The Little Mac iApps Book (Little Book Series) [Paperback]

The Little Mac iApps Book is about the separate applications that come with Mac OS X that were not covered in Robin Williams' The Robin Williams Mac OS X Book, Jaguar Edition. In this one book you will find a helpful guide to:
* iLife applications -iPhoto, iTunes, iMovie, and iDVD
* OS X apps - Mail, Address Book, iCal, iChat and Rendezvous, and Safari
* .Mac apps - iDisk, HomePage, WebMail, Backup, iSync, Slides Publisher, and Virex
* More Cool apps - AppleWorks Word Processing, Database, Spreadsheet, Painting, Drawing, and Presentation, plus OmiGraffle, FAXstf, and Inkwell.

More complete coverage of the iLife applications is available elsewhere, but this first section is enough to get you using these applications. If you want more information or to see a demonstration you might consider The Macintosh iLife with a DVD by Jim Heid.

The section on Mac OS X apps is, I believe, the only source that covers all of these applications and it does so with enough information to really use them. It is presented so that it is easy reading and the beginner can understand it.

Safari is still in Beta but is quite stable and has already become the favorite Internet browser for many of us. This is the only book I know of with Safari information like these two examples: To save or e-mail a link, drag the icon that is immediately to the left of the URL. To open a link in a new window behind the current window shift-Command click on it. "I can go to a search results page and open a dozen windows in five seconds."

The section on .Mac apps may be enough to get you to sign up to become a .Mac user.

The section on AppleWorks applications is presented as a tutorial. For example the chapter on the AppleWorks database compares records to recipe cards and tells you how to construct an address book which you can easily modify to fit other collections. There is a minor error where it advises you to use a character field for a telephone number and a number field for a ZIP code. The ZIP code should also be in a character field so that leading zeros display.

This is a well written and clearly presented book which should appeal to most Mac OS X users because you really should have a guide to all of the applications that come with Mac OS X.

It also covers Mail, Address Book, iCal, iChat and Rendezvous, Safari, Appleworks, Omnigraffle, FaxSTF, Inkwell and all of the .Mac features, including iDisk, iCards, HomePage, WebMail, Backup, iSync, Slides Publisher and Virex. Phew! I'm glad I don't have to say that - I'd run out of breath.

I get a lot of questions from people who are converting from other e-mail apps to Mail, so I looked through Chapter 5 (Mail and Address Book) to see if the most common questions were covered. They were. The AppleWorks Chapter (17) is divided into six sections: Word Processing, Database, Spreadsheet, Painting, Drawing, and Presentation. They cover all the basics you need to get started with these tools.

Tollett and Williams tell us how to rip CDs, import and edit movies, work with iPhoto, create a chat room in iChat, edit, publish and subscribe to calendars using iCal, make a web location from any link in Safari, publish a slide show on your .Mac account, customize the button bar in AppleWorks, and so much more. the information is presented in simple, logical, straight-forward steps.

This book ought to come in the box with every new iMac, eMac and iBook. It covers everything the beginning user of these apps needs to know.

Luckily I read most of the chapters before my co-worker's permanently "borrowed" it. Now I need to buy another copy. Hope RW & JT are busy writing the next edition for the recent upgrades to some of the iLife apps announced at '04 MacWorld. I'll buy that book also as soon as it's available. Howevery, most iApps have have had only minor changes to them with Panther (and the new iLife), so this current book is still very useful and well worth purchasing.