With over 700 pages you would figure that things would get overwhelming or boring pretty quickly. The book is so well organized and Chambers writes so well that I really did read this Dummies book from cover to cover, and that is the first time I have ever truly enjoyed a computer book. When you aren't laughing at the humor you are learning a LOT (for me the tough spots in Jaguar were always networking and security, both of which are fully explained). The author has a writing style that reminds me of Al Franken, if Franken was a computer expert.
When I saw all-in-one in the title I figured I would find all I needed to know about Panther itself. The book did not disappoint there, but what I did not expect was the indepth tutorials and descriptions of all of the ILIFE applications. Every setting is explained and everything is demonstrated with easy steps and screen snapshots. If you want to learn some of the optional super-technical side, Chambers keeps the guru stuff marked with icons too.
If you are nervous around your Macintosh or you want a complete guide before you jump into Panther, you certainly won't find a better book than this one. Thanks to the Dummies crew again!
More perks:
Hidden keys run all through Panther and the iLife programs, and this book describes all of them, and abilities you never even knew existed.
The author never assumes that you are an expert. Instead he describes everything from the beginning, and gives you references to jump ahead if you already know. (In my case I was starting from zero, so I read every word)
The examples are STEP BY STEP and they are absolutely on-target, with lots of screen figures so you can tell what is going on.
He brings in topics that apply to what you are doing; when I was reading about QuickTime to use on the Apple Website, for example, the author tells you all about MOV and how QuickTime can convert to other formats (the same thing with iTunes, iPhoto and even documents like Word)
If you feel lost in system preferences, he explains EVERY switch!!
and last but not least, the index is superb.
This book covers everything that a Mac user is likely to need. All of iLife, all of the OS X settings. No matter whether you are a switcher, a new owner or even a reasonably experienced Mac person, you will wish you had bought this book yesterday!!
