Customer Reviews

Business Objects: Complete Report Writing Course

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It has taken a while, but I think that someone has finally written a book that actually teaches you how to use Business Objects. It starts with the basics in a totally original teaching plan. After the basics, it dives into more advanced topics that are supported with fantastic examples. In fact, I have already created several of the examples for my company. This book is awesome and it will make you a much better BO professional.

If you're a developer looking for some handy tips and tricks...well, keep looking. This is definitely a beginner's book, and may be useful for users brand new to BusinessObjects. Honestly, based on the price of this book I'd pass.

This book is clearly for the beginner to intermediate user as I was able to find most examples and recommendations using examples, etc. in the help files. Most of the examples were obvious and lacked sufficient detail and a 'what if' analysis. However, the web site they provided for help was extremely useful. In fact, I recommend using the web site as the source for inforamtion in place of this book. I found answers to all of my questions on this web site.

We have been using other training resources that were a lot more expensive, but this one is more teacher friendly and complete. The first thing one must realize is that this is a training manual, not a textbook as one reviewer has called it. We use it to train our employees in a classroom environment and our trainers love it. It even comes with a Power Point presentation that we can use. Some of our people use it to train themselves and they say that it is very good, because they can study at their own pace. Either way, it has been a good tool for our company.

I just used this book for training last week, it's truly outstanding in the BO training space. I strongly disagree with C Townsend - this training covers everything from beginning to advanced Business Objects topics. I've taught Business Objects' own advanced training classes, and this book covers topics that aren't even mentioned in BO's training materials.

One big benefit of this book is that it includes resource files that can be used for training. The combination of a PowerPoint Presentation, BO Universe, BO Report Files, and Access Database give you just about everything you need to conduct a training class. All you need is a licensed copy of the software, and someone to teach the class. When you consider the price point, this book is a training bargain.

I'd highly recommend this book to anyone looking to learn Business Objects Reporter, or anyone looking to conduct Business Objects Reporter training.

I am a Database developer and I work as a consultant for an International Company. Robert, the author of this course, has been training this company for almost a year. He has trained them virtually through Placeware and on-site at various locations. He has trained 100's of people and everyone that I speak to is greatly satisfied with this training manual. They say that it is very easy to comprehend. They also say that even though they have only been using Business Objects for a short time, it has helped them to create advanced reports that they previously thought impossible.

I have also had the occasion to meet Robert on his training visits. He is one of the most sincere people that I have ever met. He really seems concerned that the students understand his training manual and they are really able to advance their skills through it. On his last visit, he actually gave me one of each of his manuals. I have worked through this manual (Business Objects: Complete Report Writing Course) and now I know why his students are so happy.

He has a way of introducing complex topics and making them seem so easy. For example, he introduced subqueries after talking about combination queries. Since combination queries deal with simple data sets, they were easy to understand. Later, he showed how to use subqueries to reach the same solutions and even improve upon them.

He also talked about contexts in reports and how to use operators to work with these contexts to summarize information in a table. While working with these operators, I created several powerful reports that I can adapt here at our company.

Speaking about example reports, the course had many exercises that helped me to understand most of the topics. These reports showed me many different ways to present to same data to focus on different information in a report. For example, one report may show the average sales per month, while another showed the normalization of sales across several different portfolios.

Robert, it is a pleasure knowing you and a pleasure to write this review. It is one of the truest things that I have ever done.

I've used this book for the last three months on a project for work. I didn't know anything about Business Objects other than how to retrieve and refresh reports. This book gave me a great foundation to learn the fundamentals of BO reporting and the best use of the Business Objects tool.

I would highly recommend the purchase of this book for any level of BusinessObjects user. The content is outstanding, especially the chapter on formulas. The book allows you to work at your own pace to understand key concepts in BusinessObjects. The book gives realistic, easy-to-understand examples to explain key concepts. As I read and worked through the book, I gained valuable information that no one from my company took the time to explain to me. I am amazed at how many tips I am gaining from this book as I continually use it as a resource to better understand how BusinessObjects works. I am much more productive in BusinessObjects since I have read and worked through this book, and I am adding more value to our company with the knowledge that I have gained because of this outstanding resource. - Kristy Evans

I recently purchased the book - Creating Documents with BusinessObjects, Complete Report Writing Course. This is the only BO book that I have really enjoyed reading. Thanks for putting the contents together in a very "easy to understand" manner.