Macintosh Systems Books

This is my first computer. It was great to find a manual with illustrations especially for me and my computer! I plan to wear it out...

This is a very helpful and more indepth approach to explaining how your ibook OS system works and the best way to go about things...

First of all let me confess to some insider knowledge of the author. A few years ago I worked in an internet and marketing communications agency alongside a certain Martin C Brown.

By day he provided both high-level IT consultancy (Mac, PC, Unix et al) and ground-level Mac and systems support to a mixed bag of Mac users - ranging from 'Power Users' to 'Just Plain Dumb Users'. By night he was obviously planning world domination of the computer book market... and he probably dashed off a few macros too that enabled him to download his awe-inspiring knowledge of all things Apple Mac straight from brain to paperback in one easy process!

Falling as I do into the 'dumb user' category, the idea of owning a computer (even a user-friendly Mac), but being cut adrift from the expert support of someone like Martin C Brown, scares the hell out of me.

So, IMHO (in my humble opinion), iMacFYI is a must-buy for every iMac owner on this planet. It doesn't matter whether you've been using a Mac since day one or whether you're a more recent convert. I've been a Mac devotee for over 15 years and I was amazed how much I learned on every page of this book. If I was a novice I reckon this book would provide a pretty good return on investment by around page 25 at the latest - and you'd still have over 250 pages left to go!

Flicking through iMacFYI as I finish this review it becomes apparent just what a great mix of hard facts, priceless info and readability this book offers. Virtually every section has a liberal sprinkling of useful screen shots, dialogue boxes, tips and notes. And the question and answer format adopted throughout leaves no stone unturned. Buy it, enjoy - and sleep easy!

iMovie and iDVD are two of the iLife programs that ship with your Macs. Many folks think that, because they are the "simple or basic" programs, that they don't have a lot of features or can't do professional looking movies.

The fact is, you can get VERY nice results with these applications. There was a fellow who won a prize at Sundance Film Festival for a movie he made entirely with a cheap miniDV camera and iMovie. If you have budding aspirations as a filmmaker, or you just want to video a birthday party or wedding, you can get great results, too.

Jeff Carlson's book is aimed at beginner-to-intermediate users. It takes a visual, step-by-step approach. Everything is explained well and accompanied by lots of photos.

I was really pleased to see that he devotes the first 50 pages of the book to explaining how to use the DV camera, including how to take good video to start out with. He covers focus, depth-of-field, lighting, composing your shots, how and when to move the camera, etc. The term "garbage-in-garbage-out" was invented for computers, but it is really true with video and photography, as well.

Part 2 covers iMovie in logical order. He starts with an overview, then tells you how to import footage, edit video, edit still pictures for video, edit audio. He pays nice attention to the audio portion, including how to adjust the audio that came with the video, adding sound effects, music from iTunes and GarageBand, and adding audio from other sources. He also covers transitions, adding titles and making them look good on-screen, and adding visual effects to the movie.

Carlson calls Part 3 "Sharing." He tells you how to get your finished movie back to video tape or export it in other formats, such as QuickTime. Depending on the QuickTime compression scheme, you can put your movie on a CD, the web or send it via e-mail. And ... of course, you can send it to iDVD, complete with chapter markers.

Part 4 tells you everything you need to know to make a DVD. He tells you how to apply themes, customize them, create sub-menus, add chapters to an existing iDVD project, and creating slide shows with background audio. Then, he shows you how to create a project archive and burn the DVD. He finishes up with a chapter on troubleshooting.

This series of books/CD's start showing you from lesson one what you need to know to put together an interactive presentation. It shows you rollovers immediately, and interactively controlling elements on the screen. It is a very good series. After one weekend with this book and the companion Director book, I was able to put together a really well organized and functioning presentation (as long as you know how to use Photoshop as well)

The Internet Starter Kit for Macintosh is a great book and a great bargain especially in the paperback edition.It's highly recommended!!!

If you want to get the absolute most out of iTunes then buy this book, it covers just about everything and answered every question that I ever had about iTunes. I'm now doing things in iTunes that I didn't think were possible with any media player. This is the perfect iTunes how-to book!

Tim Onosko has once again written a standard- setting technical manual. If you want to learn laser typsetting and only want to read one book this is the one to get. Great examples and lucid graphics Beth Abrohams.

I loved MacHack. It is a book full of small programs that were made by a select group of programmers in a period of two days. MacHack is a contest held in Ann Arbor Michigan. The programmers work for two days to make their "hacks", little programs that help people get the most out of the Mac OS. The book is a little old though. It was published in `94, and MacHack is an annual thing, so go to http://www.machack.com to get the latest hacks.

Almost impossible to find now. Title says Integrated Productivity Software, Version 2.0, with complete details and illustrations on how to use the word processor, database, & spreadsheet. Great deal, recommended.