Customer Reviews

Special Edition Using Microsoft Office Word 2003

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I don't have goglobal_2000's experience with XML. (I probably don't have his tenacity either, but let's not get personal.) So I don't know if his criticism is on-point or completely made up. But I think highly enough of Que Publishing's "Using" series in general - and the Word titles in particular - to want to post some praise of its broader merits.

I have perused pretty much every Word instruction manual on the market, and this is the one I'd go with. Most importantly, it is *extremely* comprehensive. Speaking personally, I can figure out how to cut-and-paste for myself. It's programming macros and the other scarily powerful features at the far edges of Microsoft-space that I need my hand held with, and Camarda does it nicely. But as thick as this volume is, it's all muscle - no bad jokes, no time wasting.

I really love this book. I work large documents for a government agency and really strain what Word can do (and what you should do with Word). This book provides intelligent answers to difficult questions far beyond an idiots guide. I'm not an idiot, so why would I use that book? I make extensive use of auto-references, links, styles, and the whole shebang to make editing and revisions a snap. There's also the Section 508 thing so that the final document is ADA compliant.

You're not an idiot, so buy this book.

This book is fantastic. It has all the advanced features described in easy to execute terms. This author is good.

This is a good reference book I got for the office. It's got a ton of information and is easy to read. It's reflects this with it's weight and when you stack this with other books in the series it gets heavy quick. I like the information, even if a lot, better too much than not enough.

My work requires me to format documents in many ways on a single page. I must change page orientation frequently, make unusual bulleting, such as '2B),' etc. So far, Bill Camarda's Special Edition Using Microsoft Office Word 2003 has shown me how to do everything I need. Additionally, it comes with a CD that includes itself, plus a lot of aftermarket manufacturer programs (that Microsoft contracts to write their sub-programs) to add features that are extremely useful. And because these are the programmers that write Word, they provide toolbars similar to Word to click on and perform the work. That CD has a home in my laptop case and I use it on the road, while my book is on my shelf at home. Great package: Book and CD. I'd buy it again and I recommend it.

This book is definitely one to buy. I have discovered so much about Word 2003 from reading this book that I would not have learned through using it every day. Comprehensive yet easily understood explanations accompany every topic. I especially like the Tips boxes and am quickly waering out a highlighter on them.

As a technical writer, I've been authoring XML, XML Schema, and XSL documents for several years. A new project required me to test the capabilities of XML in Word 2003 so I purchased Using Microsoft Office Word 2003. After spending several days working through Chapter 25 I felt like I had climbed Mt. Everest with a 50 pound boulder in my backpack. Here are a few specific examples that led to my poor rating.

The schema example on pages 844-846 should have been included on the CD but no, I had to create a text file and type all the code from scratch.

On page 856, the author congratulates you for constructing your first XML data structure and document but then refers you to another section of the chapter that discusses various ways to save an XML file in Word. You're left on your own to play a save as guessing game. (It's true that you can save an XML file in WordML format but the code is so scary that you'll probably have nightmares after seeing it.)

On page 858, you are instructed to open a document that doesn't exist. On page 866 you're back to the task of writing more code. This time however, you create an XSL file from scratch. The first step asks you to "Use File, Save As to create a new XML file with data only." I don't think it would ever occur to me to use that approach to create a new file in any application. The next step states "Create an XSLT transformation file (.xsl) with the following code." The XSL code contains several namespaces that do not exist in the XML schema. Also, there is a duplication error in the xsl:value-of select statement. Word does not allow you to save a file with an .xsl extension so I had to create the file in an XML editor. If it weren't for my tenacity and experience with XML, I would have given up after the first hour.

I can see why the publisher's disclaimer states that the information provided is on an "as is" basis.