Customer Reviews

Word 97 for Windows for Dummies

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

 

 

I loved "W6 for W"; when I got the new program, I immediately bought this book. It is not nearly so helpful as the former, and has some serious mistakes and omissions. It's hard to believe that the contents were checked. One error comes in PASTE. One cannot paste into a table. Despite all the merry references to doing so in the book, it cannot be done as described. One must use Paste Special. (And if one was sold an early version of Office97, even that doesn't work - a patch has to be downloaded). Paste Special is an enormous hassle. (The book gives it a short paragraph and dismisses it).I'd have liked instructions on how to do this without all the steps.(Edit, Paste Special, choose how to paste, uncheck the float image option). Is there no way to make unfloat the default? And what the heck is this floating layer business? This is a drastic change from Word 6, that should have been explained somewhere. There is absolutely no information about what happens to pasted objects when the document is saved in a W6 or W.51-for-mac format. Most of us must share with other users, and knowing what might happen would be a help.

I used to have a teacher who'd say, with a wry grin,"The wise man can always play the fool, but the fool can never play the wise man." With that in mind, I have no problem picking up a book about a subject I want to know with "...for Dummies" in the title. The wise man knows his limitations, and the wise man should have a sense of humor.

Dan Gookin lets you know out front that he's a professional writer, not a technoguru. His expertise with Microsoft Word is based on years of using it and writing about it - therefore, functional knowledge, and only as technical as need be. That's the approach he takes, in straight-forward, easy to read language.

His command of English is heaps easier to understand and apply than Microsoft's owner's manual and computer tutorial program writers. His large dollops of humor, which might be occasionally irksome, are something I believe should be requisite when using computers; you need to keep your perspective and remember hardware and software are just tools. Tools! OK, to some people they're expensive toys, too. Too expensive to make jokes about? Puh-leeze...Check this book out, it may save you time and aggravation.

This book is great for someone like me. My life does not depend upon my working knowledge of Word - but it's helpful. I am neither dummy nor beginner. Starting a few years ago, when the local public library began to offer free instructor-led and computer-based self-tutorial classes, I learned and worked with Word for my personal and home-based business use. I tend to be self-taught. A lot of what I learned about using Word to suit my simple purposes came from my mistakes. As someone said, though, Experience may not be the best teacher, but it's certainly the most painful.

Gookin has saved me some pain. He's written a reference book, not a textbook. That means you don't have to read it straight through. Just open it to wherever you want or need. I skipped the opening, beginner's stuff - I'm sure it's great and I may read it for fun someday - and proceeded directly to stuff that affected me (the care & feeding of files and folders), might affect me (functioning of the Web toolbar and HTML documents, which Gookin was dead-on about: they are a pain), to stuff that may become important to me, like Mail Merge.

Bottom line, I found the book informative, accurate, encouraging, empowering, and sometimes bitingly funny. It's like reading an entertaining encyclopedia. After Gookin is through demystifying toolbars & floating palettes, features, buttons and option windows, the hidden bangs for the buck, the ten things you should always do and a few you might not want to ever do, or even consider...well, you just might feel in control. Yeah, an average person, the computer "semiliterate," in control! Is the book "perfect"? I don't know. It did alright by me - I was looking for help, not perfection, and I believe I got it. Could be you will, too.

Plenty of us are still using older version of Microsoft software, and if you're one of those this guide is as good as any. You may spend a little time searching for the answer but it's usually hidden somewhere. The book is helpful in steering neophytes away from fancy but overly complicated or even risky features.

I bought this for my Mom who has no computing experience. It's unfortuneate that they don't use windows tools instread it is all about alt and function keys. What a good way to confuse a beginner!

The book was great read it

On page 295, in section regarding shortkeys for symbols, I can't find check mark in symbols given. Can anyone please tell me where to find the check mark? Thanks in advance!