Series: The Unofficial Guides | Publication Date: July 1999
The Unofficial Guide to PCs covers mission-critical concepts, tips, tricks and warnings in indented note-style paragraphs, or when larger in scale, in sidebars. You can visually skip from one key step to another if you're in a hurry or already have mastered some of the material, or can absorb all the details for a particular step, at your own discretion. Progress through the book in the order of your PC experiences--buying, assembling, kicking the tires once it's up and running, and customizing it to suit your needs. Also learn on-going maintenance and disaster prevention and where to find the subtle, often well-hidden software patches, upgrades, revisions, bug reports, add-ins, plug-ins as well as hardware improvements and breakthroughs.
Delivers critical, unbiased information that other books can't or won't reveal
Maximize productivity and utilize your PC more efficiently with the inside facts and tips
Full of PC ownership issues that nobody ever writes about, but everyone experiences
Most computer users reach a point at which they're generally familiar with computers and able to get work done with them but still lack the depth of knowledge needed to make computer use really productive and fun. The Unofficial Guide to PCs represents a boost to these "perpetual intermediates." It's packed full of important knowledge and valuable tips that you can use to take full control of your computer.
This book doesn't waste time on mouse tutorials--it dives right into the productivity tricks of experienced users. Users will find easy-to-implement changes that really improve the utility of commonly used programs. For example, you'll learn how to get nine recently used files--rather than the standard four--to appear at the bottom of Microsoft Word's File menu.
There's a lot of hardware coverage too. Unfortunately, although the authors helpfully provide an apples-to-apples comparison of many Intel processors, they neglect to cover anything newer than the Pentium II Xeon 450 (including the entire Pentium III family) and advise against buying AMD and Cyrix chips without explaining why. Aside from that, The Unofficial Guide to PCs is a winner. --David Wall
Topics covered: Tweaking Windows 98 to meet user needs, performing scheduled backups, getting answers from the Internet, setting up simple workgroups that enable printer and file sharing, and hardware comparisons.
T.J. Lee has over 21 years experience in the computer industry working with large firms on a wide spectrum of technology implementations. His experience has allowed him to manage, delegate, supervise and control development projects or administrative workflow for a single office, division or an entire business. He can coordinate development efforts and resolve problems between diverse groups within an organization.
TJ is a technical writer and an expert in documenting workflow processes. He has co-authored 11 computer books to date (O'Reilly, Addison-Wesley, and QUE) on subjects ranging from programming to hardware upgrades and has created training materials, lectured, and taught computer seminars around the world. TJ's extensive technical writing skills have always tried to focus on making complex processes understandable to non-technical readers.
**Expertise**
Extensive experience managing groups of technical people on complex projects.
Expert with Microsoft end user products and in analyzing and automating office tasks utilizing these software programs in network environments.
Able to work with management and office staff to analyze and streamline manual tasks and processes while automating online processes using off the shelf and custom written software products.
Certified Public Accountant in the state of California. Auditing experience in the fields of real estate, condominium and PUD associations, and manufacturing. Supervisor level accountant overseeing audits, general ledger and financial statement preparation for convalescent hospitals, condominium associations, and contractor/developers. Performed MAS engagements involving user requirement studies, hardware requirements, procedures analysis and lease-up absorption projections. CPA license status changed to inactive June 1993 and is currently classified "inactive clear."
Consultant on the Perkins Coie conversion from mini-computer based Wang word processing to PC based word processing using Microsoft Word for Windows. Helped develop the Word training materials and performed initial training for Perkins Coie's pilot project at their corporate headquarters in Seattle, WA. This was the first major law firm in the USA to adopt Word for Windows over WordPerfect on the PC platform.
Consultant to Latham and Watkins (LA headquarters, Costa Mesa, and San Diego offices) on implementing personal computers to replace centralized dumb terminals. Taught Microsoft Excel, Lotus Agenda, and Harvard Graphics courses to Latham personnel from managing partners to staff lawyers and secretaries.
Developed PRIME for Office Utilities CD - this product includes an add-on utility set for Word, Excel, and an Office add-in called DocLauncher. Developed four of the utilities in WordBasic and oversaw the conversion of these utilities to VBA. The utilities are currently written as a COM add-in. Performed quality and beta testing as well as marketing and distribution on this project.
Consultant to Avery Dennison creating the specification and budget for the Avery Dennison Divider Magician product (a $100,000+ development project), oversaw the contract developers during development, and did quality and beta testing. Managed all client contact and negotiated all change orders. Developed all of Avery Dennison's WordBASIC macro templates for their label products from Word 2 through Word 6 then converted select WordBASIC macros to VBA for Word 7 through Word 9 (2000).
Consultant to American Honda Motor Company, Inc. Oversaw the development of the user requirement specifications and coding of a file distribution application that made customer survey results available to dealers over their network. Later managed the conversion of this design to a Web based application and oversaw the coding and testing of the final program. Education
Certifications: Certified Public Accountant in the state of California (licensed 1986, current status inactive clear) Microsoft Word for Windows Developers Program (Member) Microsoft Excel Developers Program (Member) Microsoft Consultants Relations Program (Microsoft Excel Partner) Microsoft Certified Product Specialist (Windows) Microsoft Certified Trainer (Word and Excel) Citrix Certified Sales Professional (2007) for Application Delivery Infrastructure
Developed and presented the following seminars: Masters Seminar Microsoft Word 6.0 for Windows (Sydney, and Melbourne Australia 1995)
PRIME Consulting Seminar Putting OLE 2.0, VBA, & DDE to Work (Los Angeles, CA 1993, 1994, 1995)
PRIME Consulting Seminar The Hacker's Guide to PackRat (Baton Rouge, LA 1991, Indianapolis, IN 1992, Costa Mesa, CA 1992)
Developed and presented professional education sessions at the following conferences:
Microsoft Developers' Tools Forum (Third Party WinWord Solutions, WordBASIC Tips & Tricks)
Windows and OS/2 Conferences (Context in Word for Windows, Graphical Word Processing Comes of Age 1991; Development Using Windows Macro Languages, Document Management 1992)
Microsoft Word Users Conference (Integrating Word with Other Applications: OLE & DDE 1991)
Developed the following training materials:
Developing Applications in Word (co-authored with Microsoft Education Services for Microsoft University 1994)
Putting OLE 2.0, VBA, & DDE to Work (for PRIME Consulting Group, Inc. 1993)
WordBASIC Developer Training (for PRIME Consulting Group, Inc. 1992)
**Published Works**
Computer books on CD-ROM (co-author):
Computer Tips Compendium (2001)
The Book That Should Have Come with Your Computer (1993)
Printed computer books (co-author):
T.J. Lee and Lee Hudspeth's Absolute Beginner's Guide to PC Upgrades (QUE - 2001, English and Turkish)
The Unofficial Guide to PCs (QUE - 1999)
Outlook Annoyances (O'Reilly - 1998, English, Polish, French, and Chinese)
Word 97 Annoyances (O'Reilly - 1997, English, Polish, French, and Chinese)
The Underground Guide to Microsoft Office, OLE, and VBA (Addison-Wesley - 1995, English)
The Underground Guide to Excel 5.0 for Windows (Addison-Wesley - 1994, English)
Developing Applications in Word (Microsoft Education Services, English)
Various magazine and newsletter articles for a number of publications including eBay Magazine, TheNakedPC Newsletter, PC Computing, Office Computing, and Woody's Underground Newsletter.
**Professional Experience**
2001- present McMillan Consulting - Project Manager Oversee network upgrades and deployments, and the development of comprehensive network/project documentation.
1998 - 2003 TheNakedPC Newsletter - Publisher, Editor, Contributor Responsible for management of this critically acclaimed bi-weekly computer technology electronic newsletter. This newsletter was favorably reviewed by the Langa List, Netscape Netcenter, Computer Currents, PC World, Andover.net, and Lockergnome. TJ was one of the three founders of this publication and during his tenure as editor subscriptions went from 0 to over 100,000.
1999 - 2000 eBay Magazine - Columnist Wrote a regular column in eBay's monthly printed magazine on a variety of computer technology topics with the focus on how to get more out of your computer, the Internet, and new technologies in general.
1997 - 1999 PC Computing (Ziff-Davis) - Contributor Regular contributor to PC/Computing magazine. TJ was a co-writer of the article "Undocumented Internet Secrets" which received the prestigious National Magazine Award. This was the first time a technical publication won this coveted award.
1997 - 1998 Office Computing(Ziff-Davis) - Senior Contributing Editor A companion magazine to PC Computing this short lived publication focused on actual hand-on how-to projects for mid to advanced users of Microsoft Office.
1996 - 1997 Woody's Underground Office Newsletter - Editor, Contributor This printed newsletter on the technical aspects of Microsoft Office and general computer technologies received the Computer Press Association's 1997 Best Overall Newsletter award.
1992 - 2001 PRIME Consulting Group, Inc. - Principle Oversaw day-to-day operation of a computer consulting company focusing on application development using Microsoft Office and web site construction. Managed clients, programmers and technical writers working in different locations using telephone and telecommuting technologies including the Internet.
1990 - 1992 Plan B Consulting - Sole Proprietor TJ founded this computer/technology consulting firm. Training, development, and general business consulting required additional resources and capitalization resulting in merging with another consulting firm to become PRIME Consulting Group, Inc.
1988 - 1990 Gilbert & Associates - Consultant A cutting edge consultancy firm at the vanguard of graphically-based distributed computing. While at Gilbert & Associates he was assigned to consult and perform training at firms such as Latham & Watkins, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, and Perkins Coie.
1985 - 1988 Arnold Dubin & Company - CPA Started as a staff accountant and while employed at Arnold Dubin & Company sat for, and passed the California Board of Accountancy CPA Exam. Worked up to supervisor level accountant overseeing audits, general ledger, and financial statement preparation for condominium associations, and contractor/developers. TJ spearheaded the firms move into management advisory services and computer consulting.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent book for new Windows 9x computer owners, August 23, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Unofficial Guide to PCs (The Unofficial Guides) (Paperback)
Whether you've put off moving up from a Windows 3.1 machine, haven't owned a computer before, or want more information about using Windows 95/98 and working with common packages, this book is a tremendous resource. It distills the years of experience the authors have had with Win9x and presents general methods to use when purchasing your computer, fixing hardware and software conflicts, and working with applications. It also contains a good set of web sites as starting points for learning more.
Win9x experts probably won't gain much from this book. However, they're not the intended audience, and I wholeheartedly believe The Unofficial Guide to PCs is well worth the price for any new Windows user.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 starsIt is without a doubt the best book I have read on computers, September 10, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Unofficial Guide to PCs (The Unofficial Guides) (Paperback)
I bought the "The Unofficial Guide to PC's" and three days later I finished it. It is without a doubt the best book I have read on computers ever. I love the tone of the book, it made me laugh more than once, and as for the advice, well, that was priceless. On the little island at the bottom of Australia, the world of PC's is slightly happier due to this book.
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This review is from: Unofficial Guide to PCs (The Unofficial Guides) (Paperback)
Just bought "The Unofficial Guide to PCs" from Amazon and found a couple of good ideas in it already. To me "Recovering from a PC Disaster", "Taming Tech Support", and the "Resource Directory" plus "Important Documents" in the Appendix alone are worth the bargain price I paid Amazon.
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