The Macintosh Bible - Softcover

3.88

8 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 020170899X ISBN 13: 9780201708998

Publisher: Peachpit Pr, 2001

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The original and much-imitated Macintosh Bible has undergone a complete rehaul--and returned to its roots. The Macintosh Bible, Eighth Edition is the most comprehensive volume ever, and like the original, was written by a group of Macintosh community leaders, each an expert in his or her subject.

Fully updated to cover Mac OS 9 and X, The Macintosh Bible, Eighth Edition exhaustively covers the spectrum of Macintosh computing. This all-in-one reference is everything to everyone: Beginners will appreciate the clearly organized, matter-of-fact approach, and veteran Mac users will find new tips, shortcuts, and tidbits of Mac trivia in every chapter. The Mac has changed a lot in the two years since the last edition, and this one fills all the gaps, with sections on the latest iMacs, iBooks, and G4s; iMovie, desktop video, and other multimedia; new developments in the Internet and the Web; USB and FireWire; and more. It's a must-have addition to any Mac library.

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Review:

To listen to some Macintosh fans, you'd think they take the title of The Macintosh Bible literally. Their fondness for their computers can verge on zealotry. It's easy to understand why, though: the latest Macs are the best ever, capable of handling home computing with style and business computing efficiently. Macs, as they always have, also excel at specialized work with publications and graphics. The Macintosh Bible introduces its readers to the full range of modern Macs' capabilities, leaving them well prepared to buy, configure, use, and troubleshoot their computers. Clifford Colby and Marty Cortinas aren't as good as some other Mac writers at conveying the liveliness of the Mac-user culture--authors David Pogue and Robin Williams excel in that area--but they and their collaborators have done a great job of compiling facts, procedures, and ideas about Macs and their software.

For a how-to book, this one is unusually dense with text, and that's a good thing. After all, most aspects of Macs are pretty easy to figure out unaided, so it stands to reason that when you turn to a book for help you'll want the kind of detailed explanations that the authors provide here. There's lots of information on the history of Mac products, as well as peripherals offered by third-party vendors. Procedural details about how to do work in Mac OS X and other programs are right on, though more information about the Unix underpinnings of Mac OS X would be nice (there's hardly any, a characteristic typical of most recent Mac books). Background information about, for instance, how database management programs work also helps novices and intermediate users gain familiarity with the Mac environment. --David Wall

Topics covered: How to use a modern Macintosh computer, at a level suitable for someone new to Macs or moderately experienced with them. Coverage of hardware options, third-party software, productivity tools, utilities, and local area networks (LANs) is nice, though there's little coverage of AppleScript, Cocoa, or other programming subjects.

From the Publisher:

The original and much-imitated Macintosh Bible has undergone a complete rehaul--and returned to its roots. The Macintosh Bible, Eighth Edition is the most comprehensive volume ever, and like the original, was written by a group of Macintosh community leaders, each an expert in his or her subject.

Fully updated to cover Mac OS 9 and X, this eighth edition exhaustively covers the spectrum of Macintosh computing. This all-in-one reference is everything to everyone: Beginners will appreciate the clearly organized, matter-of-fact approach, and veteran Mac users will find new tips, shortcuts, and tidbits of Mac trivia in every chapter. The Mac has changed a lot in the two years since the last edition, and this one fills all the gaps, with sections on the latest iMacs, iBooks, and G4s; iMovie, desktop video, and other multimedia; new developments in the Internet and the Web; USB and FireWire; and more. It's a must-have addition to any Mac library.

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