Microsoft Word 2000 Learning Kit
by Joy Cantelmi
9/19/2000 --
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| Title |
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"Microsoft Word 2000 Learning Kit: Running Microsoft Word 2000 and Microsoft Word Step by Step Interactive" |
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| Authors |
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Charles Rubin and LearnIT Corp. |
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| Publisher |
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Microsoft Press |
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November 1999 |
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| ISBN |
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0-7356-0913-6 |
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| Price |
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$29.99 (U.S.) |
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| Other |
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960 pages and CD |
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The Microsoft Word 2000 Learning Kit includes both a reference book, Running Microsoft Word 2000, and a CD-ROM. For more intermediate or advanced users, I would suggest skimming over the book, without the CD-ROM. As it says on the cover, this is a "One-Stop Reference" guide. The reference manual has a great layout and offers several different ways to find the information needed. The book opens with a "Chapters at a Glance" for quick reference. Throughout, you'll find helpful tips and additional guidance that's located in another part of the book. For example, in chapter 4, when the book is explaining how to enter text and mentions the insertion point, you'll see a question mark, which tells you where to turn to read more about insertion points.
One thing I suggest when going through the book is to have Word 2000 open to view what the manual is talking about. The book often has small activities to do while reading the information. For example, when learning about "Using AutoFormat on a Finished Document," you'll get a four-step activity to do.
If you're just seeking a basic overview of how to use Word, I suggest you read chapters one through three, which offers a nifty introduction to the subject, or skip the book altogether and go straight to the CD.
The CD-ROM is great for beginners. The explanations and activities are quite basic and easy to comprehend. For instance, two lessons on "Getting Around in a Word Document" and "Printing a Document" would be a lesson in boredom for an intermediate or advanced user, but a new user will get led step-by-step through those tasks. In fact, you'll find instructions for most the features listed in the book. Each lesson explains what you'll learn. It highlights where you should be clicking or looking while you go through the activity. It then gives you the option to overview the lesson.
Upon completing the lesson, a quiz is available to test how much you've retained. The lessons on the CD ROM don't follow, word-for-word, the lessons in the reference manual. When setting up the CD ROM, you get the option of full or partial installation (not setting up all the features at once). One choice saves you hard disk space, of course, but it also means you have to pick through the features one by one, and use up more installation time than simply taking the full install.
I consider this combination product a great reference manual for users of all levels. However, the CD tends to be more suited to beginner users while the manual alone seems to be more suitable for intermediate and advanced users.
Whatever your situation, however, don't count on this kit as your sole source of study material for the Word 2000 exams. It doesn't cover the material objective by objective -- you have to count on your own understanding of the objectives to make sure you get educated in the topics necessary to pass the tests. That said, it's one of those Word references that I plan to keep handy.
Joy Cantelmi is a Market Support Consultant of Insurance Operations for Allstate Insurance of Canada, at their head office in Ontario, Canada. She can be reached at [email protected].
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