Special Edition Using Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007
THE ONLY OFFICE BOOK YOU NEED
We crafted this book to grow with you, providing the reference material you need as you move toward Office 2007 proficiency and use of more advanced features. If you buy only one book on Office Home and Student 2007, Special Edition Using Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 is the book you need.
Office Home and Student 2007 is available to ANYONE, regardless of whether you are a student, a teacher, or neither. The only condition Microsoft attaches is the requirement that the software not be used for commercial purposes. For use in the home or classroom, Office Home and Student 2007 is an exceptional deal at a fraction of the cost of the business versions!
• No other authoring team in the business is as well recognized and respected as the Office Dream Team; when they speak, even the Office development team at Microsoft listens!
• This book is a category killer–one that sets the pace for others to follow!
• Tired of Office books that read as though Microsoft employees wrote them? Tired of learning the Microsoft way? Tired of books containing little more than you can pull from the Help system? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you owe it to yourself to get a copy of this book!
• If you own a copy of Office Home and Student 2007, you deserve a copy of this book! Here, you’ll find a bevy of previously undocumented tips and tricks that will show you how to harness the power of Office 2007!
• Written in clear, plain English, readers will feel as though they are learning from real humans and not Microsoft clones. Sprinkled with a wry sense of humor and an amazing depth of field, this book most certainly isn’t your run-of-the-mill computer book
“Another Special Edition Winner! Clear, concise and right on-target. Everything a student or a home user will need to know in order to master Office 2007.”
–Alan & Sandra Ashendorf, Hosts of Let’s Talk Computers Radio Talk Show
Ed Bott is a best-selling author of more than 25 computer books and an award-winning computer journalist with two decades of experience in the personal computer industry. He is a three-time winner of the Computer Press Award, and he and Woody Leonhard won the prestigious Jesse H. Neal Award, sometimes referred to as “the Pulitzer Prize of the business press,” in back-to-back years for their work on PC Computing’s “Windows SuperGuide.” You can read more of Ed’s writing at http://www.edbott.com/weblog.
Curmudgeon, critic, and perennial “Office Victim,” Woody Leonhard runs a fiercely independent website with up-to-the-nanosecond news, observations, tips, and help for both Office and Windows. AskWoody.com has become the premier source of unbiased information for people who need to really use Windows and Office, and for people concerned about juggling the neverending stream of Microsoft patches. In the past 15 years, Woody has written more than three dozen books, drawing an unprecedented six Computer Press Association awards and two American Business Press awards. Woody was one of the first Microsoft Consulting Partners and is a charter member of the Microsoft Solutions Provider organization.
Ed Bott is a best-selling author and award-winning technology journalist who has been covering the personal computer industry since the days when an 8MHz 80286 was a smokin’ machine. Ed’s feature stories and columns about Microsoft and its products have appeared regularly in print and on the web for more than 15 years, and he has written books on nearly every version of Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office–so many, in fact, that he’s lost count of the exact number. He is a three-time winner of the Computer Press Award and earned the Award of Merit from the Society for Technical Communication in 2003. Ed and Woody Leonhard won the prestigious Jesse H. Neal Award, sometimes referred to as “the Pulitzer Prize of the business press,” in back-to-back years for their work on PC Computing’s “Windows SuperGuide.” He lives in an extremely civilized corner of the American Southwest with his wife, Judy, and a growing menagerie of affectionate pets who are sometimes smarter than he is. You can read Ed’s latest writings at Ed Bott’s Windows Expertise (http://www.edbott.com/weblog) and Ed Bott’s Microsoft Report (http://blogs.zdnet.com/bott).
Woody Leonhard describes himself as a “Certified Office Victim.” With more than 40 computer books under his belt, he’s seen parts of Office that would curl your hair. Woody’s best known for his fiercely independent website, AskWoody.com, which mercilessly holds Microsoft’s feet to the fire, and specializes in keeping consumers informed about problems with Microsoft patches. He’s also a Contributing Editor with Windows Secrets Newsletter, windowssecrets.com. Woody has won eight Computer Press Awards and, with Ed, two American Business Press Association awards. He moved to Phuket, Thailand, seven years ago, where he now basks in the sun with his wife, Duangkhae, 82-year-old father, George, and all-American beagle, Chronos.
Once upon a time, Microsoft Office was strictly for the office. Today, its general-purpose tools have been softened and refined, and the capabilities of the programs in the Office family have expanded. Despite the name, Office isn't just for the office anymore.
Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 is packaged and sold for people who plan to use it at home. Although its individual parts are identical to those found in the Office version used in corporate settings, the day-to-day tasks you're likely to tackle are a little different. That's why, in this book, we've shifted the focus to explain how you can use Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote to produce school reports, family newsletters, and projects for civic and social organizations. Of course, if you want to use the same technique to sneak in a little work on the weekend, we won't tell.
The audience may be different, but the depth of our coverage hasn't changed. We still assume you're smart, curious, and able to figure out the truly basic stuff on your own. We show you how to use and customize the common parts of Office 2007—the Quick Access toolbar, task panes, and other interface elements—and how to get along with the new, potentially confusing Ribbon interface.
Like its predecessors, Office 2007 still has odd inconsistencies, as well as bugs, features that don't work as expected, and basic interface elements guaranteed to drive expert users crazy. But as we worked with this latest member of the Office family we grew to like it, a lot. Office 2007 still isn't perfect—not by a long shot—but it is more usable than any Office version ever.
Some of what you see in Special Edition Using Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 will be familiar to you if you've worked with an earlier edition of this book. We've gone through every chapter, sentence by sentence, testing, verifying, updating, revising, and adding a wealth of new information to ensure that this book is accurate and absolutely up to date.
Who Should Buy This Book
If you need an Office 2007 reference book you can rely on—one that won't bore you with the obvious, pull punches when Office comes up short, or turn mealy-mouthed when you hit the really hard parts—you have the right book in your hands.
As with other titles in Que's best-selling Special Edition Using series, this book focuses on the unique needs of students and families using Office 2007 at home. We assume you're experienced with Windows, the web, and, for the most part, previous versions of Microsoft Office. If you're like most people, you've probably only scratched the surface of the capabilities in Office and you'd like to learn a lot more without taking a graduate course on the software. We're also certain you've experienced your fair share of Office bugs and annoyances firsthand. Because we're confident you've already figured out the basics, we've spent our time figuring out how these programs really work. Trust us—Office still has bugs and poorly designed features, and Microsoft doesn't always make it easy to see how you can combine features or customize applications to increase productivity.
We figure you're smart enough to experiment with basic features and to read the online help when you want to know how an Office program is supposed to work. That's why you won't find beginner-level instructions in this book. Instead, you'll find what isn't in the official documentation—key details, insight, and real-world advice you can't find anywhere else. And it's all arranged so you can get in, find the answer you need, apply it to your work at hand, and get out. This book may weigh a ton, but if you need the straight scoop on anything related to Office, this is where you should look first.
How This Book Is Organized
Special Edition Using Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 is organized into six parts. Naturally, each of the major applications in the Office suite gets its own section. Before diving into specific features of Word, Excel, and the rest, however, we recommend you read through the sections that cover the techniques common to all applications.
Part I, "Common Tasks and Features," covers the essentials of Office, including techniques you can use to transform the Office interface into your own personal productivity center. We show you how to use the Search tools built into Windows Vista so you can find your Office files fast. This section also covers the new SmartArt graphics tools, which you can use to create stunning figures and illustrations with almost no effort.
Part II, "Using Word," covers the oldest and most polished productivity application in Office. We walk you through every customization option (including a few you probably never even knew you needed). We also show you how to supercharge your text-editing and formatting skills, how to manage long documents, and how to automate everyday documents so they practically write themselves.
Part III, "Using Excel," shows you tricks you never realized you could perform with this incredibly versatile tool. Check out the examples in our formatting chapters to see how you can turn drab rows and columns into eye-catching charts. We explain how to master any of Excel's 300+ functions, as well as which ones are worth memorizing. We'll show you how to use PivotTables (and their graphic cousins, PivotCharts) to give you a completely different view of data. Do you have a list of names, addresses, or other information? We also show you how to use the new, improved table-editing tools to sort, filter, and organize lists like an expert.
Of all the Office applications, PowerPoint is probably the least appreciated. In Part IV, "Using PowerPoint," we explain how this program really works, and we help you create compelling presentations you can deliver in front of a large audience or a small one—or completely unattended over the web.
Part V, "Using OneNote," covers the newest member of the Office family. This freeform note-taking program is perfect for use in the classroom, but it does much more. We explain how to use it to gather facts and figures from the web, how to share notebooks between multiple computers, and even how to record lectures or meetings in perfect sync with your notes.
In Part VI, "Advanced Tasks and Features," we focus on ways to extend the capabilities of Office. We explain how to automate Office with macros written in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). We also explain how you can supercharge Office with downloadable templates and add-ins from companies besides Microsoft. And in this final section, we introduce a few features that you'll need to know if you use Office on a Tablet PC.
Conventions Used in This Book
Special conventions are used to help you get the most from this book and from Office 2007.
Text Conventions
Various typefaces in this book identify terms and other special objects. These special typefaces include the following:
I have to learn Office 2007 enough to teach it, and there aren't many books out yet for it. The Special Edition series is one that I use for a desktop reference for several programs, and this one goes with them. It's clear, not cute or condescending, has good content, and is easy to refer to with questions. It's a good book to keep on hand as you learn Office 2007.
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Ed & Woody have turned out another extememly valuable reference text for Microsoft's Office series. I bought the upgrade to Office but would not install it until I could read some of the text to see what I should be aware of after installation. I'm glad I did. The change in file systems is definitely something that anyone upgrading should know about.
I highly recommend the book.
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I don't have Office 2007 yet, but I bought this book because as soon as it's available I'll start getting questions about it. At first glance, just from reading this book not actually trying things out, it appears that there are three big changes in Office 2007.
First is the Ribbon. Microsoft has specialized in graphical user interfaces (GUI). 'THE RIBBON' is Microsoft's new standard for GUI's and have been applied across all of the office products. I think it's better from what the book says, but boy is it going to cause a lot of questions.
Second is Security. Internally this is probably the biggest changes. There's a new Office Trust Center. It's not as pretty as the other packages (but it does have a ribbon). It's a new feature within office, it will get prettier and easier to use in future versions.
The third big set of changes is in sharing documents as you work on them. This is part of Microsoft's approach to the enterprise market rather than personal productivity. Let's just say that this will be a challenge.
Why this particular book? The authors and their writing style. They make reading about computers almost entertaining. And they are not Microsoft, so they can make comments about how things really work rather than just praising everything.
One complaint -- About ten more pages on Access would be a big help. A list of reserved words for instance, which are rather hard to find. And some brief discussion on using Access with SQL Server.
All in all, there are (or will be) a lot of books on Office 2007. I like these guy's style.
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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
clip art, navigation bar, input panel, slide layout, conditional formatting, field list, trusted locations, live preview, trusted publishers, action buttons, presentation settings, live sharing session, data tools, quick launcher, data labels, personal info, footer area, level paragraphs, freeze panes, red chalk, research options, icon sets, working with the drawing layer, serial date value, final paragraph mark
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Microsoft Office, Slide Master, Word Options, Format Cells, Windows Vista, Page Setup, Windows Explorer, Page Layout, Paste Special, Smart Tag, Quick Access, Office Clipboard, Excel Options, Trust Center, Apply Styles, Custom Animation, Slide Show, Ribbon's Home, Slide Sorter, Print Layout, Insert Function, Full Screen Reading, Visual Basic Editor, Format Painter, Internet Explorer
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