Customer Reviews

Office 2008 for Macintosh: The Missing Manual

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A tip: don't buy manuals for your new software until you have used it for a while. Use 'help' functions built in your software as much as possible. Document your big questions in a list and when you've got maybe 4-5 questions, that's the time to check out the manuals.

When shopping, I pull out every manual I can find for the software and sit down and read. The key aspects of a good technical manual are organization and ease of reading.

Ultimately, I buy the book that answers all or most of the questions I still have after working with the software for a while.

This is a good manual. It's got both a book and an online form. Note the online form is available for free for a limited time, then you will need to pay a subscription fee.

It's not a bad idea at all to have an online version as well as the book:

Online is available if you're traveling and don't have the book in hand.
Online searches can be quicker than the book.
An online version will be updated when new versions of the software come out and/or new issues about the software arise. <Very important>

The downside of this manual--it's got a lot more information than I currently need. It didn't answer the one pressing issue I had about resuming a document at the last edit and both my husband and I searched for that one question.

Still, my very technical husband and I both like the O'Reilly line of software manuals because they tend to be some of the most complete out there. Add in the online versions and you have a book that should last beyond the first blush of software use.

Rebecca Kyle, August 2008

The first 348 pages of this book are on Word. Then there's 158 pages on Entourage. 132 pages on Excel and then a scant 80 on PowerPoint.

That's too bad--I was mostly interested in Excel and PowerPoint. I use Office pretty heavily--my use of Word is limited to making small modifications to existing documents and sending those documents back to my colleagues.

However, I do a lot of original document creation with Excel and PowerPoint. Altogether, this book weighs in a little shy of 900 pages but only 212 of them apply to me.

Perhaps the most annoying thing about the PowerPoint section is that the first chapter discusses presentation basics that have nothing to do with PowerPoint. I suppose that's not terrible, but there are many better books out there about how to build and deliver a presentation. There's very few if any other books out there about PowerPoint 2008 for Mac. I give a _lot_ of presentations and I was looking for a tool to help me wield PowerPoint better--little tips and tricks to avoid all the clicking, to better link my spreadsheets into PowerPoint, or how to set up my own Quick Theme artwork or best practices of dealing with OmniGraffle figures in my PowerPoint slides...

The book is well written, well organized, makes good use of screenshots--the team did a great job. I did learn a few things from this and I'm sure I will get more out of it in the coming weeks--and at this price, there's no downside even if there is so little information applicable for me today.

Perhaps I am being unfair here, perhaps there really isn't so much to say about Excel or PowerPoint. But I suspect that's not the case--the Missing Manual for the _Windows_ version of PowerPoint is 488 pages. So I would guess more real information about the Mac PowerPoint could have been put into this book.

I'm sure I will find the Word stuff handy one day, and I'm sure many people do spend the bulk of their time in Word. But if you're looking for a definitive guide to Excel or PowerPoint on the Mac, this book isn't it.

This is a very comprehensive manual and a most valuable resource for anyone changing over from Office 2003 or 2007 (for PC) to Office 2008 (for Mac), as a manual is needed to assist with the changeover. For me it is particularly useful regarding Word 2008, Excel 2008, Entourage and PowerPoint; I have no need for Messenger. However, as Excel 2008 is a dumbed down version of Excel 2003 (for PC), Excel 2008 is not very user friendly when it comes to manipulating scientific and financial data, especially with regard to graphs or charts. An appendix to the manual, showing how to work around the various problems created by Microsoft in the Office 2008 suite, would be invaluable. With a great deal of difficulty and with much experimentation I've managed to do some of this myself.

I have been greatly impressed by the writing and knowledge of this author. He is thorough in his descriptions and can lead even the most novice or computer illiterates find their way through the book and get some things done on their computer! This is a MUST have book as a resource and useful "buddy" to help walk you though this software. It is even entertaining and can get you to smile!
Highly recommended!

If you are new to Macs (as I am) or new to Office (there probably aren't many of those folks around these days), this book is not for you. The author assumes that a) you know OS X very well; and b) you know the Windows version of Office very well. I was looking for a book that would quickly get me up and running in Office 2008 for Mac after I recently bought my first iMac. This book was definitely not what I needed. He has no explanation of some of the simple stuff I need to know, such as how to create new folders. Apparently, it doesn't work the way is does with Office for Windows, where you can create a new folder as part of the process of saving a file. Or if it does work that way, it's not evident. A couple of the other reviews note other simple stuff that he doesn't bother to explain. His intended audience is apparently people who have fairly complex documents to create and who need to know how do that on a Mac after having already become familiar with OS X. If that describes you, this book may be useful. What's a bit misleading is that some of these Missing Manual books actually do lead you through the basics (I'm thinking here of the iPhone book in particular). I should probably have bought the For Dummies book, which is what I'm about to do.

As a reasonably experienced Office 2007 user I was constantly fighting to find solutions to "quirks" with the Office 2008 suite for Mac (i.e., what's the comparable Office 2008 key stroke for F-4 in Excel? Surprise, it's CMD-T). Don't let them fool you, the PC version of Office is much more versatile than the Mac version; but the Mac has more than enough virtues to overcome these deficiencies.

After spending too much time looking for answers on the internet (too many threads ending up in dead ends) I decided to purchase the PDF version of this book. The key information is now available to me quickly in the office and on the road. Time is saved and it's much less frustrating.

This book is well suited to quickly finding answers and solutions with Office 2008. I'm not sure it is as useful as a self learning introduction to Office 2008.

"Office 2008 for Macintosh, The Missing Manual" is just that: the manual you should have gotten with the product. They say that MS Word is the most complex program ever, and we've managed to navigate a few of its complexities thanks to this book. It's paid for itself many times over. Plus, some of the writing has a humorous edge that makes all that painful learning more palatable.

I bought this on the Kindle because there was something I was trying to do that I wanted help with right away, but there seems not to be the full index that would be in the print version -- the search function is very cumbersome in a book this large. In addition, it's slow to magnify the illustrations, and even magnified they are not that easy to read compared with a printed copy.

This is a useful manual, but in my view the Kindle version is a lousy substitute for the printed text. I've since learned that there is an online version that can be used for free for a limited time -- if I had known that, I could have used it while waiting for the printed version to come; as it is, I'm going to grit my teeth and buy the printed version.

Even though I consider the Kindle version inadequate, though, I've read enough to be sure that this is a fine manual, just one that has enough in it that flipping through pages (and consulting a real index) will be preferable to reading on the Kindle (I love the Kindle for novels or ordinary nonfiction, but I don't find it acceptable for this sort of reference work).

It is exactly as stated by the author - a good manual where you have the ability (unlike office help) to read in bed, mark the pages of interest, underline and make marginal notes.

I especially found useful the description of how to totally customize menus in every way conceivable (removing items, whole menus, rearranging etc etc.

Good work

Clocking in at around 900 pages, David Pogue's Missing Manual series releases yet another gem, this one focused on Office 2008 for the Macintosh! If you are a Macintosh user that wants to learn how to get around Office better or a newbie that wants to know all the basics of one of Microsofts flagship application suites (some would say THE Microsoft application suite) you have no need for any other book!! The Missing Manual series are the definitive texts for learning any piece of software. Written in a style that is accessible by nearly anyone, the MM line has been a bestseller for many years and will continue to be!! If you buy Mac Office buy this book as well to get the most out of Excel, Word, Powerpoint, the whole shebang!!!

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED