Product Reviews

This is the latest in an incredibly popular series of books. Written by the prolific Bob LeVitus, who has 39 books under his belt, this is another title that comes with a strong pedigree. The Dummies books, particularly those written by LeVitus, pride themselves on making the process of understanding both fun and easy while avoiding making the subject matter boring. This book is aimed at both beginners and long-time users, and promises something for everyone.

At just under 400 pages, it's not in the same league as either The Macintosh Bible or The Missing Manual, but its 22 chapters still manage to cover a lot of ground. The first chapter is split into six sections and deals

As with all of the Dummies books it uses icons to denote particular snippets of information, from 'Tip' and 'Remember' to 'Rant and Rave'. In this edition there are also 'New in Panther' icons that let you quickly see what updates OS X 10.3 has provided.

The whole book adopts an irreverent tone, which lends the text a certain pace. It promises not to be boring and it lives up to this guarantee. Although the comedic style makes the book quite an entertaining read, it can get in the way of navigating the sections. It won't be a problem if you're reading the book from start to finish, but if you want to dip into it for quick reference, you'll need to visit the index. At first glance the chatty format may lead you to think that this book just skims the surface of OS X, but don't be fooled; once you get to grips with LeVitus' style there's a wealth of useful information.