Features of This Book

Each chapter has a "Before You Begin" section, which prepares you for completing the chapter.

The chapters are broken into lessons. Some lessons contain practice exercises that give you an opportunity to use the information presented or to explore the part of the application being described.

The "Lesson Summary" section at the end of each lesson lists the most important points discussed in the text.

The "Lesson Review" section at the end of each lesson allows you to test yourself on what you have learned in that lesson.

Appendix A, "Questions and Answers," contains all the book's questions and provides the appropriate answers.

Notes

Several types of notes appear throughout the lessons.

• Notes marked Note contain supplemental information.
• Notes marked Tip contain explanations of possible results or alternative methods.
• Notes marked Important contain information that is essential to completing a task.
• Notes marked Caution contain warnings about possible loss of data.

Conventions

The following conventions are used throughout this book.

Notational Conventions

• Characters or commands that you type appear in bold type.
• Italic in syntax statements indicates placeholders for variable information. Italic is also used for book titles and defined words.
• Names of folders appear in Title caps, and filenames appear in all uppercase letters, except when you are to type them directly. Unless otherwise indicated, you can use all lowercase letters when you type a filename in a dialog box or at a command prompt.
• Filename extensions appear in all lowercase.
• Acronyms appear in all uppercase.
• Monospace type represents code samples, examples of screen text, or entries that you might type at a command prompt or in initialization files.
• Square brackets [ ] are used in syntax statements to enclose optional items. For example, [filename] in command syntax indicates that you can choose to type a filename with the command. Type only the information within the brackets, not the brackets themselves.
• Braces { } are used in syntax statements to enclose required items. Type only the information within the braces, not the braces themselves.
• Icons represent specific sections in the book as follows:

Icon	Represents
	A multimedia presentation. You will find the application multimedia presentation on the course compact disc.
	An exercise containing questions about the lesson just presented. Answers to the exercises are contained in Appendix A, "Questions and Answers," at the end of the book.
	Lesson review questions. These questions at the end of each lesson allow you to test what you have learned in the lesson. You will find the answers to the review questions in Appendix A, "Questions and Answers," at the end of the book.

Keyboard Conventions

• A plus sign (+) between two key names means that you must press those keys at the same time. For example, "Press Alt+Tab" means that you hold down Alt while you press Tab.
• A comma ( , ) between two or more key names means that you must press each of the keys consecutively, not together. For example, "Press Alt, F, X" means that you press and release each key in sequence. "Press Alt+W, L" means that you first press Alt and W together, and then release them and press L.
• You can choose menu commands with the keyboard. Press the Alt key to activate the menu bar, and then sequentially press the keys that correspond to the highlighted or underlined letter of the menu name and the command name. For some commands, you can also press a key combination listed in the menu.
• You can select or clear check boxes or option buttons in dialog boxes with the keyboard. Press the Alt key, and then press the key that corresponds to the underlined letter of the option name. Or you can press Tab until the option is highlighted, and then press Spacebar to select or clear the check box or option button.
• You can cancel the display of a dialog box by pressing the Esc key.