Description:
Mac OS 8.5 Black Book distinguishes itself from most books for intermediate Mac users by providing a comprehensive picture of the latest version of the Macintosh operating system without descending into wearisome interface documentation or indecipherable jargon. This book tackles the Mac OS 8.5 one task at a time, devoting chapters to functional areas (such as AppleScript and memory management). Within the chapters, headings describe problems users might want to solve (such as "Sharing Files and Folders" and "How to Determine Your Hardware Configuration"). Explicit procedures--combined with expository prose, plenty of screen shots, and some bulleted lists--tell exactly what the user needs to do to accomplish the stated goal. Mac OS 8.5 Black Book covers a wide range of Mac OS situations, beginning with those related to customizing the user interface and progressing through performance tuning, networking, and multimedia. The chapter on Java is weak, but the authors make up for it by including tons of reference information on Mac OS error codes, hardware specifications, and shareware recommendations. The book's coverage of connectivity also distinguishes it from its competitors. You'll find very good information on using Macs as Internet, intranet, and extranet servers, plus discussions of some ways to get Mac OS computers to talk to Windows machines over networks. --David Wall
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