Microsoft Office v. X for Mac Power User's Guide

Rating:
Summary: An exceptional book for all Mac Office X users
Review: This book is really a complete guide, with a smooth ramp-up from the basics to Office tips about power features that I didn't even know existed. I can hardly wait to try some of the more complex features of Word and Excel, which is why I really upgraded to MacOS X in the first place.

I especially liked the author's step-by-step style. He shows you precisely what needs to be done to accomplish what you need to do. Also, there are projects that illustrate the things that most of us will do, like creating a self-running PPoint show or building a complete web site with Word.

Another thing I appreciated about this book was the starting point! You don't have to wade through several chapters of "this is how you move your mouse" and "this is what happens when you click a menu" (as some other books that I have do). Plus, he just doesn't say "This is taken care of by a wizard" .... he actually shows you what to do.

Rather than waste time on MacOS X Mail (even in the Jaguar beta it's nowhere near as powerful as Entourage), the author describes all of Entourage. There's a lot to it, and he shows you how to track all of your personal data and appointments. You don't have to be an accountant to understand the Excel coverage, and everything that the new version of Word can do. The chapters are well-organized, and I never felt like I had to hunt something down.

To sum up, I highly recommend this excellent book to any person of any skill level who needs a complete guide to the new Mac Office!

Rating:
Summary: Microsoft Getting Started in Office X in softcover.
Review: This book is simply a nicely printed version of the very limited info that comes on the Office v X CD ROM "Getting Started" file. They really mean just getting started. This book is a little bit expanded with a few nubbins of extra detail, but not much. This is NOT a Power User's Guide. A guide for a beginner to both Office and OS X, at best, with some glaring missing areas.

Useful in case you just like to have a printed version of the bare basics instead of needing to use or print out the electronic help/info.pdf material which is basic at best. A more readable and accessible version of the electronic material. If you've been using earlier versions of Office, you don't need this book. I bought it only because I've skipped two Office version generations, but the basics don't seem to have changed much.

There is some useful expansion of the Entourage procedures particularly on the Calendar which is good, beyond the CD ROM material.

Entourage e-mail is essentially identical with the outstanding OS X Mail package which is nicely described in Pogue's OS X: The Missing Manual. If Entourage is new to you as it is to me, you may find the additional detail handy.

I haven't found any reason to go to the trouble of shifting my mail to Entourage from the extremely useful OS X Mail system. Unless you don't start with OS X Mail before you buy Office, you may not find the Entourage mail material of any use.

This book should be avoided if you plan to exploit the many facets of Office, a great many of which are either unknown to the author or never used by him. For instance, the basics of creating mailing labels, a common and very useful function, is treated only lightly and then only as using an existing address book as merge data as a project. Nary a word on how to create individual or a sheet of mailing labels from scratch, or using Avery or other label formats, a fatal deficiency for what purports to be a "Power User" guide...