When it comes time to release a new version of Mac OS X, Apple doesn’t trot out a tired old marketing campaign that suggests that what’s good about this upgrade is that it’s new. Apple realizes, quite rightly, that most users don’t buy upgrades just because Apple makes them available. Two and a half years ago, when Tiger was the new big cat on the scene, Apple touted its “200-plus new features.” Now with Leopard, the number has grown to 300-plus. And yes, you can visit a page on Apple’s web site that contains a list of all 300 of them.
If you’re a Leopard user — or are planning to make the switch soon — I’m happy to recommend to you the latest book in our Superguide series, Total Leopard. Following in the footsteps of our popular everything-in-one-place guides to Mac OS X (Total OS X, Total Panther, and Total Tiger), Total Leopard is an information-packed 90-page book featuring just about everything you’ll need to know about Leopard—all features, great and small.
We’ve taken the best of Macworld’s coverage of Mac OS X and distilled it into this book, including contributions from such luminaries as Christopher Breen, Adam C. Engst, Dan Frakes, Rob Griffiths, Ted Landau, Joe Kissell, and Kirk McElhearn. The book includes information to help you set up Leopard smoothly and take advantage of its most important features. It’ll also help you master the Web with Safari 3, track down files with the greatly enhanced Spotlight search feature, automate tedious tasks with Automator, and access files and programs from afar. There’s even a list of 30 Mac Gems—cheap or free programs to help make your Leopard experience that much better.
There’s a lot of stuff in Total Leopard, to be sure. And it’s available in several different formats, so you can choose the one that works best for you. If you’re interested in a PDF (suitable for viewing in Preview or Adobe Reader), you can buy one and download it immediately for just $12.95. Or you can get it as a high-quality, full-color paperback book for $24.99. Don’t want to download the PDF? You can also get it mailed to you on CD-ROM for $15.
And if you want to see more before you pony up your hard-earned cash, I completely understand. So we’ve created a 1MB downloadable sample from the book for you to check out, just to give you a taste.
We think this book is a great resource for everyone who uses Leopard. And as always, we look forward to your feedback, as well as suggestions for what e-books we should publish in the future. You can send both to ebooks (at) macworld dot com.