RetroTechCollection

The Apple Macintosh Primer 1984

Revision as of 18:22, 30 September 2026 by Josh (talk | contribs) (Author is William B. Sanders (title page), not James D. Sadler; extent 117 pp.; contents with page numbers; the book does print a spec list (p. 49); remove false 'cites' entry (Macintosh 128K does not link here); cite)
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The Apple Macintosh Primer is a 1984 book by William B. Sanders, published by DATAMOST, Inc. of Chatsworth, California, through Reston Publishing Company, a Prentice-Hall company. ISBN 0-8359-0233-1.[1] The text runs to 117 numbered pages; Open Library gives the same extent.[2]

Sanders wrote it before the Macintosh was released. His acknowledgements say there were no articles, user groups or books to draw on, and that Guy Kawasaki and Cary Clark of Apple supplied the hardware and software and answered his questions.[3] The copyright page thanks Apple for technical information and the photographs, and states that "Apple Computer, Inc. was not in any way involved in the actual writing of this book".[1] The preface gives the book two purposes: to teach new owners to operate the machine and use MacPaint and MacWrite, and to help prospective buyers decide whether to buy one.[4]

Contents

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Page numbers are from the book's table of contents.[5]

  • Preface, p. 11
  • Chapter 1: Overview of Mac, p. 13
  • Chapter 2: What Can You Do With The Mac?, p. 33
  • Chapter 3: Cranking Up The Mac, p. 55
  • Chapter 4: Keyboard-Mouse Connection, p. 73
  • Chapter 5: Graphics with MacPaint, p. 79
  • Chapter 6: Word Processing with MacWrite, p. 101

Hardware content

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Chapter 2 has a one-page list of "Technical Data" (p. 49): a 68000 at 7.8336 MHz, 128K RAM, 64K ROM, a 400K 3½-inch drive with a connector for a second, a built-in 9-inch monochrome monitor, four-voice sound with eight-bit digital-to-analogue conversion, a 58-key keyboard, a battery-backed clock and the port list. The resolution is misprinted as "512 X 842".[6] The following pages list the software and add-on hardware announced for the Macintosh at the time, from Apple, Microsoft, Lotus, Tecmar and others.[7]

The book has no service procedures, schematics or parts information. Apple's repair documentation for the early compact Macintosh is in Category:Apple Service Source.

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Download: The_Apple_Macintosh_Primer_1984.pdf (5.8 MB)

References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 William B. Sanders, The Apple Macintosh Primer (DATAMOST / Reston Publishing, 1984), title page and copyright page (PDF pp. 3-4).
  2. ↑ Open Library, The Apple Macintosh Primer, record OL11492027M. Retrieved 2026-09-30.
  3. ↑ Sanders, The Apple Macintosh Primer, Acknowledgements (PDF p. 5).
  4. ↑ Sanders, The Apple Macintosh Primer, Preface, pp. 11-12 (PDF pp. 10-11).
  5. ↑ Sanders, The Apple Macintosh Primer, Table of Contents (PDF pp. 6-9).
  6. ↑ Sanders, The Apple Macintosh Primer, "Technical Data", p. 49 (PDF p. 47).
  7. ↑ Sanders, The Apple Macintosh Primer, "Software" and "Hardware", pp. 50-52 (PDF pp. 48-50).
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