Microsoft® Office System Step by Step -- 2003 Edition (Step By Step (Microsoft)) (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

This practical, hands-on tutorial expertly builds your skills with Microsoft Office 2003—one step at a time! Complete in one volume, you can teach yourself the essentials for working with Microsoft Access, Excel, FrontPage®, Outlook®, PowerPoint®, Publisher, and Word—along with two new programs, Microsoft InfoPath™ and OneNote™, and the new collaboration features of Office. With STEP BY STEP, you work at your own pace through the easy-to-follow lessons and practice exercises. You’ll discover how to publish professional-quality documents, brochures, and Web pages; develop easy-to-use spreadsheets; better manage your e-mail communications and calendar; produce and deliver compelling presentations; and build databases for better decision-making. You’ll also learn how to use OneNote, the new Microsoft Office note-taking program, and InfoPath, which enables you to easily create and use rich, dynamic forms—as well as how to take advantage of the enhanced collaboration features across the entire Office System. Whether you’re new to Office or you’re an experienced user looking to develop expertise with Office 2003, you can build and practice exactly the skills you need, exactly when you need them.

About the Author

Online Training Solutions, Inc. (OTSI) is a traditional and electronic publishing company with years of experience in the creation, production, and delivery of computer software training. OTSI is the author of Microsoft Office Access 2003 Step by Step, Microsoft Office FrontPage® 2003 Step by Step, Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003 Step by Step, Microsoft Office PowerPoint® 2003 Step by Step, Microsoft Office Word 2003 Step by Step, Microsoft Windows® XP Step by Step (Limited and Deluxe Editions), Microsoft Access Version 2002 Step by Step, and Microsoft FrontPage® Version 2002 Step by Step. OTSI is also the creator of the Quick Course® computer training series and the eclecticClassroom® family of learning products.

Curtis Frye is the author of Microsoft Excel Version 2002 Step by Step, Microsoft Excel Version 2002 Plain & Simple, several books on Access, and Faster Smarter Home Networking. He has also written three online courses for DigitalThink (Excel 2000: Data Formatting and Customization, Excel 2000: Data Analysis and Dissemination, and Advanced Database Design) and ActiveEducation's Introduction to ASP. Before beginning his writing career in 1995, Curt spent four years with The MITRE Corporation as a defense trade analyst and one year as Director of Sales and Marketing for Digital Gateway Systems, an Internet service provider. When not writing Curt is a professional improvisational comedian with ComedySportz.

Product Details

• Paperback: 992 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press (October 15, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735615209
• ISBN-13: 978-0735615205
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.4 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #144,235 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

154 of 158 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review of MICROSOFT OFFICE SYSTEM 2003 Step-ByStep, January 2, 2004

By	Douglas E. Parsons (Melba, ID United States) - See all my reviews

Book Review by Douglas E. Parsons/IPCUG

MICROSOFT OFFICE SYSTEM 2003
Step-By-Step
From OnLine Training Solutions Inc. & Curtis Frye

This 908 page book is chock filled with instructions and a training disk to allow you to learn at your own pace. If you know everything about Office 2003 you will not need this book but as I don't know as much as I wish I found this book fascinating. I love to learn new things and this book is filled with them. Even if you know how to do a lot of the things in Microsoft Office there are always new techniques available to make your work easier.

Using this book and the tutorials on the training disk you can build just the right skills you need to do your jobs and tasks. There are several `real world' examples for you to practice on and improve your skills. The CD-Rom disk included with this book is filled with the Step-By Step & One Note 2003 e-books, Microsoft Computer dictionary, business templates and clip art with which to practice your Office computing skills.

There is one section of Quick Reference for those of you that know all the stuff but just need a brief list of do this, do that to accomplish your task. In browsing through this I was amazed to find out there were so much more that could be done in Office 2003 than I ever knew.

The easy to read chapters in the book cover all the 2003 programs, Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Outlook, FrontPage, Publisher, OneNote and InfoPath (The last two are new to 2003).The chapters are laid out in easy to follow steps to complete the task you want. For instance, in chapter 11, Access 2003, Sorting for information the instructions tell you to start Access, and use the GardenCO database in the practice file folder (this is followed by complete instructions on where to find this folder; detailed step by step instructions such as I need and admire). Following this is an eight step instruction list on how to sort customers by City and Region. Many of the different chapters on the various programs give screen shots and show you how to come up with these screens. Several times I was warned that if my screen did not look like the one in the book I should go back and re-do it until is matched.

Of particular interest was chapter 29, `Working with Notes' as this covered the new OneNote 2003 program that Microsoft just came out with this year. This program makes the notes you take at meetings or in classes more useful by providing a number of ways to find them, mark them and share them. You can jot sown a great idea for the saving of mankind with minimal interruption of your current task. Then you can search your notes-no matter how big or lengthy they are. Sharing with others via e-mail and creating tasks for yourself is easy with the integration into Microsoft Outlook.

The list price for this book is $39.99 but Amazon.Com is having a 30% off sale making it $27.99 and some deal for free shipping. They also have some used copies for $25.75. You might try to find other companies that sell used books at great prices. I have bought several by doing a web search for cut rate books.

Therefore, if you are interested about becoming better at the Microsoft Office 2003 products you must get this book. Not only get it but spend a few evenings with it going through the STEP-BY-STEP tutorials. You will be very glad you did in the future when you are able to do the things you want easier and faster and develop a much better looking product. DEP

64 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not a lookup book for people in a hurry, April 4, 2005

By	Jim (Miami, FLA) - See all my reviews

I feel I was misled when I purchased this book (or maybe I was half asleep and didn't read the book description carefully enough). "Microsoft Office 2003 Step by Step" is a tutorial. It covers all the Office programs, but it does so with the idea that you can learn the programs best by getting hands-on instructions for using them. You won't find much commentary, much advice, or many tips or tricks. You will find a CD with raw data and a number of step-by-step lessons to help you gain experience with the Office programs.

If you have time to load the sample data from the companion CD and, when you need to know how to complete a task, pick your way through a step-by-step lesson, this book is for you. But if you're in a hurry and you just want to get the information quicky, try a reference book instead.

This book is not for people who, say, are at work and have to get the thing done before five o'clock. It's aimed at readers who want to learn Office programs from the ground up and have the time to do that.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This book sucks, February 18, 2006

By	David Edward Ludd (Madison, WI) - See all my reviews

First of all, the CD did not have all of the Practice Files I need to actually USE the book. Second, the features it runs through are so basic as to be useless to anyone who has ever used Word, Excel, etc. There's nothing on how to creat mail merges in Word, for example. This was a complete waste of $20. Only buy this crummy book if you know absolutely NOTHING about Word, Excel, etc.