Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard: Peachpit Learning Series— Part Two of Two, an idiosyncratic in-depth look

Reviewed by Harry {doc} Babad © 2007

Author: Robin Williams

Publisher: Peachpit Press

http://www.peachpit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0321502639

Released: November, 2007

Pages: 480, Paperback. There is also an eBook version of this title available for $23 USD.

$30.00 USD, Street Price $22; $23.30 CDN;

ISBN-10: 0321502639

ISBN-13: 978-0321502636

Audience: Intermediate or Beginner users with basic Macintosh skills.

Strengths: Elegant layout and organization, meaty but readable feature descriptions suitable for novice and intermediate Macintosh Users. Most of the 300 OS changes identified by Apple are identified and discussed. An exemplary combination of index and TOC details make it almost hyper-link easy to find information.

Weaknesses: No clear distinction of Leopard features, somewhat arbitrary level of details for various Apple applications. (You can tell which of Apple’s tools and OS functions Robin likes and uses.)

Introduction

Although it has little to do with the practical parts of this book, you can always tell a Robin Williams by the visual elegance of its contents and layout. We’re talking primo graphics design here. It’s all about readability, and her sheer visual clarity of her printed word; tools that get you to read on when you’d rather be gaming or focusing on your other hobbies. If you want to read more about Robin’s graphics expertise check out D. Greenbaum "DoctorDave" review of this book.

I share this book review of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard: Peachpit Learning Series [Leopard PLS] as part Two with Wayne LeFevre, and had we desired to do so could have subtitled our efforts “Two Reviewers – Almost One Mind”. Wayne is his Part One review takes you though the meat of Robins book. Its contents, focus and those aspects of her writing that make buying her book, as a beginner, worth your while. Me, doc, in Part Two, provided you with a more subjective insights into the books strengths (mostly) and occasional weakness, based subjectively on how I use my Macintosh and my present (Tiger) based biases about the various features, and accompanying applications for the new OS.

Doc’s Review Focus — I’ll be focusing by way of snippets and tidbits and just plain ramblin’ short essays on the new features that make Leopard different, especially the user experience, from its earlier OS 10.x predecessors. Note I said different, not in my eyes always better.

To Leopard or Not to Leopard — As mentioned previously in this December issue of macCompanion, I have the Leopard DVD but have no intention of installing it on my 1 GHz dual processor PowerPC G4 Macintosh. I have on black Friday, ordered my new 24” iMac, and may start using it with Leopard in January. That will depend on the state of the critical software I need to feed my computing habits, in part discussed in my 3Rs column. So why review the book, after being saturated by articles about Leopard, both kind and not, I read on the Internet, I thought a little bit of detailed and explicit foreknowledge would be appreciate. …And I am a Robin William’s fan, having read and reviewed, and mostly understood, the contents of almost all of her Macintosh and design books.

Getting a head start in understanding a new OS, especial one that makes leaps as great as when Apple killed Classic, a lingering Shakespearean tragedy style death, in favor of the cats in Macintosh OS X is a means of controlling stress. Why, you ask? Who wants to deal with the idiosyncrasies or is it idiotsyncrasies of a new OS while trying to get work done, or letting off stream in play. When I’m in front of my Macintosh, as my readers well know my life is chained to research and writing articles and reviews, responding to mail and the demands put on a community services volunteer, supporting my consulting clients or playing an occasional game of Shanghai. In other words who want to deal with that %^$#@*$# operating system that refuses to do what you want it to or trusted software its broken. So I read and view the information Robin provided and become more convinced that there will be a Leopard in my life.

Publisher’s Description

The Peachpit Learning Series brings you the best-selling authors you know and love, on the topics that are near and dear to you, in a format that allows you to learn just what you need to know, and at your own pace. With this book, you can learn in your own way—whether it’s working through the lessons from start to finish, jumping straight to step-by-step exercises about new features, or looking up just what you need to know at that moment. You not only read it, you get to see it too. There are hundreds of exciting tools and hidden gems in your Macintosh. And with the gentle yet expert hand of Robin Williams guiding you along the way, you will learn to take full advantage of all that Leopard has to offer. If you are new to Mac OS X, you'll learn to use your Mac with help from a world-renowned teacher. From there, you can move on to customize it to suit the way you work. And if you've been using Mac OS X already, you'll learn to use the new features in Leopard, like Spaces, Quick Look, and Time Machine, and explore all the enhancements to favorites like Mail and iChat.

Dave Greenbaum noted, “This book is not intended for intermediate or advanced users. You won't find out which port to open for screen sharing or it's inner workings--just how to initiate it. I contrast her books to more "manual" like books that cover every feature in depth. This book is designed to hold the readers hand, through the steps or learning.”

Although the book is rationally organized into four main well-illustrated sections, parceled out over 24 lessons, I never felt distracted by an overdose of intrusive underlying technical detail. If a subject needed more detail, it was expanded on either later in the book or in the tech stuff materials.

Random Thoughts About The Book Itself and on that New Darned Cat

As I skimmed, read or even studied the parts of Robin’s book, I became comfortable with the thought that, my software tools being willing, adapting to Leopard book would not further raise my blood pressure.

Tiger Feature that Might be Worth Reconsidering in Leopard — Indeed many of the things in Tiger, that I loathed or ignored (e.g., Spotlight, Expose, Column View, TextEdit, Preview) had been either made truly functional or at least potentially fit the way I wanted to use my computer. Robin thanks for almost convincing me. However, based on what I’ve read, Apple has introduced now targets for loathing including Cover Flow, Spaces, the dock’s rainbow arch of nested folders and lots of flash and glitter pixie dust that Apple added to make things more 3D. I do take an iconoclastic view, however of widgets. I convert the almost a dozen widgets I use to a WidgiApps using Amnesty Singlesapplication. I store these, along with a few other reference tools in a folder on the right side of my dock where they are a click away. This makes the as available as I need, without having to resort to Apples Dashboard with its unpleasant looking interface.

Apple Applications That Don’t Yet Seem Good Enough — A list, follows, but it would take more space than I have to tell you why. For the curious reader, check out my past macC reviews. On the other hand Apples tools are free and when a newbie, you won’t know there’s better tools out there. Free is not always cost effective.

Ms. Williams has not discussed some of Apple‘s iWork and iLife applications, rightfully noting they are external to the tools installed with the OS. However, Robins doesn’t emphasize there’s more powerful and flexible tools out there, even from Apple, but then doc’s a nit-picker by temperament — Robin forgive me.

The Apple spelling checker vs. Spell Catcher
Apple’s Mail Client vs. Eudora
Safari vs. Fire Fox (I use both since Safari ruins recipe lists copied from some websites. I wish I could pick two default browsers and toggle between them.)
Roxio’s Toast vs. Apples media burning tools
Text Edit vs. Apples Pages or better yet MS Word. Bit with modest word processing needs, Text edit might do for you.
Preview vs. a combination of GraphicConverter and Adobe Acrobat Standard or Pro.

I would have liked, at least for Apple products, an appendix listing to tools folks can graduate to.

Mail Talk — After an extensive, 16-page soliloquy to TextEdit, despite favoring Mariner Write for her personal use, Ms. Williams give considerable attention to Apple email client Mail, working with notes and creating todo lists. Unlike the tools I use, Mail is integrated with Apple’s Address Book, iCal and Safari sparing you need to change applications to transfer information found in an email message to your schedule or add new contact information to your address book. Need to add either a link or a part of a webpage to a message; it’s just, according to Ms. Williams, a click away. Now don’t get me wrong, I have not yet succumbed to Mail, despite an occasional use of Mail’s import features to keep transfer the contents, well much of them, from Eudora to Mail. In any case Leopard PLS, makes a strong case for me to explore further, if Eudora remains not ready for Leopard (see my December Tips Column).

Contact Lists and Appointments — If you’re not already a user of Apples Address Book and its calenderer application (iCal) there’s much to learn in Lessons 6 & 7. I do wonder how iCal deals with repeat appointments such as your Thursday night Bridge Club, the last Sunday sing-along or the TBD artist performing at the first and third Saturday concert series. The book did not mention such a feature.

Now I don’t use either program, having too much invented in other programs (FileMaker) that long precede Macintosh OS X. These contain both my contact information and a partial schedule of my day-to-day activities. They go back to day one on my second at home Macintosh, a Performa 600-CD. No all my appointments and todos are not all in the calendar database, but the archives open sweet as can be, when I want them to, for a bit of pre-retirement reminiscing.

Be that as it may, if you’ve a need to keep in touch, and keep interacting with folks the tools Robin describes, couple with Mail, iChat and Safari, will keep track of your contacts and you in touch. A little reading and a bit of practices, Leopard PLS tells you how.

Here’s a few other things I learned from the book and will likely use:

Safari — Using Safari to identify, aggregate and serve up RSS feeds could simply my keeping track of new events in the energy (renewable and nuclear), Global warming, innovation and inventiveness and the marketplace, and nuclear and other waste management and disposal issues. No, nothing about my beloved Macintosh, my macC and McMUG colleagues and magazine subscriptions keep me well supplied on Mac-inations.

Preview — No, no — a thousand times no. Despite the clear information provided in Robin’[s book, I’m not convinced. Adobe speed up providing a Leopard ready Acrobat Pro… There really are more users than for your CS series of applications, even if we don’t generate as much profit and glitz. I did have a preview question. What happens with you annotated or marked up a PDF in preview? Will the person you share the PDF file with see these changes? I must assume so, or why bother, but that fact was not explicitly mentioned.

The iLife and iWork Applications — Should I adopt these applications, the older brothers to some of the applications provided by Apple with the Leopard operating system, I’d need to learn more. I would certainly seek out the John Tollett and Robin Williams’ book Robin Williams Cool Mac Apps: A guide to iLife 08, .Mac, and more (Peachpit Press, January 2008).

And the Rest of the Book — I read, skimmed, studied and am likely to forget the remaining material in Leopard PLS. However, I do own the book, and am aware of its contents should the need arise. As noted earlier, its easy to find information in the book I neither share my Macintosh, except to allow my grandson wireless access to my printer.

What more can say, in general about this book? Despite its title, pay attention to lesson 23, Basic Troubleshooting, its not very intimidating and can save you some grief when Murphy visits. Robins includes troubleshooting advice for times when things go wrong. As D. Greenbaum noted, “The advice she gives is as good or better than what you'll get on the phone calling tech support or stopping by the "bar" in an Apple Store. If her troubleshooting section doesn't cover it, you'll really need a technician…”

Finally, don’t be shy about reaching for it again as your computing needs change. There’s a lot buried in Leopard, as Robin notes, which can enrich your computing experiences.

What follows is a longer than needed list of kudos and a short list of discomforts The former provides an alternate view of my thoughts about both the strengths of this book Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard: Peachpit Learning Series. Although the discomforts are real, they don’t devaluate the usefulness of this fine book.

Kudos

Crisp, Eye Catching Well Highlighted and Annotated Figures — There’s not need to decode an image tying to figure out what it means and how it related to the text, What more can I say!

Basics for New Mac Users — An excellent compromise between an extensive introductory tutorial on the Mac OS and a primer on the Macintosh computer for newbies. Yes, I’ll read and perhaps review her Leopard focused Little Mac Book. Robin convinced me years ago, that the Mac was not a Typewriter. I’m forever trying to convince my PC user friends that its time for a change and Robin’s beginner book as well as the now classic The Naked Truth by Scott Kelby are all tools for my tirade.

Apple Applications Common Features and Shared Tools — The Leopard PLS book is replete with excellent and focused discussion of the various applications and other tools that are shared by the suite of Leopard installed applications.

As Ms Williams points out in Lesson 3 and 13, and elsewhere, Leopard is a well-integrated Apple product. Mail programs, address books, calendars and assorted note taking tools are supposed to be integrated with each other to, doc sez, form a virtual PIM (personal information manager) — Robin shows us where such interfaces occur, and then shares how the user can take advantage of the inter-operability of Apple’s software tools.

Whether it’s the use of services menus, a consist design of menubars and menu contents, or common shortcuts Robin painlessly share such information with her readers. In addition, to assist users to seamlessly access and use the individual tools they need, Ms. Williams tells us of their built in commonality of function and interconnected nature. Check out page 71 (Text Edit) “standard Mac OS X Application Features. Skip ahead to the details on Page 105 for a look at how “Mail is Integrated With.”

Discomforts

Leopard vs. Tiger Notations — I know this is not a Kelby Side-by-Side book; it would have been helpful to provide the reader (me-me-me) that items were new and significantly changed in Leopard. As it was, I kept several Macworld articles handy to see if a described feature was new to Leopard, or that I’d simply found it a distraction or useless in Tiger. Differentiating truly new from enhanced old features become important because I may want to stop boycotting some OS X applications and functions if they’ve become civilized enough to be useful. A rose by any other name may not smell as sweet.

Lack of a Formal Introduction — In know the title says it all, but just as you provides in Lessons 1& 2, an introduction to the Macintosh, an intro would have helped new Macintosh users get oriented, but they could also read the back cover of the book.

Desktop Background Color (Pg 4, Desktop figure) — Robin, this is a yuck background, designed to distract you and me; perhaps give me a headache. It the only thumb in your nose figure in the book.

Lack of Figure Numbers — There are all sort of places in e book that would have benefited by a cross reference to an earlier figure. A strange omission, but you haven’t numbered figures in your other design or Macintosh books, so its just Robin’s way.

Conclusion/Recommendation

As noted in this review, Robin's books are typically aimed at beginner or intermediate users. She does not overwhelm her Mac novice readers with a lot of technical details that they don't want or need to know. That being said, a significant part of this book’s contents make handy references even for a more advanced Mac users.

Robin has brought her trademark clear, approachable style to this Peachpit Learning Series guide on the new Mac operating system, code-named Leopard. As noted in Wayne and my reviews, the book focuses on what you want to know: All about Leopard’s features, but alas not on what new in Leopard. It shares how can you get the most out the new OS and provides Leopard PLS, offers focused lessons that take users step-by-step through practical, real-world projects, and provides users a basis for adopting Leopard’s tools and interface to their daily computing. The full-color guide 480 pages, easy to read and understand primer serves as a first-rate introduction for anyone who needs to know and use Mac OS X 10.5, Leopard.

Ideal book for new Leopard Users! Easy to understand and read — buy it and read it, if possible before you start working with Leopard.

I have not read Robins book on Tiger, therefore can’t comment on any undifferentiated (Tiger vs. Leopard) issues related to Robin’s earlier book. For a change though, I’m a bit more positive about the book than my fellow reviewer.