What
are some good books
|
 | Understanding Word's global architecture |
| Customizing toolbars, menus, shortcuts, and context menus |
| Creating and using templates |
| Mastering fields and forms |
| Making the most of Word's HTML capability |
| Discovering the power of master documents |
| Getting started with Word macros |
A relentless focus on making you more productive with Word
I truly appreciate your considering my book on Word 2000.Special Edition Using Word 2000 might just be the most detailed book about Word ever written -- and all 1,400 pages have a single goal: to help you become more productive and effective. I've tried to include step-by-step, detailed help with virtually anything you'll ever want to do with Word, from writing a book to building a Web site, creating a newsletter to streamlining your document review process. Wherever there's an opportunity to save time using Word's document automation features, you'll learn about it here -- after all, who wants to spend one more minute on a project than you have to?
All in all, I've added some 400 new pages to the previous edition, deepening its coverage pretty much everywhere, and paying special attention to...
Thoroughly covering Word 2000's souped-up Web capabilities: you'll find 100+ pages of Word 2000 web/intranet site-building coverage, nearly all of it new Adding more business-focused coverage and document examples Providing some 20 detailed projects that walk you through some of the most challenging document production tasks you're likely to encounter Word document security -- including how to avoid macro viruses! Just about the most detailed coverage of Word 2000's new multilingual features you'll find anywhere Hundreds of new productivity and troubleshooting tips A complete field reference In addition to all this, Que has provided a CD-ROM with more than 1,500 pages of up-to-the-moment Office 2000 info: Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher & FrontPage -- plus a complete, fully-licensed copy of WOPR, the world's #1 Office add-in!
Finally, and I hope the most important advantage: this is now my 5th book on Word. Over the last ten years I've spent a *lot* of time watching people work with Word - seeing what they understand, what confuses them, and what they *really* need to know to get results. This time around, I've also had the help of a truly awesome team of technical and editorial professionals at Que, all of whom use Word eight (make that 16!) hours a day, and are truly experts even though they don't get bylines.
I've worked hard to reflect all of our Word experience here. I'm proud of how this book turned out, and I sincerely hope you'll find it valuable. Many thanks for considering it.
If you are not a developer, this is the only Office 2000 book you will ever need. As usual, Woody Leonhard (not to slight co-author Ed Bott) has produced the definitive guide to Office 2000. I've read his books religiously since the old Word for Windows days, and no one beats his understanding of what makes Office tick. You'll get the unvarnished truth--good and bad--about Office, not just a re-written Help file.
Every chapter contains one final section: "Secrets of the Office Masters" which is often worth the price of the book itself. Add to this a [full] registered copy of Woody's Office Power Pack [WOPR] on CD and no other book can touch the value and plain usefulness of this one. Just get it, and don't look back.
Reviewer: John B. Kenrick from NYC
Office
XP: 
"This
is still a reasonably solid Office XP title, especially for those who don't own
a previous edition of Special Edition Using Microsoft Office. Its 1,100+
pages are chock full of useful tips and tricks for Office power users. And
you'll certainly become quite proficient with the more advanced features and
functions of Office after reading it. If you own the Office 2000 version of this
book, however, you may not find as much new material as you might have hoped
for."
From OfficeVBA review by Jill T. Freeze
I've
dealt with my share of program guide books, and I've never found one
as readable, helpful, and well organized as this.
Woody's other book
[referring to S.E. Using Office 2000] And for once, a book provides a CD ROM with genuinely useful software, not just "trial" programs that amount to little more than advertising. If you or your office team need the full lowdown on MS 2000 in one book, this is the only choice. Compared to what it would cost to either take courses or buy complete books on each program in the MS 2000 suite, this book is a remarkable bargain.
When
I Word 97 Annoyances (pub. O'Reilly); I like its general approach of making Word
do what you need rather than what the
(John Nurick)
May 2004
In SE Using Office 2003, this information on letters and using Contacts info is in Chapter 19 under Creating and Editing Letters.
September 2001
Just ran across this rant from the Visual Basic Programmer's Journal about the sorry state of current books about Visual Basic. Although "current" in the article is a ways back, I don't know that things have improved. <URL: http://www.mvps.org/vb/index.html?rants/wsbook.htm>
August 2001
Howard Kaikow started a discussion on Office level books vs. Application level books that you may find interesting. There are a number of comments about Using Office xxx, SE. Mr. Kaikow recommends getting a comprehensive book on the program for general use (rather than programming). Such books include Special Edition Using Word 2000 and Microsoft Press' Word Inside Out. See below for links to Mr. Kaikow's book lists and commentaries.
August, 2000
> Finally, what
good books can this group recommend for WORD VBA programming.
> I thought since I had done some VBA programming in Excel and Access, that
Word wouldn't be that different.
It's the object model that gets you, no matter which app you're in. If you're a
database person, "Microsoft
Office Automation with Visual Foxpro" by Tamar
Granor and Della Martin, from Hentzenwerke Publishing might do the trick. You
can also take a look at "Word
2000 VBA Programmer's Reference" [kit]
by Duncan
Mackenzie, from Wrox and "Writing
Word Macros" by Steve Roman, from O'Reilly.
Cindy Meister, INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister
http://go.compuserve.com/MSOfficeForum
Word
2000 VBA Programmer's Reference" [kit]
by Duncan Mackenzie and Felipe Martins"Word 2000 VBA Programmer's Reference is one of the better reference books I've seen in a long time. It has 10 chapters and four appendices, and spans just over 650 pages with its index. The book is logically laid out, and includes some subjects not normally covered, including using Word as a reporting tool for databases."
"I found this book to be more useful than I expected based on my experience with reference books. I like the way it's laid out and how the information is presented. I found very few shortcomings in the topics covered. This is a must-have book if you are doing any serious Office programming."
From Review in OfficeVBA by Craig M. Bobchin
August, 1999
I desperately need to learn to write word macros for work to reduce large amount of repetition, especially in actions like going through a long list of word files in the same or different directories, opening them up one by one, handle the text (search and replace, etc.), close it, and then move on to the next file in alphabetical order (so that I don't miss one file) and repeat the same thing. So I need to know how to use macros and learn the possible variables for filename, selected text, cursor down in a file open dialog box, etc.
I hope experienced macro users can provide some input about what books to read, what tools to use, etc. For example, what is the best book on VBA programming with a strong focus on Word macros.
Your input is greatly appreciately. Thank you.
Jasphirer
Hi Jasphirer,
If you are talking about macros in Word 97 I might have a few tips for you, one (and that's really a nice place to hang around, go and see WWW.WOPR.COM. It's a site about Office, and they also have a weekly (free!) magazine with tips on using and programming Office.
When you want to get a book about Word, check the Word
97 Annoyances. It is actually not about VBA (or at least not
whole of it) but still has many good tips in it. When you read it, you'll learn
to understand the way Word 'thinks' and this takes it easier to understand and
predict some of it's behaviour.
Learn
Word 2000 VBA Document Automation by Scott Driza"An advanced tutorial in using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) programming language for creating automated document templates and other automations in Microsoft Word 2000. Topics covered include recording macros and building documents dynamically."
"Scott Driza is an attorney and consultant working in the computer industry, who specializes in integrating Microsoft Word templates with outside applications. In particular, he seeks to enhance and define organizational workflow through the process of gathering essential documentation data. He has published several articles in both the technical and legal fields concerning document automation."
"I have struggled with several different Word projects in the past. Most books give weak examples and explain some of the more rudimentary elements of proper VBA coding. Simply put: the projects in this book rock! More than anything else, it will give you a new look at programming in Word. He shows that VBA can do just about anything that you want it to! Good luck!"
A rather new one is "Learning Word Programming" by Steve Roman (ISBN 1-56592-524-6). It focuses only on Word and is quite complete. (According to Amazon.com this is out of print. See Writing Word Macros by same author. CK)
Or try a real VBA book, 'Teach yourself Visual Basic for Applications 5 in 21 days', by Matthew Harris (ISBN 0672310163), it covers the most of VBA and focuses mainly on Word and Excel.
Also a good source of information is in the VBA help file and of course the newsgroups here on the msnews server, visit news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.word.word97vba, there are a lot of real VBA gurus hanging out there, and there's something new to learn every day.
A good website with a lot of examples is the one of Word MVP Bill Coan: www.wordmacros.com
Hope this helps,
regards,
Astrid
Q: I'm sorry if this is not the correct forum for this question but I have a need to create a wizard much like the letter wizard but don't know where to start. Can someone point me in the right direction?
TIA, Tom
Hi Tom,
If you can get a copy of "Microsoft Office 2000 Visual Basic for Applications Fundamentals" by David Boctor (Microsoft Press), it describes development of Office Wizards in pages 78-104. It includes the code on a CD-ROM. The letter wizard is based very much on two Word features: styles and AutoText. I would strongly recommend that you make sure you are familiar with Word's built-in features so that you don't spend months trying to invent something that you could get with a simple command. I found Guy Hart-Davis' Word 97 Macro & VBA Handbook "Part I - The Keys to Automating Word" extremely helpful in this. Unfortunately, his Word 2000 Developer's Handbook doesn't have the same section. (Sybex)
Hope this helps,
Charles Kenyon
For pure guide beginners to OO [object-oriented] programming, John Smiley's "Learn to Program Objects with VB 6" is well done and uses a unique teaching approach (you follow a group of students learning this subject through a class). A bit hokey but good for the raw beginner.
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-
Word 97 for Law Firms, Word 2000 for Law Firms, Word XP for Law Firms & Word 2003 for Law Firms
Payne Consulting group wrote these. They have been my "bible" for Word use. You can download a set of toolbars based on these from my download page. You are looking for the legal toolbars. Charles Kenyon
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for Administrators, Developers,
and Power Users by Sue
Mosher
Since Outlook doesn't have a macro recorder, I was lost trying to write code. I didn't have a clue which objects or methods applied. Sue Mosher's book got me started - and more! -- Charles Kenyon
(This is a full revision of Sue Mosher's Teach Yourself Microsoft Outlook 2000 Programming, updated to cover Outlook 2002, as well as Outlook 2000. It also applies to Outlook 2003, which makes minimal changes in the way Outlook can be programmed.)
| Suggested Word VBA books are listed by Howard Kaikow at Word VBA Books. He also has a list of suggestions for WordBasic Books. Both lists are annotated with his comments. |
| MVP Book Suggestions: http://www.mvps.org/word/Tutorials/BookRecommendations.htm |
| MouseTrax Recommendations of MVPs Dian and Greg Chapman |
Download this FAQ in Word 97 format
Changes / suggestions / ideas can be sent to Charles Kenyon
Disclosure: The links from book titles on this web page are to descriptions about the books on Amazon.com. While I have had good experiences dealing with them, you may be able to get the books more quickly and at no greater cost at your local book seller. You should also be able to get them at or through your public library. You may also be able to obtain them at substantial discounts through eBay or other auctions. I am paid a commission if you buy a book from Amazon.com which helps pay to keep my web site operating. However, the primary reason for the links is to allow you to get more information about the books mentioned.
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Copyright 2000-2006 Charles Kyle Kenyon
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