If, like me, you are a grizzled, dyed-in-the-wool Windows users and you suddenly find yourself left loose on a Mac computer, you are probably going to feel that you’ve been cast adrift on stranger tides, up a creek without the proverbial paddle. In short, OS X Lion (the latest Mac operating system) looks beautiful but it I can never figure out how the heck to get things done.
These two books both claim to be able to help someone just like me. This is what the blurb says….
“With Mac OS X Lion in easy steps, you’ll be able to unleash this powerful operating system and have it up and running in no time. In clear, accessible language, the book introduces you to the OS X environment and teaches you about the user interface. With these basics mastered, this full-colour, fully illustrated guide opens the gateway to the foundations of Lion: the Dock and the Finder.”
“The latest update of this best-selling Visual QuickStart Guide will have you up and running in no time with Mac OS X Lion. Respected, best-selling author Maria Langer will take you through all of Mac OS X Lion’s ground-breaking capabilities and new features including Multi-Touch Gestures, Launchpad, Mission Control, the App Store, Mail, and much more. With plenty of screenshots to clearly illustrate techniques, this effective tutorial and reference is packed with practical information for people who want to jump in and start working and playing with OS X Lion.”
So how do they shape up? Well, first impressions: Mac OS X Lion in easy steps is much the nicer-looking book. It is printed in full colour with lots of screen shots, little tips and reminders in the margins and plenty of short step-by-step tutorials. At just 192 pages in length it is quite short too. I don’t read computer books for fun so brevity gets extra marks from me!
The Visual QuickStart Guide is not quite so immediately attractive. It’s all in black-and-white and, weighing in at around 620 pages, is quite a heavyweight. It too has lots of short tutorials and step-by-step guides and it is pretty well illustrated with screenshots. But the pages are quite densely packed with information and it can seem a bit overwhelming at first glance.
OK, but now to get down to the really important stuff. Which book is more useful? Which one do I turn to when I want to solve a problem? For me, there is really no contest. the Visual QuickStart Guide wins hands down. It goes into far more detail on everything from the mysteries of system preferences to networking and utilities. While Max OS X Lion in easy steps is clearer and simpler (and, to be honest, it would probably be the better choice for a non-technical user) the QuickStart Guide is the one I most often turn to when I want to find out how to get things done.
Add
to del.icio.us