Windows for Mac Users

Rating:
Summary: Excellent for Mac users trying to understand Windows
Review: A reasonably experienced Mac user learning Windows is in an unusual situation:

In some ways, they understand overall computer operations and graphical interfaces -- even new ones -- better than most experienced PC users. This makes most books written for PC novices much too simplistic for these new PC users.

On the other hand, experienced Mac users still need to learn some fundamental basics unique to Windows that every PC user already knows -- for example, using the right mouse button (missing on Macs.)

The authors do an excellent job of walking this fine line between novice and advanced levels, essentially taking the reader through the entire Windows OS from beginning to end. Step-by-step, they cover Windows and how it works, explaining the differences between it and the MacOS. The prose is clear and supplemented by many screen shots.

Ms. Williams is probably one of the finest technical writers in the computing field today. I read perhaps 10 or more technical books per year and hers are always the best written. She could probably write a how-to book on rocket science and have us all (successfully) planning space missions the next week.

If you buy only one book -- this is the one to get!

A postscipt: You don't "need" a second book, but still I found it handy to supplement this book with "Crossing Platforms : A Macintosh/Windows Phrasebook" by Adam Engst and David Pogue. "Crossing Platforms" is more of a reference book for looking up specific issues than a primer like "Windows for Mac Users."

Rating:
Summary: Excellent for Mac users trying to understand Windows
Review: A reasonably experienced Mac user learning Windows is in an unusual situation:

In some ways, they understand overall computer operations and graphical interfaces -- even new ones -- better than most experienced PC users. This makes most books written for PC novices much too simplistic for these new PC users.

On the other hand, experienced Mac users still need to learn some fundamental basics unique to Windows that every PC user already knows -- for example, using the right mouse button (missing on Macs.)

The authors do an excellent job of walking this fine line between novice and advanced levels, essentially taking the reader through the entire Windows OS from beginning to end. Step-by-step, they cover Windows and how it works, explaining the differences between it and the MacOS. The prose is clear and supplemented by many screen shots.

Ms. Williams is probably one of the finest technical writers in the computing field today. I read perhaps 10 or more technical books per year and hers are always the best written. She could probably write a how-to book on rocket science and have us all (successfully) planning space missions the next week.

If you buy only one book -- this is the one to get!

A postscipt: You don't "need" a second book, but still I found it handy to supplement this book with "Crossing Platforms : A Macintosh/Windows Phrasebook" by Adam Engst and David Pogue. "Crossing Platforms" is more of a reference book for looking up specific issues than a primer like "Windows for Mac Users."

Rating:
Summary: Eureka! The Rosetta Stone for Mac Users
Review: Excellent book. A major find for those of us proficient in Mac OS who must use Windows. The authors "translate" Windows into concepts readily understood by Mac users and in doing so convey the overall organizing logic of Windows so Mac users can easily learn to be independent powerusers.

Intelligently written, and goes eyeball-to-eyeball with those baffling Windows eccentricities, without being snotty about it.

Rating:
Summary: Eureka! The Rosetta Stone for Mac Users
Review: Excellent book. A major find for those of us proficient in Mac OS who must use Windows. The authors "translate" Windows into concepts readily understood by Mac users and in doing so convey the overall organizing logic of Windows so Mac users can easily learn to be independent powerusers.

Intelligently written, and goes eyeball-to-eyeball with those baffling Windows eccentricities, without being snotty about it.

Rating:
Summary: Mac professionals in a Windows world: Buy this book!
Review: This book is great! I'm a Mac person who occasionally has to work on the Windows platform for my clients. This book really helped me to figure out how to do what I needed to do on Windows (which often is totally different from how you do it on the Mac). I didn't have a clue to do the most mundane things, such as to how to attach a mouse, how to install a font, how to do a hard break, and so forth. If I didn't have this book on hand, I would have been very frustrated trying to get the job done on a platform that I wasn't familiar with. I highly recommend it!

Rating:
Summary: Mac professionals in a Windows world: Buy this book!
Review: This book is great! I'm a Mac person who occasionally has to work on the Windows platform for my clients. This book really helped me to figure out how to do what I needed to do on Windows (which often is totally different from how you do it on the Mac). I didn't have a clue to do the most mundane things, such as to how to attach a mouse, how to install a font, how to do a hard break, and so forth. If I didn't have this book on hand, I would have been very frustrated trying to get the job done on a platform that I wasn't familiar with. I highly recommend it!