Sebastopol, CA—Ready to move to the Mac? This incomparable guide helps you make a smooth transition. New York Times columnist and Missing Manuals creator David Pogue gets you past three challenges: transferring your stuff, assembling Mac programs so you can do what you did with Windows, and learning your way around OS X.

Learning to use a Mac is not a piece of cake, but once you do, the rewards are oh-so-much better. You won't find questionable firewalls or inefficient permissions. Just a beautiful machine with a thoroughly reliable system. Whether you're using Windows XP or Windows 7, Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Mountain Lion Edition (O'Reilly Media, $29.99 USD) has you covered.

• Transfer your stuff. Moving files from a PC to a Mac is the easy part. This guide gets you through the tricky things: extracting your email, address book, calendar, Web bookmarks, buddy list, desktop pictures, and MP3 files.
• Re-create your software suite. Big-name programs from Microsoft, Adobe, and others are available in both Mac and Windows versions, but hundreds of other programs are Windows-only. Learn the Macintosh equivalents and how to move data to them.
• Learn OS X Mountain Lion. Once you've moved into the Macintosh mansion, it's time to learn your way around. You're in good hands with the author of Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, the #1 bestselling guide to OS X.