Customer Reviews

Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac in a Snap

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

 

 

The In a Snap books do not presume that you are a Dummy or an Idiot. They presume that you are a smart person, not afraid of computers, but that you need to learn how to use something new, like a piece of software on your computer. Further they assume that you want to get started without having to pour through all the 1500 pages or so in the guru level book. This book takes the Office 2004 software package for the Mac computer and gives it the In a Snap approach.

In evaluating books on Office, I always look first to see if they discuss Pivot Tables in the section on Excel. A surprising number of books don't, or give them very short treatment. In this book the index sends you to page 263, that puts you right in the middle of a discussion on pivot tables. Flipping back a page or three gets you to a section called Find Relationships Between Data. What an excellent idea, that's what a pivot table really is, but doesn't have the problem of the dumb name Pivot Table. The discussion is as good as I've seen anywhere in explaining what you can use them for.

The next thing I found was inside the front cover where they have a "Contents at a Glance." This sends you to, not the page number - that's the function of the index, but to a section identified by its own numbering system. Really a handy way to get where you want to jump in to solve the problem you're having at the moment.

Even though on-line help (prevalent in most computer applications today) has its advantages, it is good to know that there is help in a book format that is much more detailed, well-organized, and better illustrated. It is rare that I encounter a problem with Microsoft Word that is not addressed in Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac.

I found this book very helpful, easy to follow and not compicated in their directions. I would highly recommend this book for the novice or those that have extended experience with the Mac or Office and the price is a bargain.

I fell for the "SNAP" but found the book too advanced since I have not learned the basics of word processing yet.
The "look inside" feature was not available for this book. MEC

The guide is informative, and gives you examples of most items a person will work on. The only drawback I saw was with all the information provided, there was no CD containing built in data sets to work with through the examples. IF you didn't already have your own separate data to work with following the samples methods provided, you would have to build your own data to work through the samples.

Not as good as good as Microsoft Office's Step by Step guide with CD containing data sets to work with.

This book is a great place to start. Very easy reading! Took me only about 90 minutes to read the entire book!