Microsoft® Office Excel® 2003 Step by Step (Step By Step (Microsoft)) [Paperback]

Curtis Frye (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0735615187 | ISBN-13: 978-0735615182 | Publication Date: September 24, 2003

This practical, hands-on tutorial expertly builds your skills with Microsoft Office Excel 2003—one step at a time! With STEP BY STEP, you work at your own pace through easy-to-follow lessons and practice exercises to learn exactly the tools and techniques you need. Master the tools for organizing, processing and presenting data; make data come alive with Microsoft PivotTable® and PivotChart® dynamic views; use data analysis tools for better decision making; tap external data sources; add hyperlinks; create macros; and help keep data secure as you share—and collaborate on—Excel documents over the Web. The book also helps you prepare for the Microsoft Office Specialist exam and makes a great on-the-job desk reference. The companion CD includes practice files you can use as you learn, as well as the Microsoft Office System Reference pack, which contains templates and clip art, an eBook of Step by Step, and four other eBooks: the Microsoft Office System Quick Reference; the Insider’s Guide to Microsoft Office OneNote 2003; the Microsoft Computer Dictionary, Fifth Edition; and Introducing the Tablet PC. Designed for beginning and intermediate level users, STEP BY STEP puts you in charge of developing the skills you need, exactly when you need them!

A Note Regarding the CD or DVD

The print version of this book ships with a CD or DVD. For those customers purchasing one of the digital formats in which this book is available, we are pleased to offer the CD/DVD content as a free download via O'Reilly Media's Digital Distribution services. To download this content, please visit O'Reilly's web site, search for the title of this book to find its catalog page, and click on the link below the cover image (Examples, Companion Content, or Practice Files). Note that while we provide as much of the media content as we are able via free download, we are sometimes limited by licensing restrictions. Please direct any questions or concerns to [e-mail].

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Curtis Frye is the author of numerous books on Excel and other Office products, most recently Microsoft Excel 2010 Step by Step. He graduated from Syracuse in 1990 with a degree in political science, and then moved to Washington, DC, where he worked as a defense trade analyst for four years and as the director of sales and marketing for an ISP for one year. He moved to Portland, Oregon, in 1995 to launch his freelance writing career. When Curt's not writing, and often while he is writing, he is a keynote speaker, mentalist, and professional improvisational comedian.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press (September 24, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735615187
• ISBN-13: 978-0735615182
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #110,118 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Curtis Frye is the author of numerous books on Excel, Access, and privacy-enhancing technologies. Microsoft Excel 2010 Step By Step is consistently among the best-selling Excel books. Before beginning his writing career in 1995, Curt spent four years with The MITRE Corporation as a defense trade analyst and one year as Director of Sales and Marketing for Digital Gateway Systems, an Internet Service Provider. When not writing, Curt is a popular conference speaker, corporate entertainer, and professional improvisational comedian with ComedySportz Portland.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

78 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Some of the pluses and minuses, mostly minuses, October 23, 2006

By 

The Dude (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Microsoft® Office Excel® 2003 Step by Step (Step By Step (Microsoft)) (Paperback)

I have a training company and we teach a lot of Excel classes. We have been using another book from Thomson Learning, but the book is not cost-effective at $55 each, the publisher is difficult to deal with, and shipping is expensive. I decided to go with Excel 2003 Step by Step.

The other reviewers have a point; there are some sloppy errors that are sprinkled throughout this book that will frustrate those who are learning Excel. For example, on page 48 the reader is told to create a simple Sum function but the author forgets the parentheses. This will result in an error and the novice will have no idea why, after carefully following the instructions, he or she is getting an error and what can be done to correct it. Furthermore, the author doesn't bother explaining the syntax of a function so that learners have a conceptual understanding of functions. Amazingly, the AutoSum button and the summary functions in the drop down menu are not even mentioned! (Or did I miss it?).

Some reviewers suggested that this book was not for beginners. I disagree. This is a beginning/intermediate Excel book, but the explanations are shallow and the errors in the exercises sabotage the beginner. Those who know Excel can easily identify the errors.

I agree with the reviewer who said that the book needs an errata page on a web site. But that will probably not happen. The reviews on the 2002 version are all very good, but a few reviewers mentioned errors in that version and one reviewer went as far as documenting the errors and sending them to Microsoft. The result? Version 2003 is riddled with errors and the reviews for this version is worse. No one is listening, unfortunately.

This book does have some good examples and exercises in it. The explanations are clear but, again, shallow, which will leave some readers confused. For example, the author teaches the Subtotal function to subtotal filtered data. He just tells readers what to type in the cell. He doesn't explain how the first argument of the function specifies which summary function of the 11 will be used for the subtotal. Then he tells the reader to change the 9 (which sums the subtotal) to a 1 (which averages the subtotal). If the author uses the subtotal function, he should fully explain it and maybe include a simple table to list each function number with the corresponding summary function that is used in the first argument of the Subtotal function. This is just one example of the shallowness of the book.

I will still use this book in my classes for now because it is structured for classroom learning. I usually write my own exercises based on the files of the book and I create handouts with important information about functions. I can explain everything that the book doesn't. But if you are learning Excel on your own, you may want to check out the O'Reilly book that another reviewer mentions: Excel 2003 Personal Trainer. I thumbed through it last night at a bookstore and the outline looked very good. Also, I believe O'Reilly (the publisher, not the idiot on Fox news) reviews its books for errors before they are published. They also have an errata page on their web site for the errors that get by the reviewers.

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Too many mistakes, May 9, 2005

By 

A. Dudley (Aichi Japan) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Microsoft® Office Excel® 2003 Step by Step (Step By Step (Microsoft)) (Paperback)

I bought this to teach a class and there are so many mistakes that the students cannot do it on their own. We first need to do it together. Only after they know the problems, can they begin practicing on their own. BEWARE.
For example they ask you to replace X with Y but in fact it should be Y with X. Graphs are not where they should be. It is confusing for students.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not for Beginners! Many errors., July 26, 2006

By 

Creative Wiz - See all my reviews

This review is from: Microsoft® Office Excel® 2003 Step by Step (Step By Step (Microsoft)) (Paperback)

The book is definitely not for teaching beginners, it is to prepare for the MOS cetification. However, many exercises have some sort of mistakes, either instructional or numeric type mistakes so that the exercises CANNOT be assigned as home work, but have to be done with the students in class and the "BUGS" worked out before they can do them on their own. It is a real shame to release a study book without proof reading it first and correcting the mistakes. An individual who is studying for the MOS Excel certification can get some good information from the book, but a student will be very confused if not very frustrated using it. Even as an instructor I get frustrated over the numerous errors. I have one suggestion: I'll correct the errors if the author/publisher pays me for doing the work.