Take Control of Exploring & Customizing Snow Leopard

Reviewed by Ted Bade

 

Author: Matt Neuburg Publisher: TidBITS Publishing Inc. TakeControl EBooks   Released: August 26, 2009 Pages: 165 $15 USD ISBN-10: 1933671998 Audience: Beginner/Intermediate   Strengths: Easy to read, direct to the point approach, full of great ideas and suggestions.   Weaknesses: none.

Introduction

 

This book does a terrific job of introducing some important aspects of installing and taking advantage of Apple's Snow Leopard OS (MacOS X 10.6)

 

Of all the MacOS X updates I have even done, installing Snow Leopard was the biggest challenge. I truly wish I had read this e-Book before I started my installation. The book contains a vast amount of useful information starting with installation and continuing to day-to-day use. If you haven't installed Snow Leopard yet or even if you have, you will learn a lot by reading this book. It is relatively short, concise, and chock full of very useful information.

 

This 165 page e-book is a real value at only $15 a copy. I have paid as much as $40 for a hard copy and found less information. What is great about the Take Control series of books in general is that they are short and to the point. There aren't lot and lots of pages to dig through to get to the gems of information. Every page has a gem or two! (No, I don't write for them, but I have been satisfied with everyone I have read). Also, the books are updated as information changes or errors are corrected.

 

"Take Control of Exploring & Customizing Snow Leopard" is well written and easy to read. Matt Neuburg has a great writing style that keep one's interest up. Perhaps it is my "Nerdyness" showing, but I looked forward to reading this book while I was reviewing it. Plenty of real life examples are included to clarify concepts as are a variety of screen shots. Matt's writing style leads one to be comfortable and therefore more able to read and retain the information in the book.

 

Let's take a quick look at the chapter titles. That say a lot about the contents of the book. "Read me First", and "Introduction" serve to introduce the Take control series ob books and specifics on how to read this one. "Snow Leopard Quick Start" is a brief overview of SL. "Install Intelligently" is give some sound rules for installing SL, if you haven't already. (Don't read this if you have installed SL, you will get upset with yourself!)

 

"Block the Big Bang" provides some very useful formation about using SL right after the install is complete. "Preserve the Past with Time Machine" provides some very useful hints on making the most of using Time Machine, including some great new features in SL. "Dominate the Dock" shows you how to take control of the Dock. "Straighten out your System Preferences" covers important information on System Preferences. "Handle the Hierarchy" deals with Finde file structure. "Wash you Windows" talk about using Expose' and Spaces, including some features new to SL. "Control the Keyboard, Master the Mouse" deal with those input devices.

 

"Ease you Eyeballs" gives information on monitor features like calibration, using Closer view, and having the Mac read documents. "Fix your Fonts" educates the reader on dealing with Fonts in SL. "Tackle your Text" teaches one to deal with text output to the screen and optimum use of fonts. "Customizing Status Menus" shows what standard status menu options are in SL and how to turn them on or off. Finally, "Perform Miscellaneous Configurations" talks about some other Finder features such as Login Items, Limited user accounts, and changing the opacity of the menu bar. The end of the Book contains some additional resources and information about the author.

 

Conclusion

 

While my descriptions are brief, I hope they give you an overview of what you might find within the book. Let me assure you that there is a lot of substance and value here. While I cannot say everything in this book was news to me, I can say that there was a lot in this book that was, or at least the detail level allowed me to better understand and use various features of SL. This book would be of value to any user of Snow Leopard, especially anyone who is planning to upgrade.