Rating: 
Summary: I recommend this book for new and experienced users alike.
Review: A friend was taking a computer class for new users and was told by the instructor that the class would use this book. I looked at it and bought a copy. I am an experienced computer user (Macintosh, Windows, Unix, Linux, Java, HTML, Office, Netscape, Explorer, Perl, etc.) and this book taught me so much! I learned about the workings of computers. Before I read this book, I know how to use computers, but not too much about how computers worked. I bought a Windows computer recently from a customized computer store. Thanks to this book's teaching me about the components of computers, I knew just what to buy and ordered with confidence. At the end, when I was deciding what to do about speakers, the dealer showed me some wildly powerful units. I looked in the book and told the dealer I needed two 10-30 watt speakers. The dealer sold me a pair of sixty watt speakers. My advice to you is get sixty watt speakers even though the book mentions thirty watt speakers. I suppose that's my one gripe with the book. If an experienced user can learn so much from this book, a new computer user will definitely think of this book as five-star. This book is very easy to understand; there is simple language and the explanations are given step-by-step. Computers Simplified is a great reference. If you want to learn hypertext markup language or something else, go to the amazon.com Home Page, follow the links to Books, type in Computers Simplified, and take a look at the results. I recommend Creating Web Pages Simplified and agree with Amy Brazo about this book cutting through all the jargon.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent book for beginners
Review: As a computer teacher of older adults, the "simplified" books are excellent for beginning students. I would like fewer "cutesy" graphics, but the information is good, and it works well for beginning students.
Rating:
Summary: Review
Review: As a computer teacher of older adults, the "simplified" books are excellent for beginning students. I would like fewer "cutesy" graphics, but the information is good, and it works well for beginning students.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for beginners
Review: As a computer teacher of older adults, the "simplified" books are excellent for beginning students. I would like fewer "cutesy" graphics, but the information is good, and it works well for beginning students.
Rating:
Summary: A thorough overview
Review: I bought this to help my clients and friends that aren't techie at all. They own a computer and want to know more but the volumes of reading that can be done is overwhelming for many. I am a Microsoft Professional and I really enjoyed reading this from cover to cover. I found the information within to be accurate, informative, fun and fast. In fact while on vacation 2 of my relatives, who liked it as much as I did, bought it (with me in the store to be sure they found the right book)!
Rating:
Summary: The best book for the befuddled.
Review: I keep this book around to loan to new computer users - those who are befuddled by the plethora of jargon, buzz words, and tech-speak that everyone ELSE seems to understand. This volume gives basic introductions to PC's, Macs, any peripheral you care to name, the current major operating systems and how to get around in them, and a beginers guide to the internet. Definately a best buy.
Rating:
Summary: I can't imagine a better introduction: a must-have!
Review: I really do owe the author of this book, as well as the book salesperson who included this book, without my asking, with two other books on computers which I had asked be held for me at a local bookstore for me ( all three of which I picked up later), many thanks, because I did not know that I needed this book and I absolutley did. At the time I was thinking of buying a computer for the fist time, knowing very little about computers at all, and this book provided me with information that I absolutey needed in order to make an informed choice about what kind of computer to buy. I am very happy with my purchase and don't know what I would have done without this book. The book provides a good overview of computers including hardware and software, how computers work, bytes, and types of computer systems(PC-personal computer, Macintosh, mainframe, set-top box) and then, using very helpful graphics-a typical computer, as well as operating systms, 9 pages on the Macintosh, plus a very nice introductions to the internet and web,including what the internet offers, e-mail, getting connected, web browser, multimedia on the web, web portal, children on the web, web pages and shopping, ), as well as buying a computer (considerations such as cost, Brand-name and clone,and after sale-service), upgrade(condsiderations such as cost and effective upgrades), mouse, keyboard, input and output, printer (ink-jet and laser),modem, processing ( memory-memory size, program requirements, memory chips, virtual memory,ROM and CPU, Memory Cache and Bus). If you are thinking of buying a computer, especally if you are new to computers, but even if you are not, I really can't recommend this book enough to help you in making your decision. The edition of this book that I have is the Fourth Edition © 1998 and it only goes up to the Windows 98 operating system and Windows NT in Windows and Mac OS 8 in Macintosh (UNIX is also covered, as is MS-DOS), however. It's time for a new edition.
Rating:
Summary: This book should be the Bible for computer users.
Review: I started a Computer Tutor Service in Ocean Pines, MD and wanted to get a easy book to read and understand for my clients. I spent many hours looking for just the right book. This is that book! I even learned a few things myself. Now I have a few copies and when someone doesn't understand something, one picture is worth a thousand words, I just loan them the book. Many clients buy it as a reference.
Rating:
Summary: Impressive
Review: I'm quite impressed and satisfied with this book and with the entire Simplified series. This book presents an excellent introduction to and overview of computers. It is very accessible to beginners and provides useful information for more experienced users. For visual learners (like myself), the illustrations are a great help. It's challenging to take a complex subject and express it simply, clearly, concisely, and comprehensively. This book meets the challenge. Other books in the Simplified series are listed on Amazon.com under the author name Ruth Maran. A similar series (which I also enjoy very much) by the same author is the Teach Yourself Visually series.
Rating: 
Summary: Too simple for those who know!
Review: If you know anything about computers, software and peripherals, i.e., what they look like and what they do - don't buy this. This book has nice illustrations but very little text. If you wanna' learn about pc's, buy books with detailed info, better yet, use a computer. You don't need this book to tell you the advantages of portable computers - easy to carry around. Or the difference between a single-sided and doubled-sided disk - self explanatory. This is for someone who knows nothing about computers. It's really simple.
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