Take Control The Mac OS X Lexicon, by Andy Baird and Sharon Zardetto, edited by Tonya Engst

As editor of Macguide I used to get requests for a Mac lexicon, and I can’t say how happy I am that someone as redoubtable as Sharon Zardetto has undertaken this huge task.

And Sharon also coaxed Andy Baird out of retirement to assist – Baird helped Zardetto way back in 1992 on the Macintosh Dictionary (I also owned this; it was a life saver when I was a head of production for a busy magazine publisher). Baird added the non-screen-shot illustrations and added a lot of the more humorous elements.

Inspired by wondering why Apple’s Cocoa and Carbon applications both started with ‘c’; as she says in the book’s introduction, “A survey of general Mac press and book offerings, and an inspection of Mac menus, dialogs [sic], and the Help system showed an incredible amount of jargon and some surprising assumptions as to how many terms every user is presumed to know in all sorts of categories.”

She’s absolutely right, of course – it’s frankly staggering how many assumptions even seasoned users have. And also, there are the weirdest reasons for things – for example, Beethoven influenced the size of music CDs. Yes, really – (book excerpt): “The original CD format holds 74 minutes of audio (the size was based on the duration of Beethoven’s Ninth symphony); a later variation added 6 minutes. For other data, these capacities translate to 60 and 70MB.”

Conclusion: this is great stuff – as a genial right-through read for new users or a comprehensive reference for those, like me, who are supposed to ‘know everything’ about Macs, this book is invaluable – and such a good price!

What’s new: lots of links and tips. Pedabytes, exabytes … too much to mention

What’s great: every page – easy navigation, humour, utility, searchability – and it’s comprehensive.

What’s not: everything you wanted to know about Tiger – just before Leopard ships; but this fact may be covered by the free updates registered users get. It’s hard to read a PDF in bed!

Would I buy it? Yes. It’s indispensable.

Looks: 10/10

Usability: 10/10

Value for money: 10/10

Take Control The Mac OS X Lexicon, by Sharon Zardetto and Andy Baird, edited by Tonya Engst, RRP about $13 (US$10); print version about $40 plus postage(US$29.99+PP) from Take Control (free 39-page sample available).

Description: a ‘little bit of everything’ about OS X, with history and usability and demystification thrown in

System: anything that will read a PDF; ie Apple’s Preview app or Adobe Acrobat Reader