Office 2001 for Macintosh: The Missing Manual [Paperback]

Nan Barber (Author), David Reynolds (Author)

Book Description

Series: Missing Manual | Publication Date: May 10, 2001

To the surprise of most Mac fans, the number one bestselling Macintosh software is Microsoft Office for the Macintosh. It's by far the most popular Macintosh software, and the first software purchase a new Mac user is likely to make. And for the first time, Office 2001 comes without a single page of printed instructions. The packaging is a five- inch-square clear plastic case housing the CD-ROM and little else. Fortunately, Pogue Press/O'Reilly is once again ready to embrace the befuddled and overwhelmed--with Office 2001 for Macintosh: The Missing Manual. It tackles each of the primary Office applications with depth, humor, and clarity, and provides relief for the hapless Mac user who'd rather read professionally written printed instructions than hunt through a maze of personality-free help screens.

The book is structured to help the beginner as well as the seasoned user. Part One provides an overview of Word. From "What's New," to "Basic Word Processing," to "Document Design," to "Advanced Word Processing"--with in-depth details on creating Web pages and performing mail merges using Word. Part Two covers the new Palm-syncable calendar in Entourage, including all aspects of email, how to best use the calendar and address book, and crucial information on the Palm Hotsync. Part three explains all the finer points of Excel, including Microsoft's exciting new "List Manager," specifically designed for creating and manipulating lists without the prerequisite of learning spreadsheet tools.

Office 2001 for Macintosh: The Missing Manual is coauthored by a dream team of Missing Manual alumni: David Reynolds, executive editor of MacAddict magazine and coauthor of AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual, and Nan Barber, whose efforts as the copy editor of the first four Missing Manual titles gave her an intuitive feeling for the friendly, funny, authoritative voice of the series. Once again, the authors are joined by series founder David Pogue, who has closely edited the book to ensure excellence of depth, accuracy, and prose.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'...It's billed as the book that should have been in the box. Quite how this could be physically accomplished we don't know, but It's impossible to disagree with the sentiment. The book does full justice to the four powerful applications that make up Office 2001 and would be perfect for all types of users. Barber and Reynolds have produced an incredibly well-written and well-structured tome. Both basic and advanced functions are dealt with admirably. It's one thing knowing how to do something, but another to learn exactly why It's good to use particular features, and surprisingly, this is done in a manner that does not irritate or patronise the reader ... no mean feat. Layout is excellent and pleasing to the eye. Over 400 screen shots are included, which really help understanding and rarely seem superfluous, as do the decent number of tips and box-outs provided. The writers appear genuinely to understand how people will wish to use Office 2001 and include sections that others may not have thought necessary ... for example, how to use a PDA with Entourage or import FileMaker data. All in all, an immensely useful and enjoyable read.' Verdict 5 stars. MacFormat, August 2001 - Editor's Choice 'One for the reference shelf.' Freelance Informer, July 27th 2001

About the Author

Nan Barber is the coauthor of Office 2001: The Missing Manual as well as the Missing Manual series copy editor, having edited the Missing Manual titles on Mac OS 9, AppleWorks 6, iMovie, Windows Millennium, Dreamweaver 4, and Mac OS X. She works as a freelance writer and editor from her home near Boston, and is managing editor for Salamander, a magazine for poetry, fiction, and memoirs. She's also a contributing editor for www.thespook.com.

David Reynolds is the executive editor of MacAddict magazine.

Product Details

• Paperback: 620 pages
• Publisher: Pogue Press; 1st edition (May 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596000812
• ISBN-13: 978-0596000813
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,203,832 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superlative, May 28, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Office 2001 for Macintosh: The Missing Manual (Paperback)

Like the Missing Manual for Mac OS 9, this book delivers on the info you need, with inside tips and tricks that are sorely lacking from other books on the same subject. I bought a couple of the competing books and the Missing Manual just blew them away. Most of the other books give an overview of the program without a lot of real detail and insider tips. I can't give it a high enough recommendation.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blown Away, February 13, 2002

By 

James Miller (Parksville, British Columbia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Office 2001 for Macintosh: The Missing Manual (Paperback)

I have been a Wordperfect user forever, I had it on the Atari platform and then I got the Mac version when I switched to Macintosh computers. I was pretty disappointed when Wordperfect dead-ended. I have been using 3.5e for the last little while, but the world has taken to Word and I, until now, refused to go along.
One major sticking point on changing from Wordperfect to Word was that Word could not jump from start of file to end without me having to use two hands. I had learned to hit either the "home" or "end" keys and Word bugged the hell out of me because I had to use the command key as well. A minor annoyance to most, but to me this was big!
I bought Office 2001 for Dummies and got no help. The best I got was to use icons for start and end. A bit of an improvement, but still not what my fingers and brain had become instinctively used to.
I have had the Missing Manual for Office 2001 for a day and I was able to assign the keyboard to do it my way: The Old WordPerfect Way!
Thank you all of you. This book paid for itself with that one tip.

I have been browsing the Missing Manual, and it is overwhelming - in a satisfying way. It has so much more than the average computer manual. Best of all, it explains it in sufficient detail that I can actually do what the authors are writing about without the usual frustration. In the past, it has been my experience, that most manuals were written by computer programmers for their buddies to read, or else were so basic as to be useless.
If you're using Office 2001 on the Mac, get the Missing Manual.

Jim Miller
Victoria, BC

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's Worth the Money!, September 7, 2001

By 

Wai Sing Lee "Dead men assume..." (Toronto, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Office 2001 for Macintosh: The Missing Manual (Paperback)

I picked up this book a couple of weeks back and I have to say that I love it enough that I am going to go back and pick up the OS 9 Missing Manual.
The book is well laid-out, it's clearly written, it's up to date (for now) and I found out enough info for Excel that made it worth the money to buy it.
The book is aimed at someone who is relatively familiar with the Mac operating system but not with Office 2001. It starts from the beginning but does not coddle you. I think it even goes so far as Excel macro programming but I have yet to go so far.
I used to be a computer bookstore manager(Toronto Computer Books) and I've seen a LOT of books in my time. This is one that I would actually pay for full price! :-)