Title: Office XP : The Complete Reference
Author: Stephen L. Nelson and Julia Kelly
Publisher: Osborne McGraw-Hill http://www.osborne.com
Publication Date: April 2001
Pages: 1002 with CD
ISBN: 0-07-213246-9
Price: $39.99

Office XP : The Complete Reference by Stephen L. Nelson and Julia Kelly, is an overall guide to using all the programs and different parts of Microsoft Office XP, the newest edition of the Office suite of programs, and it will get you comfortably familiar with each Office program you need to use. The book is written with plain-language instructions that lay out what you need to know to do a task well and then tell you, in step-by-step instructions, how to complete the task. The book gets you up and running quickly
and allows you to create Word documents, Excel worksheets, Access databases, PowerPoint presentations, Outlook messages, and web pages. The book has instructions, tips, tricks, advice, and shortcuts for getting the most out of Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Outlook, Internet Explorer, and Publisher, as well as the other parts of Office XP. The book comes with a CD on which you will find over 150 sample files for experimenting with the features explained in the book and over 50 headstart templates to create Word documents, Excel worksheets, and PowerPoint presentations.

Inside you'll find information on the following:

• Coordinate workflow, manage projects, and integrate documents and data through the complementary suite of applications in Office XP;
• Format Word documents professionally with styles, drop caps, floating text, and cross-column graphics;
• Plan and build powerful Access databases to store and manage complex information;
• Use Internet Explorer to publish online, browse, and transmit data;
• Create and customize multimedia PowerPoint presentations;
• Design, edit, and publish newsletters, brochures, or more complete volumes, plus enhance publications with your own graphics or fonts;
• Facilitate communication and organize your time efficiently in Outlook;
• Use Excel to organize, manipulate, and chart numerical data, and exchange data between Excel and Access quickly and easily.

Office XP: The Complete Reference consists of: an Introduction; 33 chapters and appendixes; and is divided into four parts.

Introduction: The book begins with a special Introduction which includes an overview of the book.

Part I starts by providing background information so you can be a proficient user of the Office XP programs. It explains what the programs are and what they do, as well as how to manage Word
documents, Excel workbooks, PowerPoint presentations, and so forth. You also learn how to customize the Office XP programs to make them do your bidding and how to use tools such as the
spell checker and clip art gallery, which are common to all the programs. Last but not least, you also learn how to share data among the different programs.

• Chapter 1: What Is Office?
• Chapter 2: Managing Document Files
• Chapter 3: Using the Common Office Tools
• Chapter 4: Customizing the Office Programs
• Chapter 5: Sharing Information
• Chapter 6: Web Publication with Office

Part II describes everything you need to know to use Word. You learn how to work faster, how to create and use styles for consistent formatting, and how to perform simple desktop publishing with Word. You also learn how to run a mail-merge procedure to merge lists of names, addresses, and other data into form letters, mailing labels, and so forth.

• Chapter 7: Laying Out a Document
• Chapter 8: Working Faster and Better
• Chapter 9: Styles for Consistent and Easy Formatting
• Chapter 10: Creating Complex Documents with Word
• Chapter 11: Automating Tedious Work

Part III describes and discusses the Excel spreadsheet program. You learn what workbooks are and how to enter labels and values into worksheet cells, as well as how to use functions and formulas to perform a wide variety of calculations in your worksheet data. Part III also describes how to use the Chart Wizard to create charts, how to create PivotTables for sophisticated and flexible data summaries, and how to use the advanced mathematical modeling tools such as Solver.

• Chapter 12: Excel Basics
• Chapter 13: Excel Formulas and Functions
• Chapter 14: Using the Chart Wizard
• Chapter 15: Working with PivotTables
• Chapter 16: Advanced Modeling Techniques

Part IV explains how to put together a PowerPoint presentation. You learn how to create the presentation, how to embellish it with artwork and animation, and how to create speaker's notes and
other amenities to ensure that your presentation is a hit. Of course, you also learn how to give a presentation.

• Chapter 17: Creating a PowerPoint Presentation
• Chapter 18: Customizing Your Presentation
• Chapter 19: Showing a Presentation

Part V is about Outlook-how to send and receive e-mail and files, and how to use the information manager features of Outlook to keep track of appointments, contacts, and your to-do list.

• Chapter 20: Using Outlook for E-Mail
• Chapter 21: Outlook As a Personal Information Manager
• Chapter 22: Working with Newsgroups

Part VI shows you how to get connected and start surfing the World Wide Web and local intranets using Internet Explorer. It talks about using Outlook Express, and it discusses using the Office XP Web Components to work with web-published Excel and Access files in your browser.

• Chapter 23: Browsing the Internet with Internet Explorer
• Chapter 24: Using Web Components to Publish Web Data
• Chapter 25: using Internet Explorer Internet Tools

Part VII covers the Access database program. In this part, you learn about relational databases, how to create an Access database, how to create and link database tables, and how to create forms, queries, and reports.

• Chapter 26: Creating an Access Database
• Chapter 27: Refining Tables and Creating Relationships
• Chapter 28: Entering Data, Using Forms, & Exporting Data
• Chapter 29: Sorting, Filtering, and Querying Data
• Chapter 30: Creating Reports and Mailing Labels

Part VIII shows you how to use Publisher to create eye-catching publications. You'll learn how to lay out a flyer, invitation, or other publication. You'll learn how to add text and graphics and finally, how to print your creation.

• Chapter 31: Laying Out a Publication
• Chapter 32: Adding Content to a Publication
• Chapter 33: Publishing

• Appendix A: Installing Microsoft Office XP: describes how to install and reinstall Office.
• Appendix B: Introducing the Customer Manager: tells how to work with the Office Customer Manager.
• Appendix C: Using the Companion CD: describes what is on the CD that is included with this book.

For running Office XP, you need:

• Pentium 133 MHz or higher processor;
• Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows Me, Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 6 or greater, Windows 2000;
• For Windows 98 and Windows 98 Second Edition, 24MB of RAM for the operating system; for Windows Me, 32MB of RAM for the operating system; for Windows NT Workstation or Server 4.0, 32MB of RAM for the operating system; for Windows 2000 Professional, 64MB of RAM for the operating system; plus an additional 8MB of RAM for each Office application running simultaneously.
• For Windows 2000, 115mB of available hard disk space for the default configuration of Office Professional. Customers without Windows 2000, Windows Me, or Office 2000 SR1 require an extra 50MB of hard disk space for the Office System Pack.
• CD-ROM drive;
• Super VGA (800x600) or higher-resolution monitor, with at least 256 colors.