Microsoft® Office System Inside Out -- 2003 Edition (Bpg-Inside Out) [Paperback]

Michael J. Young (Author), Michael Halvorson (Author)

Book Description

Series: Bpg-Inside Out | Publication Date: October 1, 2003

Hey, you know your way around Microsoft Office—so now dig into the 2003 edition and really put your PC to work! Covering Microsoft Access, Excel, FrontPage, Outlook, PowerPoint, Word, and new Microsoft Office InfoPath, this supremely organized reference packs hundreds of timesaving solutions, troubleshooting tips, and workarounds in concise, fast-answer format. It’s all muscle and no fluff. Discover the best and fastest ways to perform everyday tasks, and challenge yourself to new levels of Office mastery!

• Build on what you already know about Office and quickly dive into what’s new
• Maximize your document’s impact with expert formatting, graphics, and special effects
• Master your schedule and e-mail—including sending live attachments and Internet faxes
• Build better spreadsheets and databases, crunch numbers, and use powerful data-analysis tools
• Create and deliver compelling, multimedia PowerPoint presentations
• Design and construct a sophisticated Web site
• Capture and exchange data seamlessly between programs and colleagues using XML, InfoPath, and SharePoint Team Services
• Use macros and Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications to customize

Office CD features:

• Complete eBook
• Catalog of select Office resources with links to third-party tools and demos
• Microsoft add-ins, demos, and trials, including Insider’s Guide to Microsoft Office OneNote eBook
• Microsoft Computer Dictionary, Fifth Edition, eBook—10,000+ entries

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

Amazon.com Review

Microsoft Office remains the dominant productivity suite, the standard toolkit for everything from letter-writing to slide shows. However, there's a big difference between being able to use the Office programs and being efficient with them. Microsoft Office System 2003 Edition largely succeeds in explaining the critical intricacies of Office 2003--those that make the difference between competence and mastery.

No one's going to read a book like this cover-to-cover, and few readers will tackle a chapter end-to-end either. That's why the index in this book is central to its usefulness. It's a carefully thought-out index, with headings that distinguish among topics as they apply to different Office programs (in other words, references to coverage of Excel columns are obviously distinct from those to Word columns and Access columns in the index). There's also a separate and reasonably handy troubleshooting index, in which you can quickly scan for problems like "Protection for worksheet or workbook unavailable" and get a page reference for a possible solution.

When you locate the page you want, coverage is clear and concise. The authors assume you're familiar with basic Microsoft Windows conventions, but take care to use stepped procedures wherever possible and provide many labeled screen shots as landmarks for your progress through the procedures. --David Wall

Topics covered: This is a carefully designed and exhaustively researched guide to every user-level function of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access, FrontPage, and InfoPath. There's not a lot of coverage of Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)--Office's automation language--but there's enough of that to get you oriented.

About the Author

Michael Halvorson has written more than 30 books, including the popular Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 Step by Step, Microsoft Office XP Inside Out, and Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Professional Step by Step. A former Visual Basic localization manager at Microsoft, Michael is a professor at Pacific Lutheran University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 1570 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press (October 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735615128
• ISBN-13: 978-0735615120
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 2.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,005,352 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This is more of a "getting started" book, April 3, 2005

By 

Real Person (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Microsoft® Office System Inside Out -- 2003 Edition (Bpg-Inside Out) (Paperback)

Microsoft Press publishes a bunch of books on the latest version of the Office suite (Office 2003). This book "Office 2003 Inside Out" covers all the major applications in the suite and serves as a starting point for someone who's new to Office or just wants to know the most useful features without being burdened with the advanced details. Each Office program is covered for its most oft-used features. When you are ready for the advanced features, you'll need to get the separate "Inside Out" books for each program: Outlook 2003 Inside Out, Word 2003 Inside Out, Excel 2003 Inside Out, etc. These latter volumes (which I'll review separately as I read through each of them) are truly the advanced user's most valuable weapons in conquering the monster known as Office.

In summary, if you want to get your feet wet in using Office, nothing beats this book. It's precise, accurate, well-written, and well-edited, like pretty much all "Inside Out" books. I highly recommend it to those new to Office, or those who have been using Office without reading any written manuals. This is a thick volume (1000+ pages), but don't let that intimidate you. It's very easy to read through.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Microsoft Office 2003 INSIDE OUT, December 6, 2007

By 

Barbara Meltsner - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Microsoft® Office System Inside Out -- 2003 Edition (Bpg-Inside Out) (Paperback)

Huge book, difficult to handle. Takes a lot of patience going back and forth from chapter and sections.Will continue to try to master a very complicated but necessary software.

55 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Okay, But Not the Greatest, February 19, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Microsoft® Office System Inside Out -- 2003 Edition (Bpg-Inside Out) (Paperback)

This book is okay for what it is -- it tells you which keys to press and which commands to choose to perform different tasks in the Office 2003 programs.

However, because this book is published by Microsoft, you don't get an objective, third-party perspective on the different software programs. The authors are never critical of the software itself. They don't steer you to competitors of Microsoft when going to a competitor might be the better choice. The authors don't describe unorthodox work-arounds -- the kind of things that save you time but aren't in official instruction book. I get the feeling this book promotes Microsoft Office 2003 as much as it describes how to use the software.

Finally, a little humor would be appreciated by this reader. This book is pretty dry.