Customer Reviews

Microsoft® Excel Version 2002 Step by Step (Step by Step (Microsoft))

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is excellent in many ways but it is also filled with too many errors.
I actually documented the errors and sent a letter to MSPress to notify them. These mistakes are no big deal but if you are truly new to computers or if you just follow along and do not really pay attention as you perform these exercises...you will get the wrong results at times. Most errors do not affect the outcome but in some cases they do. Such as.....page 99, step #14...just skip it. Go from step #13 to #15. If you perform step #14 you will not get the intended results.

I also did not like the authors approach to explain what to click on. He does it in a backwards way like this - To cascade multiple workbooks select Arrange then choose Cascade then click OK under the Window menu option. He should say it like this - To Cascade multiple workbooks click on Window, then Arrange, then choose Cascade and click OK. Typed liked that it is easier to follow but most of the time he doesn't. This gets to be a royal pain!
Overall the book is great if you need to learn Excel 2002 fast and do not want tons of extra info and in depth details about the functions you are learning. He spends a whopping 13 pages on Macros and a measely 10 pages on working with database data. I did not expect heavy coverage and neither should you. Those subjects are worthy of their own books.
I train and teach Office products to clients and I would recommend this book. The practice files are excellent and makemit possible to work with real examples so you actually get to do Real Time exercises and not just read instructions.

Let me add one more thing - The author of Outlook 2002 Step By Step was a better writer and made it easier to follow along and understand. If you need to learn Outlook fast I highly recommend it!!!!!

The 2002 version is much more user-friendly with its color pages and helpful organization than the bigger and less-organized 2000 offering. An added bonus for those looking to take the Microsoft Office Specialist Exam is the fact that this edition lists which core and expert objectives are covered when covering a lesson. Also, the interactive practice files make it extremely easy to follow and learn - for anyone.

This book, in conjunction with the one by Barbara Clemens, helped me to not only garner Excel 2002 proficiency, but to become an Excel 2002 Expert. Now that I'm an Expert, I can tell you this book might be too easy for me - but maybe not for you. And that's the real deal.

I read a lot of computer books, and normally they are about as exciting as watching paint dry. I can't claim this book is exciting, but it does everything it possibly can to ease the pain.

The author is obviously a professional writer, not a computer guy who knows stuff and is writing a book about it. The structure of the book is impeccable and extremely consistent. Each section has a description and then extremely well written walk throughs. This allows people with different learning styles to access the book differently. I'm a very experiential learner, so I might do the walk through first and then read about what I did, others may like to do it differently.

I have really enjoyed learning and growing in excel. At the time of reading this book I was progressively working on a real world spreadsheet. At the end of many chapters I would think "hey, what a cool feature, I could use it to improve my spreadsheet". As I spend a lot of time in this spreadsheet, this book has saved me lots of time by allowing me to streamline my work.

Curtis, write more books please - the computer world needs authors like you!

I found the lessons easy to follow... a bit too easy sometimes. That was to be expected in this type of book. I have a lot of experience with Excel and I only bought the book so that I could prepare for the Excel Expert exam. So, most of the information was known to me, but there were several sections of new information. It filled in my knowledge gaps and I passed the exam. The book did its job.

This book is heavily emphasized for business users. Almost all the examples and the features discussed in the book are business related. That's not to say that this is a bad book! It is a good book, but if you are looking for book for engineers, you might want to look elsewhere.

Although I've used Excel for at least 10 years, I've felt that I could get more out of it, hence the reason that I bought this book. I do like that it comes with a CD with practice files, which gets rid of the tedium of entering reams of data just so you can manipulate them.

Even with all my years with Excel, the first chapter was a complete mystery to me. It consisted of opening files, making minor changes, then immediately closing them again. The next couple of chapters were much better, especially the ones on filtering data, changing the look of a workbook, and summarizing data. The chapter on Pivot tables was another mystery; though I could see what they are, I couldn't fathom exactly why I would use them.

I was especially hoping that the chapter on creating charts would be full of info and helpful tips. However, I feel that this one glossed over a lot of detail, and completely missed how to make a chart easier to comprehend. I've learned more previously about chart making by just using the 'Help' feature that comes with Excel.

Still, I'm glad I got the book; I now know more about Excel than I did before.

I purchased this book to get to know Excel 2002 in depth, but my company upgraded to Office 2007 so I had to start all over again!! 8-(

I purchased this specific Textbook for my existing Excel 2002 Software Program. It provided me with a large volume of additional information to better utilize this program. The Textbook was purchased used for a great deal less than a new one. Both the Textbook and the attached training CD were in perfect shape. I would recommend this book to anyone. Check this one out, it is a great deal!

After researching many different books, I picked the Step by Step Excel for my class. This is an extremely easy book to follow either as a class or on your own. It comes with a disk of practice exersices. The author has made it very easy to learn new consepts. This is the first time I have taught an Excel class and this book has made my adult students feel comfortable and confident in learning something new since most have not been in a classroom in many years. I will continue to use this book as a learning guide and would also recommend the Word Step by Step book. This would definately help anyone learning Excel as well as a review for someone who already uses Excel.

I bought this book hoping it would have a better discussion and help with writing formulas in Excel. It let me down.