Creating Documents with BusinessObjects [Paperback]

Robert D Schmidt (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0972263616 | ISBN-13: 978-0972263610 | Publication Date: May 18, 2005 | Edition: 2

This is a substantial book that explains almost every aspect of creating documents and reports with Business Objects. It is authored by Robert Schmidt, who has written several books on the subject and has trained thousand's of students to use Business Objects. This book contains over 700 screenshots and many step-by-step examples! This is a very thorough book and is great for beginners and intermediate users. Advanced users can also find some valuable advice.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

This is the third edition of a great book. I wrote the first edition in 1997, because I was frustrated with the lack of information available to help me create reports with BusinessObjects. Since that time, I have taught many thousands of people to use BusinessObjects. During this time, I began to realize how people wanted to learn. I then incorporated these realizations in the next edition of Creating Documents with BusinessObjects in 2002.

Many people loved Creating Documents with BusinessObjects 5.1. It showed them how to create the different types of reports, how to format their reports, how to use formulas, how to retrieve data and much more. A person could read the book through and become very good at using BusinessObjects. However, a few readers complained that they could not find all of the examples when using the book as a reference. Therefore, I authored the latest edition.

The latest edition has been completely rewritten and reformatted to make the topics more understandable and easily found. We have improved many of the examples and added many more. We have added headers and tabs to each page, so that topics of interest can be quickly located. In addition, we now have highlighted tips, cautions and notes throughout the entire book. We have also greatly improved on the index and added two new ones. We now have a general index to find general topics, a comment index to locate tips and an example index to locate examples.

This is truly the best edition of Creating Documents with BusinessObjects thus far. Its purpose is still the same as it was in 1997 ¡V to empower people with the information and skills that they need to create reports with BusinessObjects.

From the Author

This is the third edition of a great book. I wrote the first edition in 1997, because I was frustrated with the lack of information available to help me create reports with BusinessObjects. Since that time, I have taught many thousands of people to use BusinessObjects. During this time, I began to realize how people wanted to learn. I then incorporated these realizations in the next edition of Creating Documents with BusinessObjects in 2002.

Many people loved Creating Documents with BusinessObjects 5.1. It showed them how to create the different types of reports, how to format their reports, how to use formulas, how to retrieve data and much more. A person could read the book through and become very good at using BusinessObjects. However, a few readers complained that they could not find all of the examples when using the book as a reference. Therefore, I authored the latest edition.

The latest edition has been completely rewritten and reformatted to make the topics more understandable and easily found. We have improved many of the examples and added many more. We have added headers and tabs to each page, so that topics of interest can be quickly located. In addition, we now have highlighted tips, cautions and notes throughout the entire book. We have also greatly improved on the index and added two new ones. We now have a general index to find general topics, a comment index to locate tips and an example index to locate examples.

This is truly the best edition of Creating Documents with BusinessObjects thus far. Its purpose is still the same as it was in 1997 ¡V to empower people with the information and skills that they need to create reports with BusinessObjects.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 540 pages
• Publisher: Schmidt Ink Inc; 2 edition (May 18, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0972263616
• ISBN-13: 978-0972263610
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,308,587 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I Graduated from the University of Florida as an Electrical Engineer. My specialty was electronic engineering and robotics. After working as an engineer for a while, I ended up in New York City, where I became a MS Windows programmer. After working with Windows for several years, I moved into other areas, such as database design and reporting. I worked at several major banks on and around Wall Street, up until 9-11. After, 9-11, I have mainly concentrated on training, consulting and writing books and training manuals.

My entire life, I have strived to be the very best. A goal that is unreachable, but still desired. I have tried to create the best training material for Business Objects and I continue to do so.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compared to the last edition THIS ONE ROCKS!, January 27, 2004

By 

Carl Green (Chicago, ILL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creating Documents with BusinessObjects (Paperback)

The first thing I noticed is that it is much larger and has this bright yellow cover. I also really like the tabs on the edge of the pages. They make it so much easier to find what I am looking for. I spent a lot of time trying to find examples with the last edition, but this edition has an example index ¡V really cool. I am very excited to have this book and I am hiding it so that no one will steal it, like they did the last one.

I have to say that this book is the secret to my power. I have found so many examples that showed me how to accomplish all those crazy things that my customers ask me to do.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Business Objects Training & Reference Tool!, May 3, 2004

By 

Daniel S. Johnson "doubtnot78" (CT, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Creating Documents with BusinessObjects (Paperback)

I've been following Robert Schmidt's books since Business Objects version 4.1, and he continues to impress. Business Objects is a very powerful query tool, but putting the information in a formatted, concise report can prove difficult. Robert Schmidt does a fantastic job of walking a user through the different types of reports, while giving helpful hints (and warnings about potential pitfalls) along the way.

In addition, this book has an excellent section on using formulas and variables. The author does a superb job explaining context operators, and how to use them to display the data at an appropriate level of detail. Report developers seem to struggle most with this concept, but Robert Schmidt does a very good job of breaking down contexts and making them easier to understand.

I've attended official Business Objects training sessions, and none have come close to providing the level of information available in this book. At 550+ pages, this book is really a complete reference for creating Business Objects Reports. Best of all, this book represents an outstanding value - 10X the information of official Business Objects training at roughly 1/10th the cost!

I'd highly recommend this book for anyone who develops or uses Business Objects reports!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best text to learn Business Objects Ver. 5 or 6, April 29, 2004

By 

Steven Tracy "Managing Consultant/BI Practice" (Canton, CT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Creating Documents with BusinessObjects (Paperback)

Business Objects is a powerful, yet sometimes perplexing tool. Many of the nuances and very powerful features are just not covered in training or the vendor manuals.

In this text, Robert Schmidt creates a truly useful tool to learn the product, for novice to advanced. His first book was very good, but this one is spectacular - it covers not only what you really need to know to be effective with Business Obejcts, but also the important differences in the latest version of the product (v6). Most major releases to products require investing time in a certain amount of "re-learning" the tool; this book hits the right points for understanding what is really important. I've been using the products for over 6 years, and this is "hands-down" the best and most comprehensive text I've seen, yet it does not give up readability for use by people new to the product.

Great job on this book - I don't even blink at the price when I look at the often minimal return on classroom training costing hundreds more. Why buy a lousy book for $50 or more? I've sent people to training for years with less return on the investment. Step-by-step examples are in every chapter, each has a logical theme, and where v6 has changed, he notes the change and gives some insight in what it means to the reader.