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Rating: 
Summary: I found this book to help for teaching and work.
Review: As an instructor of desktop applications such as Microsoft Office, I need to be able to answer question from students outside the realm of the classroom manual. Trying to keep up on the changes can sometime be very difficult to manage, that's why this book is so important to my everyday job. The book is covering Word 2002 Core & expert, Excel 2002 Core & expert, PowerPoint 2002, Outlook 2002 and Access 2002 core only and throughout the 900 plus pages there is more information on each topic, showing me things that I never knew or easier ways to do things I already know. Packed with over 350 exercises, I found out ways cut time, increase productivity and most importantly enhance both my work environment as well as the classroom. While I am not planning to take any exams in the near future, I wouldn't rule it out for next year. The book is laid out objective by objective based on the exam, and the authors have certainly made very effort to make the learning process easy to follow while providing good detail in the infromation presented. Overall some of the more advanced user may find very little addtional information, however for those with beginner to intermendiate skills this is certinaly a very good manual to have around.
Rating: 
Summary: Where's Notepad?
Review: Normally, I'm a big fan of Annette Marquis and her exuberant and vivacious writing style when it comes to learning about MOS. To say that I was a little shocked at the blatant omission of Notepad would be an understatement. I teach a bevy of technical skills that no doubt prepare my students for "the real world," if you will. First and foremost among them, you guessed it, is Notepad. I know it may seem easy to some of you(and especially me), but to my youngsters, I ahere to the adage "You can't walk before you run." I guess what I'm trying to say here is that Notepad is a great starting block to build an impressive foundation that leads to the pinnacle of MOS Mastery(it's MOS not MOUS now, so wake up Annette). When I spilled cheese whiz on the part about using bold and italics in conjunction in Word, I was so [mad]. But, I guess I can remember how to do it o.k. now, I think.
Rating:
Summary: Where's Notepad?
Review: Normally, I'm a big fan of Annette Marquis and her exuberant and vivacious writing style when it comes to learning about MOS. To say that I was a little shocked at the blatant omission of Notepad would be an understatement. I teach a bevy of technical skills that no doubt prepare my students for "the real world," if you will. First and foremost among them, you guessed it, is Notepad. I know it may seem easy to some of you(and especially me), but to my youngsters, I ahere to the adage "You can't walk before you run." I guess what I'm trying to say here is that Notepad is a great starting block to build an impressive foundation that leads to the pinnacle of MOS Mastery(it's MOS not MOUS now, so wake up Annette). When I spilled cheese whiz on the part about using bold and italics in conjunction in Word, I was so [mad]. But, I guess I can remember how to do it o.k. now, I think.
Rating: 
Summary: Lots of dribble
Review: This book addresses only the exam objectives for the MOUS certifications. So far so good, it doesn't purport doing anything else. Unfortunately, it is written in a step by step technique that has you do loads of simple things that has nothing to do with the objective under discussion. Of course it is easy enough to read over these steps without performing the tasks, but the real nuggets of knowledge are buried somewhere in the ramble. In short, it wastes your time on tesks that should be second nature to you if you're buying this type of book (yet it isn't robust enough to serve as a step by step). I lost faith in the author when she wrote: "Interestingly, when we inserted this new movie clip, PowerPoint resized the existing text. Just click Undo if you have this same problem. The text returns to its original size and the clip is placed in the middle of the slide.". "...this same problem."?? This is an AutoCorrect feature! Either she does not know this or she is "talking down" to the reader.. bad either way. Additionally, this book covers most of the objectives, but not all in enough detail so that you'd sail through the exam without a hitch. (I have written the PowerPoint exam before and failed, through no fault of mine - half the features weren't installed (Grrrr, some ATCs!), so I can remember some of the questions asked. Unfortunately I don't have another text to recommend, this is the first one I've tried. Good luck with the exams!
Rating:
Summary: Not good enough
Review: This book addresses only the exam objectives for the MOUS certifications. So far so good, it doesn't purport doing anything else. Unfortunately, it is written in a step by step technique that has you do loads of simple things that has nothing to do with the objective under discussion. Of course it is easy enough to read over these steps without performing the tasks, but the real nuggets of knowledge are buried somewhere in the ramble. In short, it wastes your time on tesks that should be second nature to you if you're buying this type of book (yet it isn't robust enough to serve as a step by step). I lost faith in the author when she wrote: "Interestingly, when we inserted this new movie clip, PowerPoint resized the existing text. Just click Undo if you have this same problem. The text returns to its original size and the clip is placed in the middle of the slide.". "...this same problem."?? This is an AutoCorrect feature! Either she does not know this or she is "talking down" to the reader.. bad either way. Additionally, this book covers most of the objectives, but not all in enough detail so that you'd sail through the exam without a hitch. (I have written the PowerPoint exam before and failed, through no fault of mine - half the features weren't installed (Grrrr, some ATCs!), so I can remember some of the questions asked. Unfortunately I don't have another text to recommend, this is the first one I've tried. Good luck with the exams!
Rating: 
Summary: I passed all my exams using this book!
Review: This book is not intended to be a general reference and it says so right at the beginning. Its purpose is to prepare people to take the MOUS (now MOS) exams and it does just exactly that. I used this book to take my Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access exams and passed them all! The explanations in this book were clear and to the point. The exercises really helped focus on the things I needed to learn and provided a context for why I would want to use the features in the first place. I highly recommend this book if you want to be sucessful in your exams.
Rating:
Summary: Lots of dribble
Review: This book talks a great deal about simple stuff that you should already know. I'd like a book that focused on the more advanced features that a prepared person may wish to review before an exam. Additionally, the book is boring.
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