Mac OS 9 For Dummies

With a new version of Mac OS comes a new edition of Bob LeVitus's popular Mac OS guidebook for beginners, now called Mac OS 9 for Dummies. If you have one of the recent previous editions, there's no reason to buy this one--the book, like the recent versions of Mac OS, bears a lot of resemblance to its forebears, and you probably progressed beyond the Dummies guide level with your first book anyway. But if you're entirely new to the Mac (if you recently received an iMac as a gift, say, or if you bought one yourself because you heard--correctly--that they're friendly and fun), this book explains what you need to know in a voice you'll enjoy reading.

Computer books can be confusing because there are always at least a dozen ways to accomplish a given task, and several more items or procedures that are related to that task. LeVitus gets around this potential snag with a mix of pragmatism and humor. He'll explain the standard way of doing a job--printing, say--and then digress into the details (such as page orientation and job logging). He applies that effective style to many subjects, including such potentially intimidating ones as networking and file sharing. Buy this book (or a very worthy competitor, Mac OS 9: Visual QuickStart Guide) if you're clueless about the ways of the Mac. You'll be up to speed with Mac OS features, new and old, in a hurry. --David Wall

Topics covered: The ins and outs of using a computer that's running Mac OS 9. Most of the book has to do with long-standing features of the OS, such as its file-management tools and networking capabilities, but the newly added features (including Keychain Security, Sherlock 2, and multiple user support) get their due.