Visual Quickstart Guide iPhoto 08 – Review

Visual Quickstart Guide iPhoto ’08
Adam C. Engst
Peachpit Press
http://www.peachpit.com
214 pages
ISBN 978-0-321-50188-2
US $24.99
CA $26.99

If you are a regular reader of my Macspiration articles, you know that I am a heavy iPhoto user. The release of iPhoto ’08 brought a lot of changes and new features to the world of iPhoto. The experienced iPhoto user can probably pick up on these changes on your own, others might need help. The Visual Quickstart Guide iPhoto ’08 from Peachpit Press can be that help. Not only can it be a great resource for the amateur iPhoto user, but it is also a great resource for those new to iPhoto.

The book is broken up into eight chapters: Getting Started, Importing and Managing Photos, Organizing Photos, Editing Photos, Showing Photos Onscreen, Printing Photos, Sharing Photos, and Troubleshooting. There are also two appendices explaining the workings of iPhoto, and giving tips to improve your photos.

Each chapter of the book is full of how-to articles broken into one page each written in easy to understand steps. This help keep it simple and short. Color photos are included when needed. Even the steps needed for sharing photos on a CD with non-iPhoto users is included.

My favorite part of the book is on editing photos. Sure, I know how to edit photos in iPhoto, however, I don’t know exactly what the tools I am using are doing. I just know what to do to make the image look good. In this section, the steps for the tools are explained and a description of how the tools work is included. For example, there is an entire page explaining what levels are. This section will definitely come in handy for the classes I teach.

Overall the Visual Quickstart Guide iPhoto ’08 is great for iPhoto newbies. MyMac Magazine Rating of 5 out of 5 for these users.

It would also come in handy for those who need help in making the switch from an older iPhoto to iPhoto ’08. MyMac Magazine Rating of 4.5 out of 5 for these users

I don’t think this would be worth the money for those who consider themselves iPhoto power users. This group is not the audience for this book.

Overall MyMac.com rating 4.5 out of 5.