in the building of their sophisticated new OS. Some of the annoyances Mr. Rizzo helps the reader fix are fairly basic, but most are for the serious user who will find a small nuisance to be a true headache if they are a heavier user of their machine than I am of mine. There's a note near the beginning of the text that recommends a couple of books for the novice with OS X. I suspect they are a good idea. I found much of Mac Annoyances difficult to follow until I watched the first two discs of the Mac Academy program for OS X.

Mr. Rizzo is very qualified to write this book, and he is phenomenally generous with recommendations of web sites, software, and books that the reader can visit or acquire to solve glitches that aren't just a matter of knowing how to find and change some well-hidden settings. The annoyance fixes that I tried worked as advertised, and so I assume the more technical fixes that I didn't need will work as well. I have to make the same assumption concerning the ones requiring downloads or purchases of additional software. Pleasantly, almost every graphic of the computer screen that accompanied the text of an annoyance was visible without having to turn a page. There are also excellent explanations to accompany the annoyances. Even as a novice, I leaned a great deal from what Mr. Rizzo has to say about various settings and set ups. A great example is why one should have one's e-mail not accept HTML material.

While the material in the book is very thorough, I thought it's physical presentation on the page could be improved on. There didn't seem to be a standard way of listing the steps to correct an annoyance. Typically, you have to read the verbiage carefully and notice what's capitalized and pull the steps out of the text. Other times there were set ups with arrows between the names of icons or tabs or whatever had to be clicked on. At the very least some bold type and/or a different font would allow an easier time seeing and reviewing the steps. Even better might be a box with the steps nestled in the text. Lastly, a light green ink is used to indicate which figures to refer to. My half-century-old eyes have trouble seeing it.

Rating:
Summary: Various useful Macintosh tidbits
Review: This book is organized into small tips that will help you get over 'annoyances' in a wide variety of Macintosh applications. The term annoyances is a bit stretched. In general these are tips on how to get to hard to find, but very useful functions. The content is good and useful, though sometimes not what you want to hear. For example the advice on selective popup blocking in Safari is to switch browsers.

You will want to look at the table of contents to make sure that you are getting enough value for your dollar. If it looks like the applications you use are in here, and they probably are, then I recommend this book for some quick pointers in how to get better use of them.