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Rating: 
Summary: Horrific
Review: A good idea gone bad with terrible editing confusing instructions and an overall waste of time and a great contributor to frustration.Most of the time you are left hanging not understanding how or why with key points left out. Either teach step by step or don't attempt. What an unholy mess.
Rating:
Summary: Major Failure
Review: Amen to the other review that speaks of what an abyssmal disappointment this book is. The idea is sound. It's the actual practice that does not work . Tech support was very friendly and helpful, but hours were wasted calling them for clarification on what was incomprehensible in what is supposed to be a step by step guide. Contains huge holes and poorly edited. Finally giving up I sent it back and was promised a refund a week ago. Still waiting. Avoid this one.
Rating: 
Summary: The Good News and The Bad News
Review: I taught classes of adults with this book. I had many complaints about the fact that it was difficult to follow. Some of the exercises were ambiguous and some were over wrought with typing. It did have poor planning on the organizational side. While it built on the previous exercises, sometimes it was ambitious on some items and lacking on others. A similar amount of time was spent on 'opening' a document as was spent on creating a 'table.' On the positive side, if you already know what you are doing, it was easy to follow. If you already know what you are doing, you probably don't need this book.
Rating:
Summary: Random organization, separates the teaching from the doing
Review: I teach computer applications to 8th graders, and this book is a disappointment to me and my students. It is geared more toward the business worker. The order in which it teaches skills is completely random. For example, it teaches advanced operations such as how to create envelopes and labels before it teaches the most basic functions such as how to format text. It also focuses too much on the Internet capabilities of MS Office 2000 (useless "bloatware" if you ask me). Another problem is the presentation of the lessons. It lists the steps to complete a task, then has an exercise to be completed. It would be much more helpful if the students were able to DO the steps while the book explains them, THEN have exercises to do on their own. Instead, the book separates the teaching from the doing. This is a very ineffective way to learn. Finally, the confusing language it sometimes uses doesn't help either. My students constantly ask for clarification. Stay clear of this one. There must be better books out there.
Rating:
Summary: Random organization, separates the teaching from the doing
Review: I teach computer applications to 8th graders, and this book is a disappointment to me and my students. It is geared more toward the business worker. The order in which it teaches skills is completely random. For example, it teaches advanced operations such as how to create envelopes and labels before it teaches the most basic functions such as how to format text. It also focuses too much on the Internet capabilities of MS Office 2000 (useless "bloatware" if you ask me). Another problem is the presentation of the lessons. It lists the steps to complete a task, then has an exercise to be completed. It would be much more helpful if the students were able to DO the steps while the book explains them, THEN have exercises to do on their own. Instead, the book separates the teaching from the doing. This is a very ineffective way to learn. Finally, the confusing language it sometimes uses doesn't help either. My students constantly ask for clarification. Stay clear of this one. There must be better books out there.
Rating: 
Summary: Thankfully there's DDC around!
Review: Mary Wright, Tech Editor: "For the past 7 years, I have been developing and administering computer skills courses to adults who are both educationally and economically disavantaged. It has been extremely challenging to locate computer training textbooks that can be geared to the functionally illiterate. DDC Publishing is the only publishing company that truly understands and meets the computer educational needs of this market."
Rating:
Summary: Thankfully there's DDC around!
Review: Mary Wright, Tech Editor: "For the past 7 years, I have been developing and administering computer skills courses to adults who are both educationally and economically disavantaged. It has been extremely challenging to locate computer training textbooks that can be geared to the functionally illiterate. DDC Publishing is the only publishing company that truly understands and meets the computer educational needs of this market."
Rating:
Summary: Thankfully there's DDC around!
Review: Mary Wright, Tech Editor: "For the past 7 years, I have been developing and administering computer skills courses to adults who are both educationally and economically disavantaged. It has been extremely challenging to locate computer training textbooks that can be geared to the functionally illiterate. DDC Publishing is the only publishing company that truly understands and meets the computer educational needs of this market."
Rating: 
Summary: Frustration
Review: The idea and principle of a step by step guide to something as complex as Office2000 is necessary and desirable. Especially when compared with the endless dry tomes that tell you all the neat things you can do without step by step instructions and exercises, such as the horrific attempts at writing of Ron Mansfield and his books on Word. This book is very helpful but ogten maddening with numerous typos that leave you hanging, and poorly explained procedures especialy in complex functions such as in Excel which expect you to fill in blanks and intuit some of the exercises. The idea, concept and layout are sound and the tech support has been mercifully very helpful, but this edition could use extensive rewriting and editing.
Rating:
Summary: A life-saver.
Review: This book was a real life-saver for me, and I know it's good enough to be used in some computer prep courses in high schools around here. This is the third DDC book I've used, and all three have been great. They're not flashy, but their step-by-step style actually makes it easier and faster to learn for the average person. Yes, there are some typos and glitches here and there, but they're hardly the prohibitive stumbling blocks the other reviews seem to suggest. I'd not be afraid to buy it. And some of DDC's other stuff--like the other two titles I got on Word and Access--is MOUS Certified BY MICROSOFT and will (I hope!) get me ready for the MOUS Certification exam.
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