Word 2002: The Complete Reference

A dog-eared copy of this book has been sitting on my desk for the past four years. I consult it several times a week, always find what I'm looking for in it, and never have trouble finding the information I need. I recommend this easy to read and understand book to anyone has to wrestle with Word.

My book was designed to make learning Word 2002 as easy and comfortable as possible. This book is decidedly different from other books about Word 2002 for the following reasons.A TASK-ORIENTED APPROACHMost computer books describe how to use the software, but this book explains how to complete tasks. I assume you came to this book because you want to know how to do something -- print form letters, run text in columns, generate an index. You came to the right place.Information in this book is presented by topic, not according to where it is found on the Word menus. Nothing infuriates me more in a Word book than an exhaustive table that describes, for example, all the options on the Save tab in the Options dialog box (choose Tools | Options to get there). Just because all those options are found in the same place doesn't mean they have a lot in common or should be described in the same place in a book. No, the options on the Save tab pertain to many different tasks. In this book, you will find a description of each Save tab option in the appropriate place -- as part of instructions for completing a task.ACCESSIBILITY OF INFORMATIONThis book is a reference, and that means readers have to be able to find instructions quickly. To that end, the editors and I took great pains to make sure that the material in this book is well organized. You are invited to turn to a chapter, thumb through the pages, and find out by reading the headings which strategies are available for completing a task. The descriptive headings help you find information quickly. The bulleted and numbered lists make following instructions simpler. The tables make options easier to understand. I want you to be able to look down the page and see in a heading or list the name of the topic that concerns you. TOP TEN LISTSAt the end of each chapter in this book is a Top Ten List -- a list of ten tips, tricks, or problem-solving techniques. Rather than distribute these valuable nuggets of knowledge throughout a chapter, I put them all at the end so you can find them easily. ANNOTATED FIGURESMost of the figures in this book are annotated. They are thoroughly annotated, in fact. A savvy Word user can simply look at the figures to find out how to complete tasks.EASY-TO-UNDERSTAND SCREEN SHOTSAll of the screen shots in this book show only what you need to see to understand a Word feature. When instructions refer to one part of the screen, only that part of the screen is shown. In most computer books, you see the entire Word screen whether you need to see the whole screen or a corner of it. I took great care to make sure that the figures and illustrations in this book serve to help you understand Word and know how to make the best use of the program.INSTRUCTIONS FOR "UNDOING IT"Every computer book tells you how to do tasks, but when you complete a task at the computer, half the time you discover that you shouldn't have completed it. In other words, you want to undo what you just did. In this book,