Description:
With Macintosh products earning more devotees every day, there's ever- increasing demand for a high-quality book that welcomes new users without being overly simple. Mac OS in a Nutshell mostly takes a basic approach to the Mac OS, going into detail on the core (pun intended) UI and its built-in productivity and customization tools. Rita Lewis explains even the most basic Mac facts--such as how to create and rename folders--but, unlike many of her book's competitors, doesn't stop there. Readers will find this book useful after they graduate from novice status, because Lewis digs into harder subjects, such as fonts and networking. In these sections, Lewis shows how to get things done, but also explains a fair bit about underlying technologies (in the case of networking) and good style (in the case of typography). Better coverage of AppleScript would make this book better--as it is, the volume hardly touches on the powerful do-it-yourself programming language. Also, the section on Internet connectivity assumes that you'll be hooking up by using an old-fashioned analog modem; with broadband connectivity becoming more popular, it should receive some attention. These are trivial problems, however. Overall, Lewis does a great job of showing new Mac OS users how to become familiar with (and then master) their computing environment. --David Wall Topics covered: Mac OS 8.5 and Mac OS 9, covered from the point of view of an everyday user of the OS. Beginning with user-interface fundamentals, the author progresses through Control Panel applets, file management, fonts and printing, local area network (LAN) connectivity, Internet hookups, and multimedia.
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