free Apple eBook Resources
If you’re like me you’re not a huge fan of writing detailed documentation. While not much can be helped with environment specifics, there is a great selection of free ebooks from Apple that covers most of the hardware, OS and application software.
For the last couple of years I’ve been making Apple eBooks available on Jamf Self Service and scoping to particular devices, e.g. everyone with a MacBook Pro gets access to the MacBook Pro Essentials book.
In Jamf Pro, go to to the “eBooks” section under “Content Management”, click the “+New” button and search. Choose “eBook available in the iBooks Store”. You can preview the book in the Books app as well to make sure you have the one you are after.
Useful books that I’ve found (search for these by title or author - Results may differ depending on what store you select, but these are whats available in the Australian Apple Books store)
Hardware “Essentials” series
Great to include for users of that device type, especially if they are moving from one type of device to another or if they are first time Mac users.
- MacBook Pro Essentials
- MacBook Air Essentials
- iMac Essentials
- Mac Pro Essentials
- Mac Mini Essentials
“User Guide” series from Apple Inc.
The User Guide series covers non Mac hardware as well as Applications for each platform and how to use them
- iPhone
- iPad
- Keynote
- Pages
- Numbers
- Final Cut Pro
Apple Inc. - Business
The Employee Starter Guides are a good resource to help new users get up to speed with using Apple devices in an organisational setting. While these can’t go into detail about a specific environment, they do provide some more context that is only applicable in those environments, such as Automated Enrolment
- Employee Starter Guide for Mac
- Employee Starter Guide for iOS and iPadOS
“Everyone can Create” series from Apple Education
The “Everyone Can Create” series is a great resource that goes into creating music, photos and video as well as some teacher guides
Author Names
Apple have several Author names so it can be useful to search by author to restrict your results.
- Apple Inc.
- Apple Inc. - Business
- Apple Education
Final Words
This is by no means an exhaustive list. Over time the books are updated but rather than update the existing eBook, Apple may publish a new book, for example there will be more than one “MacBook Pro Essentials”. It’s usually easy to tell which one is the latest by the cover.