Woody Leonhard knows Office well enough to cut through the Microsoft marketing hype. He knows that real Office users don't need to use Office binders, an arcane new feature that no one needs. Woody approaches Office from the standpoint of how to get work done. You'll find coverage of topics in Woody Leonhard Teaches Microsoft Office 2000 that Microsoft doesn't really want readers to know about. Learn how to best organize your documents in the My Documents folder to find them easier the next time, how to protect yourself from the more than 2000 macro viruses that can infect Office documents, and how to choose the right application and document type for your new documents.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Woody Leonhard knows an awful lot about using Microsoft Office. He's been writing about the popular suite through several of its releases and publishes a highly regarded newsletter in which he disseminates hints and tips for its users. In Woody Leonhard Teaches Microsoft Office 2000, the expert holds forth on how to get your work done with Microsoft's flagship productivity package.
Leonhard covers the major Office 2000 members--Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint--but neglects Access, FrontPage, and the other programs that ship with the higher-end variants of Office. In his coverage of the four biggies, he explains how to get things done with the essential pieces of the programs before taking on more obscure features. Leonhard's advice is rock-solid and to the point. If the author thinks something about Office is poorly designed or hard to use, he'll let you--and Microsoft--know, and then he'll show you the best way to get around the sticking point. --David Wall
From the Back Cover
Woody Leonhard knows Office well enough to cut through the Microsoft marketing hype. He knows that real Office users don't need to use Office binders, an arcane new feature that no one needs. Woody approaches Office from the standpoint of how to get work done. You'll find coverage of topics in Woody Leonhard Teaches Microsoft Office 2000 that Microsoft doesn't really want readers to know about. Learn how to best organize your documents in the My Documents folder to find them easier the next time, how to protect yourself from the more than 2000 macro viruses that can infect Office documents, and how to choose the right application and document type for your new documents.
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More About the Author
I've written a whole lotta computer books over the years, starting with "Windows Programming for Mere Mortals" in 1991, going through the "Hacker's Guide to Word for Windows" (with Vince Chen and Scott Krueger), the "Mother of All Windows Books" and "Mother of All PC Books" series (all with Barry Simon), then the "Underground Guides" to Word, Office, Telecommuting, and many more, "Word Annoyances", the "Woody Teaches Office" series, and the "Special Edition Using Office" series (with Ed Bott). I'm probably best-known for my "Dummies" books, which tell the straight story (whether Microsoft likes it or not!) in a way that won't put you to sleep.
My books have been translated into dozens of languages, and are widely available at bookstores, computer shops and warehouse chains all over the world. I've edited several series of books for various publishers. I've also written hundreds of magazine articles, most recently for PC World and the late, lamented PC/Computing magazine. I used to publish a handful of electronic newsletters, and print newsletters before that, but now confine myself to dispensing news, advice, and a wee bit o' insight, at www.AskWoody.com and my column in the Windows Secrets newsletter, www.WindowsSecrets.com.
I started in the computer book biz in a very odd way. I wrote a novel. An action-adventure novel, no less, set in Saudi Arabia. I never found a publisher, although I keep threatening to dust the novel off and submit it again. But along the way, I came to know - and love and hate - a brand new word processor known as Word for Windows. I wrote a lengthy electronic book about all of WinWord 1.10's bugs, which were legion, and how to work around a whole bunch of 'em. Posted it on CompuServe. Andrew Schulman (who wrote "Undocumented DOS" and "Undocumented Windows" among many others) stumbled into my "Hacker's Guide to the Univers", and he asked me to write a book for him. It all went downhill from there.
My writing has won an unprecedented eight Computer Press Association awards and two American Business Press awards - more than any other computer book author, I think. I was one of the first Microsoft Consulting Partners, and a charter member of the Microsoft Solutions Provider organization.
I still think of computers as a "means", not an "end". I wonder when people lost sight of the fact that PCs were invented to make life easier, to get your work done and get home early. I firmly believe that PCs make passable slaves but horrible masters.
I'm impressed with much of what Microsoft is doing to Windows, although the continuing security screw-ups really leave me shaking my head. I'm much less impressed with what's happening to Offfice. In my opinion, Microsoft is using its monopoly on the desktop to sell more server software, making Office updates less and less compelling for the individual or small business user. Like me. And I'm appalled that Microsoft is now selling a "service" that protects us from the flaws in their own product.
Yes, indeed, the gods must be crazy.
I went to grad school in Boulder, Colorado (M.S. and A.B.D. in CS/Software Engineering), worked in Saudi Arabia for five years, then spent 15 years on top of a mountain in the Rockies. I moved to Phu ket in 2000, with my teenage son, Cocker spaniel and beagle. I live in the hills above Patong now, with my long-time girlfriend, Add. If you ever get to Phu ket, drop me a line! It's an incredibly beautiful place to visit. Or to live, for that matter.
My books have been translated into dozens of languages, and are widely available at bookstores, computer shops and warehouse chains all over the world. I've edited several series of books for various publishers. I've also written hundreds of magazine articles, most recently for PC World and the late, lamented PC/Computing magazine. I used to publish a handful of electronic newsletters, and print newsletters before that, but now confine myself to dispensing news, advice, and a wee bit o' insight, at www.AskWoody.com and my column in the Windows Secrets newsletter, www.WindowsSecrets.com.
I started in the computer book biz in a very odd way. I wrote a novel. An action-adventure novel, no less, set in Saudi Arabia. I never found a publisher, although I keep threatening to dust the novel off and submit it again. But along the way, I came to know - and love and hate - a brand new word processor known as Word for Windows. I wrote a lengthy electronic book about all of WinWord 1.10's bugs, which were legion, and how to work around a whole bunch of 'em. Posted it on CompuServe. Andrew Schulman (who wrote "Undocumented DOS" and "Undocumented Windows" among many others) stumbled into my "Hacker's Guide to the Univers", and he asked me to write a book for him. It all went downhill from there.
My writing has won an unprecedented eight Computer Press Association awards and two American Business Press awards - more than any other computer book author, I think. I was one of the first Microsoft Consulting Partners, and a charter member of the Microsoft Solutions Provider organization.
I still think of computers as a "means", not an "end". I wonder when people lost sight of the fact that PCs were invented to make life easier, to get your work done and get home early. I firmly believe that PCs make passable slaves but horrible masters.
I'm impressed with much of what Microsoft is doing to Windows, although the continuing security screw-ups really leave me shaking my head. I'm much less impressed with what's happening to Offfice. In my opinion, Microsoft is using its monopoly on the desktop to sell more server software, making Office updates less and less compelling for the individual or small business user. Like me. And I'm appalled that Microsoft is now selling a "service" that protects us from the flaws in their own product.
Yes, indeed, the gods must be crazy.
I went to grad school in Boulder, Colorado (M.S. and A.B.D. in CS/Software Engineering), worked in Saudi Arabia for five years, then spent 15 years on top of a mountain in the Rockies. I moved to Phu ket in 2000, with my teenage son, Cocker spaniel and beagle. I live in the hills above Patong now, with my long-time girlfriend, Add. If you ever get to Phu ket, drop me a line! It's an incredibly beautiful place to visit. Or to live, for that matter.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a book you can actually read,
By RiverBoy (Ann Arbor, Michigan) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Woody Leonhard Teaches Microsoft Office 2000 (Best Advice from the Best Authors) (Paperback)
Microsoft Office is clearly a passion for Woody Leonhard. He loves the suite for what it can do, but minces no words when it comes to taking Microsoft to task for what he considers [poor or useless] design decisions. He writes in a first person style that is refreshing, and dosn't talk down to the reader.Most importantly, he starts with the premise that readers (and users of the program) are smart. He has little patience for design or settings that he sees as "dumbing down" the program for the masses. He makes specific and for the most part intelligent suggestions for changing the program interface and defaults to make it useful. In particular he recommends toolbar changes that mirror what actual users need as opposed to "gee wiz features" Leonhard is highly opinionated in his choices, but he is not autocratic. He explains the reasoning behind a suggestion so a reader can say, "That's good" or "I think that won't work for me". This book is probably *not* for the user who routinely buy "______ for dummies" I think the strongest feature of the book for me is the unevenness of his topic coverage compared to the many other books on the market. It is not easy to categorize it as a beginner's book or an advanced book because the depth of coverage on any particular topic varies tremendously. If Woody Leonhard thinks a feature is extremely useful, or something that will be used repeatedly, his treatment may be exhaustive-going beyond even the typical coverage in an advanced book. He may thus skim features he considers of marginal utility. He is also excellent in explaining important features that are made unnecessarily difficult by poor design decisions by Microsoft. Woody has little patience with cute feature names chosen by Microsoft--like "my computer" or my documents"--and he is free with his displeasure. Having worked with many of Mr. Leonhard's books, I recognize that his choices about what to lambaste are not always correct. While he is pretty good about seeing the diamond in the lump of coal, sometimes his annoyance can make him slow to see a useful paradigm shift buried in seemingly unuseful changes. Paradoxically, he sometimes he jumps on something new and is overtaken by his gee-wiz enthusiasm and don't see real problems with the concept or implementation. If you have no patience to ready any book or manual, and you just want a encyclopedia stlyle reference this may not be the best book for you. This book is perfect if you are already familiar with your computer and you need to quickly come up to speed on Microsoft Office 2000. I was already pretty expert with Word but used Excel like it was Lotus 1-2-3 with a different interface. I went through the Excel portion of Woody Leonhard Teaches Microsoft Office 2000 and it turned me into an Excel enthusiast and an almost expert user. Specifically, he introduced the auditing toolbar right off the bat as a beginner's feature. Other books treat this as a very advanced feature. But Mr. Leonhard was absolutely correct. I now can trust my spreadsheets and especially know very quickly what I have done wrong when they don't work. This one insight that no one else provided was, for me, worth the price of the book. If you are going to only buy one book on Office 2000, you may want to spend some time in the book store reading through a few topics to get a feel for Leonhard's style--nd decide whether it is compatible with yours. I imagine that some could consider his lack of bland objectivity to be an impediment. Others may find his idiosyncratic writing style tiresome and sophomoric. It's also true that unless you are a total computer novice, "you can't go wrong" with Woody Leonhard's book. It gets the teaching job done. I don't always buy one of Woody Leonhard's books as my first book on a subject, but if I have two on that subject, inevitably one will be his.
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Woody Leonhard is a MUST for beginner to intermediate users,
This review is from: Woody Leonhard Teaches Microsoft Office 2000 (Best Advice from the Best Authors) (Paperback)
This book is probably the best, most comprehensive teaching aid to a software program that I have ever read. This book has made transferring from WordPerfect suite to Office 2000 as easy as it can get.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty good, but not advanced,
This review is from: Woody Leonhard Teaches Microsoft Office 2000 (Best Advice from the Best Authors) (Paperback)
This book is excellent for the beginner, who will get many good advices, and there are also tips for the intermediate-level user. However, for higher-level things, this book would not answer your questions.My biggest deception was that it doesn't cover (at all!) Word macros. For every topic you would like to know deeper (like macros), the author ask you to read another book: Special Edition Using MO 2000. I care if I should have bought that one instead. The feature I liked the most is the introduction of Office's bugs or "weak points" (to give it a name), that is, for example, settings that are just supposed to be but you need to do indeed. Just starting with Office? You'd love this book. Looking for solutions to big troubles (being not a beginner)? Continue searching, please.
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