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Charles Moore Reviews Mastering Mac OS X Second Edition
Todd Stauffer’s Mastering Mac OS X Second Edition is the second Jaguar-era0 West next book I have reviewed here. I had not read the first edition of this volume, so it is entirely new to me. 
Comparisons with David Pogue’s Mac OS X: The Missing Manual are inevitable, and as regular readers know, I like the Pogue book a lot, but Mastering Mac OS X, while in the same general category of reference, stakes out its own territory, and may appeal to a slightly different sort of reader. For one thing, it’s bigger, with 24 pages of TOC and introduction, 804 pages of body text, plus a 42 page index for a total of 870 pages. That compares with OS X: TMM’s lighter weight but still substantial 712 pages including index. The Stauffer book also lists at $10 more expensive at $39.99. As befits a tome written by the author of the Mac Upgrade And Repair Bible, 124 of these pages are devoted to hardware, troubleshooting, and maintenance, and Stauffer definitely takes a more sleeves-rolled-up, nuts-and-bolts approach to addressing this topic the than the more theoretical Mr. Pogue. Mastering Mac OS X Second Edition is structured in several parts containing 32 chapters, two appendices, and the index. It is organized as a reference book, with parts and chapters divided into topic areas. You can find the Table of Contents in the Appendix to this article. First, a brief overview of the content. Part I, “The Mac OS X Basics, includes a detailed discussion of the title topic, which is appropriate in a book broadly targeted at “all levels” of reader. There tutorials on the essential features of OS X, including things like preemptive multitasking, protected memory, dynamic RAM allocation, multitasking, and so on. There is also information on some of the applications and utilities included with Mac OS X. Part II, “On The Internet,” shows you how to set up individual Macs or entire networks for Internet access. It also contains tutorials on using Mac OS X’s built-in email client, Apple’s online tools from.Mac, and a variety of Web browsers and FTP applications. Pratt III “Multimedia: Images, Sound, and Video,” focuses on Mac OS X as a multimedia platform, and includes tutorials on using graphics and audio files, including technologies and application like QuickTime, iMovie, iTunes, as well as material on MP3s, audio, speech, handwriting recognition, and speech recognition. Part IV, “Networking, Connectivity, and Portables,” shows you have to connect your Mac running OS X with computer networks, and addresses specific issues pertaining to portables like the iBook and TiBook. There is also a chapter on cross-platform support for Windows and Unix documents. Part V, “Advanced Mac OS X Topics,” takes you beyond the Graphical User Interface and into the sometimes forbidding world of scripting, command lines, and server applications. Part VI, “Hardware, Troubleshooting, and Maintenance,” contains five chapters on setup and troubleshooting Macs running OS X, including coverage of peripherals, application troubleshooting, system-level diagnostics, and file maintenance. Chapter 1 is an overview chapter on what Mac OS X is and what’s new in Jaguar. Chapter 2, “The Fundamentals Of OS X provides an excellent tutorial on using the various elements of the Mac OS user interface, Windows, the Dock, menus, etc., while Chapter 3 is dedicated solely to Finder issues like icons and the Trash. Chapter 4 covers using applications in both native and Classic Mode, and includes a sidebar discussion on the pros and cons of having more than one OS 9 System Folder -- i.e.: One for booting directly into OS 9, and another customized for Classic Mode. Chapter 5 walks you through personalizing Mac OS X, and covers issues that may be new to folks switching from the traditional Mac OS, such as managing permissions, and setting up the Dock. An especially useful section in this chapter details the features of each System Preferences pane. Chapter 6 is on using OS X help and the Find utility, while Chapter 7 deals with the sometimes thorny topic of printing from OS X. Chapter 8 tells you all about PDFs, fonts, and color in OS X. Chapter 9 includes tutorials on the Address Book, Apple’s System Profiler, Disk Copy, Text Edit, KeyChain Access, Stickies, and a whole passel of accessories and extras. In Chapter 10, we get into Unix issues -- the Administrator, Permissions, Security, and managing multiple users, while Chapter 11 is on configuring Internet access for both dialup and broadband. Logically, Chapter 12 continues with more Internet-related material, such as choosing a browser, Web security, and using Sherlock 3. I much appreciate that Todd Stauffer doesn’t just include info about Internet Explorer, which is the default browser in OS 10.2 (Safari hadn’t yet been released on this book went to press), but also includes overview discussions and function details on on OmniWeb, iCab, Netscape, Mozilla, and Opera, and actually downplays Internet Explorer’s significance. Good man! There is also a section on Apple’s .Mac services. Chapter 13 continues with discussions on Remote Login, FTP, and iChat. Chapter 14, is the email chapter, and it naturally concentrates mainly on Apple’s OS X Mail app., but also weighs the pros and cons of Entourage, Eudora, the Netscape/Mozilla mail modules, MailSmith, and Powermail. In chapter 15, we move into the world of multimedia, with QuickTime, QuickTime Pro, and digital media, including iTunes, and a section on MP3s. Chapter 16 covers audio, DVD, Speech, and Apple’s InkWell handwriting recognition application. Chapter 17 is all about working with digital images, including a discussion of file formats, the Preview utility, the Grab utility for screenshots, image capture, and iPhoto. Chapters 18, and 19 begin the networking section addressing both LANs and AirPort wireless networks. As I recall, Todd Stauffer is a PowerBook guy, and in this book, iBooks and TiBooks rate a chapter of their own covering specific portable-related OS X issues, including PC cards, IrDA connections, external displays, FireWire disk mode, and battery economy tips. Chapter 21 is on how well by OS X plays with other operating systems - - Windows, Linux, and Unix. Part V, as noted, is on advanced Mac OS X topics, and begins at Chapter 22, which is a tutorial on using AppleScript. Chapters 23 and 24 shed light on the heretofore terra incognita of command lines for traditional Mac users, with a useful little section on Unix philosophy. Chapters 25 and 26 address Web serving, FTP serving, and Net security and network services, and QuickTime streaming. Pat VI is the aforementioned Hardware, Troubleshooting, and Maintenance section, in which you will find helpful information on getting external peripherals and internal hardware upgrades working, hard disk maintenance, file backups, various issue’s dealing with crashes and system hangs, diagnosing application troubles, troubleshooting Classic and Classic applications, and managing extensions in Classic for faster start-up, solving system-level problems, running diagnostic utilities, using command line diagnostics, and protocols for addressing typical system problems. Appendix A is a tutorial on getting OS X installed and set up, including firmware updates and OS 9, while Appendix B is a helpful Classic Mac OS users’ guide to migrating to OS X, detailing where the familiar stuff has gone, or where whenever it’s just gone, and what, if anything, replaces it in OS X. Todd Stauffer uses sensible naming conventions in this book; referring to “OS 9” as a generic for all OS 9.x versions unless there is a specific reason to single out, say, OS 9.2.2; and he references the Classic Mac OS when an even broader generic will suffice. Stauffer is not the prose stylist Pogue is (few are), but he gets his points across personably and effectively. Mastering Mac OS X Second Edition is illustrated with plenty of screenshots. Throughout the book you will also find callout boxes with notes, tips, and warnings interspersed through the body text, as well as sidebars that provide supplemental and expository information on various topics. There is a ton of useful information in this book, organized to be easy to find and thoroughly explained. If you’re looking for a solid and comprehensive reference volume to get you and keep you up to speed on OS X 10.2 Jaguar, you won’t go wrong with this one. I’ giving Mastering Mac OS X Second Edition a full Five-A Applelinks rating.
Mastering Mac OS X Todd Stauffer’s Mastering Mac OS X Web page: Tod Stauffer’s Mac Upgrade site: Appendix Table of Contents Introduction Part I ¥ The Mac OS X Basics Part II ¥ On The Internet Part III ¥ Multimedia: Images, Sound, Video Part IV ¥ Networking, Connectivity, and Portables Part V ¥ Advanced Mac OS X Topics Part VI ¥ Hardware, Troubleshooting, and Maintenance Part VII ¥ Appendices Index
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