Introduction


Welcome to Faster Smarter Microsoft Office System “ 2003 Edition , the book that s going to show you how to best take advantage of Office features to get your work done by the fastest route. As you know, in the Office System there s a lot to learn ”and this book will help you focus on completing your daily tasks efficiently and accurately, hopefully enabling you to pick up a number of new techniques along the way for streamlining your work in other areas as well.

The Microsoft Office System includes all the applications you need to work with information in a variety of forms. Writing a letter to all your national salespeople? Microsoft Word is the program you need. Are you on the phone half the day? Capture your conversations in Notes view in Microsoft Outlook. Are you responsible for creating data lists in worksheets you distribute to department managers? Excel gives you powerful tools that enable you to enter, manage, sort , and save data in smart ways for easy reuse later. These applications, as well as Microsoft Access and Microsoft FrontPage, are covered fully in this book, presented in a way that helps you get to key items quickly.

Focus on Fast

Faster Smarter Microsoft Office System “ 2003 Edition spotlights the tasks you most need to accomplish in a given day and gives you the fastest path from beginning to end. We skip the background chat and extraneous information and provide, in a friendly, easy-to-read style, the bare necessities you need and the extra tips you want. How is this book faster than others? Here are a few of the ways we ve focused on fast for you:

  • Giving you what you need Our close ties with Microsoft Corporation give us access to the latest research on what information workers need to accomplish their daily tasks. We know which tasks are most common and which are most troublesome , and we can provide the information readers most need and want to address those topics. In reality, we don t have to look any further than our own offices ”we each use Office in various capacities every day.

  • Climbing quickly up the learning curve We re assuming that you ve been working with computers for a while but you may be new to some or all of the Microsoft Office System applications. This assumption allows us to leave out the extreme basics ( To turn on your computer, push the Power button... ) and get to the higher-end, task-oriented procedures more quickly.

  • Showing you time-saving procedures Most people use only a small percentage (common lore is 20 percent) of their programs capabilities. This book seeks to help you discover the time-saving features you may be missing in your current use of your favorite Office applications and pick up some new tools along the way.

Focus on Smart

How many times have you heard the phrase, Work smarter, not harder ? Most of us ” inundated with data in countless forms and from every direction ”couldn t work any harder if we had to. Working smarter is our only option to getting more done in the same amount of time. The following items show you how we focus on helping you work smarter:

  • More Value, Less Time Working smarter means getting more value from the work you do by reusing your data in a way that shortens your pile of busywork and cuts down on the margin for error. Examples and ideas in this book show you how to prepare your data to be reused in documents, worksheets, presentations, Web pages, and more.

  • More Cooperation, Less Duplication Effective teams can divide up tasks and work smarter ”and faster ”to meet a common goal. Examples in this book show you how to use the Office System s enhanced collaboration features to work collaboratively using several of the core Office applications.

  • More Knowledge, Less Learning Working smarter means knowing the ins and outs of the Office System programs so that you can use them effectively together. This book helps you leverage your learning by providing prompts for ways in which you can use the various Office applications together.

This Book Is for You

Chances are that you re pretty comfortable with computers but your just haven t had the time or inclination to get too close to the Office System. Perhaps your office just licensed the program for the first time, or you decided recently that after a number of years , it s time for your small business to upgrade to a program that can truly do it all.

Whatever your reason for learning the Office System now, welcome! Here are just a few of the things you can expect to find in this book:

  • Information about each of the Office applications that is relevant to the tasks you do everyday

  • Procedures that are easy to follow and to-the-point, providing the fastest path to accomplishing a certain goal

  • Clear language explaining new concepts, applications, and procedures

  • Examples of ways in which you can use the Office System features to streamline your own work

  • Illustrations that show how various features can be used

  • Tables and diagrams to help present key concepts quickly in an easy-to-remember format

What s in This Book?

We ve divided Faster Smarter Microsoft Office System “ 2003 Edition into seven parts to give you a good look at each of the individual applications and explore the common features of the program. Here s how it breaks out:

Part 1, The Microsoft Office System Common Features ”Fast and Functional, introduces you to the Microsoft Office System and shows you how to perform all the tasks that are common to the various applications. You ll also learn to work with multiple programs and organize and manage files in this part of the book.

Part 2, Microsoft Word Power: Create Professional Documents, shines a spotlight on Word 2003 and shows you how to make the most of the world s most popular word- processing application. Here you ll learn everything you need to know about mastering a library of tasks in Word ”from creating documents to editing, formatting, enhancing, printing, and distributing them. Along the way you ll learn about special Word features, shared documents, macros, pictures, XML, and more.

Part 3, Effective Microsoft Office Excel 2003: Analyze and Organize Data, moves quickly through the tasks involved in creating a spreadsheet and shows you how to organize and work with data in data lists, PivotTables, charts , reports , and more. You ll also master common worksheet tasks, such as naming and working with ranges, editing, formatting, printing, and charting. This part of the book also introduces the new visual mapping tool used to tag your Excel data for XML documents.

Part 4, Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003: Present Ideas Powerfully, takes you quickly through the process of capturing your ideas and putting them in slide form. In this part of the book, you learn to create presentations quickly by using the professional designs built into the program. You also learn to work with styles, colors, animations, and more to get and keep the attention of your audience. Finally, you learn to time and navigate your presentation ”and use ink features to annotate slides on the fly.

Part 5, Microsoft Outlook: Communicate, Collaborate, and Organize, shows you how to take advantage of the many organizing and connecting features in Microsoft Outlook. This part begins by showing you how to let Outlook handle your online communications ” creating, sending, receiving, and filtering e-mail. You also learn how to work with instant messaging to connect with others in real-time. But the capabilities of Outlook go far beyond simple messaging; you can also use the Calendar, Journal, Address Book, Notes, and Task features to further organize your daily tasks.

Part 6, Managing Data with Microsoft Office Access 2003, focuses on applying the powerful but accessible features of this data management program to gather, organize, and work with the data integral to your business operations. In this part of the book, you ll learn to create a database; work with tables, forms, and queries; produce reports; coordinate with SharePoint Team Services, and much more.

Part 7, Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003: Design Effective Web Pages, gives you the straight story on creating Web pages that look and feel professional. This part starts right off showing you how to create a simple site and builds on the basics by walking you through adding graphics, working with color , creating and managing links, adding tables and frames , creating rollovers, and using the new enhanced code editor. You ll also learn how to preview your pages in multiple browsers and publish your pages to the Web.

This book winds down with four appendixes. Appendix A provides the step-by-step of installing the Office System. Appendix B lists the Office System shortcut keys found in various applications. Appendix C offers a number of references to other sources you can consult to continue your learning about the Office System and its specific core programs. And Appendix D gives you a bird s-eye view of all the changes throughout the Office System, along with some of the behind-the-scenes rationale for resolving common business challenges.

Special Book Elements

Icons and special elements can help you find extra information quickly as you re reading through the book. That s our intent with the special elements we ve added to Faster Smarter Microsoft Office System “ 2003 Edition .

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Aha!

Aha! items point out tips, tricks, and special techniques that can help you work more productively with the Office System.

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Note  

Notes provide additional information related to the task at hand. A note might provide quick background information on a feature or offer a Web site you can refer to for more information.

Caution  

Cautions help you avoid trouble by pointing out potential problems and suggesting alternate routes.

Lingo  

Lingo tips clearly define concepts and technical terms that are shown in italics in the text.

See Also  

See Also tips provide references to other areas of the book that relate to the current discussion.

System Requirements

For the Office System to run optimally on your system, Microsoft recommends that you have the following hardware and software capabilities:

  • Pentium 133 or Pentium III computer

  • Microsoft Windows 2000 with Service Pack 3 or Windows XP

  • At least 64 MB RAM (128 MB recommended) for the operating system, plus 8 MB for each application running

  • 245 MB hard disk space

  • CD-ROM drive

  • Super VGA monitor (or better) with 800-by-600 pixel resolution and 256 colors

  • Mouse or other pointing device ( trackball , touchpad, stylus, etc.)

In addition to these system basics, you may need other devices depending on what you want to do with the Office System. Check out this list for additional items:

  • A Windows-compatible printer

  • A scanner or digital camera for importing graphics

  • Microphone for speech recognition

  • Extra RAM for media- intensive operations

  • 14,400-baud modem (or faster)

  • Internet connection with an Internet Service Provider




Faster Smarter Microsoft Office System
Faster Smarter Microsoft Office System -- 2003 Edition
ISBN: 0735619212
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 238

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