Special Edition Using Microsoft(R) Office Excel 2007

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Customer Reviews:

Everything there is to know about Excel 2007 [Posted on 2006-12-23]
Excel 2007 is a fairly major rewrite of the old Excel that we all came to know and love. The old Excel, whether it was Excel 97, 2000, XP, or 2003 was pretty much the same program. It had just about the same look and feel. To be sure Microsoft marketing made lots of smoke about the new features in each edition, but in reality there wasn't much fire behind that smoke. With Excel 2007 there are some significant changes - I mean, it's still a spread sheet, but but it's changed and improved in a number of ways. ==There are really two reasons for buying this book. One is that you're a newcommer to Excel. There must be a few people out there who are just starting out on Excel. This book has a fair amount of material aimed at you. It's probably not as basic as some books. It at lease presumes that you have some indication as to what a spreadsheet is nad does. ==The other reason is to be able to come up to date with the 2007 features, perhaps to use as part of your decision making process about upgrading or not. Here the book is excellent. In particular, its description of the new 'ribbon' feature is as good as or better than any I've seen. ==In general the book is organized with each thapter taking on a new subject. The beginning of each chapter is spent talking about the new 2007 features as they pertain to that particular chapter. ==All in all, here's everything there is to know in Excel 2007

Inadequate for many features [Posted on 2007-05-07]
This book is only so-so as a guide to features, and definitely isn't aimed at engineers or technical types.

A simple example: suppose you want to change the cursor motion after Enter so the cursor stays put, instead of moving down to the next cell. Look under "Cursor" in the index -"Cursor" is not an entry. Look under the Chapter on Excel Options Dialog (the menu where this is adjusted). Cursor adjustment neither is mentioned nor is the menu to do it shown in any of the screen shots. Another example: suppose you want to find the Document Properties, like who is the author. Help tells you "Click the Office Button, point to Prepare, click on Properties". Jelen tells you nothing explicit, although he has a table p. 32 suggesting erroneously that you use menu View, Show/Hide, Properties. So, use Help, I guess.

There's more: suppose you want to change the label of a single data point on an xy-chart. The procedure, found by trial and error, is to select the chart, select the FORMAT tab under "Chart Tools" on the "ribbon", select the curve on the chart (click it), select the data point (click it), select "Format Selection" in the "Current Selection" window of the "ribbon". That extended process produces the same-old menu choices you used to get by selecting the point and making a right-click. Jelen doesn't tell you anything at all, and the Excel help is useless too.

More examples? If you want to use Goal Seek, the book tells you how to find it, but it does not tell you how to set Maximum Iterations and Maximum Change, two items often changed. To find that info, use Excel Help, a hit-and-miss thing at best. The book tells you how to install Solver, but fails to point out how to call it once installed. As typical of Excel books, there is no assessment of accuracy of Excel functions, nor the hazards of round-off errors.

By and large, guidance is erratic, and there's much blather about "jaw-dropping new Excel features". The Special Edition volume on Word 2007 is better organized, has a comprehensive index, and uses cross-references to advantage. Author Jelen should look at that book to see how much better things are done.

As a postscript, Jelen's five-page discussion of Assigning a Formula to a Name (p. 857-862) has several examples, while the "Inside Out" book has only a paragraph (p. 448). So there are topics that are better in Jelen.

Look Elsewhere for Better Quality [Posted on 2008-07-29]
I purchased this book as a reference for a class that I am teaching. So far I've only read about 10 chapters of material, but have found at least 50 errors. These range from small, such as spelling, to large, aggravating issues such as referring to the wrong figures or charts. I have actually stopped reading the book and have purchased another from a different company and author. My suggestion would be to look at other books and purchase one of those. There are at least three other books on the market that do a better job than this one.

My Review [Posted on 2008-08-28]
I have not tired other Excel books, but this one is very good, do your market research, and if in question try this one. I have been using Excel for years and find this book easy to follow for the beginner and intermediate user. If your advanced you might want to try the book on Woodys Web site. I also use this book as a desk reference even though if you set your help files up to use the Internet you may not need it, your call, I am still comfortable with paper.

Good for transition, but not for learning [Posted on 2008-09-04]
In many ways this is a good book. I just don't feel that it's a good "learning" book.

For a person wanting to learn Excel 2007, this book's biggest flaw is the lack of hands-on exercises.

It does include some step-by-step examples, but they assume that the data already exists. This would have been okay had a CD been included, or the files were available on the Que site, but neither seemed to be the case. Therefore, I didn't find them terribly useful.

I would recommend that new Excel 2007 users look elsewhere. However, those making the transition from Excel 2003 might find this a fairly decent text.

No half stars so I'm stuck at 3 instead of 3 1/2...

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