Customer Reviews

Excel 2003 Bible

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I usually avoid books about Microsoft software because I can usually muddle through and figure out what I want to do. If in doubt, I seek out a twelve-year-old who knows the answers. But this week I had a desire to create a unique chart for a client, and decided to see if Excel would help me make the chart. I had the good fortune to run across Excel 2003 Bible at the library, and took it home to skim. Within 45 minutes I had all the answers to my questions, and found a way to create a better chart than I had originally planned to make. That was well worth my time. I'm sure that I would never have found the alternatives on my own that the book pointed me to.

Intrigued by the help I got, I went back and read the simple sections as well. I was impressed by how thorough all of the material is. You are given many different ways to accomplish the same task, along with the pros and cons of why to go one way versus another. I also appreciated the many graphics in the book to show what the screens look like.

The book is also backed up with a CD to run simulations and a web site where you can get more help.

If you think you may ever want to do advanced applications of Excel, I strongly encourage you to read this book. I particularly liked the charting and analysis sections.

As I finished this book, I realized that I usually employ Excel to get tasks done faster . . . and hadn't given much thought to how to complete them better. I suspect that much data could be made more usable and valuable for me and others if I think about how to employ all of Excel's tools in advance.

John is a great writer. I have a number of his books in my library.

Unfortunately, he's not keeping up with the product. The primary changes in Excel 2003 (xml, SharePoint integration, InfoPath, etc) are essentially missing from his Book.

Its like he took the Excel 2000 version of his Bible pretty much just changed the cover.

I returned my copy.

Purchased the Excel 2003 Bible to brush up on my spreadsheet skills. It covers everything from the basics to advanced in an easy to read format which is easy to understand. Also comes with an eBook on CD that I have used more than the paperback. Quick information at the click of the mouse. Superb.

My confidence in this guide was tarnished somewhat due to the fact that the very first spreadsheet I opened on the accompanying disc (CH 22, "real estate.xls") had an obvious formula error. However, I purchased it as a quick reference guide rather than an full-on instructional guide, so for that purpose it has done the job well. It helps solve those "I know Excel does this task, but I just cannot remember how to tell it what I want!" problems with relative ease and the index has thus far been very detailed and accurate.

Walkenbach's Web site is awesome (http://j-walk.com/ss/)...you should check it out! But I still find just about every one of his Excel books too valuable to pass up. This one is perfect...but I also love Excel 2003 Formulas. Office 2003's XML capabilities really intrigued me, and the Excel 2003 Bible didn't disappoint in helping me find out what this mean for me and my business. Walkenbach just shows how to make the most out of Excel more than any author I've been able to find.

This is supposed to be "the" bible on Excell. And it is; it has everything there's to know. BUT, if you need to get your answers fast in order to get your work done, don't buy this book. This book, as well as other "bibles" series, are design with a whole CD program with sample exercises. If you go thru them, step by step, you'll learn your stuff. But, if you just need to get into the topic of getting something done quickly, you will find that their explanation is EXACTLY AS THE HELP FUNCTION ON THE SOFTWARE. And then, the will give you an example from that CD program. Believe me, if you don't want to go thru the whole reading process and just need answers in a need basis, this book won't do it. The same applies to the Access Bible...

This is a great level 1-2 book, but if you are proficient (not necessarily an expert, but familiar with Pivot Tables, simple formulas (lookups, sumifs, etc), then this is too broad an overview for you. Like other reviews advise, all of the info is available for free on-line elsewhere. When I need to find something, I have been searching the net, because what I call something, may not be what the book calls it, but other people do. Once I find it on-line, then I backtrack into the book with the "official" term and only then can I find it.

I meant to buy a VBA and a formula book, but bought the Bible instead. What the heck I thought, I bought it, so I'll read it. I got the books to learn more about VBA programs because I have no experience. It taught me many many neat things about excel even though I've been using excel for more than 5 years and continually show my coworkers how to do their work faster and better in Excel. Now I've been showing people about named ranges and arrays. Oh about that formula book, I haven't even touched it because this was the one I really needed.
The book is written well and even the really complicated portions only took a few read throughs. I have scores of pages dogeared because of all the things that Excel can do that I never knew.

I am a medium Excel user. This book has helped me take it to the next level. The little 'tips' alone in each chapter helped me do day to day activities much quicker than before.

This book, although broad in scope, fails to cover important aspects with enough depth. It is a hefty volume, close to 900 pages, but you would expect to have a lot more information available in such massive space, but most of it is blank spaces and big titles and subtitles. In fact, most of the information available here is available in the Excel help and MS Office support website (free). So, if you are looking for a printed version of Excel's online help, go for it, but if you are trying to find in-depth information and guidance, this is not the book for you.