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Search in Book Reviews

The ACCU passes on review copies of computer books to its members for them to review. The result is a large, high quality collection of book reviews by programmers, for programmers. Currently there are 1949 reviews in the database and more every month.
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Title:
Using Microsoft Office 97 (3rd ed)
Author:
Ed Bott
ISBN:
0 7897 1567 8
Publisher:
Que
Pages:
617
Price:
£27-49
Reviewer:
Francis Glassborow
Subject:
MS Windows; MS Office
Appeared in:
10-6
Both these are useful books on their subjects but I find the number of edition published on products that have a limited shelf life rather disturbing. Basically books are being initially rushed out before products are released with the result that the first editions are almost always out of date before they are published. Just as sane users never buy the first release of a product (full price beta?) experienced readers probably avoid the first edition of books on new products. That means that you can probably knock off one from the above edition numbers.

Now what leaves me less than enthusiastic is that both products are in the process of being superseded.

Using Microsoft Office 97 probably tries to cover too much. Most users need books on specific applications from within the suite. Using Microsoft Windows 95 meets its objectives but I am not sure how many people still need it (let us face it, most people want to know as little as possible about the operating system.

However if you intend to continue using Windows 95 Using Microsoft Windows 95 does a good job of covering the different features in a self-contained fashion. For example you may already know about associations between applications and data files (like .doc files assuming they belong towhatever version Word you have installed. What if you want to change the association? On a one time basis? Or as a default? This book will allow you to find how to do either of these things easily.