Customer Reviews

Word Pocket Guide

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There are many times I'll be in the middle of doing something in Word and not know the command to do a specific task. It would take me too long to search for it in the Word help files. With this pocket guide, I no longer need to worry about it as I can flip through this book to find what I need. This is easy to do since the book is divided into four main parts. Part 1 is about the "main parts" of Word: template and document files, shortcut menus, etc. Part 2 devotes itself to "Word tasks," like inserting and editing text, formatting paragraphs and creating lists, inserting objects, working with tables, and so forth. Part 3 is a "command reference," with numerous tables devoted to specific commands. This feature makes it easy to search for a specific command. Part 4 lists online Word resources and other related books.

This pocket guide is truly a "quick and dirty way" to find a command to do a specific Word task that otherwise might take hours to find using conventional Word help or large Word reference guides.

The Word Pocket Guide by Walter Glenn (published by O'Reilly: ISBN 0-596-00445-1) provides brief but adequate reminders for experienced users of Microsoft Word 97 and higher. A handy convention indicates which higher version each item applies to (00+ for Word 2000 and higher; 02+ for Word 2002 and higher). In my opinion, those new to Word would not find enough information in this guide to be efficient users. But for users who need a reminder about a little-used feature or about the structure of Word, the book is ideal. In my quick browsing, I solved two vexing questions, one about the hierarchy of Word's styles and another on how to rotate the text in a table column header. The table of contents is organized in just three levels, and the index is not as complete as one might wish. For example, I had to read through the whole section on Tables to find the "rotating" item because it isn't listed. Also, not every single possible feature and function of Word is included. It's a little book! The author does not explain how he chose what to include and what to omit. But, if you don't find it here, try the built-in Help or go to one of the huge, third-party manuals.

On the other hand, the contents are easy to read even though the type is quite small. The book contains four
parts:
* Part I, Understanding Word (interface, templates, documents, an overview of formatting, an explanation of shortcut menus, and Word's automatic features) reference items, graphics, tables, spelling and other tools, customizing Word, collaborating, and macros)
* Part III, Reference (commands, native formats (file extensions), startup switches, wildcards, find codes, file locations, and keyboard shortcuts)
* Part IV, Word Resources (Internet sites, books, tools, and the index).

Read Part I to learn about the structure of Word and why Word does some of the weird things it does. Once you know the whys and wherefores, it's easier to work with the application.

Part II, the "guts" of the book, is arranged in Q & A format. Under a task heading, such as Working with Tables, an introductory question sets up the answers. For example, "How
do I ... " is followed by the rest of the question (in italics), and that is followed by the answer. You scan the section to find what you what to know. Here's how it looks:
Working with Tables
How do I ...
Make a group of rows or columns a uniform size?
Select a group of cells in the row (or column) and use Table ? AutoFit ? Distribute Columns Evenly or Table ?
AutoFit ? Distribute Rows Evenly.

The book has a few shortcomings:
* Items under "How do I ..." are not arranged in any discernable order.
* There's rather a lot of passive voice.
* There's no explanation for the selection of contents in each part.
* Some items in Part I say, "more in Part II or III" but then they aren't listed in the table of contents so you have to read the text or search the index for relevant page numbers to find them.
* There's nothing about the change in bullet and number functions in later versions of Word. This is one of the most maddening "updates" and this book would do all technical writers and other Word users a service by providing an explanation and a workaround.

I didn't find everything I wanted. For example, in one of my documents, I couldn't select a graphic by rolling the cursor over it and getting it to change to the four-handle shape. I couldn't find anything about this question in this book. In fairness, I didn't find anything in either the built-in Help or my third-party manual. After much puzzling, I remembered on my own! You click on the selection arrow in the drawing toolbar. That might be an item to add to the second edition. Or if this topic is in the book already, a change in terminology might help
readers find it.

O'Reilly's Word Pocket Guide is a useful addition to my library, and I recommend it to others who need reminders about how to do things in Word from time to time.

I'm not quite sure who the audience for this book is. If it's for beginners it's too terse to be a general introduction. If it's for advanced users then it spends too much time on the basics. I'd recommend this to anyone who is familiar with the basics of a word processor but unfamiliar with the specifics of Word. It's well organized and written. But I recommend an in-person look at it before purchase.

Helpful companion to Word

I got this book hoping to understand why Word does some of the things it does and how to do something about it. As I thumbed through it, I was drawn immediately to the "Most Common Word Complaints" section which matched a few of my gripes and explained exactly how to turn them off (automatically creating numbered lists, popup balloons). This book helps find where in the multitude of menus you need to go to set up Word to suit your personal tastes, which for me has not been that easy to find using Word Help.

In my case, moving from Word 97 to Word 2002 introduced a lot of new "features" that (for me) just got in the way, such as the "Paste Options" icon that appears after you paste something into the document and the "Reviewing" bubbles that show up in the document if tracking changes is on. In this pocket guide, it was easy to locate exactly what I was looking for and adjust Word to suit my preferences. To locate anything, I would scan through the index looking for key words and then jump to that page. I think this guide complements Word Help quite well.

A quick note from a Windows user at work and a Mac user at home: This Word guide is for the Windows versions and doesn't mention anything about Word for the Mac platform. However, almost everything in the guide will translate to Word for Mac, you just have to hunt around a little more.