Word 97 for Windows for Dummies (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Welcome to Chapter 1, the whirlwind tour of Word - just your basic stuff!..." (more)
Key Phrases: toothpick cursor, look less ugly, kindergarten keys, Microsoft Word, Page Setup, Microsoft Office (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In Word 97 for Windows for Dummies, author Dan Gookin injects the subject matter with a considerable dose of humor and carefully written advice. There's no need to worry about getting in over your head because the topics cover all of Word's most essential tasks--the ones you can't avoid. You get chatty, step-by-step instructions on navigating Word; copying, pasting, and deleting text; using Word's editing tools such as the Spell Checker and Find and Replace; saving and printing files; and formatting characters, paragraphs, and pages. You'll learn how to work with columns, tables, styles, and templates; import, export, and manage documents; perform mail merges; add graphics, borders, and shading; understand Word's Web tools; and use Word's built-in help tools such as Wizards and the Office Assistant.

Icons throughout the book signal technical tips, reminders, shortcuts, warnings, and features that work with the Microsoft IntelliPoint Mouse. Gookin wraps up the book with lists of general tips, tricks, odd and useless features, shortcuts, and reminders. As in the rest of the book, most of these are geared toward users who are more familiar with a typewriter than with a word processor or PC.

Product Description

Cut and paste, search and replace, format and print, or delete and destroy to your heart's content with the latest upgrade to Word, Microsoft's powerful word processing software for Windows 95. Whether you're writing everyday office documents, formatting mail-merge letters, composing fancy brochures and newsletters, or creating content for the World Wide Web, Dan Gookin's humorous, insightful guide to all things Word safely steers you through the ins and outs of the wondrous ways that Word works.

Word 97 For Windows For Dummies is the fun and easy way to create great-looking documents in Word (and to find out what to do when bad things happen). This book features sound advice and step-by-step details on everything from Word basics to advanced features (such as including graphics, tables, and charts in your documents and using Word's integrated wizards to make formatting, printing, and other cool Word stuff as easy as point-and-click).

Plus, be sure to check out Dan's Top Ten Lists for Word 97, including ten cool tricks, ten features you don't use (but paid for anyway), ten shortcut keys worth remembering, and the ten commandments of Word.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: For Dummies; 1 edition (December 27, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076450052X
• ISBN-13: 978-0764500527
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #810,325 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars NOT what you need if you've used Word 6, January 4, 1998

By A Customer

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.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "FOR DUMMIES"? NO, FOR SMART FOLKS WHO COULD USE SOME HELP, June 25, 2001

By	Jomo Ray (Newark NJ) - See all my reviews

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It helps---sometimes, September 20, 2003

By	J. Marren "jtm497" (Glen Ridge, NJ USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.