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Reviews: Book Review: Take Control of Tiger
Posted by: admin on Monday, September 05, 2005 - 12:11 PM
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 As with every major release of Mac OS X, OS 10.4 Tiger has been escorted into the Mac user ranks by a plethora of educational books on how to use the newest version of Apple's operating system. One such book is "Take Control of Tiger," which is a print offering from the popular "Take Control" eBook series published by Adam and Tonya Engst of "TidBits" fame (TidBits is a longstanding Mac e-mail newsletter). In fact, Take Control of Tiger is actually an enhanced compendium of several of the Take Control eBook titles. In this review, we'll take a look between the covers and see who this book is right for.
As stated, Take Control of Tiger is a print-version compendium of four "Take Control" titles previously available in eBook format. As such, the book is quite modularized and the focus of each section is fairly discrete. The four sections are "Take Control of Upgrading to Tiger," "Take Control of Customizing Tiger," "Take Control of Users & Accounts in Tiger," and "Take Control of Sharing Files in Tiger." The content of each section is obviously indicated by the respective title.
Given the discrete sections of the book, it should be clear that this is not a publication for someone looking for a comprehensive index of how to do everything and everything with Mac OS X 10.4. This said, the compact book (344 pp.) does an excellent job at deftly describing the most important task for users migrating to Tiger from earlier versions of OS X or Mac OS 9. As a very good example of this, the introductory section on installing Tiger covers nearly every question you could have in performing such an upgrade. Even if you are a particularly advanced user who tends to have zero questions when you upgrade from one system version to another, this introductory chapter probably covers something you haven't thought of, such as the "archive and install" option in later versions of OS X, disk partitioning ideas, and tips on reducing install size. For users coming from OS 9, there is special attention paid to this transition. Finally, there is a nice list of software resources for utilities that are helpful in installing, archiving, and repairing your system.
"Take Control of Customizing Tiger," the next section of the book, is a great collection of how-to's on exploring what's new in Tiger and how you can customize the system to your preferences. If you're new to Tiger and want to quickly see all the new great features over Panther (10.3), this chapter is a great help. For example, this chapter has a lot of great information on Spotlight, Apple's new file searching utility, including how to customize its use for your needs. One of the greatest things about this chapter is a table of information near the end where the book lists various things you can customize and where you go in OS X to customize them.
The next chapter, "Take Control of Users & Accounts in Tiger" is an extremely helpful source of information for those in multiple user environments. This includes those who have multiple users on a single machine, as well as those with several computers on the same network (and needs to share files, etc.). This chapter goes a long way in easing the confusion and shows how to create and delete accounts, configure and customize accounts, and share files among accounts. If you have multiple users in your environment, this chapter will be a gem for you.
Finally, Take Control of Tiger features a chapter on sharing files in Tiger. In our humble opinion, file sharing amongst multiple users on a network is one of the most confusing things about OS X, particularly for those who were used to the ease of OS 9's file sharing system. This chapter covers everything you need to know to share files with a network of users (or just one other user), including selecting from the many different ways to chare files in OS X, dealing with security issues, turning on file sharing, and working with third party utilities for advanced features or eased configuration. After reading this chapter you'll be an expert on file sharing in OS X.
In summary, we found "Take Control of Tiger" to be a very well-written, information-packed book that helps you get from zero to sixty on Tiger in record time. It covers the most important aspects of using Tiger and covers them well. At a cover price of $29.99, the books is a very good bargain and includes free updates via the web. New users, as well as intermediate or early advanced users of OS X will find the book to be very valuable in honing their system management skills and achieving expertise in the most important aspects of Tiger. We highly recommend Take Control of Tiger for those looking to jump into Tiger as quickly as possible and avoid a lot of headaches.
Title: Take Controle of Tiger
Author(s): Adam Engst, Tonya Engst, Glenn Fleishman, Joe Kissell, Kirk McElhearn, Matt Neuburg
Pages: 344
Publisher: Peachpit Press
Price: $29.99 list ($19.79 @ Amazon)
Learn more about this title at Peachpit Press.
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