There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of hints and tips that I’ve both learned and passed on to other MacUsers since I bought my first Mac. If I could remember those that I forgot and catalogue them all into some contextually coherent format, we’d have something more than the snippets of information that manage to get relayed down the chain of novices each month at our Workshop.
Maybe a book covering the basics of Macintosh operation—from Finder to finding files, MacWrite to MacWrong—would be a better way to go.
Brady books has published just such a compendium of useful information for the novice Macintosher. Written by Cynthia W. Harriman, a consultant and Macintosh trainer in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, The Macintosh Small Business Companion is the ideal first book for the beginner who needs a helping hand, or rather the hand, wrist, arm, and entire body and mind of a full-time helper.
The back cover of the book says, “sometimes all you need is over-the-shoulder advice.” As much as EPMUG tries to be helpful, I can guarantee that you will be looking for more help than will be available. This is where a good “how-to” book can be of immeasurable service. The Companion covers topics as varied as business correspondence (including “boilerplating”), macros with MacroMaker & QuickKeys, small business accounting, E-mail, FAX, On-line services, printers, the Finder, cdevs, INITs, customizing your System, hard disk organization, troubleshooting, viruses, and upgrading your system.
Each topic discussed in the Companion is covered from the perspective of a number of different programs; Word, FullWrite, WriteNow, and MacWrite are all shown to be more productive when one learns the keyboard shortcuts that most novices are, at first, afraid to even try.
Personal profiles of a dozen or more MacUsers serve to reinforce the lessons taught in each chapter. A little hint or tip gleaned from one of these interviews can go a long way in advancing the novice out of his/her timidity. Heck, I found more than a few tips that have helped me improve my MacOutput.
I wholeheartedly recommend this book to any member that considers himself/herself to be a novice. I applaud Cynthia Harriman for managing to remember and save most of what I’ve already forgotten (and much more). Now, through her Macintosh Small Business Companion, I can review and turn to my advantage the hints and tips that are really essential to using the Macintosh to its fullest potential.
