After two and a half years of Tiger, Mac OS X Leopard is finally here, with hundreds of

new and improved features. Mac OS X Leopard: Beyond the Manual gets you up and

running with Leopard quickly, and then proceeds to explore features, both old and new, that can

help users get the most out of their Macs.

To begin with, Part 1, “Getting to Know Leopard,” takes a detailed look at Leopard’s environment,

including common Aqua elements and the Finder, and then moves on to explore

Leopard’s file system.

Next, in Part 2, “Customizing and Administering Leopard,” we begin with a detailed look

at all the system preferences included in Leopard. Then we move on to adding peripherals to

your system, performing common system maintenance, and backing up and synchronizing system

information and files. Finally, we take a look at keeping your Mac safe and secure.

Part 3, “Communications and the Internet,” begins by illustrating the many ways to get

Leopard connected to the Internet. After that, we take a look at the applications included in Leopard,

which provide a gateway to the Internet, including a detailed look at Safari, Mail, and iChat.

Part 4, “Working with Media and iLife,” goes on to provide a look at how OS X applications

work in general in Leopard, and then provides a look at a number of applications included

with Leopard. After that, we provide a solid introduction to both Apple’s popular iLife ’08 applications

and iWork ’08.

Part 5, “Getting to Know Darwin,” jumps in and teaches you how to use Darwin, the underlying

UNIX system buried beneath the slick Aqua interface. We provide a detailed introduction to

taking advantage of Darwin. This includes real-world examples and explanations of using the

most common Darwin commands and showing you how to customize your Darwin environment

to suit your needs and desires. Then we show you how to add new applications and tools to Darwin

and take advantage of the powerful scripting utilities to accomplish all sorts of tasks.

Part 6, “Networking Leopard,” looks at many of the more powerful networking services

and options available in Leopard, ranging from simple file sharing to accessing a wide range of

remote servers and even running a full-fledged Apache web server.

Part 7, “Leopard Development and Scripting,” takes a look at the development tools,

frameworks, and features included with Leopard. This begins with an introduction to Apple-

Script and Automator to streamline computer tasks, and moves all the way through a tour of

Apple’s Xcode development tools for application development.

We finish off the book with Part 8, “Cross-Platform Solutions.” Here we provide useful

information for not only working with other non-Mac environments, but also for how to run

Windows and Windows applications on your Mac instead of or side by side with Leopard.

Whether you’re new to Mac OS X or just new to Leopard, upon completing this book you

should be armed with the knowledge of all the powerful features, both obvious and not so obvious,

that Leopard has to offer to make your computing experience both more enjoyable and

more productive.