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I upgraded to Panther and wanted to learn more about Mac OS X 10.3.2. As there is no manual that comes with Panther I decided a book was in order. I have read several outstanding Pogue books in the past and thought his "Mac OS X Panther Edition" might be a good place to start.

What Will You Learn?

Reading this manual you will learn a lot of information about new Panther features, changes in the way some items work and lots of tips and tricks. Some of the items discussed in the first two chapters are working with folders, different views, labels, icons, aliases, new trash features, Get Info, search bar, the find command, keyboard shortcuts, right click menus, creating a zip archive and a lot more. Did you know you can customize the toolbar on the top of your Folders? Did you know you can use the toolbar as a dock substitute? Page 110 shows you how.

Applications in Mac OS X

Chapters 4-7 deal with using Apple applications in Panther. You will learn the basics of using an application in Mac OS X and about Expose. Learn what F9, F10, and F11 do for your arrangement of desktop folders on page 127. You will also learn several useful finder shortcuts and navigation tips. Another nice book feature is a web site setup at http://www.missingmanuals.com/cds/ that provides links to all of the shareware tools discussed in this useful Panther manual. You will learn how to setup, launch and use programs in Classic. Next, you can install the Apple Script menu and learn what scripts come with Panther and how to make your own.

The Components of Mac OS X

In this section you will learn about system preferences. On page 235 you can learn how to take pictures out of a screen saver to use as a desktop picture. Page 246 shows you how to use the Character Palette. Page 258 will show you how to access system preferences from the sidebar or the dock. Page 340 teaches you how to burn a multisession CD on a CD-R disk using Disk Utility. Page 352 shows you secret keystrokes for using Apples DVD Player effectively including fast forward.

Technologies of Panther

Chapters 11 through 17 cover security, networking, printing, faxing, sound, unix and hacks. Page 372 explains how to use an iPod as your home directory. Page 375 shows you how to establish an open firmware password, for those that need tight security. Page 376 tells you what to do if you forget your password. Page 385 shows you how to enable a Root user. Page 390 explains how to setup a FireWire network. Page 410 shows you how Macs and PCs can both show up in the MSHOME network folder. Page 414 shows you how to create and setup groups. Page 418 teaches you how to lock the keychain, manage it and use it effectively. Page 422 shows you how to setup your printer and share it in a variety of ways. Page 468 explains Macintosh Speech Recognition and how you might use it. Page 483-531 discusses the unix Terminal and teaches you navigation using unix along with several useful unix commands.

If you are looking for a book that will help you learn about the many features in Mac OS X 10.3 Panther, this book will do it. It may take you a few days to get through this 700 page wonder, but you will know Mac OS X Panther much better than when you started.