Get the Results You Want

If You Are an Experienced Office User

Getting Results with Microsoft Office 97 focuses on common business and organizational tasks. It’s designed to help you be more productive and efficient by showing you the fastest and best way to accomplish these tasks by using the features of Microsoft Office.

We wrote Getting Results with some assumptions in mind about our readers. The people who will find this book most useful are those who have been using the Office applications for a while and who can usually do what they want to do with the applications. Each solution in Getting Results explains the process necessary for accomplishing the task. And we are confident that you’ll be able to apply the features and methods you discover here to similar tasks you perform.

Built-in Help provides details about the features of the applications, step-by-step procedures that help you complete specific tasks, and wizards that walk you through many operations.

Getting Results is available in HTML on the Office CD Value Pack. Simply copy it to your hard disk. You can also connect to it from the Office Web site. Click Microsoft on the Web (Help menu) or connect to the Microsoft Office 97 Web site at the following location:

http://www.microsoft.com/office/

Microsoft Press publishes several books that might be useful as your skills and needs change. The most comprehensive “user’s guide” series is the Running series. The books in this series provide you with information ranging from basic “how-to” procedural help to advanced tips on how to use the Office applications fully. The At a Glance series of books on Office applications provides quick answers in a reference format. Another easy-access reference is the Field Guide series.

If You Are a Novice User or Are Switching from Another Application

Get a good start on working with the Office applications by reading the topics in Part 1, “Your First Day at the Office.” These topics will show you how to quickly begin creating documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and databases by using built-in templates and wizards. You will also learn how to use the various components of Outlook, such as e-mail and task scheduling.

Former WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3 users will find built-in Help available to ease the transition. In Word, click WordPerfect Help (Help menu) to get information on how to make the switch easily. In Microsoft Excel, click Lotus 1-2-3 Help (Help menu).

In conjunction with Getting Results, use the Microsoft Press Step by Step series, available for all the Office applications. These books provide self-paced lessons based on real-world business examples. The modular format lets you learn exactly what you need to know, at your own speed.

If You’re an Advanced User, Programmer, or Developer

This book can point you toward new features that you might not discover on your own. For more information, Office 97 also has built-in Help about programming in Visual Basic for Applications, the programming language built in to the Office applications.

The Microsoft Press collection of technical references and resource kits will also be useful. The Microsoft Office 97 Resource Kit is designed for system administrators and advanced users. It provides complete coverage of Office 97 installation and configuration in both Windows 95 and Windows NT Workstation 4.0.

If you are new to programming in Visual Basic, read Automate Repetitive Tasks. Then turn to the Visual Basic Step by Step series, which is organized by application and is designed so that you teach yourself, focusing on exactly what you need to learn.

If you’re already familiar with Visual Basic, the Microsoft Office 97/Visual Basic Programmer’s Guide can teach you how to create concise, efficient code. You will learn how to customize and adapt tools, as well as how to create custom commands, menus, and much more.

For those who want to design, optimize, secure, and deliver data management applications by using Microsoft Access, Building Applications with Microsoft Access 97 is available on the Office 97 CD in the Value Pack. This book can also provide instruction on how to use Visual Basic for Applications in conjunction with Microsoft Access and can help users create applications for the Internet.

See the Microsoft Press Catalog   on the Web at the following location: http://www.microsoft.com/mspress/ See the Microsoft Office 97 Resource Kit   on the Web at the following location: http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork/