Foreword

I created the Missing Manual series in 1999, and then I went on to write or edit the first 25 books. But strange as it may sound, I've rarely been as excited as I am about this book, which I didn't write or edit.

That's because I'm the discoverer of its author.

Or, rather, he discovered me. At a book signing in New York City. Adam had come all the way from his home in New Jersey just to meet me. Of course, I was flattered, even if he was only 14 years old.

I found it kind of charming when he described himself a programmer. I thought to myself: Isn't that cute? He probably did a little HyperCard stack.

That will be the last time I ever underestimate someone based on his age.

It turns out that Adam Goldstein is not just a gifted Mac programmer; he's an absolutely amazing writer. Little by little, over the months, we corresponded. He'd send me a book proposal here, a Mac OS X tip for my book there. More than once, I emailed him to ask: "Do you swear to me that you didn't have any parental input on this?"

Because his writing was everything I strive for in my own stuff, and too rarely find in other authors' material: authoritative, clear, light-hearted, encouraging, beautifully structured.

And funny. Not funny as in forced, but funny as in sardonic, as in wry. After reading Adam's definition of inheritance in Chapter 5, for example, you'll never look at a Subaru the same way again.

Anyway, Adam grew on me like ivy. I eventually asked him to give my own Mac OS X: The Missing Manual manuscript a tech read. His comments added so much to the book that I wound up hiring him to write some advanced discussions for the book (on FileVault and journaling, for example).

And once again, his writing was so clear, so enthusiastic, and so funny that offering him a Missing Manual title of his own was a no-brainer.

You're holding the result. If this isn't the clearest, most patient, most skillfully taught AppleScript book ever published, I'll eat my mouse.

If you've never written a line of software code, this book will blow your mind open to the possibilities. If you have an iPod, don't miss the tip in Chapter 8, which shows you how AppleScript can turn any text, from your dissertation to a downloaded New York Times article, into a spoken recording, for your jogging pleasure. And if you work in Photoshop, the timesaving automation tips in Chapter 7 alone will pay for this bookabout 685 times over.

I'd like to extend my warmest congratulations to Adam for attaining such amazing writing and teaching skills at such a young age, and to you for having the wisdom to choose this book.

So what's next for this brilliant young writer? Getting his driver's license. Adam Goldstein, the writer who will one day eat my lunch, has just turned 17.

David Pogue is the weekly tech columnist for the New York Times, an Emmy award-winning corresponding for CBS News, and the creator of the Missing Manual series.