The latest Mac OS user guide from respected Mac expert Robin Williams (and co-author John Tollett, this time) is what readers have come to expect: Comprehensive, carefully illustrated, and patient in its explanations of what most novice and intermediate-level users want to do with their computers at home or in a small office. Trust The Robin Williams Mac OS X Book: Panther Edition to show you how to get switched on, hooked up, and happily generating nicely formatted documents full of useful prose, pictures, and calculations. The book will show you how to share your computer among several people, offer an Internet connection or printer to other machines, and add new software to your configuration.

Williams and Tollett explain everything in highly-illustrated detail, a format that's appropriate for the eminently graphical Mac OS environment. A series of screen shots accompanies a typical procedure, and black ovals superimposed on the screen shots indicate the particular interface element (button, list box, or whatever) that the text refers to. It's a good approach, and the instructions are easy to follow.

This is clearly not a guide for power users. Coverage of Darwin, the user-accessible Unix-like core of Mac OS X, is woeful--there's hardly any coverage at all. A few network-related utility commands are mentioned, but that's about it. The coverage is hardly adequate, considering that Darwin appears to be doing more to bring in new Mac users than any other aspect of the operating system. --David Wall

Topics covered: The complete capabilities of Mac OS X Panther, with the significant exception of the Darwin command-line environment. This is a beginner's guide, with sections on basic file management and mouse usage in addition to more advanced subjects like network setup and printer sharing.

From Book News, Inc.
Macintosh computer gurus cover the latest Mac operating system for both beginners (in specially marked sections) and those users familiar with, and perhaps not ready to let go of, Panther's predecessor. Includes a glossary and quiz with an answer key.Copyright © 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Book Description
No matter how many bells and whistles a new operating system offers--and with Mac OS X 10.3 Panther the list is a long one--using that new OS can be an intimidating process. Unless, of course, you have Robin Williams in your corner: In this volume she once again works her magic by providing a gentle and friendly introduction to Mac OS X Panther. In these pages, Robin covers not just the basics of using a Mac under Mac OS X--printing, sending e-mail, exchanging files, surfing the Internet--but all of the important new and improved features as well: working with Panther's all-new Finder, using Expose to work with windows, getting started with iChat AV, expanded coverage of networking, improved Web access with the Safari browser, working with Mail, and lots more.

About the Author
Robin Williams is the author of more than 20 best-selling and award-winning books, including The Little Mac Book, The Little Mac iApps Book, The Non-Designer's Design Book, The Non-Designer's Web Book, and Robin Williams Design Workshop and Web Design Workshop. Through her writing, teaching, and seminars, Robin has influenced a generation of computer users in the areas of design, typography, desktop publishing, the Mac, and the World Wide Web.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

No matter how many bells and whistles a new operating system offers, and with Mac OS X 10.3 Panther the list is a long one, using that new OS can be an intimidating process. Unless, of course, you have Robin Williams in your corner: In this volume she once again works her magic by providing a gentle and friendly introduction to Mac OS X Panther. In these pages, Robin covers not just the basics of using a Mac under Mac OS X, printing, sending e-mail, exchanging files, surfing the Internet, but all of the important new and improved features as well: working with Panther's all-new Finder, using Expose to work with windows, getting started with iChat AV, expanded coverage of networking, improved Web access with the Safari browser, working with Mail, and lots more.

SYNOPSIS