Last updated 2/22/2004

Mac OS X 10.3 Panther Little Black Book

Mac OS X 10.3 Panther Little Black Book
Author: Gene Steinberg
Publisher: Paraglyph Press/O'Reilly
550 pages ....... $29.99
ISBN 1-932111-86-7
Concise Problem Solver

Mac OS X 10.3 Panther Little Black Book is a concise guide for those upgrading to Mac OS X 10.3 Panther. It is not really intended for the new Macintosh user who bought their Mac with Panther installed.

This Little Black book covers what is hot about Panther, upgrading to Panther, user preferences, the finder, desk top management, setting up for multiple users, and panther's search features, It continues with a network overview, AppleScript, installing programs, setting up new hardware, and taking Panther on the road, Then it covers Mac OS X programs, using older programs, and font management, There are chapters on backups, security, trouble shooting, and just a little bit about Unix. The Little Black Book ends with surfing the net, e-mail software, and parts of the digital hub.

Each chapter starts with an In Brief overview, which is followed by Immediate Solutions that can be implemented right away. The immediate solutions begins with setting preferences where appropriate, and then using it to do something. These immediate solutions are listed at the front of each chapter.

One objective of Mac OS X 10.3 Panther Little Black Book is to help you perform important tasks that are not well covered in other books. One example is how to install a scanner, and one detail is to be sure you lock the optical mechanism before you move it. Few other books mention installing hardware.

The purpose of the book is to help you do things, to perform specific tasks. As an example, Gene Steinberg describes how to locate a character in the Character Palette and click Insert with Font to place it where your cursor is in a document. Other sources might also say you could double click the character instead of clicking Insert with Font. That might be an interesting detail, but would not be as concise or contribute very much to getting the task done.

I did not find anything else to complain about in this book, but the second reference to cars and Ford on page 505 probably should have been

If your problem is to learn about upgrading to Panther or using its new features to get something done, if you have some experience, and if you do not have time to read a thousand page manual, Mac OS X 10.3 Panther Little Black Book is a fine solution.

For more information, or to order, go to
http://www.oreilly.com