On Apple's Leopard, New Tricks and Some Treats

Leopard's Internet software includes its own helpful shortcut-- you can read Web pages without opening your Web browser.

To do this, click the Web Clip scissors icon in the Safari browser to copy a page to the Dashboard, Leopard's gallery of little "widget" applications. You'll see the latest version of that page when you open the Dashboard.

That's a terrific help for sites that don't publish updates of their content in automated updates known as RSS feeds. So, for example, I can use it to track my Evite invitations without having to visit that ad-littered site.

If a site does offer RSS updates, you can view those in Leopard's Mail program. This e-mail application also shows your to-do list and text notes you've jotted down.

Finally, you can even use Windows programs on a Mac running Leopard. Its Boot Camp software will put Windows XP or Vista on your Mac, which you can run instead of OS X at each startup.

The new version upgrades OS X's already strong security as well as the look of the software itself. Some of these adjustments (like its simplified system-preferences window) work, but others suggest that Apple is trying too hard.

For instance, its transparent menu bar and pull-down menus can be hard to read on top of the background.

And Leopard's online help system gets in the way: Its window can't be pushed to the background, blocking your view of the program you needed help using.

Like earlier Mac operating-system releases, Leopard doesn't work with some older Macs -- in this case, those with slower G4 processors. If your Mac is more than three years old, you're probably better off declining this upgrade.

Leopard also evicts many older programs by removing the "Classic" software that ran applications written for the old, pre-OS X Mac system software. Even some new Mac programs can malfunction in Leopard, though that should change as developers update their work.

For many Windows users looking at Macs, however, Leopard's best feature may be what it leaves out: Unlike Windows Vista, it won't lock you out of your machine if it thinks you didn't pay for your copy.

Living with technology, or trying to? E-mail Rob Pegoraro atrobp@washpost.com. Read more athttp://blog.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/