Customer Reviews

Word 2007: The Missing Manual

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

'Word 2007: The Missing Manual' by Chris Grover is another gem in the 'Missing Manual' series, a line that continues to impress and surprise me with how strong the quality of these books are and how affordable. Clocking in at 500+ pages and 19 chapters, this book is the perfect desktop reference to have at your side if you use Word 2007 for work, play, or just want to see what the new features, tips, and tricks are in the latest version of one of the flagship Microsoft products. Full of screenshots and fantastic writing, this book breaks content down at just the right places and is written in a way that anyone can understand!

From learning to use the new ribbon interface to the basics of word to higher level tasks such as writing macros and working with Visual Basic to put some code behind the scenes, this is a must buy for anyone that works with Word on a daily basis.

I've said it before, I'll probably say it again... the Missing Manual does it AGAIN!!!

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

I am about half way through this book. I am reading and practicing what I have read on my PC. So, it is taking time. I have learned a lot from Chris Glover's Word 2007 the Missing Manual. I would recommend this to anyone who is faced with having to work with Word 2007. It is about 300 to 400 pages shorter than Que's tomb on the subject so if you need something that explains all those things that the average user never uses, then go for that book. Meanwhile, this book gives you just what you need to become an intermediate user.

Word 2007: The Missing Manual
This is right on the money! A very readable, very informative book written by someone who knows their subject - and has a dry sense of humour to boot. Well done Chris Grover! However you approach it, it's equally good: you can use it as a reference manual, skim through to pick up the bits you want (helped by the top-of-the-page index tabs), or just read it cover to cover as I did. There must be countless people like me that use Word every day and are unaware of most of the fantastic things Word can do for you. Word 2007 is a huge step forward from previous editions and has some major differences in how you get things done. This is the perfect opportunity to find out.

This manual has answered most of the questions that I have had when using the latest version of Word. The one specific question that I had was how to change the tabs in the template box. I could not find this in the manual but all other questions that I have had have been answered. The manual was well worth the money spent.

I have used the Missing Manual for Excel and loved it. Yes, loved it. So when I needed help with Word where did I turn? (Rhetorical question)

I had used Excel for years and considered myself an advanced user. I was amazed at what I learned and how easy it was. The Word Manual did just the same!

I have a little ADD so when I open a technical book I often overload and shut down without even finishing a page. But this series is so easy to follow and covers the very basic (where I learned alot of shortcuts and tips I never knew) through the complex (where I learned what I really needed) without ever being complex. This is unique and I thank all those who make this resource available!

Transitioning from the former version of WORD to the 2007 version would be, I thought, an easy process. Not so. Whoever designed this program did not seem to bother with any considerations of current WORD users. Thus, I bought this manual to help me accomplish the things I use WORD for. For instance, I wanted to know how to insert the current date in the document. Couldn't find anything resembling the old "insert" key, so I consulted the handy manual I had just purchased. It is not under "date" or "insert" in the index, nor can I find it anywhere in my perusal of the manual and likely spots where such information is likely to be. I was similarly out of luck with the former "autotext" function. In short, useless manual and, as far as I can see, useless update to WORD. Microsoft should employ a "users' advocate" and the Missing Manual people should employ authors with a talent for clear organizing, explanations and indexing skills. Phooey to the lot of them.

Title: Word 2007: The Missing Manual
First Edition: December 2006
Series: The Missing Manuals
ISBN 10: 0-596-52739-X
ISBN 13: 9780596527396
Pages: 522
By Chris Grover

Description
"Word 2007: The Missing Manual not only explains basics like how to create documents, enter and edit text, format, print, and fax, but also learn how to create sophisticated page layouts, insert forms and tables, use graphics, and create book-length documents with outlines and Master Documents. Coverage also includes how to share documents with other people and programs, create web pages, automate documents with fields, and automate tasks with macros and the Visual Basic scripting language. This book shows you how to do it all."

The description above is about right. This book explains basics and teaches more advanced concepts. Collaboration and sharing are the main new and important issues with Office 2007, so Word 2007 is an important piece of that pie. I do not know if "This book shows you how to do it all", but it does show you quite a number of things that are necessary to know to get more out of Word.

My experience agreed with almost everything written. I have been a Word user for many years and find it to be everything I need in a word processing program. I thought the Introduction had a succinct review of the ribbon, Building Blocks, Live Preview, file format changes, and a few others that are really minor changes. Increased security in Word 2007 is welcome but let?s wait until the fat lady sings.

The topics start with The Missing Credits, then moves to Introduction to Part One (Chapters 1 through 7), Part Two (Chapters 8 through 12), Part Three (Chapters 13 through 16), Part Four (Chapters 17 through 20), and Part Five, the Appendix. All parts are well organized, outlined, and logical.

This is not a complicated book, but has a lot of action in it. If you read it and do what it explains, then many easy actions remain easy instead of not quite so accurate memories of what you should do in certain circumstance. Expressive examples are seen throughout this book.

Chapter 18: Changing your security settings is one of the better chapters. Digital signatures, Trust Center, and Removing Personal Information are worth the cost of the book.

Chapter 19: Introducing macros and visual basic was my favorite chapter. The Developer tab, recording macros, running macros, and testing macros were very well written. Reading Visual Basic code and using Digital signatures were good too. Getting help was well done. I hope developers get a lot of use out of this chapter. Another one that is worth the cost of the book.

The 522+ pages were easy to read and understand, partly told as a story. I read it in 3 days. There were typos and grammar errors, starting on page 4 with "yougraduate" (in the last paragraph on that page). This should not cause alarm in many books, but Word is one. If this is an editing or printing error, I apologize in advance, but if the author of a book on Word does not use the spelling and grammar checker, or does not believe the red squiggly underline and take action, then this starts to make me feel uneasy about his expertise. I'm not going to go over all the errors, someone else can do that but this is the only one of the four Missing Manual books I have reviewed where I have a concern about the expertise and thoroughness of the author and book.

I would recommend you get this book. It will pay for itself the first time the Internet goes down, you work offline using Word 2007, and you need help. This book can do that for you.

Frederick J Eccher Jr
MBA
M.S. Management of Information Systems
A.B. Psychology
B.A. Biology
CIO, Community Partners
President, Board of Directors, Saint Louis Visual Basic Users Group
rick@stlvbug.net

The reason I am shopping for a book about Word 2007 is that I have the Word 2007 Missing Manual sitting on my desk. I am pretty familiar with Word; I've used it over 20 years, but I still need to look up things. That's the problem. It takes too long to figure out how to do things by reading the Missing Manual. It is poorly organized. Material is not where you expect it. In some cases, the material is not even where the table of contents says it is. Then, it takes too long to get to the point. I am not interested in discourse; I don't care how useful or good the author thinks some technique is; I just want the information I need to get my work done. The jokes are especially annoying. There is nothing funny about Word, especially in a reference book. The book could be improved by removing all the fluff about how great Word is.

Microsoft Word is a very user-friendly product, and is not that difficult of the software to learn and use. However, with this new 2007 version of the popular product, there are some changes and additions that are worth looking at and learning about. The "Missing Manual" series by O'Reilly's Rogue Press is definitely a winner. Chris Gover did a good job covering a lot of useful information in this book. Keep this book on your desk, if you need a good reference source on the subject. 5 stars!

I have been using WORD sicne Microsoft first published and I still don't know how to get all that the software has to offer. I kept hearing about people doing this or that with WORD and I had no odea what they were talking about until I got this easy to read and easy to understand book on WORD 2007. Now it won't match up with earlier editions of WORD such as 1997 so don't waste your money or time. It is for WORD 2007. There are more than likely other editions for other editions of the software.
This book shows you how to get the full use out of your software.