Macworld® Office 98 Bible

Rating:
Summary: Good for a complete novice.
Review: A disappointing book for the intermediate or advanced user. Adequate for the complete novice; quite well written.

Rating:
Summary: Frankly, this book is a disappointment.
Review: Don't get me wrong - this is probably a great book for people who are unfamiliar with or new to Office applications. And I have to admit, I did learn a few things from it. But there's little in here for advanced users; in particular the coverage of macros and Visual Basic is lacking for a supposedly 100% comprehensive and authoritative guide. Similarly, no mention is made of some of the bugs that one encounters in Office - for example, the limitations in PowerPoint with regard to HTML export and cross platform conversions. (In fairness, none of the currently available Office books covers many of the suite's problems.) The book feels like it was thrown together in a hurry and seems padded out by repetitive material.

I would rate it lower, but in fairness to the authors, who have tried to create a "one size fits all" and to an extent have succeeded, I've given it a "three". This book will be very useful to beginning users. But for myself, I really need to wait until someone like O'Reilly's come up with an "Office 98 Annoyances" book before I'm satisfied.

Rating:
Summary: A worthy purchase for the beginner-intermediate
Review: I agree that more advanced concepts are not covered adequately in MS Office '98 Bible (it's incorrectly touted as offering complete coverage), but this is a worthy purchase for beginner and intermediate users. The Top Ten Questions at the end of each application's unit offer great tips to at least a few of those nagging "why? and how?" questions. Format is appealing. Directions are clear. I favor Bob LeVitus reference guides.