Rob Griffiths, best known for running the MacOSXHints.com web site, is probably better equipped than most to write a "Best Hints of Leopard" ebook. His web site specializes in collecting a huge variety of hints, ranging from the deservedly obscure and mostly pointless, to the undeservedly obscure yet tremendously useful hints that can make a great improvement for how you use your Mac.
Griffith's MacWorld Superguide Mac OS X Hints Leopard Edition is a 68-page compendium of a wide variety of Leopard-oriented hints. It has sections on
• Mastering Your System Preferences
• Navigate Leopard
• Unleash OS X's Programs
• Getting the Code
• Take Command of Terminal
This ebook is neither just for newbies, nor is it all Terminal commands focused on frustrated UNIX junkies. There are hints for all levels of users and experience levels. If you want to dabble in Terminal commands, those hints are well-explained, and you can copy the Terminal commands right from the PDF version to copy into the Terminal window. That alone makes experimenting a bit safer! My big fear with Terminal trials stems from my lousy typing; I'm afraid I'll have an extra backslash or space, and ruin my permissions, or erase my entire hard drive.
My personal faves from the book are these:
Page 12-Power Up Screen Sharing. This hint shows how to edit the Screen Sharing application's preference list to activate many more controls and options for screen sharing. These newly-enabled features make screen sharing much more useful.
Page 17-Solve Problems with Font Book. To me, Font Book has always been a poor stepchild; it has been out of sight and out of mind in the Utilities folder. I had no idea what it could do. Wouldn't you know that installing Office 2008 dumped a large number of fonts into the various font folders? This hint enlightened me to the fact that Font Book could search for duplicate fonts as well as damaged fonts.
Page 18-Take Control of OS X's Spelling Checker. I've always wanted to know how to move my personal additions to the built-in spelling checker's list of words to my laptop. This hint tells you how; more than half the battle is knowing where the file lives.
Page 28-Move All Windows At Once In Spaces. If you become frustrated when you have several windows belonging to the same application in different Spaces, this tip tells you how to herd them all into one Space. I use this a dozen times a day.
While $12.95 prices the ebook just barely out of the "spur of the moment impulse purchase" range, the ebook is worth the money, no question about it. I'm a moderate level power-user, and I found plenty of good info I had not seen before. It's a good addition to any Macintosh owner's library.
My only negative comment is about the print layout. The book is laid out in two-column format, but it also has some separate hints in differently colored areas on some pages. While graphically glitzy, this impairs readability.
MyMac.com rating 4.5 out of 5. The content is wonderful; just make the layout a bit easier to follow.
Download Link:
| Code: |
| http://rapidshare.com/files/113110649/Mac_OS_X_Hints.rar |
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