REMINDER:
No NVMUG Meeting this month
There will be a NVMUG meeting Reminder eNews before the next meeting which may be on August 5 or 12.
O’Reilly, publishers of the Missing Manual series has furnished door prizes for our next NVMUG meeting.
This special is being provided because we are not holding a July meeting to report. We are still planning an AppleWorks 6.0.4 demonstration in a future NVMUG meeting.
However, I believe that real AppleWorks 6 problems that have since been fixed, and reviews by people who have not used and studied the program have presented a distorted view of the program. This review will present a different view. It may also give you something to think and talk about at least until we start getting MacWorld news next week.
In this NVMUG eNews
1. AppleWorks 6.0.4: The New Design
2. AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual
3. O’Reilly 20% Discount
1. AppleWorks 6.0.4: The New Design
Summary Review: AppleWorks 6.0, The New Design
Review by Hartley Jim Jackson, NVMUG
AppleWorks 6.04 is a new design to make AppleWorks even easier to learn and even to better to use. The primary reason to buy AppleWorks 6.04 is that it is a better tool to work with, not that it does new things.
Starting a project and finishing it on schedule are often the most difficult parts of a project. The new AppleWorks Starting Points makes it easier to start projects. The new Auto-Save automatically protects your work by saving it to a special cache so you won’t loose it if there is a crash Because the new AppleWorks is better to work with, it is easier to complete projects on schedule.
Most of the earlier reviews were based upon AppleWorks 6 which was released before it was ready, and was awful. Apple very quickly fixed the bugs and most of the slowness problems with AppleWorks 6.04. Apple also listened to users and put back in text size and font displays and drop down menus.
Some recent reviews appear to have been written by people before they invested the time to study and use the program. They were not helped by Apple’s poor 65 page manual. If Apple had included a really good manual, such as AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual, these reviews might have been more accurate and more appreciative.
AppleWorks 6.04 contains significant improvements to the spreadsheet and to mail merge, a new Presentations module, and a new Tables frame. The new Presentations module is in addition to, not a replacement for, the presentations capabilities in AppleWorks 5. The new Tables is used to create text tables, and does not replace numerical tables produced in a spreadsheet frame. AppleWorks 6.04 contains dictionary definitions and many other smaller improvements.
The biggest disappointment is that the translators that were in AppleWorks 5 are not in AppleWorks 6. If you have AppleWorks 5, hang onto the translators. Otherwise you may need MacLinkPlus. There is a discount coupon in AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual.
If you have a Macintosh G3, G4, iBook, or iMac, I strongly recommend AppleWorks 6.04 as your primary working tool. It does not do much that is new, but, as a tool to work, with it is a real improvement over earlier versions. It is less costly and easier to use than Microsoft Office. AppleWorks 6.04 does everything most people will ever want to do in a well integrated word processing, spreadsheet, database, drawing, painting, and presentation program.
If you have an older Macintosh, you may want to stay with the earlier AppleWorks 5, or the even earlier ClarisWorks 4. Writing with AppleWorks 6.04 does not update the display as fast on older machines as the earlier versions of AppleWorks. I have a Performa 6400/180 which does not update the display fast enough in AppleWorks 6.04 to keep up with my typing. Still I prefer to use AppleWorks 6.04.
Full Review: AppleWorks 6.0, The New Design
Review by Hartley Jim Jackson, NVMUG
AppleWorks 6.04 is not your usual upgrade where the way you worked is preserved to make it easy to change over. AppleWorks 6.0 is a new design. In this review I will give my answers to two questions:
1. Is it a significant upgrade?
2. Should you buy it?
Is it a Significant Upgrade?
To answer this question, we have to look at the changes and how they will help you.
First, what is not in AppleWorks 6:
The Communications environment, which was useful when bulletin boards were common and the Internet was not, has been taken out. Many of us would have liked to see AppleWorks strengthened by adding Claris Emailer and Claris Organizer. That did not happen. Claris Emailer appears to be dead, though many people, including my wife, are still using it. I think it is the best e-mail program available for older Macs like our Macintosh Classic II. Claris Organizer was sold, but it is now available for free as Palm Desktop. Palm Desktop is my personal information manager, PIM, of choice.
I think that the greatest disappointment in AppleWorks 6 is that it lacks the file translation abilities of Appleworks 5. Being able to get information from, and to send information to, the Word and Excel monopolies requires a translation program. If you have AppleWorks 5, you can install just the translators and use them with AppleWorks 6. Otherwise you need MacLinkPlus which you can also use to translate between other Macintosh and PC files. (AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual includes a coupon for 60% off the price of MacLinkPlus.)
What has been added:
There is a totally new design to make AppleWorks easier to learn and quicker and easier to use. A totally new Presentations environment has been added while retaining the presentation tools that were in ClarisWorks 5.0. A new Tables tool has been added which is now one of the four frames along with text, spreadsheet, and paint. A new Auto-Save and auto-recover has been added so that, if you forget to save your work before you go on the Internet, you will be able to recover your work when it crashes. AppleWorks 6 has been more closely integrated with the Internet. And, there have been a great many small improvements such as adding the closing parenthesis to a spreadsheet formula if you forgot it.
Problems with the initial release:
Apple broke from tradition when they decided not to offer a lower price for an upgrade than they charge for new users. I was fortunate that, being on a school board, I bought it at the educator’s price, about the same as what an upgrade price would have been.
There were awful problems with AppleWorks 6.0. The first reviews were terrible because :
1. It crashed.
2. It was terribly slow.
3. The old button bars were missed, its icons were too big and its tools took up to much desktop real estate compared to AppleWorks 5.
4. It lacked the indication of font, its size, its style, and its color that was shown in the bottom of the button bar in AppleWorks 5.
5. I put AppleWorks 6 away because it was so slow, and went back to AppleWorks 5.
These same reviewers should now be praising Apple and the AppleWorks programmers for the speed with which Apple responded and for listening to its users. Not only did they eliminate the crashes and improve the speed, they put the display of the font and size back in. The problems raised in 3 above are matters of judgment which I believe evaporate with experience with AppleWorks 6.04. AppleWorks 6.04 is what Apple should have released, and is the program I am now using.
Is AppleWorks 6.04 a significant upgrade?
On the Internet, I found a reference to a British review that said:
“A review in the June (No 91) issue of MacFormat (UK). This gives it a 95% rating. (Few Mac products get more than that) and answers the question "Is it worth upgrading?" with "This is the trickiest question of all. Apple has thrown some magic dust over 5.0 to make it better-looking, better-organized and much more appealing. But underneath, all that's really new is the Presentation module, the Table tool and a smattering of other enhancements. It's a lot better to work with but doesn't necessarily do an awful lot more.”
I also found some relevant information from reported Microsoft research:
“Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit is developing Microsoft Office 2001 Macintosh Edition which will introduce new features and tools designed to simplify difficult tasks in Word, Excel and PowerPoint 2001, according to Irving Kwong, product manager for the MacBU.”
“Customer research has shown that getting started and completing a project quickly can often be the most challenging part of a project, according to (MacBU).”
“47 percent of users feel a more Mac-like interface and behavior is a compelling enough motivator for upgrading from Office 98, according to a MacBU study.”
The new AppleWorks 6.04 design makes it easier to learn, making it an even better tool for schools, better for work where training time is important, and better for new users at home. The new design also makes it a lot better to work with.
New Design
The first design change you will see is STARTING POINTS. The new Starting Points dialog window makes it easier to start projects by displaying all of the potential starting points. You can select from the basic word processing, spreadsheet, database, drawing, painting, or presentation modes, including any standard document you set up for these modes. Or click a tab to select from Assistants, or Templates (a better name for stationery), or documents on the web, or new starting points you have added. This makes it easier to start projects, and, by getting the right start, to complete projects faster. When you have selected your starting point, the dialog disappears but you can find it again where hides under the File menu.
The AppleWorks 6 BUTTON BAR has one row which is scrollable. Changing the size of the new buttons, or changing the buttons is very easy once you control-click the button bar. Whether scrolling is useful or not may depend upon how you organize the buttons. The AppleWorks 5 button bar could have multiple rows of small buttons, and some users may miss this feature. The new design encourages users to limit the number of buttons displayed and slightly larger buttons make it easier to use. This is good for most of us, but limiting the number of buttons displayed at one time may be a disadvantage for some experienced AppleWorks users.
The new TOOLS PALETTE separates the frame tools from the other tools. The old tools palette was smaller, but opening it moved your whole work space. The new palette is larger, but moveable. It does not take up more screen real estate than opening the older AppleWorks tools did. The new design is simpler to work with, an advantage because simpler generally speeds up the work.
A new ACCENTS PALETTE with five tabs at the bottom replaces the old fill and pen palettes. Again it appears to be a significant improvement in clarity of purpose and the ability to quickly find all of the options. The choice between whether you want the pattern to be applied to a line, fill, or text is selected at the top. When all you want to do is change the color of selected text it is not as fast and easy as choosing from the more limited palette in AppleWorks 5. To make version 6.04 as quick and easy, I put the styles button in my button bar, and added styles for red and black text.
A new CLIPPINGS WINDOW replaces the old library. The window is resizable and the clippings can be small, medium, or large so that you can choose to see more images to choose from, or larger images to help make the best choice. If you have an older version of AppleWorks , you can save the library and import it into AppleWorks 6. AppleWorks 6 clippings are in color. Anything that can be pasted in a document can be saved as a clipping. (See the Internet below.)
The Apple standard NAVIGATION SERVICES DIALOG BOX replaces the old open and save dialog box. The dialog box itself is much more flexible and can speed your work. Using Navigation Services was extremely slow in AppleWorks 6.0. But these problems were fixed in AppleWorks 6.03. Now Navigation Services is a definite convenience. Turn off Recent Items to speed up everything.
Many other small design improvements have been made to improve AppleWorks, not to just keep it consistent with past versions. Insert Cells and Insert Rows used to be under the Calculate Menu because it required the computer to do some calculating. But what you want to do is to reformat your spreadsheet and now it is more logically found under the Format Menu.
These design changes make AppleWorks 6.04 easier to learn, easier to work with, easier to start new projects, and easier to consider the available tools and options. While it does not do things that could not be done before, doing them easier should increase productivity, and that by itself is a major upgrade worth buying.
Presentations
Presentations are very easy to create in AppleWorks 6. Many features add to the creative capability in Presentation including:
1. Multiple master pages.
2. Individual pages can modify the master page objects.
3. Transitions between slides.
4. Ability to use QuickTime features and tools.
5. A controls panel to organize your presentation.
6. A notes view for yourself or for making handouts.
The one limitation is that AppleWorks presentations are designed to be 640 x 480 pixels. That is 4:3 the same as your TV, digital camera, and iMovie. If you need something other than 640 x 480, you can still use the the page presentation features of AppleWorks 5.
Tables
Tables are more than a new design, they are now one of the four frames along with text, spreadsheet, and paint. The new Tables feature does not replace use of the spreadsheet in a frame for numerical tables. It is an entirely new feature that is used to create text tables.
If you want to create a table that is not primarily numerical, or a listing of text with multiple columns, tables is the tool to use. It is easy and flexible with features to match your creativity. Tables are also used to format text for a web site.
Auto-save and Auto-recover
When the new Auto-Save preference is turned on, you can create documents without worrying about losing data. AppleWorks automatically saves your documents to a back up record as often as you like: every few seconds, every 12 hours, or anything in between. Further, if your computer or AppleWorks unexpectedly quits, AppleWorks automatically reopens the files you were working on.
The Internet
According to Apple, using the new Internet content capability of AppleWorks 6, you can access an abundance of material on the AppleWorks Web site (or anywhere on the Internet) without having to launch a Web browser or decompress files.
In the Clippings and Starting Points windows you can access:
1. thousands of Web-based clip art images using the powerful search function in the Clippings window
2. hundreds of additional Web-based templates
3. regular newsletters offering AppleWorks tips, projects, special offers, and news.
Accessing the Web using Clippings or Starting Points
Since that is what Apple said, that is what we can expect in AppleWorks 6. x. But that is in the future. Right now connecting to the Internet using AppleWorks 6.04 is not that easy. A new Apple Technical Information Library article says you should first connect to the Internet, then try to connect by clicking the appropriate places in AppleWorks. AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual provides more suggestions if this does not work.
I retrieved some Apple on-line clippings, but using the clippings search tool to look for hiking or hikers found only 9 clippings, mostly people in winter on skis or hiking boots. It takes so long to search and download the results with my modem that I have not experimented with this much.
However, you can build your own web page using AppleWorks 6.04, and get more precise text formatting using Tables.
Apple is working in the right direction, and the close integration with the Internet will no doubt live up to the hype in future updates.
Many Improvements
Many small improvements have been made. Here are a some examples:
New in version 6, the Thesaurus includes word definitions. Click a definition to look for synonyms with that meaning
You can link spreadsheets. You could for example have five daily spreadsheets, and create a sixth which would refer to them and contain the workweek totals.
Instead of sending you an error notice that an ending parenthesis is missing from a spreadsheet formula, AppleWorks 6 puts it in for you.
You can mail merge sending the documents directly to printer, sending the documents to a one large word processing document to review the results, or save the merged documents to disk so you could e-mail them to the individuals.
Still Some Bugs and Limitations
Some of the original fonts that came with my Macintosh and that are on my printer were gone after installing AppleWorks 6.0. Be sure to save your fonts before installing AppleWorks 6 so you can restore them if you need to.
You have to select your user dictionary first, before the AppleWorks 6.0 spell checker will retain new words. Importing my AppleWorks User Dictionary from the Claris folder in the System Folder fixed the problem. The User Dictionary is limited to 2883 words in AppleWorks 6.
Specifying a limit on Recent Items does not keep the file of recent items from growing.
The printed manual is only 65 pages long. It contains examples of documents, templates, with references to Help. It does not have instructions showing how the examples were created like the tutorials in AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual.
The problems are small. The additions may or may not be considered significant. But the design change so greatly improves working with AppleWorks, that it is in my judgment a very significant upgrade. It also can take advantage of OS X when it becomes available.
Should You Buy AppleWorks 6.04.
There are two competitors to AppleWorks 6.04, Microsoft Office, and AppleWorks 5.
Most people can do anything they want or need to do in AppleWorks, do it easier, faster and cheaper, and with better integration of all the modules than in Microsoft Office. The major advantage Microsoft Office has is that it is a near monopoly. Microsoft has the advertising money and guts to promote their monopoly as an advantage. Did you see the Microsoft two page ad in the August Macworld, “So I’m talking to a client and I ask if she wanted the files as a Word doc or something else? We had a good laugh over that one.” If you have to save text files as Word.doc, you can use AppleWorks 5, or AppleWorks 6.04 and either the AppleWorks 5 translators or MacLinkPlus. You’ll save a bundle and have a much more friendly tool that will do more than most any of use need to do.
Microsoft would like you to think that Excel is the only spreadsheet program. Microsoft had another two page ad in the same issue, “I used to think, ‘If I have to be the lone holdout and try to use something other than Excel, then so be it.’ Then I realized I may be a robot, but I’ve also got a job to do.” You should have seen a group of us taking training in preparing The School Portfolio and trying to use Excel to do something we could have done much more quickly in AppleWorks 5. AppleWorks 6.04 has an even better spreadsheet than AppleWorks 5. You can also translate between AppleWorks 6 and Excel spreadsheets if you need to the same as between AppleWorks 6 and Microsoft Word.
Microsoft will be coming out with an improved Office 2001 sometime, and they are trying to make it easier to use. They will include a new Gallery to start projects from, a more complicated looking Starting Points. They will use the same QuickTime tools as are used in AppleWorks 6.04. They are even going to try to make mail merge less difficult, but they won’t make it as easy as in AppleWorks because the Office programs were not originally designed as one integrated program.
I’d rather spend a lot less money to buy AppleWorks to do everything I ever need to do, and to spend a lot less time figuring out how to do it, than spend a lot more money to support a monopoly. If I had to use a Windows computer, I would want AppleWorks on it.
The other choice is between AppleWorks 6 and earlier versions of AppleWorks. AppleWorks 6.04 is a significant upgrade. If you buy a new Macintosh with AppleWorks 6 on it, get the free upgrade to 6.04. If you have a fast G3 or G4 based Macintosh, including the iMac and iBook, you will be happier if you upgrade to AppleWorks 6.04.
If you have an older slower Macintosh, you may want to stay with AppleWorks 5 or even ClarisWorks 4. We spend a lot of time keying data in. In AppleWorks 6.04 it is not difficult to key data in faster then AppleWorks 6.04 can put it on the screen, even on my Performa 6400/180. At best, waiting for the screen to catch up is annoying. At worst, it can be distracting so that you loose your thought.
As the British reviewer said AppleWorks 6 doesn't necessarily do an awful lot more, but it's a lot better to work with.
If you do get AppleWorks 6, get a translator program either from AppleWorks 5 or MacLinkPlus, and buy a good AppleWorks 6 book. I recommend AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual. If you are going to buy MacLinkPlus, the 60% discount coupon in the book will more than pay for the book. For the reasons why I recommend AppleWorks 6: the Missing Manual, see my Review: AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual.
2. AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual
Summary Review: AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual
By Hartley Jim Jackson, NVMUG
The 65 page manual shipped with AppleWorks 6 is inadequate, and the Help system is not a replacement for a manual. Easy as it is to use, to get real value out of AppleWorks 6 you need a manual.
AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual is a complete manual that is well written and is never a chore to read. Since it is not an Apple book, it can and does call a bug a bug, and tells you how to fix it. It tells you how the program works, and includes step by step tutorials to help you do it. Reading The Missing Manual, I learned how to do things that I was not able to figure out by myself.
The Missing Manual books, like AppleWorks 6, are designed to enhance working with them. AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual opens flat and stays open so you can read it while working on your Macintosh.
The authors, Jim Elferdink & David Reynolds, credit David Pogue as being the greatest editor a first time author could hope for. My expectations were high when I saw the name Pogue on the cover. I was not disappointed. I have read and used The Missing Manual, and I recommend it.
Full Review: AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual
A review by Hartley Jim Jackson, NVMUG
This review will try to answer two questions:
If you have or are getting Appleworks 6, should you buy a book about it?
If you are going to buy an Appleworks 6 Book, which one should you buy?
Of course there is another question: Should you buy AppleWorks 6? That question is the subject of Review: AppleWorks 6, The New Design. However, here is my short answer.
You should definitely get and use AppleWorks. If you have an older Macintosh, you may want to stay with the earlier AppleWorks 5, or the even earlier ClarisWorks 4. Writing with AppleWorks 6.04 does not update the display as fast on older machines as the earlier versions of AppleWorks. I have a Performa 6400/180 which does not update the display fast enough in AppleWorks 6.04 to keep up with my typing. Still I prefer to use AppleWorks 6.04.
Do get AppleWorks 6.04 or later if you have a fast G3, iMac, iBook, or any G4 Macintosh. (If you have a PC , get the earlier version of AppleWorks or ClarisWorks until AppleWorks 6 for the PC comes out.) Be sure to get the latest version of AppleWorks 6, currently 6.04. For my reasons for this answer, read Review: AppleWorks 6, The New Design or attend the NVMUG demonstration.
Now that is settled, we can get to the two questions for this review. First.
If you have or are getting Appleworks 6,should you buy a Book about it?
I do not believe you need a manual for a program if it meets at least two of the following three criteria:
1. It is a very simple program, not at all complex,
2. It is intuitive, the steps to do every action are what you expect and would guess, and
3. It has a well organized built in Help system where you can quickly find what you need to know, and which is clear, easy and fun to read.
AppleWorks is famous for being easy to learn and use, but few people learn to use all of it. AppleWorks 6 has been redesigned to make it even easier to learn and to use. But AppleWorks 6 is an integrated word processing, drawing and page layout, painting, spreadsheet, presentation, and database program. It can combine any or all of these to produce one document or product. When a program does as much as AppleWorks, it cannot all be simple.
Of course AppleWorks is, like most Mac programs, designed to be intuitive with several ways to do most things so that it will fit the way you work. But, as an example, one of the newer Mac interface standards is to control-click on anything to see what can be done with it. For a new user, that is not intuitive. Even experienced AppleWorks users did not immediately discover that control-clicking the Button Bar allowed you to edit it, including changing the size of the buttons. As this example shows, the way to do things you want to do in AppleWorks 6 is not always obvious.
The AppleWorks 6 Help system is a very good tool and a good first place to look when you have a question. Before I got AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual, I tried to read the AppleWorks 6 Help. It is not easy or fun to read. If you want to print information from the help menu, you need to use your web browser. I did not find instructions in the Help menu for doing it. I did find the instructions in AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual.
It is clear, if you have or are getting AppleWorks 6, you should buy a book about it.
If you are going to buy an Appleworks 6 Book, which one should you buy?
One answer, look for the name Pogue. David Pogue is the coauthor of MacWorld Mac Secrets, he has written many many books including some of the For Dummies books, he writes the back page, The Desktop Critic, in MacWorld. He is the originator and editor of the Missing Manual books for O’Reilly publishing. Jim Elferdink & David Reynolds, the writers of AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual deserve the credit for what is in the book, but I had not heard of them before I read the book. The name Pogue was what told me that this was the AppleWorks book that would be good and that I would enjoy reading.
Here are a few words by Pogue about the Missing Manual series:
"Actually, the idea came from a guy on a bus. He was sitting next to me, coming back from some computer show. He was ranting--and I mean RANTING--about online help. "There's no PICTURES, and no PAGE NUMBERS, and you can't FIND anything," he was saying. "The stupid Help window itself covers up the program you're trying to learn. And you can't read it in the bathroom."
"Oh, right. So yeah: right there on the bus, next to this guy, I had this idea to do a series of books that would be, as our tagline goes, "the book that should have been in the box." Each book would cover a different popular software program, authoritatively, friendlily, and completely. If I were in charge, I could do these books right, taking the time and money to do a killer job."
"Above all, a Missing Manual is about the writing: it's clear, crisp, jargon-free, and often witty, with enough patience for the novice and enough depth for the power user."
That is what Pogue said, and that is what he did.
Another answer, it is not by Apple. It is clear enough for dummies, but it is designed for readers of every technical level. AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual is an accurate manual and kept up to date. The May, 2000 version was updated in June 2000 to make corrections due to the introduction of AppleWorks 6.0.4, and the corrections were posted on their web page. In addition it tells you about some things in a way that an Apple publication could not. AppleWorks 6 does have some problems, and AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual calls a bug a bug and tells you what you can do to get around it.
For example, I clicked and double clicked on the Starting Points —> Web —> Newsletter which should have connected me to the Internet and brought up a Newsletter but it did not. I was unable to get the Newsletter. I thought Apple was to busy updating AppleWorks to produce the Newsletter. Then I read in AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual about the “Problems with Internet Connections: Although Apple’s done a great job bringing the Internet to AppleWorks, it doesn’t always work correctly. If you’re having trouble using AppleWorks’ Web features, try these troubleshooting steps.” Following the recommendations, and making sure that that Internet Config was in the extensions and was not disabled, I had no difficulty getting the Newsletter.
Here is another answer, I read AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual. I found it to be clear, readable and useful and useable. I found it entertaining as well as informative so that I wanted to read it. Otherwise reading manuals can be a boring chore.
In the Introduction you will find, “The purpose of this book, then, is to serve as the manual that should have accompanied AppleWorks 6. In this book’s pages, you'll find step-by-step instructions for using every AppleWorks 6 feature, including those you may not even have quite understood, let alone mastered: style sheets, database reports, links, macros, and so on.” And, “AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual is divided into three parts, each containing several chapters;
Part 1. Parts of the Sum, covers the six modules that make up the heart of AppleWorks: Word Processing, Database, Spreadsheet, Drawing, Painting and Presentation.
Part 2, AppleWorks Power, covers the AppleWorks features that don’t create documents, but serve as tools to help you create them. One chapter is devoted to the things that make it easier for you to get started with a project:; Clippings, Assistants, and Templates. Another chapter covers AppleWorks’ new Internet Features such as creating Web pages. A third covers all the ways you can customize AppleWorks, including the macro function that lets you turn AppleWorks into a software robot that’s absolutely thrilled to do boring repetitive tasks for you.
Part 3, Integration, details how the modules (work) with each other, with other programs, and with computers. Finally a trouble shooting chapter helps you to get out of trouble if you’re in it, or stay out of trouble if you’re not.”
Chapter 1 is a neat Sneak Preview that tells what AppleWorks 6 and the rest of the book is about.
There are, I am sure, some secrets that are not in The Missing Manual, but there is also a web page and readers are invited to submit suggestions for improving future editions or for posting to the web page.
And, for a final reason to buy AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual instead of some other AppleWorks book, download Chapter 3: Advanced Word Processing and see for yourself. Even if you are not thinking of buying the manual, download the chapter. It contains good information, not just an introduction to the book. You can get it at
I had high expectations for AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual. The book exceeded them.
3. O’Reilly 20% Discount
As an NVMUG member, you are eligible for a 20% discount on all O’Reilly books and software. This includes The Missing Manuals, AppleWorks 6, Mac OS 9, and iMovie, $19.95 each before discount. It also includes Crossing Platforms, Photoshop In a Nutshell, and their most recent release, Mac OS In a Nutshell. I will bring their catalog to the next meeting. You can find more about these books and order them at http://www.oreilly.com
