Guide to Macintosh System 7.5.5

549 Pages·1996·100.29 MB·English

by  Crabb, Don

Discover what
7.5.5 can do
for you!
Guide to Macintosh®
Don Crabb
with a foreword by Roger Ebert
To My Fellow Macheads
Pretty cool desktop, huh? Yep, I can almost smell the day-old coffee in the cup! Of
course, the point of this is not merely for you to tour my desktop, but to provide me a
forum to blab about the book you are about to read.
Guide to Macintosh System 7.5.5 is a pretty dam good book, and I can say that without
a trace of arrogance (OK, maybe a trace). It's a good book not just because I wrote it,
but because the team at Hayden is the best in the business. Period. Enough said.
It's also a pretty darn good book because my friends at Apple were kind enough to
work closely with me at every tum; they rode me hard to get all the details right; this
book is proof of that.
Finally. this is a pretty dam good book because, despite that nice Apple logo on the
front cover, Apple knows that no software product is perfect; System 7.5.5 is no
exception. Apple had the guts to let me give you my real unadorned expen opinions
on System 7.5.5 (albeit made somewhat less libelous than I might have otherwise!). In
all honesty, I simply can't imagine our friends in Redmond, WA, allowing me the same
forthrighmess were I writing about Windows95 or WindowsNT.
In any case. you be the judge. Tear through this tome and then feel free to tear
through me. The Don Crabb Macintosh Ubr:try is about real books for real people that
solve real problems. Which means I can take any real criticism you can dish our. fn fact,
I'm looking forward to it!
See you on the ether!
j)~
Don Crabb
Aruba
September, 1996
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Don Crabb
Guide to Macintosh System 7.5.5
©1996 Don Crabb
All rights resenred. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this
book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any means, or stored in a
database or retrieval system, without prior written permission of the pub
lisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and
reviews. Making copies of any part of this book for any purpose other than
your own personal use is a violation of United States copyright laws. For
information, address Hayden Books, 201 W. 103rd Street, Indianapolis,
Indiana 46290.
Library of Congress Catalog Number: 94-75945
ISBN: 1-56830-109-X
This book is sold as is, without warranty of any kind, either express or
implied. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this
book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or
omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the
use of the information or instructions contained herein. It is further stated
that the publisher and author are not responsible for any damage or loss to
your data or your equipment that results directly or indirectly from your use
of this book.
98 97 6
Interpretation of the printing code: the rightmost double-digit number is the
year of the book's printing; the rightmost single-digit number is the number
of the book's printing. For example, a printing code of 96-2 shows that the
second printing of the book occurred in 1996.
Trademark Acknowledgments: All products mentioned in this book are
either trademarks of the companies referenced in this book, registered
trademarks of the companies referenced in this book, or neither. We
strongly advise that you investigate a particular product's name thoroughly
before you use the name as your own.
Apple, Mac, and Macintosh are registered trademarks of Apple Computer,
Inc.
The Hayden Team
Books
Publisher
Lyn Blake
Publishing Manager
Laurie Petrycki
Managing Editor
Lisa Wilson
Development Editor
Brad Miser
Copy/Production Editor
Brian Gill
Technical Reviewer
Tom 'Jhompson
Publishing Coordinator
Rachel Byers
Interior Designer
Barbara Kordesh
Cover Designer
Karen Ruggles
Production
Gary Adair, Dan Caparo, Brad Chinn, Kim Cofer, Lisa Daugherty, David Dean,
Cynthia Drouin, David Eason,]ennifer Eberhardt, Dave Garratt,]anelle Herber,
Erika Millen, Angel Perez, Beth Rago, Bobbi Satterfield, Karen Walsh, Robert Wolf
Indexer
Chris Cleveland
Composed in
Apple Garamond
You can reach Hayden books at the following:
Hayden Books
210 West 103rd Street
Indianapolis, IN 46290
[phone] voice
Email address:
Internet: [email protected]
Dedication
To Roberta with love: thanks for putting up with all the nonsense that I spew
out when writing books. You are, quite literally, the greatest. I don't deserve
you, but I am darn glad you're here.
Who Is This Crabb
Guy?
For those of you who care (and apparently a lot of you do, judging from my
mail), here is my current bio (the brief version) to give you some idea of my
background-just so you know that I might just know what the heck I am
talking about!
Don Crabb
Syndicated Computer Columnist and Computer Scientist
The University of Chicago 312-702-7173 (voice)
Department of Computer Science 312-702-9417 (fax)
Ryerson Physical Laboratory
1100 East 58th Street
Chicago, IL 6063 7
email: decc@cs. uchicago. edu
Computer Scientist. Don Crabb is the Associate Director of Graduate and
Undergraduate Studies in Computer Science at the University of Chicago,
where he has taught undergraduate, graduate, and professional computing
and computer science courses since 1979. Don also functions as a certified
instructional software developer for Microsoft, IBM, Apple, and Sun.
Columnist. Don is a Contributing Editor and Columnist for MacWEEK
magazine- writing the weekly "Mac Manager" and "Steamed Crabb" col
umns, as well as other articles. Don is also the Chicago Sun-Times Computer
Columnist and a technology writer, writing the thrice weekly column "Crabb
on Computers," which is syndicated by the Chicago Sun-Times Features
Syndicate. Dan's Reader Q&A, Product Reviews, and FAQ can also be read
via The Chicago Sun-Times Online at http://www.suntimes.com.
Don works as a Contributing Editor and/or Columnist for MacUser ("The
Mac Workshop" column, features, and reviews), PCM agazine (features and
reviews), Mac/CHICAGO ("Dan's Desktop" column, features, and reviews),
The Weigand Report and Digital Chicago ("Don Crabb Says" column),
CompuServe Magazine (features), MacMonthly ("Crabb's Apple" column),
Mobile Office (features), Macinsider ("Inside Apple" column), MacTech
("Crabb's Apple" column), lOG's Do It with the Mac and PowerBook Com
panion ("Macinations" and "The Traveling Mac" columns, respectively),
MacToday ("Present at the Creation" column), MacHomejournal ("The L1St
Word" column and features), lOG's Tip World ("Crustacean-At-Large"
column), lOG's InfoCaster ("Monsieur Farci" column), and Consumer Guide
(reviews), among others.
Since 1979, Don has written more than 3500 articles and columns for these
magazines and newspapers, as well as others: PC \Vorld, PC Resource,
MicroCAD News, Macworld, ComputerWorld, UniSIG News, Digital Review,
UnixWorld, B.C.S. Mac Active Window, Tbe Chicago Tribune, The Macintosb
Business Review, and Cbicago Computing. His most recent books were
MacWEEK Guide to System 7 (Emeryville: Ziff-Davis Press, 1992-1993) and
Running UNIX So It Doesn't Run You (Emeryville: Ziff-Davis Press, 1993-4).
1V/Radio Producer and Personality. Don was the co-producer, co-host,
and technical editor of the weekly syndicated cable "MacTV" show, for which
he now plays an advisory role. He was also a frequent guest co-host of
"PCTV," a syndicated weekly cable TV show dealing with all kinds of comput
ing topics. Don can also be seen regularly discussing technology and
computers on Chicago's NBC-TV station, and he's currently developing a
new syndicated radio show, "Crabb on Computers" in the Chicago area.
Book Series Editor/Author. Don was the senior consulting editor for books
published by Hayden Books, and the series editor of The Don Crabb
Macintosh Library, of which Guide to Macintosh System 7.5.5 is a member.
The Wor-d Book by Tanya Engst, Exce/5 Star-ter Kit for Macintosh by Charles
Seiter, and Power Macintosh Programming Starter-Kit by Tom Thompson
are other books in The Don Crabb Macintosh Library. Don is now an author
and editor for Osborne/Mcgraw-Hill, MIS Press, and M&T Books.
Analyst. As a computer industry analyst, Don has been quoted extensively in
Business lVeek, Forbes, For-tune, Time, Newsweek, Money, The New York
Times, The Chicago Tribur~:e, and other publications.
All this bio stuff really pmves, of course, is that I have no social life,
whatsoever. Is this the fun part?