Customer Reviews

Impromptu Startup!

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

 

 

This is very much a beginners book of the point and click variety. Its pages are filled with screen shots and tedious step by step instructions in the minutest detail. Now some people may like this style and I'm probably not in the target audience for this book, but for [the price] I expect something a little more comprehensive. When looking up some features I found unhelpful comments like "This is an advanced topic ... contact Cognos for an advanced training class." Sub-reports and frame layout reports have only very limited coverage.

This is fine if you want to create basic list reports, mess around with a few columns or layout features, but its of little use to a serious report developer.

This book is exactly what the title implies - startup. It is a great starting guide for the beginner that has never seen or played with the software before. Unfortunately I was disappointed due to the fact that I wanted something more advanced. I saw the page count and assumed that this was it. If anyone writes a more advanced book with details about catalog creation and join definitions let me know!!!

This book is possibly useful for the total novice of reporting. Spending a lot of pages explaining how to install the application and making the most basic reports makes it unnecessarily long. A lot if screenshots makes the book even longer so you can wonder if the author was payed by the page. The price seems hard to justify.

This is the ONLY book on Cognos' Impromptu I have been able to find. Cognos has online documentation that has similar information. This book is not for Administrators. Impromptu admins can get adequate how-to-use information from Impromptu's documentation CD. I know of no source of best practices information, particularly things like how to organize a catalog, naming standards, etc. except to take Cognos' classes.

Overall, better than nothing, and the only thing available in a real book.

What a great book for users of Impromptu! It is perfect for the regular user and you don't have to be a computer geek to understand it. The author's technical strength combined with his understanding of the Impromptu student make him an excellent teacher. Every business user of Impromput should have this book!