Macintosh Books

This book is good if you still need to know HTML to create websites. However, if you are using a program such as GoLive or similar, where you don't need to know HTML, this book is ancient. It is interesting to read though, about how sites used to be created. It's from 1997, so it isn't that old, but most of the info inside is irrelevant to those who already know what they are doing.

I really interested in the web pages. I have seen very beautiful web pages for garment, books,places, jewelery, etc. I like to create web page for my business if you can guide me about this topic which I can find in the book.

This book was extremely useful when it comes to setting up web pages quickly. The author does not waste your time, but gives you accurate information, concisely, in a format that will allow you to complete projects on time. The book is not high art -- it is more like a software manual. If you are a designer and already use Quark Xpress, you will find the chapter on converting those files very helpful; and if you are a print designer, the information on adding sound is invaluable. Overall, it is a great place to start

I found a Visual Guide for the Mac confusing the author assumes you already know what the tools are and where they are located. I was also flustrated by working thru more than one example only to find you had to leave Illustrator to perform a task in Adobe Streamline. Well guess what I don't have Adobe Streamline. I found Adobes Users Guide and tours far more informative. A Video would get this information across far better.

Regarding Adobe Illustrator: A Visual Guide for the Mac - A step-by-step approach to learning illustration software...

Inspiring projects, of which you probably would need to know the program before tackling them.

I'm only surprised and disappointed that these two excellent authors, Janet and Linnea have not done a revise as Adobe Illustrator 8 is way new and greatly improved since 1995. Hence only 4 stars, but 5 thumbs up if they ever released a revise!

If you're looking for projects to do, and you know your way around Illustrator, this is a great book to pick up for your library.

This book is one of my favorite graphic design books. I can't believe no one else has written a customer review! "Adobe Illustrator:A Visual Guide for the Mac" shows examples of things you need to do in Illustrator, and how to get them done. The authors make skillful use of the step-by-step approach. The examples and projects are visually appealing and the instructions are clear and easy to follow. I especially like the section on creating vector art with a hand drawn look, "Softening the postscript line," and the section on manipulating and coloring clip art,"Modifying clip art." Although this book was written in 1995 for version 5 or 6, the instructional techniques work just fine in Illustrator version 7. This book is simply jam-packed, from cover to cover, with useful advice, ideas, and detailed instructions for creating and working with vector art. I highly recommend it as a must-have for any desktop publisher, graphic designer or digital illustrator.

Great Amazon Price as usual.
This Book is written by a pro and made easy for us to follow, he knows his stuff and teaches us some invaluable tricks.
Apple Logic Pro is going to be around for a long time, like everything Apple touches it shines and this book is a great start to help you learn alot more that the basics.
Lastly try maprovideo.com, I can't think of better tutorials at better prices on the net than those pros teach.
I Highly recommend this book.

I thought i was going to find inside this book a large amount of tips & tricks about which plug-ins and shortcuts are most useful to take advantage of logic pro at the max. But wasn't it. If you are already a logic user, don't buy this book. You already know everything if you have spent some time trying the different features inside logic. It's just a technical book, it's just like the manual sorted in different way. Manual is sorted by windows/options. This book is sorted by necessities, and the information contained is almost the same.
A good book if you are a bit lazy to explore logic. You have a dvd with examples that you could do yourself. Not a good book if you already know which plug-ins are available in LP8 and what use them for.

This is an excellent book. But it's still just an introduction to Logic Pro 8. The reader is treated as a relative beginner without the instructions being over-simplified. It's well worth the read just to get familiar with the new keyboard shortcuts. Most chapters are updated from the previous `Advanced LP7' book, but with all the new navigation techniques explained. There are several chapters that are completely remade with great projects and fascinating results. Even `The Environment' exercise was actually fun. A more advanced book in this series would be much appreciated, with lots of midi editing and mixing techniques. Also, a demonstration of the `MainStage' and `Logic Nodes' programs that come packaged with LP8 now would be helpful.

I am not a fan of the "paint by numbers" method of learning from books. Miss a step and it's over. However, this one has been pretty good and has supplied me with useful information to get me up and running with Final cut studio 2. As you would expect, this book leanes heavily towards "Motion 3" but hey! that's mainly why you are interested in it! Of note is something of an introduction to "Live Type" that more than hints at what this somewhat eclipsed application can do. I do wish the Apple manuals were available for purchase though. Four Stars (loses one for being "paint by numbers")

I'm a fan of Mark Spencer's on-line tutorials on Final Cut Studio and Motion, and therefore bought this book to see what deeper insights could be gained from the 500+ pages of in-depth tutorial.

The good: It's very readable, and does a nice job offering tips and alternatives when applicable.

The not-so-good: Following the step-by-step instructions requires attention that tends to cause the larger scope lesson to be lost. And don't miss a step or you'll find the results don't match the book at all.

The still-not-so-good: In several instances, options are mentioned but never discussed. E.g. on page 56, some parameters are pointed out but no further explanation is given...

I do like the repeated emphasis on keyboard shortcuts, which are expansive in FCPro, and often dependent upon the active item.

All in all, for the beginner/intermediate, a worthwhile investment IF you're willing to spend the hours of time to do the lessons in totem.

After using Adobe's Premiere and After Effects for a number of years, I finally decided to switch to Final Cut Studio 2.

Whilst editing methods in Final Cut Studio were pretty much the same, I wanted to unlock the hidden gems that I knew FCS2 had under the hood.

I've been a fan of Peachpit Press' releases so I didn't hesitate to stock up on the Final Cut Studio 2 series. Of all the titles in this category, "Apple Pro Training Series: Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Studio 2" was the first to arrive in the mail.

Each lesson is fun and takes you through the new features and quickly gets you familiar with the power of the software.

This is a perfect book for anyone new to Apple's mammoth A/V suite and also for those that wish to become certified without attending classes. Using this book series, you can take the Apple Certified Pro Level 1 exams (for Level 2, you will need to attend actual classroom courses).

To get the most from this book, set aside the time needed for each lesson, don't rush them as you could miss a vital step or even a useful side note (I learned from this mistake) and keep it to one lesson per day to maximize retention.

Highly recommended for those getting started out in Final Cut Studio 2 and want to get working on projects quickly.

I am excited about this book because it is the first publication on one of the certification programs for Mac OS X. This is a great start and I hope there can be others in the series. From these types of books, one hopes to find materials that will assist in passing the certification exams for this program "Mac OS X Help Desk Essentials".

In this scope, some red flags were raised either about Apple's certification program or by the books representation of that material. Many of the questions seem rather frivolous or esoteric, and makes it hard to pass an exam if these are the indeed the types of questions. For example, one question asks: "What are five things you should do before you upgrade Mac OS 9.x to Mac OS X". One would expect perhaps five empirical technical things that would need to be done for the operation of installing Mac OS X, but instead you get things like read the "Read Before you Install" document, check the network configuration of Mac OS 9.x information, decide on installation method, upgrade to Mac OS 9.x, and back up your hard disk. The upgrading to Mac OS 9.x seems reasonable, but the other steps are esoteric and not related to the operation of Mac OS X. A company may have a backup policy in place already, or the system is a clean configuration (no data) where a backup is not needed; the network configuration could be well documented or auto-configured through DHCP and therefore this is not needed. Thus do we really have to memorize these types of fluff for an exam?

Beyond the types of questions, there are one overall prevailing concern about the certification program itself, and thus the book about such content. By the time the certification is refined, a new Mac OS X version will be released. Apple tends to move rapidly to obsolete older operating systems immediately, e.g. Steve Jobs playing taps and placing Mac OS 9 in a coffin at a keynote presentation. This book is for Mac OS X 10.3, where the current version is now Mac OS X 10.4. With each operating system release, there are new configuration systems and different user interfaces for graphical tools. Though this is needed for the overall evolution of the beloved Mac OS X, it makes stapling down certification more challenging.

Beyond the concerns raised, I do feel the book has some decent material for technical coverage of previous Mac OS X operating system. There is even some great advance material for configuration Mac OS X to use Kerberos and LDAP or even Windows Active Directory for authentication. The other thing that I think is nice is that there is reference to technical articles within each chapter allowing readers to research more exacting material from Apple's online documentation.

I only hope that there can be more books like these, and I dearly hope that the certification program can improve. I hope the concerns raised might be addressed at some point (are some of the esoteric questions from the certification or book representation?), but beyond that I think this book is a great start.

I used this book when studying for the ACHDS exam. While I passed without a problem, I do have a few criticisms regarding how well it helped me prepare. If you are using this book to prepare for the exam, then I would recommend supplementing it with David Pogue's Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Panther Edition and perhaps Michael Bartosh's new Essential Mac OS X Panther Server Administration. That said, what are the pros and cons of this book?

This book would make a fine introduction for new OS X users, as it covers a wide variety of topics and does an excellent job of walking through each example (step-by-step instructions and useful screen shots). It also includes a plethora of useful links to Apple technical articles that supplement the book nicely. While I have years of Unix and Mac experience, overall I seemed to learn about one interesting fact/tip per chapter. In terms of how its coverage fits in with the test, it will prepare you for the basics.

In terms of criticisms, the book spends far too much time on simple tasks and trivial examples, while not spending nearly enough discussing the finer points of the command line and file system. When I took the exam, I relied on my Unix and OS X experience rather than anything I learned from the book.

Overall, the writing is clear and informative but I feel that it only provides about 75% of what a person would need to prepare for the ACHDS exam. If you are a new OS X user, however, I would recommend this book as a fine introduction.

Even Apple users need help once in a while. So Apple shops have to have a help desk just like any other shop. This book presumes a basic level of familiarity with the Macintosh operating system, and then goes on to provide in-depth technical information and procedures that are used by Apple-certified technicians to install, configure, maintain, and diagnose Macintosh computers.

It is oriented, as you might expect, to teach help-desk personnel to knowledgeably address customer concerns and questions. Each chapter is presented as a self contained lession, complete with an introduction, summary and a review quiz. The book is arranged as a help desk professional would appreciate. It covers those areas that he is likely to be asked about, not an attempt to give an in depth lession in the OS.

This book will not help you design applications around XML, nor show you how to use the SDK/IDE's for Java, C++/C#, etc. Nor will it explain how to write drivers for new devices, it is an excellent survey and introduction to the core concepts of information technologies.

The text includes some humor, and some history. But it clearly explains the basics of information theory, and logical operations. While computing hardware and software has become more complex and subtle, the data algorithms and logical operations performed have not changed since 1950. What has changed is the speed and degree of parallelism that is used to increase hardware and software performance (speed and power).

The cartoon format makes the book appear much less instructive than it actually is. But the illustraions clarify the text, as if to remind readers that a picture is worth many words. Unlike most hardcover texts, this one is likely to be read by bright or curious kids (the ones who go ot to excel in life). So, it's actually a much better book for teaching than most of the others offered by publishers (because students pick it up to read on their own).

Try this test: ask someone about computing, calculation theory, and logical operations before AND after they read this book. You might be surprised at how much they learn -- it even works on those adults and old people who never seem to be able to learn anything.

"The Cartoon Guide to the Computer" by Larry Gonick is another of his informative cartoons about different subjects. This book was originally titled "The Cartoon Guide to Computer Science", and was published in 1983. So much has happened in the world of computers since 1983, that this book has become very dated. This book still works as a history of Computers, but the parts of the book which focus more on the current state of computers is no longer relevant, nor was it when the book was published again in 1991 by HarperPerennial.

The areas that are well done include the history of the subject and related subjects, the overview of how computers work, the sections on logic and binary numbers. The parts that are poor are those on the PC, and BASIC programming, which suffer from being out of date and no longer relevant. There are several subjects that are missing too, such as networking and the Internet. If you are seeking a light-hearted trip down memory lane in the field of computers, then this might be a good choice, otherwise you may want to look elsewhere. In 1983, this probably would have been a four star book, but today I can only give it two.

Covers from logic (gate) design up through floating point and (Shannon) communication theory with flair for humor && information. Best used as a light read OR semester course introducing computing for ages 4 & up.

The book is very good, it's an excellent resource for nursing students or even graduate nurses. I highly recommend it.

This book is much better than its reviews would suggest and is indeed essnetial reading for anyone concerned with nutrition and ways to eat more healthily in today's toxic world. We lve surrounded by poison. Or maybe a better way to put it is, there are a few wet green grapes in the barbed wire or today's fast-food paradise. And thia book teaches you how to go for the gusto.

Rodwell Williams is a very good writer and I wish someday she's write a book of recipes based on her background in nutrition, which is unusually extensive. Some people just like to cirticize because she uses findimgs from the 80s, but they forget the 80s were a great time for discoveries in this vital field, and that a lot of the information, although supplemented since, has not been bettered nor contradicted. So, the next time you're standing there next to your stove with a handful of radishes in one hand and a pound of arugula in the other, head for this book and turn it to the chapter on vitamins to discover what you're missing; then add it; then you'll be in fitness heaven. As for the so-called "therapeutic" benefits of this book, I wish there was a TV show like The Apprentice, but instead of Donald Trump there would be Sue Rodwell Williams giving us the benefit of her advice, and as an added bonus, there wouldn't be that constant refrain (so hurtful) of "You're fired" either.

I like the way the book is put together, but for a brand new book there shouldn't be nutrition information as old as 1983. You can find better then this. Keep looking.

The author, Adam Engst, has a lot of good information about Eudora to share, but it's lost in a frustrating mish-mosh of cross-platform coverage.

Engst covers both the Mac and the PC versions of Eudora 4.2 in the same book. Mac users account for 3% of the population, yet in the book, they're treated as if they're equal in number to Windows users: virtually every paragraph of text follows a structure of "Mac users do this..., Windows users do this". Whether you are a Mac user or a Windows user, it is difficult to absorb the material when you have to mentally train yourself to overlook or forgot inapplicable information.

Even the screen shots are schizophrenic: on a single page, one screen shot is usually from a Mac, another from a PC, and the third from a Mac again. Since Eudora has slightly different menus for its Mac and Windows versions, it's not always easy to follow the procedures.

I like Engst's writing style. I just wish he would have kept his Mac (or his PC - take your pick) out of it.

Next time, I hope the publisher releases separate editions of the book, or makes a command decision to limit coverage to one platform.

This is the perfect guide to what very well may be one of the most powerful e-mail programs around. Whether you are a Windows or Macintosh user, this book will teach you everything you need to know to become very proficient, very quickly. Don't be intimidated by the nearly 300 pages; with plenty of screen shots from both platforms, and highly organized content, this is a quick read as well as a quick learn. Adam Engst starts off with a basic explanation of Eudora's features, to get you up and running quickly, then follows with an in-depth description of every feature. Also included are a wealth of links to Eudora help sites, newsgroups and mailing lists, both official and unofficial. Also, don't worry if you have the newer Eudora 4.3, it is virtually identical to the 4.2 version.

One of the major attractions of Eudora is it's incredible power and flexibility. Not suprisingly, a new (or even an experienced) user will likely fail to avail himself or herself of a number of the important features. The easiest and most enjoyable solution to this hurdle would be to read Adam Engst's Eudora 4.2: Visual QuickStart Guide. It is well organized and more readable than almost any other computer related book that I have ever encountered. Simply putÉbuy it, you'll like it!

I got this book because I'm taking a software class in a computer lab entirely full of Macintosh computers. I'm a veteran computer user, but I felt clueless. I didn't understand the Mac vocabulary, and I couldn't do basic things like find the power button, rename a file, or see what was on the hard drive. I still don't know how to page up and down using the keyboard.

This _Little Mac Book_ was wonderful. It told me the name of the Mac browser (Safari), helped me use the "Dock" (Mac's version of the Taskbar), explained the weird extra keys (the one with the funny symbol works similarly to the Windows Ctrl key), and it gave me the vocabulary to find my way around what to me was an entirely foreign computer. (A Mac "alias" is the same as a Windows "shortcut").

I think this is a great book. Naturally, it's meant as an introduction to Macs, and doesn't go very deep into the details. You'd have to look elsewhere for that. But for an introduction to the Mac computers for newbies, this book is marvelous. I recommend it.

I usually like Robin Williams' books but I am reallly disappointed with this one. I can't even find anything about the expose feature which is one of the main new features for Panther. If she doesn't cover this, I am wondering what else is missing. I really feel like I was cheated out of my money. This book might be useful to someone who isn't familiar with Mac OS, but it won't help anyone looking for new features in Panther.

The Little Mac Book, Panther Edition by Robin Williams (©2004), paperback, 196 pages, illustrations, index, chart of accent marks (2 pages).

Ms. Williams introduction to her book sets the tone for this superlative book when she says: Òhere is a ÔlittleÕ book again with just the very basic information to get you started using your new Macintosh. Of course, being little means there is a lot less information! This book should get you started and keep you going for quite a while.Ó

This book is the very best basic introduction for the beginner that wants to learn Mac OS 10.3 Panther. The author describes in detail with simple correlative illustrations that clarifies her explanation of the Macintosh operating system. The book follows a basic logical progression that presumes the reader knows nothing or very little about the Macintosh operating system.

This is the book, in my opinion, that should be used initially in primary and secondary schools for basic instruction of Mac OS 10.3 Panther. If an interested reader needs more detailed instruction and information, after finishing this book, they should purchase Ms. Williams sequel paperback books written with coauthor John TollettÐ The Robin Williams Mac OS X Book , Panther Edition (712 pages) and Robin Williams Cool Mac Apps (488 pages). This last paperback book gives detailed information and instruction about Macintosh entertainment applications such as iPhoto, ITunes, iMovie, iDVD, GarageBand, and the .Mac account and its diverse tools.

I found that the "Dummy" books were very helpful with my old Mac/Office software, and l purchased this book on that basis. So far, it has been most helpful on my iMac/Office 2008 setup, clarifying procedures and capabilities, and helping me in understanding the systems. I recommend it. However, there are some features of Leopard for which you might want to obtain additional, more specific and detailed, instructions.

MacOS X Leopard for Dummies is a must have book. It's a good read and will answer almost every question you may have.

All of the new Mac Leopard books are lacking in some way or another and this book is no exception. Mac for dummies does cover many topics in great detail but falls short of explaining some of Leopards programs such as iCal. In fact, the only thing I found in the book about iCal is a sentence that says what its for. Nothing else. If this bit is not very important to you, than it is a pretty good user guide. If you are interested in actually learning to use the features of ALL of the software that this operating system comes with (like iCal) than please take a look at Mac OS X Leopard : The Missing Manual. I've been a pretty loyal dummies fan for years and this book was kind of a disapointed.