Published by O'Reilly - Retail $19.95 (20% discount available for SMUG members)
Reviewed by Avrum Lapin
The early Mac OS's (up to OS 7) came with manuals that were fairly well written. Mac OS's have always had an intuitive feel about them and many users boasted that they never cracked the manual. On the other hand many users have terrible problems getting started and never get to use the full potential of the Mac.
The more recent OS's have come with on line help but with no manual. The latest OS's have a lot of new features. There are a lot of times when the intuition isn't working (like during a senior moment) or you just cant find what you want in the on line help. Even when you find the topic in the on line help you find it difficult to juggle between the help window and the document that you are working on. If you print the help window you have a piece of paper ready to be misplaced. This is the time for a manual.
Mac OS 9 - the Missing Manual by David Pogue fits the bill. Detailed directions are given on how to take advantage of the many features of OS - 9. The book is set up for both the novice who just bought their first Mac and for the veteran user who wants to take advantage of such newer features such as Sherlock. It is also handy for tasks that you learn to do but are only done once a year. "Sidebars" throughout the book cover many of the frequently asked questions about what appears to be weird behavior.
The book's 21 chapters and 3 appendices are grouped into 6 parts.
* Part 1 covers what you see when you turn the Mac on - menus, submenus, windows, scroll bars, contextual-key menus etc.
* Part 2 covers how to work with applications, switch between them, manage memory and how to use AppleScript automation software to control the applications. Managing memory, use of virtual memory, disk cache and RAM disks are also covered.
* Part 3 covers the purpose of the various extensions and control panels . is spelled out in one chapter. The book shows how you can conserve RAM with the Extension Manager.
* Part 4 covers using your Mac on the Internet and using Sherlock to find information.
* Part 5 discusses interacting with peripherals including networks, printers etc. QuickTime movie software, speech recognition and Color Sync are also discussed.
* Part 6 contains the appendices - one for menus, one on installing OS9 and one on trouble shooting.
Mac OS9 - the Missing Manual is the ideal "one book to own" for not only newbies but also for the power user who is interested in looking under the hood. I found informative explanations for what I thought were strange phenomenon on my Mac. I found an interesting suggestion on how to keep track of what files came with the Mac and what files you added later (read the book and find out).