November 1999

I n f o C e n t r a l
Desktop Connections

MacWaves MUG
a SIG of Brookdale Computer Users Group

The Little Mac Book, Sixth Edition, by Robin Williams. Peachpit Press, $19.95.

This all-time Mac favorite has been completely revised and updated for Mac OS 8.6 including chapters on the Internet, Sherlock, and reading documents that come from a Windows computer. Better even than Apple's excellent manuals, The Little Mac Book comes filled with tips, tricks, tons of illustrations, and a style that's as comfortable as the Mac itself. Many of the Mac's functions are explained with step-by-step instructions so you can be an instant power user. Check your knowledge with helpful quizzes at the end of each chapter and review all the things you've learned. And you will learn, as anyone who has used this marvelous series of books will testify. Whether you're just learning how to use your Mac, troubleshooting problems, or adding hardware and software, there is much solid, interesting information in this little book that's big on productivity.

Visual QuickStart Quides: PDF with Acrobat 4, Flash 4, Photoshop 5.5, Adobe GoLive, Peachpit Press.

Four new Visual QuickStart books from Peachpit Press are appropriate for Internet development. If you don't want to print the Acrobat 4 PDF manual (the package doesn't include a manual), you'll save money and get a great user's manual with PDF with Acrobat 4 by Ted Alspach. Along with all the information you need for transforming print projects into portable document format, you get Ted whose writing style reminds us that this stuff is supposed to be fun! For creating animations from vector art, Flash 4 (Mac and Windows) by Katherine Ulrich makes a lot of sense out of complex material with her intelligent and intelligible explanations of animation terminology. Don't even think about using Photoshop 5.5 without this VQS since there is no real 5.5 manual and you get very little information about the new tools and Web functions in 5.5. Photoshop 5.5 by Elaine Weinmann and Peter Lourekas (Mac and Windows) gives you a great deal more information in step-by-step format. Webmasters and Web page creators will find the Adobe GoLive VQS by Shelly Brisbin (Macintosh and Windows) an easy way to learn how to create dynamite Web sites.

Adobe GoLive Classrom in a Book, $40 with CD (Macintosh and Windows), Peachpit Press.

This companion to the Web site creation software covers the basics of learning Adobe GoLive and includes countless tips and techniques to help you quickly become a GoLive pro. In eight lessons you learn how to design and manage a Web site, lay out Web pages, add links and image maps, create rollover effects, include animation in your pages and format text.