For those who like to find their own way rather than join a class to learn something this book is great for learning about the nuances of MS Office 2003. The Visually series make excellent use of screen grabs scattered liberally through the text. This makes it easy to translate what you are reading to what you will see on the screen.

This is a very easy to follow book that leads you step by step from Office Basics and I mean basic. It really is for raw beginners but even reasonably experienced users will gain something from it with the wide range of topics including some that many of us never really think about as I discovered.

In the first chapter it covers navigating the work area including Task Panes, Menus, Toolbars and even looks at adding and removing components.
Next chapter looks at Working With Files which covers Cut and Paste and even looks at Embedded Data and OLE plus Passwords, spelling out each step along the way. I am sure many of us never even think about Embedded data and how to use it but there it is and it can be a useful tool.

Moving on, text and formatting in Word is next and includes AutoText, a very useful tool, and Templates. All the tricks in formatting are dealt with in some detail again in a step by step procedure that is easy to follow. Tables and extra touches such as columns, borders, footnotes, drop caps and watermarks are next.

Chapter 8 deals with Spreadsheets even looking at the Tab colour on Worksheets and spends some time on creating and working with formulae and really gives a fairly comprehensive coverage how to apply them and set up your spreadsheet.
Next comes the world of Charts creating them using the Chart Wizard and ends up showing you how to create some very presentable productions.

Presentations using Powerpoint are covered in quite a bit of detail in 50+ pages. It is amazing just how much detail is covered in pages that are at least 50% screen grabs. You are shown how to create slides and add media such as Video and sound and animation to dress up your presentation and make it more interesting. It also covers burning your presentation to CD.
Databases are next with Access, with a brief introduction to set the scene followed by in detail instructions for creating a new database and maintaining or editing it. This is followed with a look at Outlook. I have never been a fan of Outlook preferring to use Outlook Express for my Email but Outlook does offer extra features such as a diary and appointments reminder that could be useful if the old memory is starting to slip a bit like mine.

Publisher is next taking an extensive look at the how to create a blank publication and the use of the templates provided and how to personalise them for maximum effect. Nothing is missed and by working through page by page you will have no trouble creating some very presentable publications.

Last but not least creating a HTML file from Office documents is covered, rather briefly, but it rounds out what Office has to offer. I highly recommend this book to beginners and suggest that even some old hands may learn a few new tricks from this book from John Wiley Publishing.

Good value at $ 46.95.

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