CompuNotes Notes from The Cutting Edge of Personal Computing ISSN: 1525-4534 November 8, 1999 Issue 159 +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= To subscribe, send an e-mail to listserv@peach.ease.lsoft.com SUBSCRIBE COMPUNOTES-L FirstName LastName To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to listserv@peach.ease.lsoft.com SIGNOFF COMPUNOTES-L For Contact and Other Information See Bottom of Publication! +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Buy Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 in 10 Minutes at Amazon.Com Now and Support CompuNotes! Amazon.Com - about $10.39 -- Click Here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0672315564/compunotes/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ CONTENTS My Notes: 1=> CompuNotes Notes, mailto:pgrote@i1.net 2=> This Issue's Winner! News: 3=> News of the Week, mailto:pgrote@i1.net Reviews: 4=> Product: Agent 2000 v1.0, business Reviewed By: Howard Carson, mailto:howardcarson@home.com 5=> Product: AVG Anti-Virus v6.0, utility Reviewed By: Matthew Carson, mailto:howardcarson@home.com 6=> Product: Diet & Fitness, family Reviewed By: Robin Nobles, mailto:robin@robinsnest.com 7=> Product: CuteFTP 3.0, utility Reviewed By: Doug Reed, mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com 8=> Product: Poor Richard's E-mail Publishing: Creating Newsletters, Bulletins, Discussion Groups and Other Powerful Communication Tools, book Reviewed By: Paul Schneider, mailto:paul@studio5D.com 9=> Product: Teach Yourself Microsoft Office 97, book Reviewed By: Paul Schneider, mailto:p-schne@uiuc.edu 1=> CompuNotes Notes, CompuNotes - None this Week, but commentary on the Microsoft case next week. mailto:pgrote@i1.net 2=> Winner! This week's winner: akburke@IBM.NET. 3=> News, Articles and Game Bits, mailto:pgrote@i1.net or mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com IBM Redesigning PCs . . . http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-1431968.html Outlook Can be Compromised . . . http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-1432242.html IE Leads Browser Race . . . http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-1431731.html Judge Says Linux Won't Last . . . http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,32380,00.html Apple Wins Another Copycat Round . . . http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,32408,00.html Toy'R'Us Isn't . . . http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/bursts/0,7407,2390241-1,00.html Are Internet Cookies Bad? http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19991108S0023 White House Is Preparing for Y2K . . . http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/19991108/tc/yk_usa_3.html Why You Should Care About an 8 Year Old Floppy Problem . . . http://www.pcworld.com/pcwtoday/article/0,1510,13676,00.html 4=> Product: Agent 2000 v1.0, business Reviewed By: Howard Carson, mailto:howardcarson@home.com Requires: Windows 95, 98, or NT4.0 or higher, 32MB of RAM, Pentium 133MHz or higher, VGA video, sound card. MSRP: US$79.95 Agent 2000 v1.0 is a collection of unified modules which form a complete Personal Information Manager (PIM). The modules include a graphical appointment manager, an address manager with auto-dialing and links to WWW, FTP and newsgroup sites, a task/to-do list creator and manager, alarms, built-in e-mail and spam filtering, a diary, a knowledge agent, a biorhythm graph and compatibility chart, city distance and financial calculators, a measurement converter, custom wallpaper backgrounds, and much more. Agent 2000 modules can actually be purchased from VulcanSoft as standalone utilities, all priced at US$19.95. Agent 2000 was a recent ZDNet Editors' Pick (July 1999). We tested Agent 2000 on two different computers: a PII/350MHZ machine with 128MB of RAM running Windows 98, and a Dell Dimension XPS P166s with 64MB of RAM running Windows NT4 (SP4). Installation and operation on both machines was flawless - no lockups, no incompatibilities, and no instabilities. Agent 2000 can't accommodate network or workgroup use, but still represents a viable alternative to Microsoft(R) Outlook. In fact, Outlook could benefit from several Agent 2000 features such as independent file linking, the Financial Calculator, City Distance, and Converter modules. Agent 2000's Appointment Agent gives you daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly graphical views, individual alarms for each appointment, as well as drag & drop support (you can drag & drop almost any data from one agent or module to another). The Task Agent offers lists of overdue, completed, daily, weekly, and monthly tasks, individual alarms for each task, and repeat settings. The Address Agent features autodialing of phone numbers, direct links to Web, FTP, and newsgroup sites, automatic reminders for upcoming birthdays, and a virtually unlimited number of contact items. The E-mail Agent includes built-in, multi-level Spam filtering, support for an unlimited number of mailboxes, and a voice-announced number of sent and received messages, and automatic detection of e-mail, WWW, FTP and newsgroup hyperlinks in memo- fields. You'll also find a Diary Agent, a Knowledge Agent for flexible storage of unrelated pieces of information (you can create a collection of folders in which to store data, to which you can point individual records and appointments). There's also a Biorhythm module, and Calculators for finances, measurements, and distances. The program also has the ability to grow with the user's demands or level of expertise. A user may start by simply adding records to the address manager and later add links to digital photographs, sales reports, entire folders, or to a record in the appointment manager. We liked the built-in support for HTML e-mail (although we could not get it to work with some e-mail pages - Andover News for example). HTML e-mail such as Outlook stationery worked just fine. Cons: Reducing the width of the Biorhythm module can cause the bar graph text to become unreadable. It also happens in the Setup tab sheet of the Task Agent. This PIM needs the loving hand of a serious UI designer. Agent 2000 is fully functional and usable now, but it could be much, much better after the creation of a set of attractive and more intuitive module and agent interfaces. The Menu button in the agent windows should be renamed to Links and placed higher in the UI because it disappears every time the height of the windows is reduced to fit in another module dialog or agent window. The whole package could benefit greatly from some solid QA testing too. You can't import Outlook and other address databases in native formats; Agent 2000 will import text (TXT) and Comma-Separated Value (CSV) files only. If you've got a large address database and you decide to use Agent 2000, you've got to do a fair bit of preparatory work. Agent 2000 cannot track linked files (such as bitmaps) which are moved or deleted (the software should at least call up a file selector to help find the errant file). Pros: Quick access to context sensitive menus in each module and agent via right-click. Well designed, basic drag & drop support (no OLE support though, so there's no drag & drop between apps). Although the biorhythm module is a bit detractory (contemporary business and personal pressures often don't 'care' whether you're in an 'up' or 'down' period), the other non-traditional modules are extremely useful and really don't exist in this particular combination in other products. We spent nearly a full hour playing with the Converter module (did you know that 300 tablespoons are equal to .001 cords of wood?) We're not sure if this is accurate or not, but we had a blast fooling around (it will convert anything to anything, and it's blazingly fast). The appointment, task/to-do and address agents were easy to use, as were record linking and file linking, making Agent 2000 a better choice than many other PIMs. If you have no need for workgroup or group appointment scheduling and sharing across a network, or if you're a traveling salesperson (or anyone else who is on the road frequently for a small company), or if you've got a busy sales or individual meeting schedule, this PIM is worth a look. Vulcansoft, Ltd. Agent 2000 v1.0 Product Web site: http://www.vulcansoft.com 5=> Product: AVG Anti-Virus v6.0, utility Reviewed By: Matthew Carson, mailto:howardcarson@home.com Requires: Windows 95, 98, NT, 3.x and DOS (includes resident protection for all platforms) MSRP: US$19.95 to register Trial version (v6.0) Grisoft Inc., the maker of AVG Anti-Virus, is a U.S.-based company established in 1998 as a holding company for Grisoft, s.r.o., a Czech Republic-based high-tech company specializing in the development and marketing of anti-virus software for computer systems since 1990. AVG Anti-Virus is a virus detection and eradication program which provides users with an easy to use interface and effective tools with which to combat viruses. AVG Anti-virus was tested on a Pentium 233MMX equipped with 64MB RAM, running Windows 95. The software was also installed on a Pentium II/266MHz virus test machine at Proton Research in Toronto. Installing our review copy of AVG Anti-Virus was a bit of an adventure. I placed the CD into the CD-ROM drive and waited for the Autorun to kick in. I waited. And waited. Nothing. The installer would not autorun. So I started Windows Explorer. After double- clicking the setup icon, the standard install screen popped up and showed me the license info and so on. I clicked 'Yes' several times until the program asked me where I wanted to install AVG Anti-Virus 6.0. I set an installation path. As the software began to install, a funny thing happened - the installer stopped at 22%, and then crashed. I stared for a moment, then sighed, and rebooted. I tried again. Same result. To make a long story short (and to keep this review under 6 pages), it turned out the CD itself was faulty. I ended up copying the files from the CD to a Jaz disc, and installing from there. Once done, I rebooted and started AVG Anti-Virus. The first thing I noticed was the user-friendly interface. Everything was laid out in a way that allowed very quick access to any part of the program. Big icons and easy-to-read fonts made it extremely easy to see and understand what I was doing. There are four big buttons on the left side of the UI: AVG Control Center, Resident Shield, E-Mail Scanner, and Virus Database. Each function can be active or disabled, depending on what options you pick in the setup. When I clicked on each of the buttons, a dialog box popped up and told me exactly what it did or was doing, and asked me whether or not I wanted to enable it or disable it. As well as having the on-screen options to work with, there is a standard menu bar at the top of the window, that allows access to all the options within the program. There are also buttons across the bottom of the UI: Info, Help, Test Results, Scheduler, and Exit. Info provides information about Grisoft, the software license, etc. Help provides access to the online help system. Test Results provides information about all the previous scans you have conducted on your system using AVG Anti-Virus. Scheduler lets you set a specific time each day (or week, month, etc.) for AVG Anti-Virus to scan your system. There are two different types of scans: a complete test which scans internal hard drives, and a Removable Media test which lets you scan floppy disks, CD-ROMs, removable media, and external hard drives. The Removable Media test is a welcome addition to the scan options, as most other Anti-virus programs force you to select the drive from a list (which I've always felt was kind of clumsy). The default virus listing was quite extensive, and became even more lengthy when I downloaded the latest virus profiles update from the Grisoft/AVG web site. The AVG Control Center lets you modify any of the options. For example, you can tell the E-Mail Scanner whether or not to scan outgoing mail, or set a scheduled time for AVG to update itself. The Scheduler options are extremely useful for someone with a permanent Internet connection (network, ADSL/DSL, or cable), as the scheduler can work unhindered as it downloads the latest updates. I used my Father's virus collection at Proton Research in an attempt to fool AVG Anti-Virus. We tried Ghost, Shadow, a dozen different Word Macro virii, the extremely tough Stealth_Boot.C.STB and PeterII variants (boot sector/MBR virii), the scary Taiwan.DoomI.A variant (which erases the first 160 sectors of C and D drives on the 8th day of any month), and Hydra (a crippling polymorphic virus). They're all nasty, but AVG detected them easily and permanently removed all of them. Despite a couple of "Cons" (see below), AVG Anti-Virus is recommended. Cons: Maybe Grisoft should test their install CDs before giving them to reviewers. Read the following blurb from the Grisoft web site on AVG's Heuristic Analysis component and tell me if it makes any sense: "The advanced heuristics technology implemented in the AVG engine represents nine years of continuous development is now not only the "privilege" of an "on-demand" scanner, but it is available even on the AVG Resident Shield, AVG E-Mail Scanner or AVG Shell Extension." It doesn't make much sense, does it? The problem is either abidingly poor translation and localization of documents, or someone who is trying to be an engineer, programmer, writer, proof reader, and marketing manager, all at the same time. It doesn't work. In any case, the much-overused word Heuristics, actually refers to analysis and use by logical trial and error, as opposed to analysis according to predetermined algorithms or variable formulas. Essentially, AVG Anti-Virus is designed to use trial and error methods to analyze code which it suspects might represent a virus. This is not a new approach, nor is it a bad approach; just don't be dazzled by the word heuristic. Pros: Easy to use interface, good database, effective protection, and low price. What more can you ask? A polished anti- virus program that does its job well. Because it works well and is being diligently updated, you can safely ignore some of the many localization problems. AVG Anti-Virus seems to be a safe, robust alternative to McAfee Antivirus, Norton Antivirus, and Dr. Solomon's (note that McAfee and Dr. Solomon's are both now owned by Network Associates). If you register your own copy of AVG Anti-Virus on the Grisoft web site, you can sign up for the AVG Virus Alert. The service notifies you via e-mail about new virus threats and corresponding updates to AVG Anti-Virus. Grisoft Inc. AVG Anti-Virus v6.0 Web site: http://www.grisoft.com 6=> Product: Diet & Fitness, family Reviewed By: Robin Nobles, mailto:robin@robinsnest.com Requires: 486DX or higher; Win 3.1, 95, 95; VGA or SVGA; 4 MB of RAM; CD-ROM; 13 MB hard drive for full installation. MSRP: $12.99 When you start on a diet or exercise program, do you find yourself slacking off after a few days? Do you typically hate diet food? Are you allergic to exercise? If you're like me and answered "yes" to all three questions, you may want to take a moment to consider Expert Software's Diet & Fitness program. This program lets you choose the foods and exercises that YOU like. You indicate your desired weight and the time frame you have in mind, and the program will automatically calculate the amount of daily exercise and calorie intake to achieve that goal-and keep you healthy in the meantime. To begin, you choose "Start a New Plan." You're given these options: Start a new diet and fitness plan, where you select foods and an exercise program to include in your plan and manage your weight loss program; Complete a survey on your activity level, medical history, lifestyle, and nutrition levels, and have the program generate a wellness report based on your answers; and, View helpful hints on topics such as eating out, eating on the run, food shopping guidelines, changing your eating habits, and exercise guidelines. At the "Start a new diet and fitness plan" area, you enter your personal information, such as your height, weight, activity level, and how much weight you want to lose. You choose a goal date. The program will tell you how long it will take you to lose the desired weight based on whether you lose a half pound a week, a pound a week, and so forth. Then, you're told that in order to lose the weight, you'll need to eat so many calories and burn so many calories every day. You can adjust it to where you're eating more calories and burning more through exercise, or if you're less active, you'll simply eat and exercise less. You can choose exercises like writing, ditch digging, jogging, swimming, cooking, you name it! There are over 200 different fitness activities to choose from. Make your choices, and the program will tell you how many minutes a day that you'll need to do that exercise in order to burn the number of calories needed for you to lose weight. Can't get much easier than that. One of my favorite parts of the program is the Automated Menu Design. You simply tell the program what type of diet you want to be on, such as lactose-free, low fat, or ADA. Tell it how many days of menus you want, and click on generate. The program will generate menus for that number of days, listing the portion size, description, and classification. Then, click on Shopping List, and you can print out a copy of the ingredients you'll need to buy at the store! The program even features a recipe book with delicious- sounding recipes like three-bean salad, yeast rolls, and chicken waldorf salad. Diet & Fitness helps you create an exercise and diet program tailored just for you, and through the use of technology, even makes it fun! Expert Software Diet & Fitness Product Website: http://www.expertstore.com/dr/v2/ec_MAIN.Master 7=> Product: CuteFTP 3.0, utility Reviewed By: Doug Reed, mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com Requirements: Windows 95/98, Internet connection MSRP: $39.95 (download) 30 day free trial version; $9.95 upgrade for owners of previous versions of CuteFTP. CuteFTP is a popular FTP client now in it's third iteration. For webmasters and IT professionals, CuteFTP is a powerful tool you must have in your arsenal. New features make this an attractive choice for ordinary PC users as well. Best of all, you can try it for free for thirty days and make up your own mind. I put this high on the list of must-have Internet software. Basics If you've used a previous version of CuteFTP, version 3.0 will be completely familiar to you. The Site Manager helps you quickly and easily connect to your favorite ftp sites. A number of the more common sites are already in the Site Manager, and you can quickly add your own. Two clicks and -ta da - you are there! The look of the interface is the same - an upper panel that shows you messages from CuteFTP and the site you are connected with, two middle panels which display the contents of your hard drive and the ftp site, and a small lower panel that shows you what CuteFTP is currently trying to do. You can do one file at a time, or set up a queue and let the program run in the background while you do something else. The Queue for CuteFTP is fairly advanced, and allows you to upload & download files from more than one site in a single queue. Version 3.0 also retains the best features of previous versions, like the ability to easily change file attributes - an essential ability for anyone using cgi or perl scripts on a web server. New Features CuteFTP 3.0 has a number of new features, most dealing with small improvements to the overall ease-of-use of CureFTP. The Connection Wizard is designed to help you set up a connection to an ftp site (which you can then connect to with Site Manager). CuteFTP 3.0 can now also do persistent file transfers, which means that it can not only resume broken file transfers but can do so without your direct assistance. CuteFTP can now also auto reconnect to sites, again without having to involve you. New shell integration with Windows 95/98 means that you can right-click on a file or folder and CuteFTP will be one of the choices on the right-click menu. Two new features deserve special mention, however, and are far more than 'small' improvements. CuteFTP now includes CuteHTML, a free HTML editor (CuteHTML is also available as a separate download) . Within CuteFTP, CuteHTML allows for remote editing of web pages, style sheets, and perl/cgi scripts. The final new feature for CuteFTP is CuteMP3, an MP3/File Finder - which uses a number of popular search engines (Lycos, MusicSeek) to find mp3 or other audio files. CuteMP3 can search by file, artist, or song title; you can choose how many results to display, as well as sort the results by criteria such as site, size, file type, and date. CuteMP3 also has a feature called "SmartGet"; basically you tell CuteMP3 which file you want and select SmartGet, which assembles a list of sites with that file and then moves down the list until it successfully connects and downloads the file. Summary CuteFTP is the best of the FTP clients around, easy to use and powerful in its capabilities. The new features make it well worth the $9.95 upgrade cost for previous owners, especially webmasters who are constantly uploading/changing files on a remote site. The addition of CuteHTML and the ability to remotely edit web pages without having to download them is a great tool for webmasters. CuteMP3 is a useful tool for anyone who wants to find & download music files. SmartGet makes the process of finding and downloading the song you want painless & easy. Highly recommended for everyone. CuteFTP 3.0 http://www.globalscape.net/products/cuteftp/cuteftp.html GlobalSCAPE Software http://www.globalscape.net/ 8=> Product: Poor Richard's E-mail Publishing: Creating Newsletters, Bulletins, Discussion Groups and Other Powerful Communication Tools, book Reviewed By: Paul Schneider, mailto:paul@studio5D.com MSRP: $29.95 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Buy Poor Richard's E-mail Publishing: Creating Newsletters, Bulletins, Discussion Groups and Other Powerful Communication Tools at Amazon.Com Now and Support CompuNotes! Amazon.Com - about $23.96 -- Click Here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0966103254/compunotes/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ When I first heard about this book I thought cool, but could one write an entire book about e-mail publishing? I mean e-mail publishing is not rocket science, is it? Well after I side-stepped my initial reaction I realized that, rocket science or not, I was at a loss to explain just how one could produce a successful e-mail publication. Fortunately, this is not a problem for the author of Poor Richard's E-mail Publishing, Chris Pirillo. He deftly provides you with easy to understand steps towards the development of a successful e-publication. However, perhaps of most importance is that he forces you to stop, think, and ask questions at each step of the process. Mr. Pirillo, or Chris as many people call him, is also the author of a popular and, if I don't say so myself, very useful newsletter, LockerGnome. Using his degree in English, tremendous success in the e-mail publishing world, and a good dose of Midwestern humor he thoughtfully walks the reader through each of the steps that need to be taken when developing an e-mail publication. The book can be subdivided into three sections, How to, Publishers' Stories, and the Appendices. In the first section Chris introduces himself. Some books take a straight forward more formal instructional approach, while others take on a personality, either dictated by the publisher (e.g., Dummies series) or that of the individual author. This book follows the later. Fortunately for the reader Chris' personality is such that it doesn't take long before you actually want to meet the guy. Publishing an e-mail newsletter seems simple at first (as my own initial reaction indicated) but doing it right isn't. Chris aids you by pointing out many of the potential pitfalls that await. In truth there are very few clear and fast rules in this realm. Instead of always adhering to singular method, the author wisely acknowledges this pointing out the questions you should be asking. Probably the one aspect that impressed me most was the attention to the customer and netiquette. This is not a "how to get rich quick" book on e-mail publishing. The text continually reminds you about the importance of your reader and your responsibilities. In other words it's a "how to create a successful publication with a loyal and happy audience" book. The second section is a collection of short pieces by various successful e-mail publishers. Each of the publishers attempts to point out where they went right (or wrong) and give you the information you need to get your publication moving in the right direction. Perhaps the most comforting aspect of this section was that with the knowledge gained in the first, it wasn't hard to predict why something went right or wrong for each of these publishers. The last section is a collection of various indices that are designed to provide you with all the resources you need to get moving in the right direction. Perhaps one of the nicest aspects of this section is the short commentary Chris provides about the suggested resources. It is refreshing to seem something more than just a list of resources. It almost gives you a feeling as if Chris were looking over your shoulder offering words of wisdom as you read through the resources. This is not a conventional how to or e-mail publishing in 7 days book. E-mail publishing is a less definable entity. The abstractness of this is mirrored by my initial question of, "What can he cover?" as well as the titles of some of the sections, "Getting Comfy," "Powerful Stuff," Who am I," and "Out to Lunch." Overall, Poor Richard's E-mail publishing covers pretty much everything you need to know from an e-mail primer, to promoting your publication, and much more. In each area an attentive presentation is provided to both the concrete and abstract aspects of the topic at hand. If you want to make a quick buck or have a penchant for migraines, ignore this review, but if you want to develop an e-mail publication complete with a loyal audience check out Poor Richard's E-mail Publishing. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Buy Poor Richard's E-mail Publishing: Creating Newsletters, Bulletins, Discussion Groups and Other Powerful Communication Tools at Amazon.Com Now and Support CompuNotes! Amazon.Com - about $23.96 -- Click Here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0966103254/compunotes/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Top Floor Publishing Poor Richard's E-mail Publishing: Creating Newsletters, Bulletins, Discussion Groups and Other Powerful Communication Tools http://TopFloor.com/email 9=> Product: Teach Yourself Microsoft Office 97, book Reviewed By: Paul Schneider, mailto:p-schne@uiuc.edu Requirements: Familiarity with Windows 95/98/NT and Office 97 Recommended: No recommendations Reviewed on: AMDK2-233, 96 MB RAM, 2x CDROM, MX300 Sound, Mystic Video card MSRP: $19.99 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Buy Teach Yourself Microsoft Office 97 at Amazon.Com Now and Support CompuNotes! Amazon.Com - about $15.99 -- Click Here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764575112/compunotes/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Let me preface this review by telling you a little about myself. I've spent the last several years studying educational psychology, working in distance education, and developing courses. You might go so far as to say I have a pretty descent idea about what makes for good pedagogy. Taking this in to account, I would have to say that Teach Yourself MS Office 97 (TYO97) does a superb job of aiding you to do just that. I be you thought I was going to give it the big thumbs down, didn't ya! Okay besides my expert opinion, what is it about this book that makes it so sound? In my review I will first discuss about what topics are covered. I will then follow this with a discussion about its structure, design, and teaching methods. TYO97 bills itself as a text for beginner to intermediate level users. In aiming itself towards this audience, it takes on the perilous task of instructing novices and thus addressing the some of the problems they often have without insulting them. Having taught many novices myself I believe the authors have done an excellent job in this arena. This strength particularly shines with the selection of first topics for their book. The first chunk of the book (about 100 pages) covers basic Office tasks. This may seem like a lot of time to spend on this area, but believe me, it is time well spent. The chapters in the this section are as follows: Understanding Office 97 Basics (Opening and closing programs, using menus, toolbars, dialogue boxes, etc.), Getting Some Help (Office Assistant, Wizards, Help System, etc.), Managing Your Files (Saving Office Files, Opening and Closing Files, Deleting Old Files, Folders, etc.), Printing Documents (Choosing what to print, previewing, controlling your printer, etc.), Making Selections (Selecting words, paragraphs, objects, cells, using drag and drop, etc.), Putting Documents on the Web (Creating Web Pages, Linking Pages Together, Adding Graphics, etc.). The remaining sections cover all of the Office products that are available, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Access. The most time is spent on Word (100 pages) and Excel (70 pages), with PowerPoint, Outlook and Access receiving similarly smaller exposure levels(40-50 pages). In each of these chapters a wide variety of topics are covered, starting with the basics and moving on to some intermediate and even slightly advanced topics. I was particularly impressed with their coverage of Word topics. Okay, so the book covers pretty much what every MS Office book covers, what sets this one apart? From the get go, the authors follow a consistent well thought out instructional plan. Each chapter starts out with a list of skills that will be learned in the chapter and a one page overview of the topic. What follows are the specified topics divided into two page chunks. In instances where the material warrants a length greater than two pages the authors have wisely found discrete ways to divide them into two page pieces. Each of the topics starts off with a short description with a written example within the text. On the second page there are four screen snapshots which illustrate the task. You are instructed to follow along with your own computer. In addition, there are advanced/additional task for you to try after you master the bare bones. Finally, in each two page section, they have a nice cross- reference that directs you to other related topics in the book and a web-page that is related to the program currently being covered, if not the particular topic at hand. In the last part of each chapter you will find a personal workbook which asks you to complete a variety of task related to what you just learned. (Well, hopefully you did! If not, the answers are in the back of the book!) Next, there are about 4-6 different practice exercises, a list of a couple real-world applications, and a short visual quiz. In other words the final pieces round out a well thought out lesson that a professor could be proud of. So is it the perfect book? Nah, of course I do have a few gripes! The tone of the book is one of a friendly patient instructor, who is not completely void of humor, but in my opinion could use a little more. However, I must stress this is strictly a personal preference. The one thing I did find disconcerting was the extra web pages for each lesson. At times they perfectly complimented the lesson at hand, but in many other instances there was virtually no relation to the task at hand. While this provided for some divergent thinking, remaining consistent, I believe, would have been the better choice. Last, and this is not a complaint, remember the book is aimed at beginners. If you are an intermediate to advanced user you will probably be disappointed. In sum, if you are looking for an introductory book for MS Office 97 for beginner to intermediate level users, look no further than Teach Yourself MS Office 97. The book carefully introduces users to the myriad of options in each of the Office products in a well thought out and pedagogically sound manner. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Buy Teach Yourself Microsoft Office 97 at Amazon.Com Now and Support CompuNotes! Amazon.Com - about $15.99 -- Click Here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764575112/compunotes/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Paul Schneider: http://www.uiuc.edu/ph/www/p-schne Discovering the Internet: An Instructional Guide - http://www.outreach.uiuc.edu/discover UTMB: Psychology Department UIUC: Academic Outreach and Continuing Education +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= Managing Editor: Patrick Grote -- mailto:pgrote@i1.net Assistant Editor: Doug Reed-- mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com Assistant Editor: Robin Nobles, mailto:smslady@netdoor.com Archives: ftp://ftp.compunotes.com/pub/archive Website: e-mail: mailto:notes@compunotes.com Want to Write for Us?: mailto:writers@compunotes.com fax: (314) 909-1662 voice: (314) 909-1662 +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= CompuNotes is: Available weekly via e-mail and on-line. 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