Excel 2000 for Windows Visual Quickstart Guide

Rating:
Summary: A+ book for beginners
Review: This book is exactly what its title promises: a visual quickstart guide. While it does not even mention advanced Excel programming techniques, it does a fantastic job of teaching the basics. The issues covered include editing worksheets (typing, cutting, pasting, etc.), using formulas and functions, formatting worksheet cells, adding and editing graphic objects and charts, and printing spreadsheets. The last chapter on advanced techniques briefly introduces working with databases, 3D references, custom views and consolidations.

The book is exceptionally accurate and very well cross-referenced. Each step (actually, almost every mouse movement) is illustrated by a screen image (in average, 4-6 images per page!). The spreadsheets used as examples in the text are so simple that they can be so quickly reproduced by typing. Therefore, the lack of a CD-ROM or a floppy disk containing examples from the book is not a problem.

In summary, if you never used Excel before and need to learn its basics sufficient to put together simple spreadsheets, this book is likely to be your best choice - it gets straight to the point, gives you all you need to start, and does not overload you with unnecessary details. However, be advised that if you already know some Excel then this book is not for you.