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iBook Book Review: "AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual" by Jim Elferdink and David Reynolds Review by Ted Bade AppleWorks
6 The Missing Manual suggested retail price is
$19.95 and is published by
Pogue Press/O'Reilly.
The
440 page Paperback Edition of
"AppleWorks
6 The Missing Manual"
is now shipping. You can order it now and Amazon
will ship it to you. You
can Order it Now From Amazon.com
!
For
Just $13.95 This is another very
well done book in the "Missing Manual" series
published by Pogue Press. As with all books in
this series, this book fills the gap left by the
manufacturer when they decided to not provide a
manual. This "manual" does a great job
introducing the reader to the features of
AppleWorks 6, while at the same time providing
numerous tips, hints, and time saving
techniques. The book is organized as
a tutorial with extra advanced bits thrown in at
the end. Its four sections are logically
organized; first a look at the various parts of
this program, then a discussion concerning
templates, using the Internet, and customizing
it. Section three pulls together the concept of
an integrated software package and how to make
use of this. Finally section four offers some
useful appendices. Let's take a look at
these sections chapter by chapter. Section
one begins
with a chapter called "Sneak Preview", which
unveils the newer features of AW6. It also
serves to introduce the concept of an integrated
software package for those new to or unfamiliar
with this. Chapter
2 discusses
the word processing module of AW6. As with all
chapters in this book, it begins with the basics
of using this module and slowly moves toward
more detail. Along the way it discusses
everything from opening a blank document, to
styles, formatting a page, dealing with fonts,
and using the spell checker. The pages are
filled with "tips" and hints. Including keyboard
shortcuts, font information, and electronic
document styles. This chapter contains a number
of information boxes that explain not only using
AW6 but also using a word processor in general.
Very useful for the beginner. The next chapter,
"Advanced Word Processing" goes even deeper
dealing with find/change, the thesaurus, style
sheets (lots of detail on how to use and modify
them), using the outline feature, and
headers/footers. The chapter discussing
the database module introduces the basics of
developing a database from basic design, then
creating the fields, to finally entering the
information. The concept of using a database is
pulled together with a tutorial. The reader can
follow along and build a database starting with
basic concepts and ending with some relatively
complex features. The chapter on the
spreadsheet module again uses the tutorial
concept and shows the reader how to build a
spreadsheet to follow and calculate expenses
associated with building a home. Basics as well
as more advanced items (like locking titles,
sorting, and creating charts) are covered. The
section on charts goes into detail on how to
build a chart, types of charts, titles, labels,
and so forth. The next two chapters
discuss the two graphic modules, first the
drawing then the painting. Since a lot of the
tools are the same, the first chapter covers
more about tools and how they work. Both
chapters describe how to use the modules and
what the differences are. In both cases you'll
learn about the basics and
more. This is followed by a
description of the AppleWorks presentation
module and explains the basics of creating a
presentation and includes adding transitions,
movies, and presenting the slide
show. The
second part of
this book covers the real power of AppleWorks
6. In the section on using
templates, clippings, and assistants you'll find
out about what is included in the package and
how to access them. This is followed by an
important section on using the Internet to
access many many more resources. I was surprised
at the amount of stuff for this program
available on the Internet. The
final section of
this book discusses the concept of Integration,
that is how to combine the power of the parts to
create a multimedia document. This includes
adding graphics to a text document (including a
background image), creating mathematical
equations that look like an equation should,
cools ways of using tables to add pizzazz to a
document, and dealing with mail merge. A useful
part of this section explains how to open
documents created by other programs using
AppleWorks. The section ends with a detailed
troubleshooting section. The website
http://www.missingmanual.com
provides resources for all of the books in this
series. The section offering downloads to
software mentioned in the book lists the
software by title and is organized by
chapter. Ease
of Use.... As with the other books
in this series, the appendices discuss the menu
and items in them and covers installing and
upgrading AppleWorks. I was able to learn
about new features in this version and it
performed pretty well when doing an index search
for a couple of items. The tutorials make this
an excellent choice for a person new to
AppleWorks and a person with intermediate skills
will find value in the hints and techniques
throughout the book. Conclusion... I highly recommend this
book to anyone who is new to AppleWorks or who
would like to learn how to use AppleWorks more
efficiently. It offers a great index
which makes finding a particular topic
relatively easy. iBook-User gives
"AppleWorks
6 The Missing Manual"
four iBooks out of five. If you are interested in
buying this book on-line, click on the link
below
to go directly to
Amazon.com or on the Book cover at the
top
page. AppleWorks
6 The Missing Manual Happy
Reading!
Ted
Bade has
been using Apple computers since 1982 and Macs
since 1985. Dedicated to the Macintosh, he has
been a member and leader of a Computer user
group since 1983. He has a degree in electrical
engineering and loves to write. To date he has
published a number of articles in
MacHome
Journal
magazine, writes for iBook-User
and writes regularly for H.U.G.E.
a computer
user group newsletter, and freelances whenever
he can find the time and need. While he's not
playing Quake Arena or Unreal Tournament with
his Macintosh G4 or PowerBook G3. The First web site Dedicated to Apple's iBook ! iBook-User © is a Publication of P1 Publishing LLC 2001 |
"The
book is organized as a tutorial with extra advanced
bits thrown in!" " The
pages are filled with "tips" and hints. Including
keyboard shortcuts, font information, and
electronic document
styles.."
"I
was surprised at the amount of stuff for AppleWorks
available on the
Internet.." "iBook-User
gives "...offers
a great index which makes finding a particular
topic relatively easy."
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