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About the Book

Find out what most tech writers hope you already know in this free ebook by Tonya Engst. Tonya takes you behind the scenes, explaining why tech writers write the way they do and helping you decode the directions for everything from Desktops to directories, keys to menus, and paths to preferences.

Although Read Me First: A Take Control Crash Course has plenty of basic information about using the Mac (and a few chapters about iOS), its focus is not on helping inexperienced users master important basics. Instead, it focuses on explaining the assumptions that tech writers make when writing directions. This book aims to make sure people reading technical documentation don't get stuck for the lack of basic know-how, such as how to match the name of your operating system with its numerical version, how to understand written shortcuts for navigating menus, what Control-click means, how to enter something on the command line, how to follow a path, and more.

This book is wired with social media options at the end of each chapter, so you can easily share individual chapters with anyone who could use the information.

This book is free to all, but if you'd like to support the effort that went into creating it or to encourage future updates, pay whatever you feel is appropriate here at Leanpub.

About the Author

Tonya Engst

Tonya Engst is best known for co-founding the TidBITS online publication in 1990 with her husband Adam Engst. Tonya also co-founded and is Editor in Chief of the Take Control series, published by TidBITS Publishing Inc.

When she’s not working at her Mac or hanging out with family and friends, you can probably find her outside, running, cycling, swimming, skating, or cross-country skiing. She and Adam live near Ithaca, a small city in upstate New York, with their teenage son, Tristan.