O'Reilly Press Room: O'Reilly and Pogue Press Announce Missing Manuals New Series Provides "The Book That Should HaveBeen in the Box"

January 4, 2000

O'Reilly and Pogue Press Announce Missing Manuals New Series Provides "The Book That Should HaveBeen in the Box"

SEBASTOPOL, CA--Every major software company sells its customers packages that don't include a printed manual. To cut costs and save production time, they've replaced the manual with online help. But clicking through help screens is no way to master complex programs. To get up to speed quickly, you need straight-shooting advice from someone who knows the ins and outs of the program you're learning. Computer users will find "the book that should have been in the box" in the new Missing Manual Series from Pogue Press and O'Reilly & Associates. Written in a warm, witty, and jargon-free style, Missing Manuals cover software programs with enough patience for the novice and enough depth for the power user.

Missing Manual series creator David Pogue, author of O'Reilly's Palm Pilot: The Ultimate Guide, is editing the series and writing several of the titles. Building on his track record as the best-selling Macintosh author in the US, the first three Missing Manual titles tackle high-profile Mac OS applications. Mac OS 9: the Missing Manual is slated for a March 2000 release, followed in Q2, 2000 by volumes on AppleWorks 6 and iMovie, Apple's revolutionary video-editing software. Future titles will cover Windows 2000, FileMaker Pro, Mac OS X, and a host of other popular desktop software programs.

"If you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself," said Pogue. "Life's too short to waste time hunting through tiny, humorless online help screens. I want a professionally written manual!"

Each Missing Manual offers readers:

Complete coverage: a quick overview of the product, followed by a detailed exploration of the program's features, quirks, and secrets
A real-world perspective: advice from one who's been there, giving the straight scoop on how to get the most from the product, as well as work-arounds for overcoming its flaws and weaknesses
A menu command reference: a quick menu-by-menu reference to the software's commands
Special topics for the novice (called Up-To-Speed) and the expert (called Power User Clinics), so that nobody needs a manual for the manual

For more information about the books see: http://www.MissingManual.com

For cover graphics in jpeg format, go to:

Mac OS 9: The Missing Manual
Cover in jpeg format
iMovie: The Missing Manual
Cover in jpeg format
AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual
Cover in jpeg format

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