Title: Mac OS X Panther 10.3: Visual QuickStart Guide By: Maria Langer Publisher: www.peachpit.com ISBN: 0-321-21351-3 Media: Book, 646 Pages, no CD /DVD. Level: New Macintosh purchaser and/or a Macintosh user installing MacOS X for the first time. Price: $24.99 [Note: this same book was previously reviewed for MLMUG, by Samuel Leidy, with a somewhat different slant. Read his review here.]

Maria Langer also has "Visual QuickStart Guides" for Microsoft Word and Excel, as well as "Putting Your Small Business on the Web". She is also a columnist for "FileMaker Pro Advisor" and has articles in "Mac Addict" and other publications.

Why buy a 650 page book which lists for $24.99 USD? It's a good reference for the Mac user who hasn't installed Panther as yet and wants to read about what is ahead. It's also good for the Mac user who has had Panther installed for a while and wants to make sure all its features are available. The full index and well-marked chapters facilitate quick access to solving a problem when the computer is not working and when "Help" or Apple's web site is not available. There are also plenty of screen shots, albeit small, that illustrate the companion text.

The first chapter jumps immediately into installing Panther and the options involved. There is no mention of what to do if you lack adequate hard drive space to Install it. With older Macs, their original drives may not have room for the installer to create the Previous System folder. Removing old files and applications then restarting before installing Panther may be necessary.

Using the book as a reference, I reviewed several iApps. I discovered how handy the Bookmarks feature of the .Mac service is. This feature places a copy of the bookmarks collected by Safari and synchronizes them at the .Mac subscriber web site. You can later access them by logging in from any machine, anywhere. In the early days of the Web there were a few sites that offered this service. It's handy to have that collection of sites available from home, work or school. Plus, you avoid leaving a record of the full bookmark list on a public computer at a library or airport kiosk.

Reviewer: Tif Bailey Tif Bailey is a graduate electrical engineer from the N. J. Institute of Technology. Downsized from General Electric Schenectady after twenty-five years he became a contract technical writer for several firms in the capital district of New York. Moved back to this area to love and care for elderly parents. He's been a Mac enthusiast since the Mac Plus.

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© 2004 by Tif Bailey & MLMUG
Posted 05/23/04
Updated 09/15/04