Go buy David Pogue's Mac OS X Snow Leopard: The missing Manual - or beg, borrow or steal it. While you might just use the Manual for troubleshooting, you'd be missing half its value. It's almost 900 pages long. I suggest that you set aside at least an hour a week to read a section on anything that interests you. Even if you're a long time Mac user, you'll be surprised at what you will learn. There are numerous features in Snow Leopard which you can only discover when you read about them. The Manual comprehensively describes the operating system and Apple applications, giving a much more systematic review of each subject.
The Manual rates six Apples on a scale of 1 to 5. The list price, $34.99, is more than the single user version of Snow Leopard. I've seen prices at Amazon as low as $20, but even at full price, it's well worth it
In addition to being comprehensive, David Pogue's style is clear, informative, humorous, a bit off the wall, and entertaining. The result is a manual that is basically a technical manual, but extremely readable. This Manual will capture your attention. You will not fall asleep
The Manual is well arranged and has the best index of any technical Manual that I've seen. In addition, there are references throughout the Manual to other pages and other sections. It makes the Manual very usable.
In addition to many screenshots, there are a number of "inserts" with titles: tip, Snow Leopard spots, troubleshooting moment, power users' clinic, gem in the rough, note, frequently asked question, nostalgia corner, up to speed, and workaround workshop. If you just page through the Manual and read Tips and Snow Leopard Spots, you will have gained a wealth of information on using Snow Leopard and your Mac.
If you are a shortcut user (which I recommend highly), you will be pleased with the many shortcuts sprinkled throughout the Manual
The Manual has 50 pages on Mail and address Book. 50 pages! We've all heard that Snow Leopard has few new features and is a massive refinement of the operating system. So why 50 pages on Mail and address Book? The answer is that in addition to new features in Mail and Address Book, many of the old features were never that apparent. What's new is that you can now drag mailboxes up and down in the list. Before I had to put an "A" before the title of the mailboxes I wanted at the top of the list. You can delete a mail address that is no longer used or that you don't want to be autofilled by going to Windows — Previous Recipients, clicking the undesired address and then clicking Remove from List. Also, if you send formatted mail (which Apple calls Rich Text), the recipients won't see the fonts you use unless their machines have the same ones installed. Pogue recommends you use universal choices like Arial, Times and Courier. He also recommends you keep attachments under 2 MB and he explains three tools which Mac OS X provides to make attachments smaller and more compatible with Windows. The Manual explains the concept of threading for reading e-mails, how to turn it on, why use it and how to use it. Finally, if you haven't used the Notes and To Dos features of Mail, take a look at the four pages describing them.You may find a system to replace all the little scraps of paper that litter your desk.
The Manual devotes four pages to the Sidebar, including using it to take pressure off the Dock. It devotes seven pages to the Title Bar, including using command — ~ to cycle through different open windows in one program without using the mouse, adjusting the speed of the genie effect, and using the tiny icon next to a window's name as a proxy for that window's folder or file itself.
I could give you many more examples, but I think you get the idea. The Manual covers many aspects of Snow Leopard and Apple applications which may not be apparent to many of us
Here are some of the section headings and space devoted to them to give you an idea of the comprehensiveness of the Manual: organizing your stuff, 30 pages; Spotlight, 16 pages; Dock, desktop, and toolbars, 30 pages; entering data, moving data, & Time Machine, 42 pages; services, Automator, & AppleScript, 32 pages; system preferences, 42 pages; the free programs, 78 pages; accounts, parental controls & security, 48 pages; networking, file sharing & screen sharing (a very handy explanation of this often incomprehensible subject), 36 pages; Safari, 24 pages; iChat, 36 pages; and Installing Mac OS X 10.6, 10 pages. I've left out a couple of the sections.
Conclusion. Buy the Manual. Read it over the next several months. Be a more knowledgeable Mac user. Be a more efficient Mac user. Enjoy your Mac a lot more.
