I admit it, I’m one of the many XP users who didn’t jump to Vista when it was first announced. Stories of the interface, problems with printer compatibility, etc. made me not want to even think about changing operating systems. As a longtime PC user, having made the transition from DOS to the first Windows release years ago; I wasn’t looking forward to yet another big change in how I do my work.

Reading The Windows Vista Book gave me reason to finally make the switch to Vista. The book has 10 short chapters, easy-to-understand explanations of individual features, and a full-color screen shot highlighting the feature on each page.

It’s obvious the editor/author/publisher took care to make it simple to scan the book chapters. Each chapter has a different colored 1/2 inch border at the top of the page with the chapter title which makes it a breeze to distinguish chapters.

Want that tip on Security? Go the chapter with the purple bordered pages. How do I split clips for a movie? Go to the light green bordered pages.

I liked The Windows Vista Book since it provided a quick overview of the most helpful and exciting features in Vista, without taking up a lot of my time. The book begins with a summary of the 10 coolest features in Vista, which will get anyone moving away from XP.

The Vista photo managing features explained in Chapter 7, Getting the Most out of Your Photos, were a lifesaver for our family at a recent reunion. With a couple hundred photos shot the night before, I quickly organized, edited, and displayed a slideshow to the family the next morning.

A nice touch - tips are included throughout the chapters, at the bottom of pages, set off by a blue background box.

My only negative comment on The Windows Vista Book - the content on each page was one big paragraph, some paragraphs with more than 15 lines. It would have been an easier read to break some of the longer paragraphs into shorter paragraphs.

• Title: The Windows Vista Book, first edition
• Author: Matt Kloskowski and Kleber Stephenson
• Publisher: Peachpit Press
• ISBN: 0321509749
• Date: 2008
• Format: Softcover
• Pages: 240
• Cover Price: USD: $19.99

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