Microsoft Office Outlook 2003

Book is written in simple language and in an easy-to-follow format. Excellent diagrams. Very good instructional book for beginners and a good reference for those of us who need a refresher course in Outlook.

I am a real estate agent, looking for the best way to manage contacts. I have Outlook but didn't have a clue how to go about integrating everything without reading a 1000 page book. I thought about Act! but had very mixed reviews on it. So I searched for a book that would quickly get me up and running in Outlook, and therefore would quickly tell me if the software I already have is powerful enough to do the job I need yet easy enough to let me spend my time on my real job -- not learning more software. This book does both; and the quality of the paper and color made it a pleasure to read. I got my answer -- yes, Outlook can do the job quickly and easily, freeing my time to sell real estate.

I manage a medium-sized network and support a large number of fairly savvy users. That is, most users know how to do their specific tasks very well and are willing to learn new things. But they are not willing to sit down with a book full of dense text. This is where the "Quick Steps" books come in handy. I keep a number of these books on hand and when a user requests assistance, I give them one of the books with the appropriate page bookmarked. Steps are outlined in full color with lots of pictures and pointers and tips. Additional information is set off in side boxes so users can learn more if they choose. What I have found is that once a user completes a task successfully, they get fairly excited about the experience and browse the book to learn more. The books really stimulate users to experiment with things they would not normally bother to learn. And that is where this book excels. It is a "browser." Users don't feel like they need to start at the beginning and read through to the end. I get lots of grumbles when I ask for the book back so I can pass it on to others. This book is also great for new users. I tell them to spend a few hours working through the steps, which are easy to follow and can be done at a fairly fast pace. Most users think the full color layout is fun to work through. The down-side is that like any book, space is limited, especially with the fully-illustrated format, so you're obviously not going to find everything in these books, but I do feel they contain a good balance of material and are appropriate for corporate libraries. Marty and I are fellow writers and that is how I learned about these books. I must say that it has helped my users enormously and relieved my support task. Hey, it's the 21st century. Anyone working in an office should know how to work with operating systems and common applications. Most people can do that if they have easily accessible references and refresher material like these books. Thanks to Marty for developing the "Quick Steps" concept and to McGraw-Hill for publishing this series.