Windows and Word for Windows - 2 Books

COMPUTER BOOK REVIEW  

533 words

Title: Word For Windows 6 Solutions: Elaine Marmel; 
John Wiley & Sons; ISBN 0-471-30413-1; paperback; 
528 pages; US$24.95, CAN$32.50.

Title: Jamsa's 1001 Windows Tips;  Kris Jamsa; Jamsa Press; 
ISBN: 0-9635851-0-X; paperback; 600 pages; 
US$ 39.95, CAN$51.95

Reviewer: A.T.Connellan, "Here are a pair of over-the-shoulder 
advisers who will be with you long after the course is over and 
everyone has gone home. One of them can even be loaded 
into Windows via the included disk and called on with a touch 
of mouse to icon."

Two Computer Consultants on your Bookshelf

Millions of dollars are wasted each year by businesses and 
individuals on seminars and courses purporting to teach all 
the secrets of working comfortably with Windows and Word 
For Windows 6. They fail because no matter how hard we 
concentrate only 5 per cent of the material covered is 
understood and retained. 

Here are a pair of over-the-shoulder advisers who will be 
with you long after the course is over and everyone has 
gone home. One of them can even be loaded into Windows 
via the included disk and called on with a touch of mouse 
to icon. Bracket them on either side of the Microsoft User's 
Guides and you have an answer for very conceivable 
question that could arise.

To begin with, the well organized layout of Word For 
Windows 6 Solutions is a solution in itself to the rather 
obscurely written Microsoft User's Guide. Chapters 
are set out in stand alone fashion so that readers can 
jump around the book in any order their interest takes 
them without fear of getting lost. 

The book starts off with a 26 page "Troubleshooting 
Guide" indexed to the relevant pages followed by a 
9 page familiarization trip through the screens particular 
to Word for Windows 6. Over 200 tasks are broken into 
step-by-step directions and accompanied by pertinent 
tips in shaded boxes in the margins. All this can be 
tracked through a finely detailed index. 

Author Elaine Marmel is the president of a computer 
training organization and has authored over 10 books 
on various areas of computer use. Her experience 
shows on every page, and we are the beneficiaries. 

I can only guess that there are about 600 plus pages 
in Jamsa's 1001 Windows Tips because they aren't 
numbered, but I know for sure that there are 1001 well 
documented tips on those pages covering every 
aspect of the operation of Windows 3.1. 

The Table of Contents take up the first 20 pages 
to set out in sections,details on the tips to be found 
inside. If you can't find what you're looking for there, 
go to the back of the book to the detailed index, or 
go Online via the icon for 1001 Help loaded from 
the companion disk. Although this uses 1.5 megabytes 
of memory it is a big plus. 

For example, there is a fascinating section containing 
104 tips on what DOS 6 should be doing, and how to 
make it perform better while running invisibly behind 
Windows. 

There are another 123 tips on Windows for Workgroups 
the outstanding Microsoft LAN [Local Area Network] 
netware that is of so much help to small and large office 
environments. The other 774 tips cover all the other 
wonderful things that we can do with Windows if we only 
knew how. Now we can. 

Jamsa [say as in James not jam] Press books are 
noted for crisp organization of subjects and visually 
pleasing, easy-to-understand, graphic layouts. 
1001 Windows Tips is no exception and readers will 
find very easy to "surf" for solutions. 

These are two computer consultants that are always 
there when you need them, and well worth the money.