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Charles Moore Reviews Mac OS X: The Missing Manual - Second Edition
Something I soon discovered after installing OS X 10.2 Jaguar was that my 9 month old copy of David Pogue’s Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, along with the half-dozen or so other first-generation OS X reference books I have on hand, had become semi-obsolete overnight. They were still a whole lot better than having no OS X references, but when I was having trouble trying to get Jaguar’s Inkwell handwriting recognition to work for instance, there was of course no mention of that feature in the OS X 10.1 books. Ditto for the new “Find” utility, which has been hived off from Sherlock in OS 10.2. Such is the way of computer software books, which tend to have a very short useful life. Happily, David Pogue and O’Reilly end Associates, Inc. have managed to get the second edition of Mac OS X: The Missing Manual off the presses in timely fashion, with content expanded from 581 to 712 pages covering the more than 150 new features and myriad other changes in OS X. 10.2 
Of course, they’re always shooting at a moving target, and the new book doesn’t cover the 10.2.2 upgrade of Jaguar, while 10.2.1 only gets a cursory and obviously last-minute prelease sketch in a sidebar, but the essentials of the new generation of OS X are addressed in detail. David Pogue says that’s you won’t find a page in the book that hasn’t been revised from the first edition, and of course there are those 131 extra pages as well. I was pleased that in the introduction, Mr. Pogue notes:
Which is of course why this book and others of similar genre are, IMHO, an absolutely obligatory resource for smoothing the transition from the Classic Mac OS or Windows to OS X, or even in this case also from OS 10.1 to OS 10.2. Once the things I immediately found useful about OS X: TMM second edition is its identification and notification of of features that have been added or changed since OS 10.1. Some of these I already knew about of course, like the restoration of spring loaded folders in the Finder, but some of the more subtle touches were news, like the new search bar in every Finder window for searching within that window, or a new optional second line under an icon’s name that will tell you how many items are in a folder. I hadn’t noticed those. And indeed with good reason with respect to the search bar. It, like the Inkwell InkBar, is simply not showing up in my installation of Jaguar. I’m not sure why that is, perhaps I really do need a clean install and run the Pismo firmware update, but those matters are presumably idiosyncratic to my computer and I won’t belabor them here. As with other volumes in the “Missing Manual” series, this book is intended to serve as the “book that should have been in the box.” I’ll also spare you my boilerplate rant about the flimsy pamphlets and brain dead on-line Help files that ship with software these days in lieu of the real printed manuals that used to be supplied. I suppose this deficiency helps keep prices down, and the alternative is of course to buy a “missing manual” type book. I also noticed that the second edition of OS X: TMM takes a more inclusive approach than the first edition did, the latter having been exclusively for the benefit of erstwhile OS 9 users and fans. The new book, with a nod to Apple’s “Switch” ad campaign, also addresses those who are making the forward migration to OS X from Microsoft Windows. One of the things David Pogue does very well, and which is probably a significant reason why he is the number one best-selling Mac book author, is his ability to address readers at all technical levels from beginner to power user without alienating the former with geek-speak, or boring the latter with elementary minutia. He has an admirable ability to strike a sweet spot balance between the two that will not be off-putting to either. However, the all things to all readers in effect is further amplified and enhanced by the liberal inclusion of miniature sidebar articles, variously categorized as “Up To Speed,” (containing introductory information that power users will want to skip), and “Power Users Clinic” (stuff of interest to the technically erudite, but likely over the heads of neophytes). Mac OS X: The Missing Manual - Second Edition is organized into six parts, each containing several chapters. Part One - The Mac OS X Desktop, covers everything you see on the screen when you boot up a Mac, such as the Dock, icons, windows, menus, scroll bars, the Trash, aliases, the Apple Menu, and so on. Part Two - Applications in Mac OS X, discusses, well, the applications you use in OS X, such as email programs, browsers, word processors, graphics programs, spreadsheets, etc. This section also includes information about running a pre Mac OS X programs in Classic Mode. Part Three - the Components Of Mac OS X, is a detailed discussion of the underpinnings of the operating system, including a guided tour of the system and applications folders on your hard drive. Part Four - The Technologies Of OS X, discusses networking and modem connections, accounts configurations, fonts, printing, graphics, multimedia, sound, speech, movies, and the Unix that lies beneath. Part Five - Mac OS X Online covers the Internet-related features of Mac OS X, including the Mail email client, Sherlock, and iChat, Apple’s ,mac Internet services, and the UNIX command line. Part Six - Appendices, includes six of the latter: Appendix A - installing Mac OS X 10.2 Appendix B - troubleshooting Appendix C - The “Where’d It Go?” Dictionary (Mac version) Appendix D - The “Where’d It Go?” Dictionary (Windows version) Appendix E - Where To Go From Here (Websites; advanced books; email lists) Appendix F - The Master OS X Keystroke List For a complete outline of the book’s contents, see the table of contents in the Appendix to this article. Along with the previously mentioned “Up To Speed” and Power User Clinic” sidebar articles, and other sidebar headings include “Gem In The Rough,” “Workaround Workshop,” “Frequently Asked Question, “ and “Don’t Panic.” As in the first edition, this book is lavishly illustrated, mostly with screenshots. I’m not going to attempt to exhaustive list here all of the new OS 10.2.2 features and wrinkles that are covered in Mac OS X: The Missing Manual Second Edition. There are too many, and anyway that is what the book itself is for. Suffice to say that in my first serious sitdown with the book, I learned of whole raft of things I hadn’t discovered in a couple of months of using a Jaguar. However, a few of the new topics covered that may be of particular interest include a section on exchanging data with Windows PCs; the return of an excellent tutorial on using AppleScript; the sections on Sherlock 3, iChat, and iCal; the new clean install feature; and, if you’re switching from Windows, the handy “ Where’d it go?” dictionary (Windows edition). In summary, Mac OS X: The Missing Manual - Second Edition, like OS x 10.2 Jaguar itself, is a solid and worthwhile upgrade from the original. If you’re using OS X 10.2, in my estimation you need a book like this. There are, and will be more OS X Jaguar books, but this one won’t disappoint. I’m giving OS X: The Missing Manual Second Edition a full, five-A Applelinks rating.
For more information about the book, see: Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Second Edition
Appendix Table of Contents Introduction Part One: The Mac OS X Desktop Chapter 1: Folders and Windows Chapter 2: Organizing Your Stuff Chapter 3: Dock, Desktop, and Toolbar Part Two: Applications in Mac OS X Chapter 4: Programs and Documents Chapter 5: Back to Mac OS 9 Chapter 6: Moving Data Chapter 7: An Introduction to AppleScript Part Three: The Components of Mac OS X Chapter 8: System Preferences Chapter 9: The Free Programs Chapter 10: CDs, DVDs, and iTunes Part Four: The Technologies of Mac OS X Chapter 11: One Mac, Many Users Chapter 12: Networking Chapter 13: Graphics, Fonts, and Printing Chapter 14: Sound, Movies, Speech, and Handwriting Chapter 15: Terminal: Doorway to Unix Chapter 16: Fun with Unix Chapter 17: Hacking Mac OS X Part Five: Mac OS X Online Chapter 18: Internet Setup, the Firewall, and .Mac Chapter 19: Mail and Address Book Chapter 20: Sherlock 3, iChat, and iCal Chapter 21: SSH, FTP, VPN, and Web Sharing Part Six: Appendixes Appendix A: Installing Mac OS X 10.2 Appendix B: Troubleshooting Appendix C: The “Where’d It Go?” Dictionary Appendix D: The “Where’d It Go?” Dictionary Appendix E: Where to Go from Here Appendix F: The Master OS X Keystroke List
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