Microsoft Excel 2002: Comprehensive Concepts and Techniques

I just purchased this book about three weeks ago now and it has been a godsend. From the Projects to the end of the project assignments to the online access to the ShellyCashman web site - you really get to know about Excel! If you are considering MOS certification as I am, this book has to be on your shelf! I will be getting the remaining ones as I focus on the other MS Office Applications. This is even a bit better than the New Perspectives Series simply because there is more reinforcement for each Project - tests, games, quizes, etc. It all makes learning Excel more fun. I have been able to move quite quiclkly into the second section - Project 4 - but still plan to review the previous projects. I find the Projects are easy to make notes from as well so they make a great review anytime! And everything is very well explained with some added features throughout the book! If you have the chance I would highly recommend that you add it to your book shelf. Chances are though it won't be spending much time on the shelf, if you're like me!

If you learn best through hands-on, then get this book. It covers most aspects of Excel 2002 that an average user would require in his or her daily work. But if you are a financial analyst or statistician who rely on Excel, you would do better getting something more advanced and specialized.

This text explains a concept, and then tells you step by step what to do, with many illustrations containing little labels explaining where everything is on the screen. The tutorials are followed by step by step examples that repeat the concepts you learned with different small projects. Then, there are series of projects for you to tackle on your own, labeled with icons that show the level of difficulty. There are also links to websites containing multiple-choice questions (and answers) and games to help reinforce the chapter. I have taught from many tutorial books, and this is one of the best. I set my class up as a lab, and students work their way through this book, while I monitor and help them when needed. When students got stuck, most of the time it was simply because they did not read the text, or they skipped parts.