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by Helge Gunther
Microsoft Office 2004 is one of the essential programs for those who use OS X and need a high-powered office program and/or have to interact with the �other world.' It is the successor to Microsoft Office 2001, which could be run only up to OS 9. Office 2004 is not that much different from Office 2001 but includes a number of new features/enhancements. New users and those who are not too familiar with the four applications of Microsoft Office will find this book most helpful. It will be of lesser value to experienced users of the earlier version who can easily find out about the new features of Office 2004 by going to: http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/office2004/office2004.aspx\?pid=office2004. Typical of the Visual Quickstart Guides published by Peachpit Press, the book is offered in soft cover and a good binding that has withstood three weeks of extensive thumbing through it. Typical is also the two-column layout with the instructions arranged on the outside of the pages and graphics near the binding. Some of the black-and-white screenshots are reproduced in rather small print and fuzzy loosing some of the details. The book covers all four suites included in the Microsoft Office package: Microsoft Word (word processor); Microsoft Excel (spreadsheet), Microsoft PowerPoint (presentation program), and Microsoft Entourage (e-mail program with additional features like calendar, to-do list, notes, and project management). About 100 pages each are devoted to instructions for Word, Excel, and Entourage, and 60 pages to PowerPoint. The remaining pages cover Essential Office Techniques, instructions for combining the various applications, and a quite comprehensive index. The one term I did not find, and am always looking for in an index of an instruction book, was: troubleshooting. Chapters are consecutively numbered. The header indicates chapter number on even pages and chapter title on odd pages. Instructions for each of the four programs are clearly written and easily followed with most of the steps accompanied by appropriate screen shots, many with explanatory labels. Especially helpful are the many �Tips� with further suggestions on how to improve using the programs, as well as shortcuts. Instructions for each program are self-contained, so one is not distracted with procedures for other programs when trying to learn one. The section on how to combine the various applications is very useful even for users already familiar with the individual applications. A gray bar in the center of the page edges includes keywords, which helps to quickly find instructions for a desired application. It would have been even better if the gray bar had been staggered for the various sections. I tested and followed several instructions, including the suggested shortcuts, and found them to perform exactly as expected. While I cannot claim to have checked every page, I did find one error: on p. 424, where the instructions for creating a new project reads: �Click the project center in the upper-left corner,� but the screen shot clearly shows the project center in the lower right of the screen. I highly recommend this book for the intended audience: Beginning and Intermediate. Users who are familiar with one or two of the Office programs but not necessarily all of them, will also find the book instructive to learn about the rest of the suite and how they can be used together.
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