Inside .Mac by Chuck Toporek is written for new users’s of Apple’s .Mac service, which icludes Virex virus protection, Backup software, 100MB space on Apple’s server, and many more benefits. The book covers just about every question that a user could have. Which is just as well because Apple does not provide a manual. Apple provides online help on the DotMac site but for some people reading a book first is the preferred method of learning. (I am more of the dive in, play around, and only refer to the manual in case of dire necessity persuasion). The book not only covers OS X, it shows how to access your iDisk from OS 9 and yes, Windows!

Apple’s $99/year DotMac service is often confused by customers with an ISP account. Since it offers email services, that’s not surprising. (In fact, you need an ISP account to make use of DotMac’s email!) Toporek takes the reader through the methods of using DotMac as webmail, or accessing it using Apple’s mail program built into OS X.

DotMac is pitched as an automated, offsite backup solution; the basic service offers 100MB of space, enough for your word processing documents, spreadsheets and presentations, but probably not enough if you have a large photo or music library. You can use Apple’s Backup software included with DotMac to back up to local media and the book offers a comparison of costs and benefits of using DotMac’s iDisk vs. a CD-ROM or DVD, and also makes other suggestions for people with larger backup storage space needs. The book helps the user with backup strategies, what files to back up and where they are located and how to setup backup schedules.

Inside DotMac provides a chapter on iBlog, a simple program that allows you to create a blog on your Mac.com homepage. For a while, iBlog was free to DotMac users, but is no longer free or available on the DotMac site, so readers might find this confusing. As I had already downloaded iBlog during the free giveaway period, I used the book to guide me as I created a simple blog. On occasions the book is very pedantic in explaining the steps to install software in excruciating detail - in the case of iBlog I simply dragged the icon to my Applications folder but Toporek took almost two pages to explain his installation method. Obviously a new user would be more appreciate of the detail, while I hopped ahead.

Integration with the iLife suite of apps is another reason to have DotMac and Toporek explains building a Mac Home page using DotMac’s simple tools, uploading images from iPhoto and movies from iMovie. One of the tidbits I picked up was how to create a "Favicon". If you use Safari, you may have noticed that some web pages display a logo in the Address bar to the left of the URL. These are actually 16x16 pixel images that you can create for your own website. You need to embed a little HTML code in the web page to make them appear. (See http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/indotmac/ for an example.) I was glad to have found this little gem in the book. Another unrelated gem I noted was to check spelling as you type with Safari. If you use webmail, or are typing an email into a form on a website, being able to spell check is something I’ve always wanted to do. Just choose Spelling, Check as You Type from the Safari Edit menu.

In general I found the book to be readable, well organized and easy to use, with a decent index, and info that’s hard to find elsewhere. If you are a new Mac user and DotMac subscriber and have $20 to spend, I recommend this book.

Doug Noble

Having been a Mac user since 1985, I figured that learning Mac OS X would be a walk in the park. But OS X has many fundamental differences from OS 9, and attempting to use it without a reference manual is not recommended. As usual Apple has left it to third parties to write this manual. David Pogue has once again risen to the challenge, with another in the "Missing Manual" series. At around $20 this book is a bargain. I learned about many hidden features of OS X that I was not aware of. The book has an excellent section on using the web serving functions, a chapter on exchanging files with PCs, a chapter on Applescripting. Wants to know about OS X Utilities or File Sharing? He's got it covered. An excellent chapter "Where'd it go?" covers items that that moved or disappeared in the transition from OS 9 to X. And if you run into problems either installing or using OS X there is a chapter for that.
Pogue's style is as usual easy to read, chatty without being obnoxious, and the book is well illustrated. Pogue takes advantage of his non-Apple status to make the book more than a "manual"- he offers excellent advice to get around the issues that the Apple engineers failed to tackle.

Pogue also covers the applications like iMovie, iPhoto, iTunes, ical and other apps that Apple includes with every new computer. While not as exhaustive as the separate books available on these items it covers the basic info required to get up and running.

The latest 10.3 version of Pogue's popular OS X Missing Manual now covers Panther. It covers great features like the new Sidebar in the Finder. Learn how to use Expose to hide/show windows. Learn how to keep your files secret with Fielvault. Network your Mac with PCs. Doing a clean install and more.

I liked the first edition and the second, and like the third even better! [Doug Noble, MacBookshop]

Adobe's InDesign 2.0 takes over the reins from the highly successful PageMaker app. InDesign is supposed to attract Quark users, and has adopted Quark's frame based layout methodology. It also has extensive drawing tools, XML support, better table support and many new features. It also has an advantage over Quark in that it is an OS X native application. Olav "Ole" Martin Kvern and David Blatner's latest book in the Real World series is a solid and hefty reference manual for InDesign. It includes decent coverage of the drawing tools that are similar to those in Illustrator, which enable the user to do more work within InDesign. The authors include many tips for former PageMaker and Quark users who have made the switch. As a longtime PageMaker user I was disappointed that there was not a section devoted to the differences between InDesign and PageMaker (and of course the same for Quark users). Instead, the tips are scattered throughout the book. Which is not a bad thing, but for folks like me who don't like to read the manual before diving into a new software app, that intro piece would have helped. There is a useful section on how InDesign deals with opening Quark and PageMaker files, what converts and what doesn't. The authors have clearly been up and down the desktop publishing street many times, and each subject is covered in detail. This is the sort of book you probably don't want to read cover to cover, but rather use it for help when you need it. Recommended. -- Doug Noble, reviewer.

Once upon a time, there was a irreverent Mac magazine called Mac Today. It combined great articles with some PC bashing and witty retorts to ìPC weeniesî from its editor, Scott Kelby. Mac Today has morphed into Mac Design Magazine to reflect the Mac's predominance in all things visual, and Kelby not only edits it, he tours the country giving Photoshop seminars. I recently spent a very enjoyable day at one such seminar being entertained and learning at the same time as Kelby joked his way through his favorite passion, down and dirty tricks. Now, Kelby offers his own brand of evangelism by publishing ìMacintosh ñ The Naked Truthî, exploring what itís like to be a Macintosh user in a Windows world. He deals with such subjects as ìCompUSA - your own private hellî, ìStupid things PC Users sayî, ì20 most important things about being a Mac Userî, ìresisting the temptation to strangle Appleís Managementî and other pearls of wisdom. If you have ready any of Kelbyís columns, you already know what to expect. Sometimes he rants, other times he screams, yet always lighthearted. One of my favorite quotes: ìif God uses a computer, itís definitely a Mac. After all, since money is no object, why would he choose a PC, which is clearly the devilís work?î. Needless to say, Kelbyís Mac-centric views donít go down well with PC users. This book is not a tell-all about Apple management, nor is it a tipsínítrix compendium like other Kelby books. But if you are a true Macaholic, you are bound to be able to relate to his tales and it may help you to co-exist peacefully with your PC-toting friends!