Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac OS X (Visual QuickStart Guide) (Paperback)

by Steve Schwartz (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
If you're like many people, you wouldn't dream of turning on your computer without also instantly (or almost instantly) launching at least one of the applications included in Microsoft Office. This task-based guide recognizes that and gets down to business fast, taking you step-by-step through all of the key features of the Microsoft Office 2004 suite for Mac OS X: Word 2004, Excel 2004, PowerPoint 2004, Entourage 2004and MSN Messenger Version 4.0. If you're a beginning user, you'll appreciate the friendly, visual approach to all of Office's word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, calendaring, and email features. And if you're an Office veteran, you'll relish the coverage of Office 2004's newest features (many of them exclusive to Macs): Compatibility Reports, which identify and correct discrepancies between different versions of Office documents (including Mac and Windows versions); Word's Notebook Layout View; Excel's Page Layout View; and much more.

About the Author

Steve Schwartz has been a computer-industry writer since 1978, in which time he has written 40 books (including co-authoring Microsoft Office v.X for Mac OS X: Visual QuickStart Guide) and published hundreds of feature articles and reviews for a variety of computer magazines.

Product Details

• Paperback: 472 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press; 5th edition (August 8, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321247477
• ISBN-13: 978-0321247476
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #386,353 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gets You Started Quickly, November 26, 2004

By	John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Aimed at the beginning and intermediate user of Microsoft Office for Macintosh, this book is part of the Visual Quickstart Guide. The philosophy of the series is to use a lot of photographs so that you can see what the screen should look like as you do various tasks during the learning process.

The organization of the book, after an introduction that you really should read or at least glance over, is modular just like the software. There's a part on Word, on Excel, on PowerPoint, and on Entourage. Each part is self standing and can be used independently of the other parts. You can read the part on the software you need without having to go do everything at once. Although to be sure you will sooner or later want to use the various applications together, and for this there is Part VI: Combining the Applications.

As a visually oriented book, there are hundreds of pictures/drawings to illustrate just about every point. It's a very fast way to get started.

71 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent quick guide to Microsoft Office, November 14, 2004

By	Gary Miller (Anchorage, AK USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This 453-page book is written for beginning and intermediate users of Microsoft Office 2004. It blends short, well-written sections on the various parts of Office 2004 with screen shots and other graphics that show you visually how to do things. This is a winning combination and makes learning about Office 2004 easy and fun. I also was pleased to find short "tips" following the various discussions that further enhanced your ability to use the feature being discussed.

Starting the book is a good summary of what's new with the four components of Office 2004, namely Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage. This is followed by separate "Parts" for each of these four applications plus an introductory section and a special ending section. The latter contains instruction on combining some of the aspects of the four applications. Within each of the major "Parts" are Chapters of major features each broken down further into short sections focusing on the various useful ways to use various features of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage.

For example, Part II is on Microsoft Word. It is broken down into 6 chapters focusing on working with word, document formatting, text formatting, adding graphics, creating tables, and other word features. Then within each of those are several subsections providing specific help on various aspects of each chapter topic. For instance, within "document formatting" you'll find specific focus on paper size and orientation, margins, headers and footers, page numbers, inserting page breaks, creating multiple sections, and multiple columns. And all are user-friendly and quite helpful!

This book is part of the "Visual Quickstart Guide" series of Peachpit Press, and the again lives up to the other fine visual guides from this company. I was also impressed by the knowledge shared in this book by the skilled author whose past works included more than 50 other books and hundreds of computer-related reviews and articles for various well-known computer magazines. He knows his subject and has the skills to guide the reader to a most satisfying understanding of Office 2004.

All and all, I would highly recommend this helpful book and I'm sure I will be referring to it many times whenever I have a question about Office 2004 - and I have confidence that I'll find the answer!

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac OS 10 Visual QuickStart Guide, August 23, 2005

By	William H. Mooney Jr (Great Barrington, MA) - See all my reviews

This books makes learning the workings of Microsoft Office 2004 super easy. The photos and instructions take the reader step-by-step through the inner workings of the program. A must for the beginner and a resource for the experienced user. Learn Word, Excel and PowerPoint, as well as Entourage and more by using this guide any way you wish.