The Macintosh Bible, 7th Edition

By Sharon Zardetto Aker

PeachPit Press

ISBN 0-201-87483-0

$34.99

Review by Gary Coyne

Even when the Mac was simple, The Macintosh Bible made the Mac easier. This 7th incarnation of what for years has been one of the easiest books to recommend is back from the less than stellar 6th edition. Although only some 20 pages larger than the last edition, it is about 1/2 ý thicker&emdash;and the font is smaller.

For those who are unfamiliar with The Macintosh Bible, this book provides a source for all the basic information: the tricks, tidbits, how-tos, whys, stories behind, and information about the hardware, operating system, programs, fonts, external hardware, and all things Macintosh.

More specifically, this book covers "For Beginners Only," "Hardware," "The Operating System," "Other System Elements," "Productivity Software," "Creativity Software," "Special Areas," "Connections" and "Appendices."

Aside from a treasure trove of information (did you know that you can scroll in a Finder window diagonally?) the Macintosh Bible has snippets and quotes from past years (most from the '80s) to help put our current Mac in perspective. For example, one of the snippets (which are labeled "In the Beginning") reminds us that the Control Panel used to be a desk accessory. The quotes are selected mostly to shock, like the extra 384 kilobytes for the 512 Mac (fat Mac) from the 128 increased the cost about $1000. Others are fun to point out how some predictions didn't stand up to history. For example, "The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a 'mouse.' There is no evidence that people want to use these things." (John C. Dvorak, SF Examiner, Feb. 1984.). All the snippets and quotes are disbursed throughout the book.

The one section in this book that could have been weak but is surprisingly strong is the section on System 8.5. The authors used a beta of the system to work from and and fortunately few things had changed before final release. However, there were a few things in the beta that didn't make the cut in the final product. For example, double arrows on top and bottom (and left and right sides) of a window were in the beta, but a side bar to their explanation comments that the feature was removed before final release. (The feature is back in with the freeware Prestissimo.)

The one missing part of The Macintosh Bible 7th edition appears to be the bundled CD(s) of shareware. In the first or second edition, a floppy of shareware was included; in later editions there were two floppies (one for right brain, one for left), then a CD that could be purchased separately (or bundled together) with the book. The last edition offered two CDs, one made for the Bible, and one was the Berkeley MUG CD. Alas, perhaps the thought was that access to the Internet has made the bundled CDs less necessary.

This reviewer's favorite way to read the book is to set it on the table, close his eyes, open the book up anywhere, and start reading. Try it, I know you'll like it.

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February 09, 2010