Customer Reviews

Microsoft® Excel Version 2002 Inside Out (Inside Out (Microsoft))

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

 

 

Contrary to the other two reviews that existed when I wrote this, I found this book to be just what I needed. I have years of experience with every version of Excel, but only at a modest level. Because I do my work in SQL Server, I never needed any of the more obscure (to me) Excel features, until now. This book answered several of the how-to questions I had with its examples.

I have to agree with the reviewer who wanted more depth. While this book has met my immediate needs, it is clear that it is going to leave me wanting more, very soon. I will certainly have to buy a more advanced book, but I would not have been happy with a very advanced book before I used this one.

My advice is to take a look at the sample pages on Amazon and only buy the book if it addresses your specific issues.

The book is a rehash of the authors' 1999 publication "Running Microsoft Excel 2000." Both books have the same problem, i.e. a lack of comprehensive examples. Of the two, this book is only slightly better. Some of the examples appear to be extracted from the Help file rather than providing additional needed information.

Also, for someone learning or attempting to advance in Excel, neither of these books follow the [helpful] format of the rudimentary "Step by Step Microsoft" books that include, in the margins, pictures of the buttons. These give the relative novice potentially quick aid in navigating the system.

As an Excel programmer, I needed a "base-text" for setting up VBA. I gave it a 5 star because it has the main material I need to setup the next step to make Excel do the max. This is an intro Excel text that covers many areas essential to my work. I noticed the rather weak reviews of this text an I am surprised. I wonder if they really read the book! For VBA work, I use MS Excel 2002 Power Programming with VBA by John Walkenbach. The combination of these two books makes working in Excel very easy.

This book is not a bad introduction to Excel, but for me, it falls short of it's title. If you need explanations on such basic operations as "Altering Cell Contents" -or - "Formatting a Cell", then this book is no a bad choice. It's well organized and the writing is clear. It just doesn't contain the kind of depth I expected. I would think that a book with an ambitious title like " Excel from the inside out" would at least contain some information on advanced subjects like creating addins but it doesn't. The CD that comes stuck in the back provides nothing of additional value. I think the authors just compiled some useless odds and ends they had laying around in order to have a CD to include - possibly hoping it would improve sales.
If you are not at all familiar with Excel then you could do worse than this book but if you are looking to extend your knowledge beyond an introductory users manual then this is not the book you want. In fact this is the kind of book that Microsoft should be providing to you free - as part of your purchase of the software. Come to think of it, if you are new to spreadsheets and haven't made a purchase yet, do the industry a favor and buy Lotus 123, or QuatroPro and skip this book and Microsoft both.

I have read multiple books for the Microsoft Office products, and the "Inside Out" books are clearly the best.

I purchased this book to help the members of my team brush up on their Excel knowledge, so they did not need to ask me how to do certain things. This book provides much greater depth than most Excel books. It is a great book for the frequent Excel user who is interested in learning additional functions to improve work quality and efficiency. However, this book is probably too advanced for the casual user or someone who spends more time reviewing spreadsheets than creating them.

Although they have not read as much of this book as I would have like, the portions my associates have read has improved their Excel skills significantly. Oftentimes, if they ask me a question now, I will send them to the book first, and then assist them with any additional questions.