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With Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) continually grabbing the public's attention with its groundbreaking products, the temptation to bolt from other computing platforms grows stronger every day. When you've been using an operating system like Windows for what seems like a lifetime -- even longer if you participated in Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) version of waterboarding called "Vista" -- the prospect of adjusting to a new computing platform from scratch can dull even the strongest urge to desert the familiar.
Should you finally get the gumption to take a bite of the Apple, the transition will be smoother and faster if you invest US$24.95 in a book like Switching to a Mac -- No Problem! Written by a veteran computer columnist, blogger and tech help radio show host Dwight Silverman, the 324-page volume published by Wiley is easy on the eyes without being light in content. It focuses on giving you knowledge you need to get things done and squeezes the fluff out its subject, fluff that balloons tech books like this to twice the size of this one.
Some tech tomes are agony to look at, let alone read. This guide to moving to the Mac is very inviting even to casual readers. It's richly illustrated with black-and-white photos, screenshots, lucid tables and lots of "chunking up" paraphernalia -- boxes, sidebars, section headers and such.
No Problem Series
Switching is part of Wiley's "No Problem" line of learning books. The series is designed to maximize learning and recall for a book's readers. That's a departure from typical computer books, which seem more concerned with how much they weigh than how fast and how well their readers learn from them.
One of the pillars of teaching is that no two people learn the same way. That principle is incorporated into the design of Switching. Impatient learners can speed through the book by skimming passages flagged with blue highlights. That's right, the author saves you the work of highlighting important text.
Like to take notes while you read? Sprinkled throughout the book are helpful notes and tips. They contain the kinds of nuggets that tend to stick to the mind after they're read. They also make the volume friendlier, as if there's a buddy at your shoulder giving you his or her valuable insights into a topic. What's more, they do a nice job of breaking up the book's text, making it less imposing and more affable.
Along with notes and tips, Switching has marginalia called "links." They're designed to assist the recall of information. Although the idea behind links is a good one, its execution is weak. Oftentimes, information in the links emulates the kind of information found in notes and tips. "Sometimes a link is suggested, but if you can think of a better, more vivid or personal link, no problem," Silverman writes. "Your own links are more memorable than anything we could ask you to remember." That's not polite modesty by the author. It's a fact.
Learning by Doing
Another powerful aid to learning is doing. It's said that most of us retain 10 percent of what we read, 15 percent of what we hear and 80 percent of what we experience. Switching capitalizes on that rule of thumb by including sections called "Play With It" and "Experiment." They suggest ways to transform what you've just read in the book into experience on your Mac.
For example, after a discussion on organizing files, a Play With It suggests dragging a file to a folder to see what happens. The folder flashes. Then it springs open to reveal its contents. After performing the Play With It recommendation, you're less likely to forget about OS X's spring-loaded folder feature than if you'd just read about it in the text.
Play With It sections are sometimes combined with other memory joggers to enhance the learning experience. In the spring-loaded case, for instance, the Play With It is immediately followed by a tip on controlling the speed at which spring-loaded folders open.
While Play With It sections generally suggest tasks that can be performed quickly, Experiment sections focus on things that require prolonged play time. For example, tinkering with the preferences for the OS X dock to change its looks and functions is an experiment. So too is using Safari's User Agent feature to emulate other Web browsers at sites unfriendly to Apple's software and remixing a Nine Inch Nails song in GarageBand.
Sticking It to Little Gray Cells
At the end of each chapter, there are review exercises. They consist of questions and fill-in-the-blank statements. It's an old method for getting readers to test their knowledge of what they've just read, but that doesn't detract from its value.
Silverman starts Switching by contrasting Apple's operating system, OS X, with Microsoft's, Windows. Then he moves to getting his readers more comfortable with their Macs -- by customizing them and by getting them to perform more like Windows -- enabling right-click and installing Flip4Mac to watch Windows media files. From there he goes to migrating data from Windows to the Mac and explaining Apple's major applications. Finally, for those who just can't cut the cord to Windows, he talks about Boot Camp and virtualization.
What sets Switching apart from other books in this vein is emphasis on education. It wants to help its readers learn and retain the knowledge between its covers, not drown them with information and hope something sticks to their little gray cells.
