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Review: Mac OS X Help Line, Tiger Edition

Submitted by jcost on Mon, 11/13/2006 - 14:53.

mac os x helpline
We all have problems with out Macs, whether we know it or not. Some appear on the surface and make themselves known. Others are behind the scenes and can be hard to diagnose. If you don't mind delving into the forums, apple technical docs, and other online resources, you can usually find a solution. However, I prefer to walk over to the bookshelf and pull down a manual that will tell me the technical stuff I need to do to cure what ails my Mac.

There are plenty of reference manuals for Mac OS X, but none of them I have see come close to Mac OS X Help Line, Tiger Edition. Written by Ten Landau and Dan Frakes, well known and trusted Mac experts for years.

In-Depth Content
The book will quickly grab your attention by the sheer size of it. It's over 3 inches thick and weighs in at near 1200 pages. Max OS X Helpline doesn't contain a picture on every page like some Mac books. It does contain thought out and properly placed images where they are needed. When you pick the book up, it doesn't feel like a beginner's book at all - even though a beginner could technically use it.

The authors start out with a couple of introductory chapters: Why choose Mac OS X, and the basics of using Mac OS X (Dock, Finder, System Prefs, etc.). After those initial chapters, it proceeds to get a bit more advanced as you move through the book. It exhaustively covers topics like system updates, reinstalling OS X, backing up, and crash prevention and recovery.

To give you an example of how in depth they go, there is almost a 100 page chapter about Printer configuration and troubleshooting. This chapter alone covers just about anything that could go wrong with a printer connected to your Mac. From start to finish it explains how to install, configure, manage print jobs, troubleshoot, and more.

I consider myself an intermediate-expert Mac user, and during the read I often found myself in over my head. It didn't take long to get up to speed though. The authors Landau and Frakes, make it very easy to understand. They give clear and concise explanations of what is going on behind the scenes in Mac OS X and explain what is happening.

Other notable content that your don't find in most books is 'Unix for Mac Users', 'Troubleshooting File Sharing and the Internet', 'Troubleshooting Networking', and 'Problems with files: Opening, Copying, Deleting, and Beyond'.

It has one lengthy chapter devoted to the iApps, and it does a decent job covering most of the common errors you are likely to encounter. One example that comes to mind is with iTunes and download errors. It tells you what 'error -5000' means and how to fix it. Nothing a quick look on Google wouldn't find, but it's nice to have the information from trusted experts.

Who is this book for?
The physical size of the book is likely to be a intimidating to novice users. If you can get past that, then I think you have a good chance at learning more about your Mac than you ever wanted to know. It's not the kind of book where you will sit down and read it cover to cover. However, when a problem arises with your Mac, it will be the first book you pull off of your shelf.

Conclusion:

If you are an intermediate or expert level user, including Mac technicians, I highly recommend this book. When it's applicable, the authors get very granular with their explanations. For items that don't need in depth coverage, they give an understandable explanation of it's function. I have learned something new everytime I've opened this book. It's an indispensable guide, and I can't wait for the Leopard edition. If there is a Mac Geek you love, you've just found their next present.