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Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/7575
MacDirectory 47 BOOK REVIEWS MAC OS X SNOW LEOPARD POCKET GUIDE REVIEW BY RIC GETTER There's more than a little irony in the fact that that the Snow Leopard upgrade actually costs less than nearly any book that has been written about the new OS. Chris Seibold's Mac OS X Snow Leopard Pocket Guide is a conveniently packaged, concise and reasonably priced remedy for that. It covers virtually all the important aspects of the OS without going into too much detail with any of them. Even with all that's been written about Snow Leopard, it's incredibly easy to miss some of the operating system's nicest new features. This is quite forgivable, considering that most of Snow's changes are under the hood in terms of performance and efficiency. However, there are countless interface tweaks that offer a new level of convenience if you just know where to look. The book's first chapter is an excellent overview of virtually all of the new system's best features. This is followed by a chapter on installing the upgrade that is equally useful, as the process is different enough to be a bit puzzling to those of us used to OS X's previous incarnations (though he does seem to miss the fact that the install's "time-remaining" display has become even more misleadingly optimistic). If you're moving to Snow Leopard as the result of upgrading to new hardware, the chapter includes a useful guide to migrating your applications and data to your new machine. If Snow Leopard is your first foray into the Mac OS and you're fairly familiar with other operating systems, the Pocket Guide proves to be a very quick and practical reference for finding your way around. It's by no means a step-by-step tutorial, but is rather a well-organized compendium of the Mac that tends to be a bit baffling if you've just migrated (a change arguably easier than going from XP to Windows 7). Without going into too much detail, there's a useful overview just about every built-in application and utility and a slew of shortcuts that will prove to be most useful in speeding up access to the most frequently used operations. Experienced Mac users know Apple's Help system isn't always that helpful and this is another area where Seibold's Pocket Guide excels. As compact and succinct as it is, it offers just enough information to get you started on a topic and if you need to search out more in-depth information, you'll have a much better idea of where to turn. And even if you're a true, blue Apple fan, it would still be hard to thumb though the book without learning some cool new tricks. At half the cost of a Snow Leopard upgrade, the Snow Leopard Pocket Guide is well worth the price. Snow Leopard Pocket Guide by Chris Seibold; $14.99, O'Reilly (oreilly.com); 232 pgs. ISBN: 978-0596802721 "Even with all that's been written about Snow Leopard, it's incredibly easy to miss some of the operating system's nicest new features."