home : reviews : Take Control of Customizing Tiger - Electronic Book

by Bruce M. Herman, AAUG member
Reviewed 08/2005

Take Control of Customizing Tiger, written by Matt Neuburg, is the second in a series of four electronic books published by TidBit Electronic Publishing that deal with the newest version of the Mac OS. This book assumes that you have installed Tiger, although there is a section that covers the optional portions of the installation. I wish that I had read this section before I installed Tiger on my Mac!

Other major sections include customizing Finder, using Spotlight by itself and within Finder, Spotlight, Dashboard, Automater, Font control, and keyboard shortcuts. I found the Finder customization section to be the weakest section. I think that most Panther users would have already discovered the material that Neuburg covers. The discussion of Dashboard didn't really add to anything to Apple's own tutorials. I liked his discussion of Spotlight, particularly using Spotlight within Finder. The Automater discussion was little more than a brief introduction. This is a very powerful tool whose use depends on the applications brought into the workflow. Perhaps for this reason, Neuburg didn't feel he could get into much detail.

Neuburg, like many Mac users, seems enthralled with keyboard shortcuts. Although I use my Mac on a daily basis, my brain doesn't seem to retain these things. Personally, I don't find that using the mouse and the menus dramatically decreases my productivity. If you are a user of keyboard shortcuts, Neuburg's discussion of bringing consistency to the shortcuts of all of your various applications and your OS is quite worthwhile.

Neuburg also recommends third party software when he feels that it either fills a void in the OS or does something better than Tiger. These potentially can enhance your Mac's usability. I haven't tried any of his recommendations yet and so can't comment on them.

Much of the material in this publication is available on Apple's own site as tutorials. The reason I would still recommend that someone purchase this book is to get Neuburg's personal insights into Tiger and its use. These alone are worth the price of the book.

Product: Take Control of Customizing Tiger, electronic book version 1.0.1

Author: Matt Neuburg

Publisher: Take Control Books

Phone: E-mail Only

Price: $5.00

Pros: Good overview of aspects of Tiger that can be customized. The author is not a slave to Apple, he is more than willing to point out what he feels are short-comings in the OS. The overview is quite thorough.

Cons: None significant

Impressive