Written by Philip Roy | 14 June 2005
Posted in Books Training

When I first heard of the "Missing Manual" series of books, I thought that it was a very clever title to use to describe books that provide the sort of information that many modern day applications no longer come with, or come in electronic or online form.

But after reading "iMovie HD and iDVD 5 - The Missing Manual", I'm starting to think that maybe they're doing a silly thing. The title massively underplays just what a superb resource this book is.

Review
Author/Publisher	David Pogue Pogue Press/O'Reilly
Book details	528 pages $29.95 US ISBN: 0-596-10033-7
Value for money
Price	$25 US
Available from	www.oreilly.com

For example, the first 3 of the 18 chapters of this book aren't really about iMovie and iDVD at all. Instead, they focus on DV camcorders, filming techniques and suggestions on how to film special events. Late in the book it also diverts away from iDVD and iMovie again to devote time to concentrating on the usefulness of QuickTime and QuickTime Pro.

So in many respects, the book is almost like the missing manual that we should have received, wrapped up together with more information and useful suggestions for anyone wanting a more broader picture about video editing on a Mac.

As a fairly constant user of iMovie and iDVD I'd have to say that the book pulled few surprises out of the bag with regards the two products. Instead, I think the book suits someone just wanting to make a start with these products and someone who wants a book that you can go back to on repeated occasions. At times I thought it could be less wordy, but to its credit, it really touched on all bases of each product.

It's got all the "manual" like features...the walk-through of each of the menus and menu options in each program and what they do. But at the same time, it's open and honest in its joy of the programs and the displeasure at some of the quirks they have.

At times I think it probably tries to go a little too far. Teaching you how to hack into the iDVD application to add a new button that enables or disables sound was clever, but not something you'd ever expect in a manual ("Hey, here's our product and how you can mangle it!") but the other aspects of the book really make those extra and unnecessary cool stuff just fun to read anyway.

If you know of someone who is just getting started with video editing on a Mac, or someone who likes iMovie HD and iDVD5 but struggles a little with it, then this book is a must have. Its referencing of all the features of both products (even pictures of all the iDVD default themes) makes it a very worthwhile book to come back to on a regular basis. For those struggling with NTSC, PAL, HD, DVD-R, DVD-RW and lots of other capitals letters set to confuse us, then the pleasant tone and superb explanations will also prove to be exceptionally helpful.

So, although I think the book hasn't changed my way of working with these products, it has allowed me to see better how it all comes together, as well as giving me a couple of neat little tricks to try next time I want to do something clever with these products.

"Missing Manual"? Well, maybe "Shame on you for not giving us something like this Apple" is just too long a title!