Customer Reviews

New Perspectives on Microsoft Office Excel 2007, Comprehensive (New Perspectives (Thomson Course Technology))

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Three cheers for this book and the other Thomson/Course Technology "Comprehensive" books addressing various applications in Microsoft Office 2007 (and, earlier, in Office 2003, etc.). The books are designed for successful use (either on a self-study basis, or in formal courses) on the part of those who, starting with no prior knowledge, want to bring themselves up to a skill level corresponding to what Microsoft terms "Microsoft Certified Application Specialist." Here are some of the distinguishing features of this Excel 2007 book:

(1) The book makes effective use of color, including frequent and well annotated screen shots.

(2) The book presents material in a highly readable, step by step way. (This might be a disadvantage for fast-track users of the book who do not need or want that much "hand holding," but it does mean that just about any motivated person who works conscientiously with the book can achieve success.)

(3) Each of the 12 chapters is set in the context of a "case" providing meaningful settings within which the application potential of Excel is brought into focus, usually in a "business-related" way. (This contrasts with some books that describe "how to do this" and "how to do that," but might lack motivation for WHY it might be of interest to be able to do this or do that.) Peripheral benefit: the book provides an informal introduction to some aspects of business, in the sense of extracting information from data to provide insights and perhaps support fundamental decision making.

(4) Each chapter concludes with a set of five exercises or "cases," starting with an exercise in which the reader is asked to extend the material developed in the body of the chapter. Starting-point workbooks for these exercises (and for the case presented in the body of the chapter itself) can be downloaded from the publisher's website. Workbook "solutions" for the cases can be downloaded by instructors using the book in a course setting. (Although some of the exercises include "explore" steps, the exercises do largely tend to take a "follow the bouncing ball" approach, which helps the user ease into the material but probably falls short for fast-track users who might want to be challenged to be more creative in applying the material, i.e., "Here's a situation, and here's the information that is to be developed in this situation. Starting from scratch and using your own wits entirely, develop the information. No step by step approach is provided for your use. You're on your own. Go to it!"

(5) The book is certified by Microsoft as containing the Excel material that, when mastered, puts the user in a position to pass Microsoft's "Certified Application Specialist" exam. This certification, in turn, can be a valuable resume' entry for some people in the workforce. (Ditto for similar certifications for Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Access, and so on.)

(6) There is a companion book ("Casegrader," by Crews and Murphy, ISBN 978-1-4239-9823-5) consisting of twelve "cases" integrated with the Excel material presented in the corresponding chapters in the Parsons, Oja, Auer, and Carey book. After developing the workbook for a Crews and Murphy case, the workbook can be uploaded to a website for automatic scoring, with a step by step analysis and report produced as a result. (The Crews and Murphy cases fall into the "follow the bouncing ball" category, but have the virtue of forcing use of the Parsons et al. material after the material has been studied. In my opinion, Parsons et al. and Crews and Murphy are best used together in this sequence: (a) Study a Parsons et al. chapter. (b) Do the corresponding Crews and Murphy case, keeping at it until you score 100% on it. (c) Do at least two of the Parsons et al. exercises at the end of the chapter. (d) Proceed to the next Parsons et al. chapter, etc.)

All best wishes for success to users of Parsons et al.

At the end of each tutorial there are case problems and assignments that allow you to practice what you've learned. The required student data files are downloaded from the internet. However, you are NOT able to check your work. You will have no idea whether you are completing the assignments accurately or if you need to spend additional time learning a particular topic.

Workbook solutions are only available to instructors; an email and password are required to download solutions, practice exams and other great learning tools.

I wish I had known this before purchasing this very expensive book. If anyone can help me to access the solutions, I would be most grateful.

This text book is very thorough: It provides excellent pictures, so there is no guess work as to whether you did something right or not; it walks you through everything step-by-step; gives you real life scenarios of projects; and also gives you necessary information as to what is and is not professional - when certain visuals should be used as opposed to other for given information, data, statistics. This is definitely a book that I will not be selling back to the school bookstore :0). I'm tabbing it up so I know where to jump to when I need help and keeping it until Excel 2012 comes out!

If you own Excel and have never used it, this is a wonderful way to learn. This book is very comprehensive and is used as a textbook for college courses on Excel. The book starts with the most basic skills, such as entering text in a cell, navigating the spreadsheet, copying and pasting, ect. In the subsequent chapters you learn pretty much every feature Excel has to offer. When you get this book, there is a web address in the back where you can go to download the Excel files for your lessons. Each chapter has its own set of lessons. For example, Chapter 2 is about formatting a spreadsheet. At the beginning of the chapter you open the file for the chapter 2 tutorial. This file is an Excel spreadsheet which you will format as you go along with the lesson. The book clearly explains every step and tells you what to type, which buttons to click on, ect. Each chapter also contains troubleshooting tips for common errors begining users make. At the end of each chapter there are are also several Excel problems which you can complete for additional practice.

I have been working on this book consistently and am almost done. All in all it looks like I will have taken about 7 weeks total by the time I finish. Keep in mind that I work on it roughly an hour a day and sometimes more. Also, there are 5 problems at the end of each chapter and I usually do about 1 or 2.

As far as the difficultly level, I would say that this is a pretty easy book, especially in the first several chapters. When you get to the advanced formulas it can make you scratch your head a little and may require a little extra effort, but if you have some basic computer and math skills, then you shouldn't have to worry about getting stuck. Of course, you can always take a course or have someone who already knows the program help you if you do run into problems.

I expected this book to be like most all other reference books on MS Office software: dumbed-down. I was unbelievably surprised! This book is so incredibly complete in its coverage that I was amazed. It was even beyond my expectations as to what it addressed - things I didn't even know Excel could do! (And I thought I knew Excel - wrong!)

Even if you "know" Excel, I would highly recommend this book. You will be amazed at its depth of content. It seems expensive, but this book is PACKED with information - LOTS OF IT. TRULY WORTH THE PRICE IN EVERY WAY!

This book was fantastic. I learned so much such as creating and applying tables and graphs and inserting pivot tables. Although my instructor went through the lessons really fast, I am going to hold onto my book and practice all the lessons so I can become more efficient. I would highly recommend this product to anyone who needs to upgrade their Excel skills while working on the job.

The book is everything I could want; clear, detailed, easy to follow and packed full of incredible information. The BOOK is 101% - HOWEVER, in the sour grapes department, my copy was shipped 7 days before the anouncement that a revised copy WITH A CD DISC would be available within 2 weeks. A REQUEST for a DISC ONLY, through Amazon at extra cost of course, came back with a suggestion to purchase a new copy and return the older one after I had recieved the second book. A little extreme to ship 2 copies to Australia and return one copy. I was, and still am, a little surprised at the knock back, but everyone runs their business for their own reasons - it would have been nice if Amazon had checked the QUANTITY of books I ship to Australia, but at they say, cie la vie (Or something like it - such is life.) Aside from that the book is first rate. Probably the best book on Excel at any price; you only get what you pay for, and this book is worth every penny. Since then I have purchased an Excel CD Disc set (also from Amazon - although I could have obtained it from the UK for less, Amazon suits me just fine - even though they are less co-operative than I would like)

This product is great for anyone wanting to increase their working knowledge of Excel and especially for those who do not have time to go to a class. Being a trainer, I will use this book to teach others in my profession. Being able to download the ready-made files for tutorial reviews and case problems helps the student to progressive try all the techniques taught. I highly recommend it!

I'm an instructor at a local community college. This is where I first became aware of the quality, details, and subject matter content this book offers. There are a few minor errors, but what text book doesn't?

Next, I used this book as a self-study reference for Microsoft's MCAS certification, and I passed with ease. I strongly recommend this book, along with Word, PowerPoint, and Access series, to all of my students who are interested in Microsoft's certification designations.

However, I must add that AXZO Press, ILT series, is a "must have" to compliment New Perspectives on Microsoft Office . . . series because of the certification exam simulations. The simulations are timed, and give the test candidate an idea of what to expect.

If anyone is interested in becoming Microsoft Office certified, this series, along with AXZO Press series, is an excellent combo.

Although it can become a bit daunting following so many steps within a chapter to master Excel, once I went back after completing a tutorial (and really studying it in-depth), I was able to grasp and appreciate the power of this software program. I found this book better than others I have looked through.

My only complaint is a chapter spent on trying to use Excel as a database, which it is not. Access is far easier to query and get results for reports.

Overall, this textbook is comprehensive, well-written, and concise in it's objective to teach anyone Excel. If you have the determination to learn this software package, I think you will find this book worthwhile.