Microsoft Office 97 Professional 6-in-1 (2nd Edition)

Rating:
Summary: I really enjoyed the well-written, concise book.
Review: I enjoyed this book from the casual to accomplished user viewpoint. The book makes difficult tasks easy to follow for all level users. The illustrations made it easy for the visual learners. I like the book so much I ordered multiple books and it is now the reference book at all the buildings on my campus.

Rating:
Summary: Office 97 Professonal, 2nd Ed. Is Severely Outdated (2002)
Review: I recently (2001) obtained a copy of Microsoft Office 97 Professional and installed it on my PC. I then bought Faithe Wempen's book to try and figure out how to use it! To my dismay, I discovered that the book refers (understandably) to MUCH older versions of Windows 95 and Internet Explorer than I am using. The result is that a very significant number of references to desktop items, menus, options, etc. simply don't apply anymore. I am running Windows 95b (Specifically 4.00.950 B, Also known

as OSR-2), and Internet Explorer version 5.5 SP-2 (Specifically version 5.50.4807.2300 with the Service Pack 2 Updates). While the book is quite complete in what it covers, it would be most helpful only to someone running the original Windows 95 with Internet Explorer ver. 3 or 4 (Is ANYBODY still using ver. 4?).
It is also geared to the complete Windows novice who needs to know what a GUI, scroll bar, desktop, and icon are! As a result, there is virtually NO in-depth explanation of ANY of the programs in Office 97. This is understandable since the book is only 800 pages and it would require at least that much to cover any ONE of the six programs in 'Office' (ie: Word, Excel, Power Point, Outlook, and Access). It does have some usefull info, however.