iLife '05: iTunes, iPhotos, iMovie, iDVD, GarageBand [With DVD]

This book is part of the Apple training series. Peachpit publishes all of the Apple Pro Training series which is the official training curriculum for Apple Pro applications. This book is a very beginner how-to book for iLife '05 and is the only Apple certified guide to iLife. The author has not published anything else for Peachpit, but has written 3 other titles, dealing with video editing, one of which is in its 4 edition. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is just starting with iLife, especially those new to Apple. It is a very basic book written in plain language and it takes you from not knowing how to do much more than open the program to being able to perform frequently used and much needed functions. You can even get new lessons online as the program is updated. For the most part, this book is just getting right down to business, but there are a few dry humor lines included. I am somewhat new to iLife and I felt like this book was a great help and I have already recommended it to a few friends. The "note" sections are very helpful if you have not played with many apple programs. There are a lot of clear graphics and each lesson is step by step, it doesn't take long to get through the book. You can do the lessons at your own pace and take weeks or just a few hours. There is only one thing that I wasn't thrilled with; the "note" sections contain most of the troubleshooting for the lessons and in some of the lessons it would ask you to perform a task and then wait until 3 tasks later to tell you how to access that particular command if it is not readily available. So, like I said, just a small error in order. Other than that minor glitch, I love it and completed it over the course of a week; I think it probably took about 8 hours total.

This is the official Apple Training Guide to the iLife software packages. Apple doesn't include much documention with their iLife products. This book is a quick and easy way to learn these packages. As an Apple certified product, this is the book used in the Apple Training and Certification program. You can use it by yourself at your own pace where it's broken down into fourteen lessons. The lessons are aimed at the practical use of the packages, not some esoteric project just made up to show off the software. It starts off discussing audio. Then it moves to manging still images, printing still images, and finally moving images, i.e. video. From his background in the motion picture business, the author has written some very interesting pages on how to use Hollywood techniques in your own movies. This is the most complete iLife book.

Review of iLIfe 05 This book does NOT go into all the details of an application, instead it shows you several projects and how ordinary folks would complete them with the iLife applications. It has a DVD with photos, etc. on it so you can work step by step through the book. It is a great book for beginners, but may not be technical enough for experienced users. It begins with how to import music into your Mac, transfer the music to your iPod, burn a CD of this music, make a movie and finally burn a DVD. The chapter on iTunes also shows you how to get the names of songs, change names of songs, create playlists, etc. A good basic beginning. The iPod chapter gives you the basics including name limitations for songs so you can see them on your iPod, and even the kind of cable connections you need to play your iPod songs through a stereo. There's a chapter on good photographic techniques and this includes importing your photos directly into iPhoto from your digital camera. It does NOT go into detail about how to import from your camera if you don't want a direct import into iPhoto, but does tell you how to import a folder of photos. Basic iPhoto tools are clearly explained, including what happens to the original when you crop, eliminating red eye and a very detailed section on making an iBook. It describes the steps to making a simple slide show which is great for beginners. The next chapter, however, goes into more depth and teaches you to make a more sophisticated slide show including special effects such as the Ken Burns effect. It has a good discussion of why you would want to use iMovie in certain situations instead of iPhoto to make slide shows. Using still photos to create an iMovie is detailed, step by step including how to add titles and music. Want to make a time lapse movie of that cactus starting to bloom? Don't have a digital camera but do have an iSight. This book will tell you how and explain what kind of transition & times to use. Editing tips, the cable needed to connect your camcorder, using the timeline and finally adding narration are illustrated in an easy to understand format. There's a set of extensive examples of how to add audio recorded on your camcorder into a movie and synchronizing it with the movie. He also explains how to record using the built in microphone on your Mac. There's an extensive chapter giving hollywood hints on how to take videos with your camcorder. Garage band with explanations of the major functions and an example of combining sounds is quite detailed. The DVD chapter explains how to make a DVD, the difference between a slide show made with DVD versus iPhoto, and finally how to burn a DVD.