Robin's latest offering from the Peachpit Learning Series is Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.

Picking up and paging through the book gives the first indication this is a quality publication. The book is 432 pages on high quality glossy stock. The photographic images and layouts evidence the artistic touch of a creative Mac user well schooled in desktop publishing.

Illustrated screen shots dominate the text and visually reinforce all of the written explanations of the rich feature set of OS X and Tiger.

I have been told one of the great tasks in publishing is the creation of the table of contents and index. This is not a novel, but rather a reference book and while I enjoyed reading it cover-to-cover, I know that my future requirements will be for specifics that I have forgotten. Robin Williams has created both a Contents Overview and a Contents Detail along with a spectacular alphabetized index providing the reader with the all important ready access to information.

The book does not come with a CD or DVD, but I checked the publisher's web site for updates or additional information. Peachpit maintains a download of current Errata in PDF format for this title. I am pleased to inform you that no Errata PDF yet exists for this publication, again evidence of the care that went into the book's preparation and proofreading.

The book is divided into seventeen sections and rather than title them chapters, Robin Williams has organized them as separate Lessons. I particularly appreciated in the first two lessons, dealing with upgrading to Tiger and transferring files to a new Mac, a suggestion the chapters can be skipped. Lessons 3 through 5 are specifically about Mac OS X basics for new users . The author holds your hand as she walks you through the basic layout of the operating system including Desktop, Finder, Dock, Trash, Contextual Menus, etc. Additionally, all of the Mac OS X applications including Text Edit, Mail, Address Book, Safari, iCal, iChat AV, iTunes, Preview and Font Book are dealt with preliminarily.

Having reached lesson six, the book begins to reveal many of the additional features of Tiger and this grouping of lessons instruct you on personalizing your computer, setting up printing and faxing, and the "special gems" of Tiger which include the Burn Folders, new features in Mail along with enhancements to Address Book, Text Edit, Preview, iCal, Safari and DVD player. I learned, while still trying to master Adobe Acrobat Professional, that Preview will permit you to create a password protected, encrypted, PDF file. I discovered this even works nicely with photographs or other sensitive documents that may only be for a specific individual, rather than anyone who happens to be using the recipient's computer. Of course, it requires another yellow sticky on the wall next to the computer with the password, so you have to weigh the utility.

I was most impressed with the six lessons covering 103 pages that deal in depth with the special features that make Tiger so much different than its predecessors. Spotlight, which has been my absolute favorite application in Tiger, receives an extensive and very well illustrated tutorial on the use of Spotlight and how it interacts with other Tiger applications. Dashboard has its own lesson. Dashboard of course is Apple's latest offering of new eye candy utilizing Widgets. If you need to know when your mother-in-law's airplane's going to arrive, the weather in Pago Pago or the correct meaning of the word "pulchritudinous" before describing yourself in an online chat room, then Robin Williams shows you how to get the cute little Widgets to dance on your desktop.

If you've ventured into iChat AV, then lesson 14 explains messaging with multiple partners, something I've always wanted to try.

The final lesson in the book is about Tiger's accommodating features for users with challenges. In a less politically correct time, we would call it "help for the handicapped". On one particularly lovely recent spring evening, having read the chapter, I decided to experiment with the Power Book on the back patio after dark. I enabled the VoiceOver application to read aloud the content of an astronomy web site while I searched the heavens for signs of extraterrestrial life. I confused a large spider web high in a tree with another galaxy but that is a story for another time.

I could find no shortcomings with the book or the author's approach to the subject matter. I particularly liked the way it was organized, separating the newest features of Tiger form the rudimentary aspects of the OS X operating system. For the beginner it is ideal, explaining even the fundamental installation process. For the intermediate or advanced user who really wants to try out the truly unique features of Tiger such as Spotlight, Automator and Dashboard, the subjects are not nested inside the more basic information.

The book lists at $29.99, but the publisher sells it for approximately $21.00 from their web site and Amazon had it listed for $19.79. Entirely an excellent addition to your computer reference library. Truely, Robin Williams' most recent offering is worthy of five Apples.