Customer Reviews

Advanced Microsoft Office Documents 2007 Edition Inside Out

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Whom would your boss rather have on staff: an expert on Microsoft Office System 2007 or an expert on creating effective, easy-to-manage office documents?

Stephanie Krieger's new book is based on the arresting and gratifying notion that what your boss wants and needs is someone who can create effective, easy-to-manage documents (including worksheets and presentations), because such documents are the foundation of an effective organization.

Does this mean that Krieger's book gives short shrift to the capabilities of the new Microsoft Office System 2007? Not at all. It just means that the book offers effective ways to think about documents, worksheets, and presentations while showing how best to create and manage them with the Microsoft Office System 2007.

The fact that the word "Advanced" appears in the title is not an accident. The book doesn't tell how to save or print documents or check spelling. Instead, it tells how to plan documents and how to stay in control of them. It discusses special considerations governing documents that will be distributed electronically. It describes how work teams can effectively collaborate on documents. Within this conceptual framework, it offers detailed overviews of features that are new to the applications in Microsoft Office System 2007, plus step-by-step procedures for using those features to improve personal and organizational efficiency and the quality of documents.

The book exhibits respect for the reader throughout. Each advanced section starts by declaring what the reader needs to know ahead of time in order to benefit from that section. Cross-references (to other locations within the book and to other resources found elsewhere) are provided for readers who need more information.

An abbreviated, high-level table of contents appears at the beginning of the book, followed immediately by a more detailed table of contents. A specialized index of troubleshooting topics is found at the back of the book, just before the main index. A fully searchable electronic version of the text is provided on an accompanying CD that also includes recorded webcasts by the author and numerous other resources.

Experienced users of Office who are new to the Microsoft Office System 2007 will appreciate the book's focus on new features. They needn't worry about becoming bogged down in discussions of features already familiar to them from previous releases of Office.

The book covers the new Open XML file formats, the new Ribbon interface, the new graphics engine, and the new Themes for managing the look and feel of documents across applications and across document sets.

The chapters on Word 2007 cover new tools for managing and applying styles, new tools for working with graphics, new Quick Parts for rapid assembly of new documents, and new Content Controls for displaying data pulled from external sources or entered by the user. The chapters on Excel 2007 cover new tools for formatting worksheets, new charting capabilities, new refinements in working with PivotTables and PivotCharts, and tips for generating Visio diagrams from worksheet data. The chapters on PowerPoint cover new tools for working with presentation graphics, new functionality for custom slide layouts, and new tools for formatting text.

OneNote, Windows SharePoint Services Workspaces, and Groove Workspaces are discussed only briefly, with an eye toward helping users understand how these items can contribute to personal and organizational productivity.

In keeping with the book's advanced level and its goal of creating and managing effective documents, Krieger shows how templates can contribute content, design, and functionality to such documents. She argues that even non-programmers can exploit the new Open XML file formats and other new features of Office by relying on the VBA macro language. Then she removes one possible barrier by providing an impressively comprehensive (and comprehensible) introduction to the VBA language and to the VBA editor built into Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

The book contains occasional passages that could have been made more clear by a knowledgeable editor, but for the most part Krieger's writing is not only clear and well structured but free of the overly technical character exhibited by some books on software. Most readers will appreciate the practical perspective that she brings to her subject, particularly when addressing how to think about the formatting and organization of documents. (Many readers will be left wanting even more guidance on these important yet too-often-neglected topics.)

The book has an insider quality to it, which isn't surprising, given that it was published by Microsoft Press. The positive side of this is that Krieger clearly enjoyed frequent access to the development teams responsible for Microsoft Office System 2007. Such access undoubtedly contributed to the accuracy and completeness of her work. Krieger also benefited from the insights of her technical reviewer (Beth Melton, a widely respected authority on Microsoft Office).

The negative side of Krieger's close association with the development teams is that she sometimes includes gratuitous descriptions of her interactions with them. She also includes a few personal anecdotes that will be viewed by some readers as important foundations for her recommendations but by others as a failure to separate herself from her subject.

In a crowded field that includes beginners' step-by-step tutorials and comprehensive but undiscriminating 1,200-page doorstops, Krieger's book stands out for its thoughtful effort to help experienced users create and manage effective documents. Users who read her book are likely to find themselves in a better position to please their bosses and move their organizations forward.

Stephanie understands MS Office software. But, better than that, she understands people. People want results. People need properly created documents. People need help.

Ms. Krieger's other book was a knock-out (Microsoft Office Document Designer). In less than 200 pages, she addressed the task of proper document design. In this book, she takes this to a much higher level.

As a full-time software trainer, I have seen that people only use a small percentage of the features that programs like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint offer. Is this due to a lack of ability? No, it's due to a lack of knowledge.

Stephanie's book will provide the reader with the knowledge required to assemble a "proper" document. Filled with advice, information, and the perfect mix of programs, the pages glow with a light that removes the sometimes dark areas of document creation.

For users of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint who do not read this book, they will continue to struggle, using "band-aids" to hide the cuts and bruises their documents contain. For those who read and apply the information in Stephanie's book, they will not need a trip to the emergency room to save their creation.

As a Microsoft Office programs training instructor in my own business, and a part-time Office Programs Instructor for two local Community College Workforce Dept's., I find the Advanced Microsoft Office Documents 2007 Edition Inside Out to be a very comprehensive book that is very helpful to even experienced users, as well as new users. The written and graphic details are very simple, yet concise, and make the learning process much easier. It is a book that I not only recommend to my students and clients, but, it also has a home on my own desk.

This book will truly help you unlock the potential of the office suite in to creating nice and professional documents a lot faster.
The concepts are not too hard and are usefull most of the time, the goal is to help you use the office suite like it was designed to be use.
The knowledge I got from it truly helped me into creating better looking document for school a lot faster. Sadly during group project I would have to spend time correcting documents because people don't know how to correctly use Word, Excel or Powerpoint.

I consider myself an advanced user and found this book offered handy tips and explanations as to why some features were changed. I use it as a reference to be used when I hit a roadblock or when I get a "What if..." moment. Not for a new Office user.

I found some tips and explanations in this book that I have not found anywhere else. It has really lived up to its promise to show you some advanced features of Microsoft Office. I was dissapointed to get to the end of each section and felt like there should be a book on each Office product in this format. I found the troubleshooting tips excellent and realistic. The author uses real life examples and humor in an easy to read language. After reading this book your productivity on microsoft office products will really increase and you will no longer spend hours trying to solve formatting problens! I'm saving up to get the 2010 version of this book now.

This is a great book for those who are convinced that software should be able to do more and documents should be smarter and take less time to write.

I stumbled across the increased functionality of fields then wanted to learn more. This book has been a rich resource to learn the increased functionality of Office 2007. I am primarily using Word 2007 to develop smart document to be used by teams. This book is helping me see how to make the documents work `smarter' and hopefully decrease the time spent in documentation with the use of a wide range of tools now available in Word 2007.

I am not a patient learner. I want to jump to just show me. This book is organized such that I can grab a `tidbit' go out and use it then I am hungry to come back and learn more. Whether I skim a section or have the highlighter and notebook out I am learning lots that I can apply right away.


While you don't have to be a Word Wiz to use this book it helps to have a basic understanding of how 2007 functions. The author does a good job at the beginning of each section to list what she feels users need as a foundation to move forward in each chapter.

The Inside Out series of books have been one of the better series I have found.

If you need to know everything including programming this is the book to get. Very detailed information with examples that you can try.

I was struggling with some of the new concepts in Word 2007 and this book has clarified most of them for me. Particularly as I haven't found the online help much use. I haven't had a chance yet to review the sample cd.

The content of this book is fine, but the quality of the book itself is poor. Pages are falling out already and I've only used it a few times.