Chuck Toporek has written a fine pocket guide to MacOS 10.5 “Leopard”. I’m normally not an early adopter, but I did buy Leopard recently because I wanted the non-beta version of the Boot Camp utility. I knew there were some other new items in Leopard, but didn’t care too much what they were. Now I am ready to discover all the other new stuff in Leopard and this book really helped me do that.
The beauty of a pocket guide is that this little book, which measures about 4x7x1 inches, is small enough to flip through quickly, store in your laptop bag, or keep on your computer desk without taking much space. Toporek has done a masterful job of packing a LOT of knowledge into a little space. The professionally tasteful formatting of the pages alternates between narrative text chock full of goodness, and well-spaced lists or tables that contain tips and reference information. Greyscale screenshots also appear frequently to enhance the text, and I didn’t miss the colors in those—and I’m sure that not having color keeps the cost of the book reasonable ($14.99US).
Here’s on overview of the chapter contents, but I advise you check out O’Reilly’s website for more detail.
Chapter 1: What’s New in Leopard?
Chapter 2: Mac OS X Survival Guide
Chapter 3: Mac OS X Basics
Chapter 4: System Preferences
Chapter 5: Applications and Utilities
Chapter 6: Configuring Your Mac
Chapter 7: Special Characters
Index
Why did I include the Index in my chapter listing? Because a competent index helps me use the book easily and quickly. The index pages have black edges so you can flip to them instantly. Many of the terms I tried to find in the Index were indeed there, and O’Reilly prints an email address on the footers to encourage readers to suggest more indexing terms for future printings.
OK, back to the “typical” chapters. Chapter 1 explains very well the many new features in Leopard in only 19 short pages (many of them with screenshots). Chapter 2 introduces OS X to new users, including some very good knowledge on security practices for safe computing, but also has interesting content if you’re a long-time OS X user. Chapters 3 though 7 cover the entire OS in greater detail and I’ll let their titles speak for themselves.
While reading, I was constantly aware of new knowledge I thought I’d know by now, but for whatever reason hadn’t learned yet. For example: I learned where an account’s keychain is stored, and that I can look up various user IDs and passwords that are stored in it. I learned I can exclude folders from Spotlight’s indexing and why this can be a great idea (why would anyone want Spotlight to index the spam folder in Mail?). And I learned yet more keyboard shortcuts that can come in handy.
Finally, O’Reilly offers what they call Safari Books Online. When you buy an O’Reilly book, there’s a Web address and coupon code that gets you 45 days access to your book in an online, searchable format. I was able to search on terms like “Bonjour” that weren’t covered well in the paper book’s index and find more results. It appears that, if you by a subscription to this Safari online book service, you can even download PDF files of the book’s chapters. I think Safari Books Online is a good complement to having the paper book on hand.
No book is perfect, and thus I should mention that the book doesn’t cover Bonjour as I would like, the index could still use some improvement, and there are sections where Toporek recommends courses of action to new Mac users that I would argue against. For example, writing that one can save 50MB of space by deleting some utilities if you don’t think you’ll ever need them seems fraught with peril, in my opinion. One Mac user’s trash could be another Mac user’s treasure, and I think this good book could be even better if the author didn’t try to help some readers so specifically. Once a user has deleted standard installation items from their Mac, it would require using the OS installation discs to bring the items back. Sometimes leaving well enough alone is the better advice for newbies, because as they use their Macs they may discover new things to do they never thought they’d want to do. Deleting some apps in the first week of ownership won’t help that potential.
My best complement for Mac OS X Leopard Pocket Guide is that I’m giving it to my friend who just bought his first Mac laptop and is going to be living overseas for a year. This book is small enough and helpful enough to be the perfect reference for him. So there you have it: I enjoyed the book because it reminded me of things I’d forgotten, taught me things I had yet to learn, and yet it is also invaluable for a new switcher to the Mac who might be daunted by a compendium such as the Missing Manual series.
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