June 1999

---

	Word 98 for Macintosh by Maria Langer, Peachpit Press, Visual QuickStart Guide, $17.95 It you're overawed by the manual that ships with Word'98, this little book is a great guide to getting the most out of this powerful application. With lots of screen shots and visuals, it shows you how to use the many tools and functions to create a variety of documents. Flip from section to section learning how to create documents for print and Web in any order you choose. Like all the books in this remarkable series, it's designed to teach you each function with step-by-step lessons which will have you (happily) proficient in a short time.
	Mac OS 8.5 by Maria Langer, Peachpit Press, Visual QuickStart Guide, $17.95 This book starts with the new features of OS 8.5, moves through basic system maneuvers, and takes you through all the features of Apple's current operating system. It not only defines those features, but takes you through the step-by-step process of accessing them yourself. Some of the system's functions are familiar from earlier versions, but the newer ones such as Sherlock for locating information on the Web and the networking and telecommunications features translate well under Maria Langer's competent and straightforward analysis. The chapters on connecting to the Internet and customizing the system are explained with enough detail to let you get the most out of the operating system.
	Illustrator 8 Bible by Ted Alspach, IDG Books, $49.99 with CD-ROM (Mac and Windows) If anyone knows everything about Adobe Illustrator, it's Ted Alspach. And he knows how to share that knowledge with the intelligence and humor necessary to explain Illustrator's more arcane processes. The Illustrator 8 Bible is where you go in the middle of the night when a project is due and paths are not perfect, or the color is off, or the printout tells you that something is dreadfully wrong. Somewhere in the 21 index pages you'll find your problem and its solution listed for you. And all those new tools and functions in version 8 are explained with a great deal more clarity and examples than you will find in the program's manual. The accompanying CD includes sample artwork from the book as well as powerful plugins for streamlining your work. If you're using Illustrator for anything more than creating rectangles, you need this book.
	Kai's Power Tools, Second Edition, by Nick Clarke, Peachpit Press, $39.95 with CD-ROM, Macintosh and Windows This second edition of of one of the best visual guides to Meta Tool's revolutionary filters is a step-by-step tutorial for creating outstanding graphics for print and multimedia designs. The overview of each unit explains the filter and some of its uses. A quick tutorial teaches you how to use the filter, and then it's play time! Nick Clarke makes terms like Bump Map (the process of taking a 2D image and then applying it to a 3D object) and Vortex Tiling (a distortion filter) intelligible and interesting. You will care about mapping images across a flat and infinite plane! But beware, using this book is like eating peanuts. First one filter... and then another...and then just one more...
	The Official Adobe Electronic Publishing Guide, Adobe Press, $35 In the old days (about two years ago), electronic publishing meant getting pages to print properly on an imagesetter. Now they have to sing and dance anywhere in the world. Some of the rules are the same, but many have changed to accommodate the new technologies, and this book is an absolutely essential reference guide to print and Web publishing. It covers all the important issues such as color conversion from paper to screen, the differences between HTML and PDF, using fonts, and making publications interactive. Filled with lots of helpful graphics and glorious visual examples, this book is a necessary textbook for anyone working in the electronic publishing industry.