You don’t have to read this book in any particular order. We’ve designed the book so that you can jump in, get the information you need, and jump out. However, the book does follow a logical progression from simple tasks to more complex ones. Each task is presented on no more than two facing pages, which lets you focus on a single task without having to turn the page. To find the information that you need, just look up the task in the table of contents or index, and turn to the page listed. Read the task introduction, follow the step-by-step instructions in the left column along with screen illustrations in the right column, and you’re done.

If you’re searching for what’s new in Mac OS X Snow Leopard, just look for the icon: New!. The new icon appears in the table of contents and throughout this book so you can quickly and easily identify a new or improved feature in Snow Leopard. A complete description of each new feature appears in the New Features guide in the back of this book.

Most menu commands have a keyboard equivalent, such as +P, as a quicker alternative to using the mouse. A complete list of keyboard shortcuts is available on the Web at www.perspection.com.

This book provides concise step-by-step instructions that show you “how” to accomplish a task. Each set of instructions includes illustrations that directly correspond to the easy-to-read steps. Also included in the text are timesavers, tables, and sidebars to help you work more efficiently or to teach you more in-depth information. A “Did You Know?” provides tips and techniques to help you work smarter, while a “See Also” leads you to other parts of the book containing related information about the task.

This book uses real world examples files to give you a context in which to use the task. By using the example files, you won’t waste time looking for or creating sample files. You get a start file and a result file, so you can compare your work. Not every topic needs an example file, such as changing options, so we provide a complete list of the example files used through out the book. The example files that you need for project tasks along with a complete file list are available on the Web at www.perspection.com.

This book shows you how to put together the individual step-by-step tasks into in-depth projects with the Workshop. You start each project with a sample file, work through the steps, and then compare your results with project results file at the end. The Workshop projects and associated files are available on the Web at www.perspection.com.

In addition to the information in this book, you can also get more information on the Web to help you get up to speed faster with Mac OS X. Some of the information includes:

Productivity Tools

• Keyboard Shortcuts. Download a list of keyboard shortcuts to learn faster ways to get the job done.

More Content

• Photographs. Download photographs and other graphics to use in your documents.

• More Content. Download new content developed after publication, such as a chapter on Using Basic Unix Commands.

You can access these additional resources on the Web at www.perspection.com.