Cheryl Riley, Kachemacs

Product Title: Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition

Author: David Pogue

Price: $29.95 retail (remember our group discount!)

Publisher: O’Reilly Media, Inc

Publisher Phone #: (800) 998-9938

Website: www.oreilly.com

As a new Mac computer user I found this book to be very helpful. I enjoyed the introduction as it helped me understand what’s old and what’s new, how the Tiger Edition evolved and what to look for in the future.

At first glance the book appears a little scary to the beginner but once I started reading and got the feel for how it is structured it became much easier to follow along.

I read the miniature sidebar articles called “Up to Speed” first. I would read about the subject and then go to the tips and diagrams which were especially helpful.

This book covers a lot of information and much of it is too advanced for me right now, but by referring to the table of contents or index to look up a particular topic I want to learn I can easily flip to that section and go one step at a time. As I learn more, the book becomes easier to follow. A beginner can definitely find their way around in the manual.

Having a clearly written users manual for whatever version you have is a must with Mac in my opinion.

PROS: A touch of humor by the author makes this manual fun.
It is easy to read and well organized.
This manual helped me to learn simple key strokes for different commands and shortcuts.

CONS: There is never enough diagrams to help the beginner.
Repetition is helpful to the beginner.
Can’t really think of any other cons I just need to keep using it.

RATING: I would rate the manual a “5″. As I continue to use my computer and refer to this manual and will be able to use the more advanced sections once I have got the basics.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this manual and will continue to use it as I extend my knowledge base in the Mac world.