Mac OS X Advanced Visual QuickPro Guide

Mac OS X Advanced Visual QuickPro Guide shows how to use Mac OS X--and shows is the correct word, because the layout leans heavily on illustrations to communicate concepts and procedures to readers. After locating in the index the subject that interests you, you'll find that it's explained with a step-by-step procedure that appears next to (and makes frequent reference to) a series of adjacent illustrations. Maria Langer, a respected authority on Mac matters, shows how to do many tasks that will interest people who use Mac OS X in the home or office.

Truth be told, the word Visual figures in this book's title for a reason. The reason is that the format was developed to illustrate how to get things done with graphical user interfaces (GUIs), like those of the traditional Mac environment and of Windows. The format works very well for that purpose. It kind of falls down, however, when it's applied to the command-line interface of Mac OS X (this alternative interface, which reflects the operating system's Unix-based core, is called "Darwin"). The very small screen shots that work well for GUIs inspire eyestrain when applied to terminal windows. Fortunately, though, the Darwin material makes up less than 10 percent of this book, and the text that accompanies the illustrations generally makes up for their diminutive size. --David Wall

Topics covered: Mac OS X for users of the operating system. Sections show how to configure multiple users, set up a network, and use the native utilities. There's a fair bit of coverage on the system's Unix-like underpinnings, as well.