Macintosh Books

iMovie 6 & IDVD: The Missing Manual is not what I consider David
Pogue's best work. It is a bit off the mark, spending a great deal of
time on issues related to camcorders to the detriment of the applications.
I would prefer a manual, missing or otherwise, that would apply David's
considerable knowledge and communication ability to the topic.

This book contains a lot of detail about creating DVDs. Many full-color screen shots. I purchased it to help in creating a DVD of my daughter's wedding. One thing it didn't explain in detail though was how to synchronized clips from multiple cameras onto a single audio track. It briefly discusses the subject, but doesn't go into detail about how to sync the clips based on audio or video cues.

Overall though, a very well-written book.

Having Missing Manuals 3 to 5 It is again most difficult to find what's new in Apples Version 6 amongst all the older information contained in the previously published "Manuals". If one was purchasing it for the first time it does a reasonable job.

I recently purchased a Mac and edited my first film - a short documentary - on iMovie.

I had never used iMovie before and a good friend recommended this book and I couldn't have been more pleased. I haven't encountered a problem yet that this book hasn't addressed.

Well-written, simple and practical.

A great resource. Worth your time and money.

This book is a thoroughly attentive-to-detail manual that is true to it's name/concept: The manual that *should* have come in the box! It clearly walks you through every step, big and small as well as including sections on how to improve your filming, editing, and a concise Quicktime how-to.

I recommend reading the entire book before starting an iMovie/iDVD project but if you just can't wait (I couldn't-- I read as I went), I recommend reading Appendix B (pg. 461) which is "Troubleshooting" early on . It includes *many* crucial tips from being sure to format your external HD to Mac OS Extended (if saving on an ext. HD) to switching the factory-setting 12-bit audio on your digital video camera to 16-bit to common 'glitches' while importing, working with or exporting footage.

The other great benefit of this book is it explains the various little 'tricks' for more complicated tasks or for things that are hinky and need a little fiddling to work. One ex.: You use the new iMovie 6 themes w/in iMovie (Pass Through, especially, is slick/professional-looking!) and are trying to use a *trimmed* clip w/in the theme. iMovie doesn't understand starting it where you trimmed because it keeps the trimmed portion of the clip hidden but still there so the undesirable portion of your clip is shown in the intro theme instead. This book explains in detail how to save it to Quicktime and re-import the new *permanently* trimmed clip to use w/ no problems in your themed intro!

This book also spells out the key differences in iMovie 6 vs. previous versions. I HIGHLY recommend this book if you are looking to edit home movie footage (or other) using iMovie (& iDVD) and don't have your own personal Mac Genius in your household. :-)

I have had a copy of this book for about 10 years and it is a great resource for clear and concise layout guidelines.

Last week, I took a look at my son's yearbook committee drafts. Yikes! I just got a copy for them!

A real gem for type novices: brief and structured overview in a non-technical language, with plenty of examples to compare the difference in effect. In my opinion: a must for everyone creating copy (be it a club newsletter, an invitation to a party or a corporate brochure).

I bought the first edition of this book when it came out, and I just bought this copy of the second edition because I wanted it.
This book is an extremely valuable reference book. If you follow the pricniples set forth in this book, your documents will look professional.
Robin Williams if the premier author of Macintosh books, and of books on design. All of her works are more than worth the price.

For first time mac users, this book is a must! It has great pointers and tips to understand some things most people don't know. It shows you differences in symbols, and shows you key commands that are useful and helpful. I learned a lot from this book.

I'm reminded of Shunk and White's "Elements of Style". Short, correct, and invaluable. That's what Robin William's book is for people who care about the look of their written word on a computer. It's easy to make your work look professional and "The Mac is Not a Typewriter" shows you how.

I'm so glad I bought and read this book! I would consider myself very advanced in terms of high-tech and technology, but this book taught me a few things about the phone that would have taken me weeks to learn on my own. Andy writes a great book with a sense of humor that I can relate to, and made the book a joy to read.

I think Andy did a nice job here (the ramblings are real - but not a major distraction). The book is more than just what the iPhone can do - but a rather creative melding of the iPhone with the Web and other resources. While the iPhone applications market is humming - and a few of the ideas not as valuable - it's the creative thought behind the suggestions that I think warrants the purchase.

This book covers Stage II of iPhone operation. That is to say, it's the book for those who have already read & understood the (nonexistent) clear, concise, and complete user's manual. More specifically, this book is nearly entirely focused on adding and managing digital content to your iPhone, to the exclusion of the rest.

This book will *not* help you understand how to navigate the iPhone & iTune, etc, etc. It's litteraly the 2nd book you read. If you buy it to help you get familiar with your new device, you are simply not going to get what you need.

As a side note, the author is quite generous with his brand of geeky humor. I have nothing against geeky humor, but that one didn't agree with my system. I would urge potential buyers to take a quick look at Ihnathko's blog and make sure they are compatible...

If you are a power user of iTune, this is a good book. Otherwise, it might leave you confused.

...but that is what makes his books interesting. The problem with so many "how to" books is that they're boring as watching cheese ferment and I end up falling asleep in bed after barely reading a page. I've never had this problem with any of Andy's books, from the OSX Tiger one, the iPod one or this one. He cracks jokes which helps to keep you engaged with the material, something very few 'Dummies' or 'Complete Guide to' books do.

This book is great for showing you how to do things with the iPhone that it wasn't really intended to do. It's sort of a book on how to 'hack it' without having to actually 'hack it'.

If you don't know how to get your email or how to put music on the iPhone, this is not the guide for you. However, if you're looking at your iPhone and wondering, "hmm, what other interesting stuff can I do with this while I wait for Apple to release Applications for it", then this is the perfect book.

If you're still worried that you might not like the book's style, check out the authors website (his last name dot com) and read some of his review of tech gadgets. If you then think "OMG, I can't stand this guy" what is wrong with you? No seriously, if you find his reviews hard to follow, then this would not be the book for you.

If you're looking for an instruction manual on the basics of the iPhone, this is not your book. Look up the owner's manual on the apple website for free or read one of the many other books on iPhone basics. If you're ready to take the next step in expanding your grasp of not only the iPhone, but also the entire web, this is your book. This book was exactly what I was looking for.
As others mentioned, this book does not describe some of the basic features of the iPhone, but assumes the reader already knows most of these things. It instead delves into how you can utilize web programs and iTunes to your advantage to overcome certain limitations of the iPhone. I have already ready some chapters several times and find new information every time. Andy Ihnatko has a humorous writing style and this was a very enjoyable read. I will continue to reference this book after I have finally retired it from the reading pile.
I will definitely look forward to any future books by Mr. Ihnatko.

Learning not only one but two new operating systems can be a challenge (I have used computers since they filled rooms and ate punch cards, but this is my first foray into Mac ownership). As with all O'Reilly books, this one is well written, explains things clearly, and doesn't assume the reader is a dope. I know the Mac OS world has moved on to Leopard now, but this book is all I need to give me a solid understanding of the underpinnings of the operating system before I move on as well.

A small amount of background. I started out using Dos 3.0 - and have always used Microsoft products. Up until about the year 2000 when I got a job as a computer tech as a high school that used alot of Macs. I learned to love the Mac almost overnight and haven't purchased a PC since. When OS X came out I was apprehensive about the shell. I knew DOS like the back of my hand, but I didn't know ANY unix commands and really wanted to learn. The unix books I ordered all seemed to be more advanced or for ABSOLUTE beginners. This book is more like the books on DOS I remember, showing you step by step how to command the shell in Mac OS X, and since the shell is always the same in OS X (unless you customize it) you know this books' information will work. Now after reading this book, I'm going back to the more advanced Unix books and they are making much more sense to me - and the best part is I've been recently learning Linux (Ubuntu to be precise) and have had to troubleshoot a video card issue. Without having read this book, I would be totally lost! If you've got a Max with OS X and want to learn Unix this book is perfect!

The book seems to me an excellent reference in order to introduce the reader in the language which supports Mac OS X. I think the interested user of Mac has, with this book, the opportunity to know something more than doing click on a series of windows. The author points out in his preface the existence of such projects as the Fink and DarwinPorts ones whose purpose is to develop free software for Mac. In my opinion, that's useful and valuable since not only the standard user of Mac does not know those projects, but also because being involved with this kind of software, the user is forced to learn something more than doing click on the appropriate window menus. The author explains concepts clearly so that the reader can understand them easily. Probably, the book is not intended to help the experienced user; I think that such a user is concerned with Unix, not Unix for operating systems based on it.

This book is easy to read and a good intro. to using Unix on the Mac, and the Terminal. It has enough information for most command line work, and will overwhelm you with some stuff that you are unlikely to use in other areas.

Get the Sobell Unix for Mac OC X Users...it's by far a superior value, and provides in-depth coverage...Dave Taylor's book just scratches the surface...I'm glad I took out from the Library first...read it in an hour and decided to get the Sobell text, you'll thank me later...Unix for Tiger is like the Cliffs notes edition for the Complete Works of William Shakespeare

great book not to be missed by people who like to start a carrier in film editing, it stars from the basics a a camera shot and builds up to cutting etc. I have found it very useful even as a handbook.

Michael Wohl has written a book. This book is an exercise of self-publicity and little else. It is a very messy conglomerate of his experience as an editor, director and Final Cut Pro user but not a rigorous or well written book about any of the themes he intends to cover. The coverage of Final Cut Pro is poor and simplistic. (There is nothing here that you cannot learn in the manuals or in a few hours exposed to the software). His comments and examples about his experience as an editor are pretty simplistic and do not inspire or entertain, and most of all don't teach a lot about the craft of editing. He also keeps refering to a movie he directed to give examples of typical situations encountered by editors but, this feels utterly incomplete without the inclusion of a sample of his movie on CD ROM or DVD. You can make comments about a movie and learn from it only if it is available to you. To summarise, this is a very dissapointing book which will not satisfy any of the areas it intends to talk about. Its only redeeming feature are the interviews with famous editors, but apart from that, this book is intended to absolte beginners with no experience whatsoever.

When I got this book I openned the first few pages and kept going on. It seems to me that anyone who helped create a program will certainly know how it works or that's what we think. Micheal is and editor with many years of experience and he shows you the different ways you can use FCP. Don't buy this for problem solving to FCP, buy it as a good reference book when you need to learn different ways to edit. It's like a good cook book , you can always pick it off the shelf and look for something new to cook.

If you are serious about Film Editing, you are probably already been looking at books like Shot by Shot by Steven Katz, and checking out local training courses. You may also be trying to learn how to use Final Cut Pro, and checking out the many books on that topic.

This book could save you a lot of time and effort, by combining both subjects into one. It teaches, from a completely practical viewpoint, how to frame and edit shots. It also discusses how to use Final Cut Pro in order to achieve the right effect. There are also sections on sound, special effects and distribution - and again, all are realistically explained.

At every point, real-world editing examples are used, so it's not simply a discussion of every menu option. There are plenty of screenshots, and even though it doesn't cover the very latest version of FCP, everything is still 100% relevant.

After working through the huge pile of paper that is the FCP manual set, this book should be next on your list. It will tell you which features you will actually need to know, and pass on some very useful cinematic editing information at the same time.

This book is not for someone looking to learn the basics of Final Cut Pro, the manual and other books are better at that, but this book is a MUST for anyone looking to learn about editing and are going to be doing it in FCP.

Other FCP books teach you the program primarily, this book is about editing and the skills and techniques you need to do it well.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Diana Weynand has created a wonderful course that takes you from the very basics of moving files around on your Mac to creating very polished complete videos. I'm on my second reading and I plan to go back for a third look because there's just so much information transmitted. If you want to start making your own home videos you should definitely pick up this book.

I read a lot of software manuals, and I'm very picky. Many authors seem to know their subject, but not necessarily how to transmit their knowledge to neophytes. Diana Weynand is first-rate at understanding the mindset of the beginner, and at leading the student by the hand in a way that makes the material seem self-evident. She'll sometimes direct you to do something not-quite-correctly, so that she can then point to the error and say, in effect, "See what happens when you do that?" The exercises she presents in each chapter are superb. I learned the program thoroughly.

It takes some time to go through the exercises but I'm up and going now editing my own films. A typical guy, I hate reading directions but sometimes it is necessary. What negative feelings I have about this product are due to the fact I hate the necessary learning curve in learning a "substantial" software product. If only the old iMovie HD product had added an extra video track and kept its wonderful characteristics. I would be happy as a clam. It seems to me that FCE is like Photoshop in that one can accomplish the same task in a number of different ways. Learning all these options takes time. No way around it. Also, like photoshop, one can get competent on FCE without using ALL it offers. Anyway, this manual does explain things well although laboriously. As I start editing my own movies I find the manual very helpful when I forget something. I can go back and reread the chapter I need and move on. I have accepted that only time and repetition will make me competent on FCE and that, at some point, I will love this software. But, at this point I need a how to manual to get started. This training product did what it promised and will be near my computer in the near future as I edit my movies and need to refresh my knowledge base.

I ordered this for my wife to edit our home movies and she seems to like it. The new version of iMovie in the MAC iLife suite was a little stripped down, so we were looking for something that would have plenty of features, but not be too time consuming to learn to use. Final Cut Express seems to have done the trick.

This book has been very helpful as I have embarked into the field of video editing.

Arrived on time, exactly what I asked for, great condition, no problems. I would definitely order again!

This book, not surprisingly as a Cecil's line book, is wonderful.The material is great, the figures are rich, well printed and make even more easier to comprehend what is written. The texts are very comprehensive, the subdivisions inside the book and the colorful appearance make it very practical, easy and fast to consult. I find all the answers i'm looking for, in an "uptodated" manner, based on reliable and recent articles published even at 2007, making me feel that I have reliable information and the newest scientific knowledge available in the world. I feel it is what i used to need as my Clinical medicine book. I received it in the 18th business day after my purchase, that means exactly inside the period of time i was told by "Amazon.com".

Easy to consult, the new edit. is simply fantastic.
Items 're treated no so in depth like the standard of Harrison but... each chapter of the book is a review, written by authors at the top of the scentific scene.
It's very uptodate abt the bibliograf.and the diagnostic and therapeutic approach to every problem is practical and evidence based.
I tell you, the book is ok not only for a student but for every phis. very busy in clinical practice.
I've studied internal medicine on Harrison, Kelley, Stein and some old edts of Cecil (It's with regret that Kelley and Stein disappeared probably for editorial policy) and now i can say that the new edt of Cecil is the best.
Now it will be interesting to see if the good Harrison in the next edts will change the style of the layout.....well i'm afraid yes.

You may just be interested in only Harrison's and may ignor Cecil's. But if you pay some attentions and seriously consider Cecil's, I am sure you will find out a lot of superb practical chapters and approaches to patients. Many of the chapters were written by world experts and authorities. Compared with Harrison's, Cecil's may contain more world experts and authorities. Many many chapters, written by the authors from the major well known subspecialty textbooks, were excellent and easy to understand. I highly recommend this textbook to medical students, internal medicine residents and internists.

The new Cecil (23rd edition) set a new high standard for an Internal Medicine Textbook. Up until now Harrison has been my standard textbook but with the 23rd Cecil, I have to say:" Hasta la vista, Harrison" . I have been using it for the past few weeks and I must say I am very impressed.

The quality of printing is superb; the book is filled with color figures, useful algorithms (better than UptoDate's), beautifical clinical pictures, and highly intelligent use of color text. Of course, the authors of such an important textbook are the Who's who in medicine, but the style of writing is not as condescending as Harrison's. The therapy section of each disorder is also highly practical and highly current. The use of the principle of evidence based medicine and the incorporation of treatment guidelines made this textbook highly modern. Even psychosocial oriented practitioners will enjoy the psychiatry chapter in this book: the discussion of psychopharmacology of various disorders is deep without being long-winded.

I have been using Medstudy for my board recertification, but now I am spending more time flipping through Cecil than any other Internal Medicine books. For day to day use in the clinic, UptoDate is slightly more up-to-date. But for learning and studying, Cecil is much more practical and it is an extremely good-buy. I just love those algorithms.

Drs. Goldman and Ausiello, thank you for your wonderful book. And now Harrison's editors have to try to play catch up with your excellant work. Residents will soon be quoting from Cecil's rather than Harrison's in morning round as the ultimate authority in Internal Medicine.

Cocoa is an OO framework for programming for Mac OS X. It has a vast amount of classes, protocols, and even functions. Thought Apple has done a great job of advancing and improving their own documentation on Cocoa over the last 2 or 3 years, you have to have a certain amount of familiarity with the framework to get your way around it. This book would be your best bet for such a guide on Cocoa. I've been using this book for a year now, and it has never let me down. It helped me to develop over the time that unique way of thinking, which you need to have to be productive and effective user of any framework. Thank you guys for writing this great book!
On a side note, I should say that the publisher has not done its job with book layout and such, so don't be intimidated by its size, it could have been much slimmer.

About the relevance. Yes, the book was written before even 10.2 came up, but it still has its purpose fulfilled. Yes, there is nothing in it on Cocoa bindings, but as I said in the beginning, it will give you a good start to get your way around the Cocoa reference documentation to find all the details. I urge the authors to update the book in the light of the recent developments.

To conclude, if you are serious about staring the software development in Cocoa on Mac OS X, this is the BOOK to read and have around.

I've really gotten a lot out of this book, and I would highly recommend it, except for the fact that it came out in 2002 and only covers 10.1 (with an appendix entry discussing the new features in the "up-coming 10.2"). Many of the methods documented here have been long since "deprecated."

If you can find this book at a reasonable price, it would pair well with a more current book. I found it contained valuable information not present in some of the more recent books.

If this guy ever releases an updated version of this book, I would buy it in a Nano-second (a little iPod humour there)(Yeah, very little).

Disclaimer: I am one of the authors.
Cocoa Programming provides intermediate and advanced programmers with the knowledge and techniques to produce powerful full-featured Cocoa applications. Cocoa Programming communicates the wisdom and design experience of three top-notch veteran Cocoa developers and includes technical information and insights that are not available from any other source.

Cocoa is Apple's powerful and mature object oriented development technology for creating Mac OS X applications quickly and efficiently. Apple recommends that all new applications written for Mac OS X use Cocoa. Cocoa is distinguished from other object-oriented development environments in several ways: Cocoa is mature, consistent, and broad. Cocoa is based on a cross-platform specification and has evolved from a cross-platform implementation. Cocoa is extraordinarily extensible, flexible, and dynamic in part because of Objective-C, the language used to implement it.

This comprehensive book covers virtually every aspect of Cocoa application development from the tools used to build programs to sophisticated multi-media and low level implementation details. Topics ranging from client-server networking to game development are covered. Examples that can be used directly in application code and a companion Web site, http://www.cocoaprogramming.net/, provide a treasure chest of reusable objects that illustrate the best practices developed through years of use.

This book is great for people who want to develop serious Mac OS X applications.

(Review written July 2004, reposting because it disappeared) This is a big book, so I was at first leery about whether I would be able to get through it without becoming depressed or lost. I did get through it, I didn't get lost, and I felt in capable hands all the way through. Furthermore, it was worth every minute of time I put into reading it.

Although there are three authors of this book, listed alphabetically on the front cover, it reads as if written by a single author. It becomes readily apparent that the authors know Cocoa as well as the best programmers know it. But even more important to me was that they craft every single sentence with care for the context they're building, and they don't violate our faith with out of context material. Time and time again I was silently appreciating their skill and care for quality writing.

This is a good reference book. However, if you know nothing about creating web sites it may be of little use. Also, if you wish to start a blog or a blogging business, this book is NOT for you! It only talks about [...], which is so easy to use it hardly deserves a chapter.

Now a days, creating a web site is more about design than development; resources exist on the internet where millions of web developers will share their ideas and creativity for free - but how does one access it and where are these resources located?? The Missing Manual Series, Creating Web Sites addresses these questions and more. This book is an excellent starter book for those who are just getting their feet wet in the world of web design, development and programming, but that's not to say that an expert wouldn't find this book a handy resource. Creating Web Sites also answers a lot of questions that I had about different aspects of web development. The section on e-commerce and the other web resources referenced within the book, points you to the right places in which to grab code, and get ideas to build great web sites. The Missing Manual series is one that I recommend to everyone (this is the 2nd book from the series I own) - all the books are very thorough, but easy to follow; if you're a novice this book should be required, if you're a pro this should be a handy resource to add to your library.

Some of the introductions are a little dated (i.e. jokes that reference beanie babies, etc.), but the other content of the book is still pretty current. This is a really helpful book for the beginning web designer. It is definitely a good reference to have, espically for design students. This book covers things that appear in the software Dreamweaver. It discusses codes for things such as CSS, HTML, etc.

A great book for any novice trying to build a web site. The book is divided into clear sections each giving excellent advise and information. I recommend this to anyone starting a web site. If you are fortunate enough to have Dreamweaver software for web creating I also strongly recommend "Dreamweaver 8 - The Missing Manual.

I have been searching for a good, fairly insightful, starter book on what to do to set up a website, that wasn't too advanced or way to boring.

This is it! The author knows his stuff, brings it into the learning forum in such a way that you are excited to read the next section and re-read for additional insights previously completed sections.

I am going to use this book, and will probably buy more by the same author/publisher.

All I can say is that the book arrived on time and was in good condition. It was the first time I have ordered from your book list boyh new and used. Rest assured I will certainly do it again.

Received the product quickly. The book has a multitude of ideas and shortcuts that look to be valuable. However, the book is not one that you sit down and read. I expect it to be a valuable reference for me in my Mac learning process.

I am a Mac fossil, having used Macs since they first appeared. I have bought more than a few (!) of Scott Kelby's "Killer Tips" books, always useful, if you like the format; i.e., being able to jump in anywhere. Most tech books begin with the basics and become more advanced with progressive chapters. I have those, too, and the encyclopedia types, "bibles" and "missing manuals."

The Tips books appeal to me because they present both "a review and what's new." Even the most veteran Mac user can appreciate a review of certain tips. After all these years, I still find myself saying, "Oh, yeah. I forgot about that."

Well thought out and easy to digest, the Tips books are great because they can be read at any point in the book. I keep one in the car, and read it when I get stuck in traffic, or when I have an appointment and spend time in a waiting area. Recently, I spent an hour waiting for a routine car maintenance checkup, took this book, and learned a few tips that save so much time, plus deepened my understanding of Tiger. That's how I see these books: if I learn even a few tips that enhance my Mac knowledge and skills, they are well worth the money.

It's easy to become overwhelmed with (way) too much information. My philosophy is to learn something every day. The Tips books help. They're sort of like taking a daily Mac vitamin to keep my knowledge base intact--and always growing.

Very good book for getting hints that are not only helpful and productive, but just increase your knowledge.

Great tips delivered with a terrific sense of humor