Cool Mac Gear

In some respects, writing a small reference book about a topic as complex as Mac OS X is more of a challenge than writing a doorstop-sized tome. Figuring out what can be safely left out is the trick.

Chuck Toporek, the Macintosh editor at O’Reilly & Associates Inc., has tackled the job with his new “Mac OS X Pocket Reference: A User’s Guide to Mac OS X” which, at 103 pages plus index, is the slimmest OS X volume I’ve reviewed here.

However, Chuck has managed to pack an amazing amount of useful information into a book that really will fit in your trousers back pocket (I just tried it).

The Pocket Reference is intended to be a light and portable guide to OS X -- a book you can keep by the computer or carry around with you for quick and convenient information lookups for individual users or for companies starting to migrate to Mac OS X from earlier versions of the Mac OS, Windows, and from other flavors of Unix. IT managers looking for a quick reference guide to get users started quickly will find it in this Pocket Reference.

Topics covered in the book include:
• How to configure your Mac OS X system
• How to use the Finder and the Dock
• An overview of keyboard shortcuts for use with the GUI and the Terminal
• How to create special characters and symbols

Part I, Mac OS X Survival Guide, is aimed mainly at 0S X newbies, whether they be migrating from the legacy Mac OS, or forward migrating from Windows or Unix. Topics covered are user interface differences between OS X and OS 9, and a corresponding reference for people coming to Mac OS X from non-Mac platforms -- a nice touch that I haven’t seen handled as concisely in other Mac OS X books.

Part II, Mac OS Basics, is a mini-tutorial in how to navigate and operate the 0S X Aqua Finder interface, covering things like window configuration; icon, list, and column views; toolbars; keyboard shortcuts; the Dock of course; the Classic environment; multiple users setup; and System administration.

Part III, System Tools, guides you through the basics of setting System Preferences, and provides capsule descriptions of the functions and features of the 30 or so system-related applications and utilities that come with 0S X as well as the 10 developer tools.

Amazingly, in a book of this size, Chuck Toporek devotes 20 pages -- nearly a 5th of the book’s content -- to Part IV, a tutorial on Mac OS X Unix Basics -- configuring and using the Terminal, command line editing with tsch, shell commands, and basic Unix commands. It won’t be a substitute for, say, the 900 pages that John and William Ray donate to the same topic in their “Mac OS X Unleashed,”; but it’s the most user-friendly treatment of the topic I’ve seen.

The final 30 pages of the book’s text, Part V - Task And Setting Index -- shows the reader how to configure and administer Mac OS X using the System Preferences, applications, and utilities that were briefly reviewed in Part III, and then concludes with a table that lists the special characters you can create from the 0S X keyboard.

This section of the book endeavors to provide shorthand instructions to configuring and using 0S X as quickly as possible, and switches to a “How do I. . . . “ question and answer format as the most concise approach to achieving this.

Tasks covered are divided into 10 categories:

Customizing The System
Files and Folders
Fonts and Font Management
Searching For and Locating Files
Obtaining Information About The System
Internet, Web, and Email
Modems and Dial-up Networking
Printer Configuration and Printing
Maintenance and Troubleshooting

A big order for just 30 pages!

Here’s an example:

[How do I] configure a modem for dialing into my ISP?

Go to System Preferences -> Network, and follow these steps:

1. Select a New Location from the Location pull-down menu. Enter a name for the new location (for example My ISP), and click OK

2. Select Internal Modem from the Show pull-down menu.

3. In the TCP/IP panel, select Using PPP from the Configure pull-down menu.

4. Fill in the blanks on the PPP panel.

5. Select your modem type from the Modem panel.

6. Click the Apply Now button.

Here’s another:

[How do I] erase a CD-RW drive or hard drive?

Applications -> utilities -> disk utility -> select the CD or disk -> Erase

Not exactly in-depth tutorials, and Mac OS X Pocket Reference will not replace a full-featured OS X book like David Pogue’s excellent ”Mac OS X: The Missing Manual,”; for which this book is suggested as a companion volume, but when you need the bare-bones info in a hurry, the Pocket Reference will likely have what you’re looking for. And to that end, the very thorough 10 page index will prove helpful.

Mac OS X Pocket Reference is not heavily illustrated, but there are quite a few graphs and screen shots inserted throughout the text were appropriate.

If you’re not into reading lengthy and detailed manuals, but still need some help with OS X from time to time, this book is for you. Literary it’s not, and I can’t critique its prose style because there really isn’t any, but it delivers Mac OS X Pocket Reference delivers on what it’s advertised to do and sells for a modest $12.95. As is typical of O’Reilly books, the design, layout, an organization of the book are first-rate.

I’m giving Mac OS X Pocket Reference a 4-A Applelinks rating.

Mac OS X Pocket Reference
A User’s Guide to Mac OS X

By Chuck Toporek
May 2002
0-596-00346-3, Order Number: 3463
124 pages, $12.95 US $20.95 CA £8.95 UK

For more information, visit:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/macosxpr/

Charles W. Moore