Sebastopol, CA--"Office 2001 is the single most important suite of
programs on the Mac, with the possible exception of Photoshop. Without
Office 2001 on the Mac, the platform would be in trouble," says David
Reynolds, coauthor with Nan Barber of
Office 2001 for
Macintosh: The Missing Manual (Pogue Press/O'Reilly, US $29.95).
His is an intriguing claim, considering that, although it is the best selling
software for the Mac, Microsoft's Office has earned a reputation in the past
for being singularly un-Mac-like.
Yet, Microsoft's lack of understanding of the Mac platform has
apparently come to an end with Office 2001, state Barber and Reynolds.
In the latest of the Missing Manual
Series from Pogue Press/O'Reilly, the authors explain that Microsoft
has finally produced a suite of programs that is truly Mac-like. "The result is
a smooth, polished application suite, rich with features not even available in
the Windows version of Office," says Reynolds. With an array of improvements
and features that are bound to please Mac users, Microsoft has stopped one
step short, requiring their users to rely on the online help, rather
than a printed manual. So, once again, Pogue Press/O'Reilly delivers
the manual that should have been in the box.
Says Reynolds, "With a suite of programs as complex and interdependent
as Office 2001, users simply have to have a manual to do anything more
than the most basic things.
Office 2001: The
Missing Manual serves that purpose."
Office 2001 for Macintosh includes an overview of each of the primary
Office programs: Word, Entourage, Excel, and PowerPoint. The authors
cover the basics, and then delve into the more advanced and less
frequently used features of each program. The latter part of the book
shows how the programs work together for even more productivity and
creativity.
"Readers will hopefully discover lots of new tricks and techniques for
using Office 2001--even power users," says Reynolds. "For example,
there's this trick in Excel that you can use to pull Web pages directly
into an Excel spreadsheet. Very cool!" According to Reynolds, the new
book is a necessary reference for anyone who bought Office 2001 and
needs to do more than write letters in Word.
The Missing Manual Series attempts to fill the void left by companies
who rely on users to print out their own user manuals or attempt to
learn programs by clicking through online help menus. Office 2001 for
Macintosh is the sixth in the bestselling series, known for its
friendly style, humor, and clarity.
Office 2001 for
Macintosh: The Missing Manual is coauthored by a team
of Missing Manual alumni: David Reynolds, executive editor of
MacAddict magazine and coauthor of
AppleWorks 6: The
Missing Manual, and Nan Barber, a freelance writer whose efforts as the
copy editor of five previous Missing Manual titles gave her an intuitive
feeling for the voice of the series. The authors are joined by series
founder David Pogue, who has closely edited the book to ensure
excellence of depth, accuracy, and prose.
Online Resources:
Office 2001 for Macintosh:
The Missing Manual
By Nan Barber & David Reynolds
May 2001
ISBN 0-596-00081-2, 637 pages, $29.95 (US)
order@oreilly.com
1-800-998-9938
