EXCEL for Dummies [Paperback]

Greg Harvey (Author)

Book Description

Series: For Dummies | Publication Date: October 20, 1992

The best beginner's guide to Excel 4 for Windows--today's fastest growing spreadsheet program. Features all Excel essentials you need to build effective spreadsheets and charts. Includes a FREE Pull-Out Excel Cheat Sheet of key shortcuts and functions.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Spreadsheet guru Greg Harvey is back with friendly guidance and the most up-to-date information on Excel 5 for Windows, the latest version of Micrsoft's popular spreadsheet. Excel For Dummies, 2nd Edition, leads you through Excel's powerful features so you can impress everyone with your professional spreadsheets and reports. Find out about Excel basics the fun and easy way:

• Through updated coverage of Excel 5 for Windows, including the new features like TipWizard, tabbed dialog boxes, Function Wizard, editing in cells, and much more
• Discover how to build and format worksheets
• Produce impressive charts that are useful too
• Take advantage of Excel's Toolbar and find out how to select the right tool for the job
• Create macros with Microsoft's new Visual Basic for Applications to automate and speed-up your work
• Find out how to use AutoFilter to simplify the task of getting information out of your database
  
• Plus Greg's Lists of Top Ten Excel Tips:
• Ten Excel commandments
• Ten amazing Word 6 and Excel 5 tricks
• Ten ways to work smarter and faster, and get that promotion!

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Greg Harvey, the author of more than 30 computer books, has been training business people in the use of IBM PC, DOS, and software application programs such as WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3, Excel, and dBASE since 1983. He has written numerous training manuals, user guides, and books for business users of software, including IDG Books Worldwide's PC World WordPerfect 6 Handbook, 1-2-3- For Dummies, Windows For Dummies Quick Reference, WordPerfect For DOS For Dummies Quick Reference, DOS For Dummies Quick Reference and WordPerfect For Windows For Dummies Quick Reference. He currently teaches courses in Lotus 1-2-3 and dBASE in the Department of Information Systems at Golden Gate University in San Francisco. He says reading Excel For Dummies, 2nd Edition, is like taking one of his classes-but without the boring lectures! --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Hungry Minds Inc,U.S. (October 20, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1878058630
• ISBN-13: 978-1878058638
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,984,767 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Greg Harvey has authored tons of computer books, the most recent being Excel Timesaving Techniques For Dummies and Roxio Easy Media Creator For Dummies, and the most popular being Excel 2003 For Dummies and Excel 2003 All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies. He started out training business users on how to use IBM personal computers and their attendant computer software in the rough and tumble days of DOS, WordStar, and Lotus 1-2-3 in the mid-80s of the last century. After working for a number of independent training firms, he went on to teach semester-long courses in spreadsheet and database management software at Golden Gate University in San Francisco.
His love of teaching has translated into an equal love of writing. For Dummies books are, of course, his all-time favorites to write because they enable him to write to his favorite audience, the beginner. They also enable him to use humor (a key element to success in the training room) and, most delightful of all, to express an opinion or two about the subject matter at hand.
Greg received his doctorate degree in Humanities in Philosophy and Religion with a concentration in Asian Studies and Comparative Religion last May. Everyone is glad that Greg was finally able to get out of school before he retired.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Simple to Follow if You Read the Whole Book, June 3, 2004

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 109,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Excel for Dummies (Paperback)

I recently had to use Excel in a way that I had never done before. Sometimes the "help" feature on Excel doesn't seem to help very much, so I decided to borrow this book from the library so I could look up my questions as I did the new tasks.

What I discovered first was that the index isn't very complete. Some of the answers I needed could be found by using the index, but most of them required me to read the book from front to back. When I checked to see if the sections I needed were in the index, I found they were not.

The second problem I had was that the terms used in the text were hard to track down, so even if a section was easy to find from the index some of the information was unintelligible to me.

So I went back and read the whole book, and followed it quite easily.

I didn't like the examples too much. They were pretty juvenile.

I then compared this book to the Excel Bible which I had used recently for a similar purpose. I found the Excel Bible was much easier to use for reference, contained a lot more information, spelled out more ways to get the same tasks done and wasn't sound bound up in terminology.

If you want to get past doing only very simple tasks on Excel, you should plan to graduate to the Excel Bible. If you are confidence that you can read and understand new subjects, you can probably start with that book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good for a beginner, October 24, 2005

By 

Dana L. Greene (Western NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Excel for Dummies (Paperback)

I have some experience and picked through the book for things I did not know about. A lady that I work with is a true beginner and is learning a lot from the book. It is an older version than I planned to buy and some of the menu's are not exactly the same. All in all, great for a beginner, and not too bad for someone with a little experience.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not what I had in mind, July 20, 2008

By 

shadow (Valley of Enchantment) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Excel for Dummies (Paperback)

This book is not indexed. It is apparently meant to be taken as a course from start to finish. Otherwise, logical organization is lacking if one wishes to look up how to do a certain thing.

If you have no experience with any computer spreadsheet program, you might like the book. It gets you started. But, be aware you will need to set aside some time and proceed from cover to cover.

If you have experience with any computer spreadsheet, I advise you try another book and author.