Teach Yourself Basic Mac Skills

by Lawton, Rod

• ISBN13: 9780071598415
• ISBN10: 0071598413
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-04-23
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill

Summary

Make the most of your MacAre you looking to get the best out of your new Mac, either as a complete novice or as a convert from a PC? Or have you just upgraded to Leopard and want to know what's new? Either way, this is the book for you.Teach Yourself Basic Mac Skillsoffers a wider, more beginner-friendly scope--an all-in-one reference for those who want to understand the basic concepts rather than the in-depth technicalities. Focusing on email, iPhoto, iCal, iMovie, iTunes and other iLife applications, it will help you to enjoy the full Mac experience. With straightforward writing from expert authors, this book cuts through the "techno babble" and instead gives you easy and enjoyable access to all of the computer skills you want to acquire.

Author Biography

Rod Lawton is a full-time freelance technology journalist, with extensive experience of both PCs and Macs. He writes for both Computer Shopping magazine and Mac User.

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Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Choosing a Mac	p. 1
Processors	p. 2
RAM	p. 3
Hard disk size	p. 4
Getting started: the Mac Mini	p. 5
Family workhorse: the iMac	p. 7
Creative professionals: Mac Pro	p. 8
The portable MacBook	p. 9
Professional portability: the MacBook Pro	p. 10
Graphics cards, and DVD-writers	p. 11
Mac vs PC: time to stop arguing!	p. 12
How Macs work	p. 16
Starting up	p. 17
The Desktop	p. 18
Basic mouse skills	p. 18
Menus, dialogs and windows	p. 19
Using the Dock	p. 22
Starting applications	p. 23
Using the Finder	p. 23
Your Home folder	p. 25
Managing folders and files	p. 26
Finding files	p. 27
What if your Mac crashes?	p. 28
Shutdown and sleep	p. 29
Plug-in devices	p. 31
What devices work with a Mac?	p. 32
Types of connection	p. 32
Choosing a printer	p. 33
Scanning your old photos	p. 35
Connecting a digital camera	p. 36
Using a memory card reader	p. 37
Movies from your camcorder	p. 37
Why external hard drives are useful	p. 39
Portable stick drives	p. 40
Keyboards and mice	p. 41
What's new in Leopard	p. 44
Do you need to upgrade?	p. 45
Stacks	p. 46
Cover Flow	p. 47
Finder Sidebar	p. 48
Smart Folders	p. 49
Quick Look	p. 52
Spaces	p. 53
Time Machine	p. 55
Boot Camp	p. 56
Application enhancements	p. 57
Internet and email	p. 61
Getting online	p. 62
Getting started with Safari	p. 65
Using bookmarks	p. 65
Searching online	p. 67
Buying online	p. 68
Working with tabs	p. 70
Getting starting with Mail	p. 71
Organizing your mail	p. 74
Sending and receiving mail	p. 75
Dealing with junk mail	p. 76
iWork '08	p. 78
What is iWork '08?	p. 79
Writing a letter in Pages	p. 80
Designing a leaflet in Pages	p. 82
Creating a Keynote presentation	p. 85
Adding a chart	p. 87
Introducing spreadsheets	p. 89
What's different about Numbers	p. 91
Swapping documents with others	p. 94
Mac Office 2004	p. 96
No Mac is an island!	p. 97
Mac Office vs Windows Office	p. 97
Mac Office vs iWork '08	p. 98
Microsoft Word basics	p. 98
Outlining in Word	p. 100
Inserting graphics in Word	p. 102
Excel basics	p. 104
PowerPoint basics	p. 106
Entourage - unique to the Mac	p. 111
Managing your projects	p. 113
Office 2008 is coming	p. 115
Working with PCs	p. 117
Swapping files	p. 118
Joining a network	p. 121
Common file types	p. 122
iPhoto	p. 126
What is iPhoto?	p. 127
How iPhoto works	p. 127
Importing photos	p. 128
Viewing and browsing photos	p. 130
Creating albums	p. 132
Using keywords and comments	p. 133
Using ratings	p. 134
Smart albums	p. 135
Editing photos	p. 136
Printing photos	p. 137
Creating slideshows	p. 138
Cards, books and calendars	p. 139
Creating web albums	p. 140
Using iTunes	p. 143
What is iTunes?	p. 144
Copying CDs to your Library	p. 145
Organizing your music	p. 147
Creating playlists	p. 150
Enjoying your music	p. 152
Creating audio CDs	p. 154
Synchronizing with iPods	p. 155
The iTunes store	p. 157
What's DRM?	p. 158
What are podcasts?	p. 159
What's Internet radio?	p. 160
iMovie and iDVD	p. 162
What iMovie does	p. 163
What iDVD does	p. 164
Getting clips into iMovie	p. 165
Organizing and browsing clips	p. 166
Creating a project	p. 167
Adding transitions	p. 168
Adding titles	p. 168
Adding a voiceover	p. 169
Exporting the movie	p. 170
Creating a new iDVD project	p. 170
Importing video	p. 171
Simple modifications	p. 172
Burning a DVD	p. 173
Organize your life with iCal	p. 174
What does iCal do?	p. 175
Creating an appointment	p. 176
Setting a reminder	p. 177
Using multiple calendars	p. 178
Adding a To Do	p. 179
Viewing your To Dos in Mail	p. 180
What does Address Book do?	p. 181
Organizing contacts into groups	p. 182
New: Smart Groups	p. 183
Get online with iWeb	p. 186
Getting started	p. 187
Adding your own text	p. 189
Adding your own photos	p. 190
Adding other objects	p. 191
Building a website	p. 192
Websites versus blogs	p. 194
Going live	p. 196
Subscribing to .Mac	p. 199
What is .Mac?	p. 200
iPhoto web galleries	p. 200
Email	p. 202
Website publishing	p. 203
iDisk	p. 204
Synchronization	p. 205
Is it worth it?	p. 206
Dashboard widgets	p. 208
What are Dashboard widgets?	p. 209
Configuring widgets	p. 212
Where to get more	p. 214
Favourite widgets	p. 216
Games and utilities	p. 219
Game types and top sellers	p. 220
Where to get Mac games	p. 222
Games online	p. 223
Mac utilities	p. 224
Multiple users	p. 229
Your user account	p. 230
Adding a user	p. 232
Switching between users	p. 234
System Preferences	p. 236
Personal Perferences	p. 237
Hardware Preferences	p. 241
Internet & Network Preferences	p. 245
System Preferences	p. 247
Glossary	p. 252
Index	p. 257
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