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Your Brain: The Missing Manual
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Monthly Memo

A note from the editor

By Peter Meyers, Missing Manuals managing editor

Flashback to late 2006: During that year's final three months, Team Missing Manual got a grand total of about 12 hours of sleep. Why? Because we were chained to our computers, cranking through our single biggest publishing challenge ever--getting 10 (count 'em) Vista and Office 2007 titles out the door in the space of six weeks. And while I'm delighted that we rose to the occasion, the months that followed this grand release were, frankly, a bit of a letdown. We watched, along with our competitors, as the general public greeted these two product launches with a genuine, warm-milk-before-bed yawn.

Well, a year and a half later, the bean counters in Redmond still have reason to worry, as sales of Vista have been underwhelming and Google has deployed what may be Microsoft's biggest worry yet: a collection of programs designed to challenge Office head on. Known as Google Apps, these tools offer three substantial benefits compared to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook: they're free, they include most of the features that most people actually use, and they outshine Office by a long shot in areas like portability (you can work on the same file from pretty much any Web-connected computer) and collaboration (group projects like composing a presentation or a departmental spreadsheet are a snap).

If you're one of the growing Google converts, we've got you covered. This month we're releasing Google Apps: The Missing Manual, a comprehensive guide for those who've switched--not to mention a useful primer for anyone thinking about making the move. (Check out the book's table of contents and Introduction for more details on the goodies you get with Google Apps, including a nifty Web page-building tool, a chat program, and a calendar application.)

Don't get me wrong. As a professional word and project wrangler, Word and Excel are probably never going to leave my computer. (To produce most of the Missing Manuals, in fact, we rely heavily on the macro and styling capabilities of Word—features that Google's Docs program doesn't come anywhere close to.) But we've also had some incredibly rewarding, timesaving experiences using Google's programs. You cannot believe how easy it is to work on a document or spreadsheet with a group of people until you've tried it yourself. I'm guessing, a year or so from now, we'll have lots of company.

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iPhoto Tips and Tricks

By Derrick Story

Link to iPhoto '08 Video

Derrick Story, O'Reilly's Digital Media Evangelist and co-author of iPhoto '08: The Missing Manual, spoke at Macworld and shared many tips on everything from editing with iPhoto, to using it to work with the camera in an iPhone, to how to manage the software's preferences. He even demonstrated how you don't need to go outside of iPhoto to make compelling title slides for a slideshow presentation. View the videos or read the transcripts on the following topics:

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'Why should I upgrade to Office 2008 for Macintosh?'

By Jim Elferdink

Author Jim Elferdink talks about what's new in Office 2008 for Macintosh. If you’re still using Office 2004, you’ll find some great reasons to upgrade. Jim also fills you in on some cool features that Office for Windows can’t match, and why you may not need to invest in iWork!

> Read more

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We're Wondering...

We're Wondering...

Every year around now we start planning next year's books. What topics would you like to see us cover? Let us know:
emailus@missingmanuals.com