Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Leopard Edition

I have to strongly disagree with the reviewer here who suggests buying the "Leopard Edition Missing Manual" instead. Yes, there is duplication of content here, but there is also content that is NOT in the other book, and I think a Windows Switcher is going to be much happier with this book than the other. In an ideal situation, I'd give them both and have them read this first.

Sure, it could have been done better, and maybe there really is no need for two thick books. Maybe all the "switcher" stuff should be taken out of the "regular" book and all the "this is the way a Mac" works stuff should be taken out of this - then the two could and should be sold as a set for those who need or want both. Certainly both these books could use some trimming; they are fat and hard to handle.

This is the book I'd give my wife if and when I can get her to give up her Windows PC (I hate that stupid thing and cannot wait for it to die!). She'll be much happier with this than she would be with the other book.

I was going to give this book 5 stars until I read the review that mentioned that formating isn't found in the index. He's right. I also checked "Mac OS X Leopard Bible" and also "Mac OS X 10.5" Quick Start Guide, and it isn't in either of those two either. I recently bought a digital photo frame and discovered that photos wouldn't load directly on it, the SD card wasn't even recognized as being available. So then I tried to format it on my PC in NTSC, and same thing. I tried FAT and only had slightly under 200 MB on a 4GB card available. Finally I used FAT 32 and it worked. I haven't tried it on my iMac yet - big question. So where are the answers?

That being said, I made the mistake of not buying this book before I tried to use the new iMac. I've used PCs for 25 years, and MS has partitioned my brain into Windows. I made the switch because of all the hoo-rah about the wonderful multi-media integration on the Mac. I won't describe all the wheel-spinning I did for months, but on a PC, when you do a 3rd party software downwload, you often get the query, would you like to create a shortcut. Try to find the word "shortcut" in Mac Help, or in the indexes of the two other books mentioned above. The word just isn't there. I know, this is simple stuff, but if you don't know that alias = shortcut in the Mac world, you're out of luck. I had heard so often that Mac and Apple were "intuitive," so it's a word I now despise. If your brain is Windows partitioned like mine is, there's nothing intuitive about a Mac, until you reconfigure your cranial neurons to Mac OS X. Then it's pretty nice.

I was ready to give my iMac to one of my daughters and go crawling back to Microsoft, when I decided to get this book. It opened up many of the possibilities for me, and I quickly purchased a few other titles in Pogue's Missing Manual series, and now I'm off and running, enjoying the new Mac. I think I'll keep it. Based on the format issue, I'll give this book 4 stars, but I would still buy it and recommend it to other switchers. Do yourself a favor, buy the book before you start aimlessly frustrating yourself and blindly plowing around Mac World. And buy a few other books after reading some of these reviews. You'll need 'em.

I have recently moved from PC to a MacBook. After being a PC guy for the past 20 plus years, I found it very difficult to figure out how to do things with the MAC. Everything is different on the Mac OS. The first time I tried to change from PC to Mac I became frustrated and returned to the PC. A few months later, I decided to give it another try. This book has been a savior! This really is the book that should come with the MAC. It is very complete without being a "techie" manual. I can easily find the things I am looking for and they are easy to understand. There is even a section that describes what I use to do on a PC and how to do it on the Mac. If you are switching from a PC to Mac, definitely buy this book!
The Missing Manual also makes a similar book titled "Mac OS X Leopard". They both have a lot of the same stuff in them. "OS X Leopard" can get a little more into the weeds for a newbie. "Switching to the Mac" has the section that allows to to look up what you used to do on a PC and tells you how to do it on a Mac.

After using the Tiger version of Mac OS X (10.4) for a couple of months, I updated to the Leopard version (10.5) and obtained the Leopard edition of David Pogue's book from O'Reilly. Because of the new features in Leopard, this edition has expanded from 515 pages to 590 pages.

Although I expected to find a short section listing all of the new features introduced by Leopard, its absence is not a serious problem. These lists can be found on the Internet and then printed for reference.

This edition of the book follows the same chapter layout as the Tiger edition and includes all the very helpful features for anyone switching from a Windows-based PC to an iMac or MacBook. In addition to continually taking the PC-user's viewpoint in every section, there are chapters and sections especially designed to ease the transition. The most helpful for PC users are:

Chapter 1 - How the Mac is different

Chapters 5-7 - Transferring files, emails, contacts, etc. from your PC and also, Mac capabilities for replacing specific Windows programs

Appendix B - Where Did It Go? You'll find yourself referring to this useful appendix often to quickly find out how to do all the things that were second-nature on the PC, e.g., Ctl-Alt-Delete to `kill' stuck programs, shutdown, zipping/unzipping files, taskbar & system tray, favorites, and much more.

It you are switching from a PC to a Mac running Leopard, you'll love this book. But if you already have the Tiger edition and just want the Leopard content, then you will benefit more from purchasing the more comprehensive (almost 900 pages) Mac Leopard OS X: The Missing Manual, 2007, which is also by David Pogue.

For anyone that is not familiar with the wonderful, easy world that is the Apple Macintosh, consider yourself a poor, ignorant soul. Ever since the first Macintosh computer was launched in 1984, the Mac has been the most user-friendly computer available to the masses, and with the newest operating system X Leopard Edition, the same is true, only times X!!!

For existing Windows users who have decided to make the switch because they got their slick new iPod and loves the way it works or they just got a look at a Mac recently and decided it was for them this is the perfect manual for making the switch!!

Covering basics like getting e-mail up and running, importing bookmarks, listening to music, viewing digital pictures and all the other important parts of everyday personal computing is all contained in this book. Written by the amazing David Pogue, every topic is covered in an easy to read manner and this manual is chock full of images on nearly every page!!

For all recent Mac OS X users or people who have made the switch, this book truly SHOULD have been in the box with the OS. It's an incredibly well-written resource, and while it's full of hard data and examples, it's really fun at the same time!!

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED